Earlier this month, I welcomed newsletter subscribers to take an early peek at my new LEGO Parts Guide. Thank you for replying with a ton of great feedback about the experience including suggestions to make it even better. Two weeks later, I welcomed the wider LEGO community to give it a try — and people seem to love it so far!

A couple days ago, I created a page where people can learn more about the LEGO Parts Guide. The about page includes a brief summary of the project, as well as highlighting important new features that I’ve added since starting the project on January 5th.

Here are some additional improvements this month…

• February 25: Basic Search UX.
  I added the ability to search the LEGO Parts Guide. This was one of the top requests after launching the beta version. (For now, It is limited to searching the part name and part description fields.)

A simple search box was added to every page.

You can search by part number or text search.

• February 24: Added ‘Years produced’ to parts page.
  This is based on data from Brickset and does not accurately reflect parts which were released before 1995. (I will fix that later.)

Range of dates shown for each part. (Very old parts are not showing an accurate start date — 3005 should say 1954-2024.)

• February 21: Optimizations for very large and very small displays.
  I also added links to learn more in the footer.
• February 19: Category name & description improvements.
  Category names, subtitles, and descriptions reviewed for clarity and to ensure every category has a Subtitle.
• February 18: Simple URLs which you can bookmark.
  (ex: brickarchitect.com/parts/ for LEGO Parts Guide Homepage, brickarchitect.com/parts/3011 for a specific part, or brickarchitect.com/parts/category-126 for a specific category.)

Please give The LEGO Parts Guide another try!

How you can help?

While The LEGO Parts Guide is already pretty awesome, there’s still a lot of work to do to make it the best tool for learning about current LEGO parts, and the best guide to help you sort your LEGO collection.

There are tons of ways you can help including bookmarking the page, sending friends a link to the page, and supporting the project on Patreon… but the best way to help me out is to keep sending feedback!

Send me anything… something you love about the experience, an idea to make it better, or bugs you may have encountered — just send an email at tom@tomalphin.com or
leave a comment on the website. Thanks in advance for your help!

New at Brick Architect

In addition to launching the LEGO Parts Guide, we published two reviews about highly sought sets that will be released in March.

• Review: #42179 Planet Earth and Moon in Orbit (LEGO Technic)
  I’ve always wanted to play with an interactive model of the Sun, Earth, and Moon — and had the first chance by building this extremely unique LEGO Technic set.
• Review: #10332 Medieval Town Square (LEGO Icons)
  Medieval village sets are crowd-pleasers that have appeared periodically throughout the LEGO Castle theme’s long history, but is this modern interpretation good enough to meet modern expectations?

While I think the Technic set is a better set, LEGO Castle fans are clamoring to learn more about #10332 Medieval Town Square.

Exciting March 2024 releases for AFOLs

March is completely packed with new releases! In addition to the sets I’ve highlighted below, you will find links to all eight of the March 2024 Technic sets in my review of #42179 Planet Earth and Moon in Orbit.

• Animal Crossing (5 Sets)
  Having absolutely know familiarity with the game, but loving the wildly cute minifigures, I’m going to cheat and let you pick your favorite of these five sets..
  164 – 535 pieces, ages 6/7+, $15-75, available now at LEGO.com
• #10332 Medieval Town Square
  As you will learn in our review, we wish it was a bit better, but this is still a pretty good set for a fair price
  3304 pieces, ages 18+, $230, available now at LEGO.com
• #43242 Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs’ Cottage
  While it’s a bit spendy and the interior is apparently a bit crowded, it’s hard to ignore the charm (and 10 minifigs) of this set.
  2228 pieces, ages 18+, $220, available now at LEGO.com
• #31154 Forest Animals: Red Fox (Creator 3-in-1)
  I love the versatility and value in 3-in-1 sets, and this one offers a really cute brick-built fox.
  667 pieces, ages 9+, $50, available now at LEGO.com
• #43249 Stitch
  I still can’t quite understand why the 2002 Disney movie ‘Lilo & Sitch’ is having such a ‘moment’ right now, but this is a very cute buildable model, with a younger 9+ age target -— fun for all ages?
  730 pieces, ages 9+, $65, available now at LEGO.com
• #75375 Millennium Falcon
  This rendition of the iconic starship is small but surprisingly intricate! The price is a bit high, though.
  921 pieces, ages 18+, $85, available now at LEGO.com

To see other recent releases, visit the lego.com store. (Making a purchase using our referral link helps support this website.)

#42179 Planet Earth and Moon in Orbit is my top choice this month because it invites new audiences to try LEGO Technic.

Best articles from around the web

While February was a day longer this year, it’s still the shortest month! I still managed to find some great articles to share with you.

• Building a GBC Module From Start to Finish
  One of these days, I will finally build a GBC module. Until then, I will live vicariously through articles like this one by Noah de lange.
  —BrickNerd
• Have a say in future LEGO licensed merchandise
  A survey that hints at future LEGO clothing and home decor products. There are definitely some nice options in the gallery.
  —Jay’s Brick Blog
• Baby Scale and Beyond: The Guardians of LEGO Space Babies
  The award for the cutest article of the month goes to Simon Liu. for this gallery of amazing ‘baby scale’ builds. My favorite are the models by Dana Knudson, who painstakingly re-created classic Space sets at ‘baby scale’.
  —BrickNerd

What’s not to love about these baby-sized Space Minifigures.

• The Future of LEGO: A Builder’s Perspective on AI
  I haven’t been shy in my cautious oiptimism for the possibilities of AI in our hobby, and enjoyed this article by Geneva D exploring some of thebest ways to use AI to increase your creativity.
  —BrickNerd
• The LEGO Group Launches New Range of Racing Vehicles with McLaren, Senna, Mercedes, and BMW
  There are some exciting LEGO Technic cars this month, and I’m especially pleased that they launched both a 7+ set witha pull-basck motor, and an 18+ set — both based on the same Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Car.
  —Rambling Brick
• The evolution of type within LEGO products from the 60’s through the 90’s.
  I have enjoyed this series by Bailey Fullarton exploring the fonts (typography) used by The LEGO Group throughout their history.
  —BrickNerd