February 2026 LEGO News Roundup

LEGO cars and factories, LEGO Parts Guide improvements, and a diverse mix of videos, podcasts and articles I enjoyed this month.

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Roundup

This month, we posted two very different articles: One exploring tradeoffs in designing minifigure-scale vehicles, and another featuring boots-on-ground updates from Richmond, Virginia where a brand new LEGO factory is under construction. I’m also excited that I added a bunch of new parts to both editions of The LEGO Parts Guide, and made the website easier to maintain.

As always, we will close with a look at exciting new LEGO sets for March, and some great articles and podcasts that I hope you will enjoy.

Exploring Minifigure Scale in Modulars and Speed Champions

Koen prepared a great article that explains different ways that scale can be handled in brick-built vehicles. As you will learn, there are two sizes which are commonly used in modern LEGO sets. Many LEGO City sets, the Modular Building Series, and earlier Speed Champions sets use 6-stud wide vehicles.

Right‑Sizing the Ride: Which LEGO vehicles fit in a Modular City?

Right‑Sizing the Ride: Which LEGO vehicles fit in a Modular City?

In newer Speed Champions sets, you will find that a more generous 8-stud width is used. Two more studs might not seem like much, but the overall look, level of detailing, and compatibility with Modulars are significantly impacted by this change. The article explores the strengths, limitations, and tradeoffs associated with these two different scales.

What’s happening in Richmond, Virginia?

In December, I was visiting family in Richmond, Virginia — home of the next LEGO production factory. Construction is well underway at a massive jobsite about 30 minutes southwest of the city’s historic downtown area, and I wanted to see it first hand.

What’s happening in Richmond, Virginia? A new LEGO Factory!

What’s happening in Richmond, Virginia? A new LEGO Factory!

In addition to visiting the new LEGO store in town and a small nod to the new factory at the airport, my son and I spent a couple hours visiting the job site to see what you can see. As you will learn in my photo-filled article, there’s more going on in Richmond than at the job site alone.

Online LEGO Parts Guide

While I made progress on versions of my LEGO Parts Guide this month (both print and online), the main progress that I can share with you is on the website.

Improved website part images:
I wanted to make all of my readers aware of a nice improvement I just made to the online parts guide… Instantly recognizable but tiny part images are critical to the experience when exploring galleries of parts within the online Parts Guide as well as my list of the Most Common LEGO Parts. Unfortunately, these images are time consuming to create and update!

After doing it the hard way for two years, I finally figured out how to generate thumbnails on the fly — and I think the images look better too!

While I’ve shared early access and additional insights about these changes with my patrons, I wanted to give a brief explanation here too. I figured out how to not only resize the images to the smaller thumbnail size needed in the galleries, but was also able to apply a more sophisticated resampling algorithm which makes curves and angles within the image look smoother.

Resize (left) results in high contrast images with jagged edges. Resample (right) has smoother edges and looks better on screen.

Resize (left) results in high contrast images with jagged edges. Resample (right) has smoother edges which look better on screen.

This process allows me to create and upload new part images in about 5 minutes, instead of over an hour with my old process.

Print edition

I’m still working hard on the print edition as well. You can already see many new parts since the Beta 1 edition in December. I added 26 parts in February and 46 parts in January! I haven’t imported these changes into my page layouts yet, but I expect this to add 4-6 pages of additional parts to the book!

The feedback I’ve received from beta participants has been fantastically useful. I’ve painstakingly transcribed beta comments into a paper copy of the book, which I am reviewing from front-to-back to make edits to the chapter text, illustrations, and more.

I’m still deciding how I will address all of the feedback I’ve received, but here are a few changes I will definitely conmsider for the second beta:

  • Clear desire for a short conclusion chapter that summarizes the main themes and learnings scattered throughout the book.
  • Better explanation of the units used to measure parts throughout the book.
  • Even more parts — which I’m actively working to improve!

Behind the scenes…

If you want to be more involved, I share rough drafts, early thinking, and beta versions of the book with my Patrons. It’s basically a diary of my progress that I get to share with a few of my most dedicated readers.

