PdC Parts Fest 2018: Half-cone roof tower

At Paredes de Coura (PdC) Fan Weekend in Portugal in June 2018, New Elementary ran a workshop where 25 builders were given 11 of the new LEGO® parts released in 2018 to experiment with. With the clock running, they used these in combination with general part stock (provided from the magnificent collection of Comunidade 0937) to create as many ideas, tablescraps, techniques and small MOCs as they could and we’re sharing the most interesting and useful ones with you.

Today it's the turn of the new textured half-cone called Roof 2x4x4 by TLG, and Tower Roof 2 x 4 x 4 Half Cone Shaped with Roof Tiles by BrickLink. Its Design ID is 35563 and we had it in Earth Blue [TLG]/Dark Blue [BL] (Element ID 6209807) which you will find capping off two LEGO Disney Princess castles this year: 41152 Sleeping Beauty's Fairytale Castle and 41154 Cinderella's Dream Castle. It also comes in Dark Stone Grey [TLG]/Dark Bluish Gray [BL] (6230280) in two LEGO Harry Potter Wizarding World sets: 75953 Hogwarts Whomping Willow and 75954 Hogwarts Great Hall. You'll also find it in Dark Red (6223601) in LEGO Juniors 10762 Belle's Story Time.

The roof tiles on it are really quite beautiful I think. Petal-like and somewhat oversized, they do suggest other applications for the part – but what will our fan builders come up with?

2018 Parts Fest #1: James Pegrum's creepy tomb

We sent a varied selection of new LEGO® parts from 2018 to some fan builders, and in an occasional ‘parts festival’ series we are showing you the techniques and models they came up with. 

For some four years I've been plugging away on a certain history-themed project, a key feature being the size of each build which I've restricted to a 16x16-module base.  There's a large number of builds in the series and ideas have sometimes been hard to come by. So when the guys at New Elementary asked if I would like to play around with some new parts it spurred me on to build some new ideas and in the end the final model included each of the parts they gave me.

The final model comprises includes various separate builds and there are three I want to focus on: a base, some flowers and a stained glass window.

LEGO® Ideas 21315 Pop-up Book

Sven Franic takes a peep inside the latest LEGO® Ideas set, 21315 Pop-up Book, and discovers a set that is beautiful in its design, mechanics and overall creative concept. 





The LEGO® theme without a theme, also known as LEGO Ideas, has given a traditional object a fresh brick-based perspective. Pop-up books embrace a combination of the intricate arts of bookbinding, illustration and origami, resulting in an interactive, palpable storytelling medium. If only there was a toy today that could do that ;) 



PdC Parts Fest 2018: Triangle tile

At Paredes de Coura (PdC) Fan Weekend in Portugal in June 2018, New Elementary ran a workshop where 25 builders were given 11 of the new LEGO® parts released in 2018 to experiment with. With the clock running, they used these in combination with general part stock (provided from the magnificent collection of Comunidade 0937) to create as many ideas, tablescraps, techniques and small MOCs as they could and we’re sharing the most interesting and useful ones with you.

The triangle tile (Design ID 35787, aka Tile 2X2, W/ Deg. 45 Cut or Tile, Modified 2 x 2 Triangular) was introduced early in 2018 within the Speed Champions theme and is already a firm favourite with fans. Let's see what our fan builders came up with.

Some builders used the tile to represent things... beautiful things!

2018 Parts Fest #1: Steve Guinness in space

We sent a varied selection of new LEGO® parts to some fan builders to explore techniques and models. This time we have the talented Steve Guinness: one half of the team who won Series 1 of Channel 4's LEGO Masters who now undertake commissions as The Brick Guys.

Clockwork Robots 

When I saw the 1x3 jumper plate (Design ID 34103) I liked the unusual pattern on the underside, as it has no anti-studs or pegs. The tiny triangles reminded me of teeth so I came up with these Clockwork Robots.

LEGO® Unikitty: The 3x5 Cloud

Today we start a series of four posts where Sven Franic examines some fascinating new elements from the LEGO® Unikitty! theme.

The piece used as a collectible minifigure stand for the 41775 Unikitty! blind bags is called 'Design Plate 3X5, No. 1 Tile' by TLG, and 'Tile, Modified 3 x 5 Cloud' by BrickLink. The Design ID is 35470 and it comes only in White as Element ID 6223667

. I guess that's because the weather is always gleaming in Cloud Cuckoo Land which, if you ever watched The LEGO Movie, you will know is a very vibrant place gushing with rainbows and covered in ice cream sprinkles. 



2018 Parts Fest #1: Tim Goddard's Engaging Elements

In addition to our Portugal workshop we also sent a varied selection of new LEGO® parts from 2018 to some fan builders, and in an occasional ‘parts festival’ series over the next month or two we’ll be showing you the techniques and models they came up with. First up, our good friend Tim Goddard, co-author of LEGO Space: Building the Future.

At Bricktastic in Manchester this year Tim J mentioned he had a selection of new parts and would I like to explore them for New E. Being the parts monkey that I am, I of course said yes, and what an interesting selection of parts I got!

Let's start small... possibly the smallest LEGO element to date (I am saying this knowing that New E readers will correct me if I am wrong) are the Infinity Stones, which I was supplied with in Transparent Yellow (Element ID 6223002 | Design ID 36451).

