letsbuildseries – The Brick Post!

LEGO Building Activities for December

Bricksterdam — Sun, 03 Dec 2023 19:53:57 +0000

Every month sees plenty of fun LEGO activities hosted by AFOLs on social media, mostly Instagram. December is no exception and we’ve got some great ones for you to join!

Building Challenges can be a lot of fun. Not just the creative aspect with building, but also the social interactions with other builders from around the world. In December most challenges will have a holiday theme, which will give an extra excuse to get your bricks out and join in the festive building! And if you’re not building these can be some fun hashtags to follow to check out the creations from other AFOLs.

#YourLEGObaubles

Anabelle @brickswhynot is hosting the ornament hashtag #YourLEGObaubles. These can be sets, MOCs, digital etc as long as it’s LEGO. So the prompt is simple: show your LEGO balls on instagram, tag @brickswhynot and add #YourLEGObaubles.

#LetsBuildHolidayHabitats23

Just like last year Jen @brickfambuilds and Kate @brickhuntress (who hosts the monthly @letsbuildseries we’ve featured before) join forces for a December mega collab.

Whether you celebrate Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanza, Life Day, Festivus, or just enjoy the excuse as a break from work to go on holiday, this prompt is entirely open ended to your interpretation and celebration of choice! Build as many or as few as you’d like, most will build one for each of the six days, or at least three to have a mini stack for stack day, but one is just as fun and will allow you to qualify for multiple prizes.

If you want to see the basics of building a habitat you can visit @habitatchallenge or read or blog about them here. The challenge will run December 16th-21st for individual habitats with stacks posted on December 22nd. Be sure to tag both @habitatchallenge and @letsbuildseries as collaborators on your entries!

#DiversifyLEGOholidays

(image by Dana @virginia_bricks)

For the 4th year @bradyjoynerbricks is hosting #diversifylegoholidays. This is a challenge I particularly support. Last year I discovered this quite late when building my holiday habitats, but managed to sneak some diversity in my stack. Ever since I’ve tried to keep diversity part of my building projects. So this had a huge impact on me as a builder.

Many people don’t see themselves reflected in holiday movies, ads, stories, artwork, etc., whether that be because of their culture, race, ethnicity, religion, ability status, gender identity, sexual orientation, or another part of their identity.

You can help! Consider changing up the skin tones of your buildable BrickHeadz character or your minifigs! Add a family with two moms in your winter village! Share a build celebrating Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, or Winter Solstice! Install wheelchair ramps in your winter village!

This challenge is open to any format and can be combined with any other challenge. So it can be a bauble, habitat, heart, sigfigscene or anything you can imagine. So share the joy and celebrate the diversity of the community. Include the hashtag #diversifylegoholidays and tag @bradyjoynerbricks in your entry and you’re done! If you want to see some examples, be sure to follow for his interesting tips!

#BuildToGive

The LEGO Group hosts their annual charity building event #BuildToGive. This building challenge started in November but will be running on in December so be sure to join! This year builders are invited to build a heart and post it to social media. TLG will donate sets to their chosen charities for all builds entered up to 1.500.000 sets. All details can be found here.

#BrickBuiltCalendar

A monthly returning Instagram challenge hosted by @speedykiwi92 @plasticwanderer and @reddsbricks. The challenge is just as straightforward as the hashtag suggests: build a decorated or themed calendar for the month December. Post your brick built calender before December 11th and be sure to add @brickbuiltcalender as a collaborator.

Are you planning to join any of these challenges? Or did we miss a fun activity? Let us know in the comments! If you are hosting and want to have your building challenge featured in November please reach out on Instagram or comment below.

LEGO Building Activities for November

Bricksterdam — Tue, 07 Nov 2023 22:31:17 +0000

Every month sees plenty of fun LEGO activities hosted by AFOLs on social media, mostly Instagram.

Building Challenges can be a lot of fun. Not just the creative aspect with building, but also the social interactions with other builders from around the world. November is packed with plenty of building fun so get your bricks out and join any of these!

#HeroVillainhabitats23

What’s a month without a good old Habitat Challenge hosted by Jen @brickfambuilds? Co-hosted by @teflontodd it’s the return of Heroes and Villains Habitats. Build a fun habitat with a superhero (or supervillain) and post with the hashtag #HeroVillainHabitats23. Don’t forget to tag @habitatchallenge. Individual Habitats are to be posted on November 24-25 and stacks on November 26. If you want to know the basics for building a habitat, you can read our blog about it here.

#BuildToGive

The LEGO Group hosts their annual charity building event #BuildToGive. This year builders are invited to build a heart and post it to social media. TLG will donate sets to their chosen charities for all builds entered up to 1.500.000 sets. All details can be found here.

Nerdvember 2023: Survivor Edition

November has arrived which means BrickNerd is celebrating Nerdvember! The Bricknerd website runs a competition with many great prizes. All you have to do is build a survival version of their mascot ‘Nerdly’ in a apocalyptic scene (or whatever you might think of considering the theme).

You have until the end of November to build your entry and post it on Flickr in the Nerdvember 2023 group or on Instagram using the hashtags #Nerdvember2023 #BrickNerd and #Nerdly. More information on the competition and prizes can be found here.

#BrickBuiltCalendar

A monthly returning Instagram challenge hosted by @speedykiwi92 @plasticwanderer and @reddsbricks. The challenge is just as straightforward as the hashtag suggests: build a calendar for the month November. By the time this post is online the 10 November deadline is getting rather close but you can always join in for the next month! And just like most challenges this one now also has it’s own Instagram account.