Here’s what I shared this month…

  • Patrons: Reviewing Beta Feedback…
    This is a longer explanation about the process I’m using to capture beta feedback and update the book.
  • Patrons: Improved Website Part Images
    If you are curious, I explain the challenges I encountered trying to automate thumbnail generation, and why the new images look better at the same small file size.

New at Brick Architect

Here’s a quick summary of what’s new this month

  • What’s happening in Richmond, Virginia? A new LEGO Factory!
    From a brand new LEGO Store to a massive new LEGO Factory — let’s find out what’s happening in Richmond!
  • Right‑Sizing the Ride: Which LEGO vehicles fit in a Modular City?
    LEGO vehicles set the tone of a city layout — but what actually fits in a Modular City, and are Speed Champions vehicles too big?
  • Updated: LEGO Brick Labels page
    I updated the dedicated page explaining both the legacy LEGO Brick Labels collection and the wider selection of labels included in the parts guide. The biggest changes were to the list of compatible printers which was out-of-date
  • Updated: LEGO Parts Guide
    I made a few improvements to the online parts guide this month:
    • Added 26 parts to the online guide. They will be included in the next draft of the printed guide as well.
    • Added 69 part images, including a mix of brand new and retired parts.
    • Improved quality of thumbnail images shown in the parts galleries.

March 2026 releases for AFOLs

The first three LEGO Pokemon sets came out a couple days ago on February 26th. (The largest of the three sets is already sold-out in the United States.) I was surprised to see that more than two dozen sets are being released on March 1, including the first three LEGO Star Wars sets containing the new Smart Bricks which I discussed in January.

With so many releases this month, I’ve highlighted my three favorite new sets this month, followed by a bunch of other sets of interest to adult builders.

#21366 Floating Sea Otters is otterly adorable.

#21366 Floating Sea Otters is otterly adorable.

As always, you can explore all of the new releases by visiting the lego.com store. (Making a purchase using our referral link helps support this website.)

Best articles from around the web

This month’s best content was heavily weighted to podcasts and videos. I hope you enjoy them!

  • Remembering Joe Meno, a Champion of the LEGO Community
    Longtime LEGO journalist and overall outstanding guy Joe Meno passed away this month. He is probably best known by LEGO fans around the world as the founder and editor of BrickJournal magazine, which has captured key moments in the AFOL community for 21 years. For people like myself who had the pleasure of sharing a conversation or a meal, he will be remembered as a kind, compassionate, and thoughtful person who worked hard to elevate the voices of others over his own. This article by Dave Schefcik is a beautiful and heartfelt tribute.
    —BrickNerd
  • LEGO as a teaching tool: does it actually work?
    In this guest post by scientist and experimental research lead Vincent Lamirand, we learn about how LEGO can be used to help teach complex scientific concepts, and how the scientific method can be used to prove that it’s an effective teaching tool.
    —Brickset
  • The Antique Collection: A Case for Variety in the BDP
    In this article by Simon Liu, he makes a strong case that the BrickLink Designer Program is missing the opportunity to showcase diverse LEGO models by constantly funding Minifig-scale models over more unique builds.
    —BrickNerd

What about large-scale sculptures? Stunning art? Abstract builds? Character models? Micro worlds? Display pieces? Mechanical experiments? Anything space-related? If the BrickLink Designer Program remains a minifigure machine, it narrows the definition of what “successful” projects looks like.

Simon Liu

  • Building the LEGO Dream (46:11)
    I’m looking forward to watching this nearly hour-long documentary chronicling the story of how five LEGO Ideas participants landed full-time jobs at the The LEGO Group headquarters in Billund.
    —LEGO (video)
  • The Secret History of the First LEGO Factory and Billund’s Transformation (55:11)
    Speaking of Billund, in this deeply nerdy presentation by Blocks Magazine writer and Secret Life of LEGO Bricks author Daniel Konstanski, you can learn more about the early history of the town that LEGO put on the map.
    —Blocks Magazine (YouTube)
  • C. Thi Nguyen (1:11:42)
    Sometimes, a far-reaching discussion with an author and philosopher hits on something close to home. As I learned in this episode, C. Thi Nguyen has an earlier life as a restaurant reviewer and board game critic, and his reflections on weird things that happen when you try to rate things stuck with me.
    —Design Matters with Debbie Millman

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