#LetsBuildMosaics

Another challenge we can count on every month is the @letsbuildseries, hosted by Kate @Brickhuntress. The theme for November is Mosaics, which might be convenient for everyone that takes part in the weekly #MosaicsOnMonday. And like always, builds for this challenge can be both sets and own designs, as well as digital creations.

#pwdhabitat23

Ok, this might not be a November challenge but since it’s early in December, it’s included anyway. For the United Nations International Day of Persons with Disabilities @shanzy_h organises a solo habitat challenge. The challenge runs December 1-3. The challenge is about promoting diversity and inclusion, specifically focused on persons with disabilities. These can be both visible or invisible disabilities.

Be sure to tag @brickaccessibilityinclusion in your post and follow the account to check out all the builds for this challenge.

Building Challenges for October

Bricksterdam — Sun, 01 Oct 2023 18:51:05 +0000

Every month sees plenty of fun LEGO activities hosted by AFOLs on social media. We posted about weekly hashtag fun before, which you can read here. Building Challenges can be a lot of fun. Not just the creative aspect with building, but also the social interactions with other builders from around the world.

#BrickBuiltCalendar

#LetsBuildSpooky

Like every month, Brickhuntress on Instagram hosts the #LetsBuildSeries. This will be the first month it’s hosted from it’s own account. This October the theme is ‘Spooky’. Her challenges might be a bit more accessible compared to the others in this post. MOCs are welcome of course, but not mandatory. Building a set or modifying a set is welcomed just as much. The themes are also chosen to allow for various interpretations to have a broad appeal. So IP licenses can be used, but if you don’t have anything from an IP you can still join in. #LetsBuildSpooky runs from October 6th.

#BlackCatHabitats

Friday the 13th seemed the perfect day for me to host my first Instagram challenge. Annoyed that LEGO often snubs black cats in sets I wanted to do something with black cats. Having worked in a shelter I know black cats struggle to get adopted while they often have very sweet characters. So to celebrate black cats I hope others will join in and show their love as well. Since LEGO hasn’t produced many black cats you can always build your own if you don’t have one on hand.

Joining is easy: build a habitat with a black cat featured in the scene, post it on Instagram with #BlackCatHabitats on October 13th and tag @patrick_bricksterdam.

#HalloweenHabitats23

October is time for spooky building so of course this sees the return of Halloween Habitats hosted by Jen @brickfambuilds and Anabelle @brickswhynot on Instagram. Individual habitats can be posted with #HalloweenHabitats23 from October 23-28 and full stacks on the 29th. And with al the witchcraft happening at Instagram lately, be sure to add @halloweenhabitats as a contributor to your Halloween builds so everybody can keep track of all the habitats!

To get some inspiration from previous years, be sure to have a look here as well.

Building Challenges for September

Bricksterdam — Thu, 14 Sep 2023 20:19:28 +0000

Every month sees plenty of fun LEGO activities hosted by AFOLs on social media. We posted about weekly hashtag fun some time ago which you can read here. Building Challenges can be a lot of fun, not just the creative aspect with building, but also the social interactions with other builders from around the world.

Friendshiptember

The first challenge we highlight today is Friendshiptember. This challenge is hosted on the Instagram platform by @friendshiptember.

The rules are simple: build a (space)ship in September and add some Friendly elements (this is open to your own interpretation). The use of minidolls is encouraged but not mandatory. Once you’ve finished your build post it to Instagram and add @friendshiptember as a collaborator. Instagram has made it a bit harder to follow the latest posts so the organisers have made sure that all builds get the attention they deserve this way.

This is one of my favourite entries I’ve seen so far, the Tea Ceremony Boat by Kristel Whitaker (check out more from her amazing builds on Instagram and flickr).

Whether you’re building or not, be sure to follow Friendshiptember and support all the builders with their amazing creations!

#LetsBuildTheWizardingWorld

Like every month, Brickhuntress on Instagram hosts the #LetsBuildSeries. This September the theme is Wizarding World. Her challenges might be a bit more accessible compared to the others in this post. MOCs are welcome of course, but not mandatory. Building a set of adapting a set is welcomed just as much. The themes are also chosen to allow for various interpretations to have a broad appeal. So IP licenses can be used, but if you don’t have anything from an IP you can still join in.

#BrickBuiltCalendar

A monthly returning Instagram challenge hosted by @speedykiwi92 @plasticwanderer and @reddsbricks. The challenge is just as straightforward as the hashtag suggests: build a calendar for the month.

Here’s a fun example by Ethan @plasticwanderer demonstrating the idea for the challenge. September is back to school, even for dinosaurs.

SHIPtember

SHIPtember celebrates the acronym SHIP, meaning a Seriously Huge Investment In Parts, building a spaceship of at least 100 studs long. SHIPs need to be built/posted in the month of September. Apparantly this is a tradition going into it’s tenth year.

The official channels for this challenge can be found on flickr and Discord. Final entries for this challenge should be posted in the SHIPtember 2023 – Armada on Flickr. There are no other rules than building something huge, scale is open to own preference, builds can be digital etc. For more information check out the official channels for the challenge.

Are you planning to join any of these challenges? Or did we miss a fun activity? Let us know in the comments! If you are hosting and want to have your building challenge featured in October please reach out on Instagram or comment below.