PdC Parts Fest 2018: Neck bracket with 4 bars

At Paredes de Coura (PdC) Fan Weekend in Portugal in June 2018, New Elementary ran a workshop where 25 builders were given 11 of the new LEGO® parts released in 2018 to experiment with. With the clock running, they used these in combination with general part stock (provided from the magnificent collection of Comunidade 0937) to create as many ideas, tablescraps, techniques and small MOCs as they could and we’re sharing the most interesting and useful ones with you.

Today we look at a very unusual new part; a new neck bracket for minifigures that comes in Black (Element ID 6215458 | Design ID 36452) which BrickLink call 'Minifig, Neck Bracket with 4 Angled Handles' and TLG 'Mini Back Plate,W/3,2 Shaft'.

Here are three of them attached together with two straight droid arms (Design ID 59230). The shape from which the bar connectors project is roughly pentagonal, but sadly not perfectly. However there's a reason for this, and it's to do with the System.

PdC Parts Fest 2018: Front Fender / Grille Guard

At Paredes de Coura (PdC) Fan Weekend in Portugal in June 2018, New Elementary ran a 'parts festival' workshop where 25 builders were given 11 of the new LEGO® parts released in 2018 to experiment with. They used these in combination with general part stock (provided from the magnificent collection of Comunidade 0937) to create as many ideas, tablescraps, techniques and small MOCs as they could and we’re sharing the most interesting and useful ones with you. Huge thanks to Andrew Tipping for taking the photographs.

Today's piece is Design ID 35654 which comes only in Black (Element ID 6207258), largely in LEGO® CITY sets. TLG named it "Fender, Front, No.1" and BrickLink call it "Bar 1 x 4 x 1 2/3 (Grille Guard / Push Bumper)" but I call these things bullbars... is that just an Aussie thing?

This builder saw the piece as none of those things, but as wings of some sort of techno-insect and made use of both of its available connection points which are 3.18mm bars.

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PdC Parts Fest 2018: Rounded Plate 1x2

At Paredes de Coura (PdC) Fan Weekend in Portugal in June 2018, New Elementary ran a 'parts festival' workshop where 25 builders were given 11 of the new LEGO® parts released in 2018 to experiment with. They used these in combination with general part stock (provided from the magnificent collection of Comunidade 0937) to create as many ideas, tablescraps, techniques and small MOCs as they could and we’re sharing the most interesting and useful ones with you. Huge thanks to Andrew Tipping for taking the photographs.

Today we look at the curved 1x2 plate which we chose in Black (Element ID 6210270 | Design ID 35480).

The ability to interconnect many of them into a chain allows for many interesting sculptural possibilities, like this balloon animal!

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Forbidden Elementary: The Spurious Sprue

While some fans will be thrilled at the return of LEGO® Harry Potter, we were more excited about the arrival of the new wand element (Design ID 36752) which Elspeth De Montes examined recently. But as she now explores, there is more to the element than simply two wonderful wands: there is a little piece of plastic designed to hold them neatly together in the mould – the sprue.

Due to numerous reader questions, comments and ideas across social media, we’ve decided the wand sprue is worth a closer look. It is anchor-shaped and approximately half the depth of a tile, with a flat side and a slightly rounded side.

LEGO® 10262 James Bond Aston Martin DB5

Each summer the LEGO® Creator Expert theme release a large scale vehicle, such as last year's 10258 London Bus. This year, the subject remains frightfully British: today The LEGO Group revealed 10262 James Bond Aston Martin DB5. Sven Franic took an early look to find all the new parts and of course, to play with the gadgets!

The latest LEGO® Creator Expert car model is an acquired taste. To be fair, the slick Superleggera design is not easily translated to brick form. I learned to love this model through the building experience and it turned out to be one of the most ingenious LEGO model designs I have ever come across.

Alt Star Wars: Kev Levell's mothership and fighter

We set Kevin Levell an epic task: to come up with his own original build using only the parts found in the latest wave of LEGO® Star Wars sets. That's seven sets with over 3000 parts at his disposal! Kevin shows us today what he's come up with and describes the creative process.

The challenge was to build something from the newest wave of LEGO® Star Wars sets but throughout the building process, one of the biggest temptations for me has been to sneakily/subtly add to the available selection of parts from my collection. I have remained disciplined, using only the parts contained within sets 75206, 75207, 75208, 75209, 75210, 75211 and 75212.

I had a number of ideas I wanted to explore, and I experimented extensively with various building techniques along the way in order to try to realise some of them. What I have finished up with for my main build is a long way from where I started out.

LEGO® Architecture 21042 Statue of Liberty: The new parts

Packed with interesting techniques, LEGO® Architecture 21042 Statue of Liberty is my favourite build of the year so far. Today, I'm going to examine the parts that have been provided in new colours in this new set and show a couple of cool techniques that the designer has used.

Inside Tour 2018 exclusive set

Spoiler alert! If you don't want to know what this year's LEGO® Inside Tour set is, look away now. Because Márton Ferenci was fortunate enough to attend and has given us this brief insight into the set, which can now be revealed to the public.

Being part of the LEGO Inside Tour is part luck, part madness. 3000 people signed up and a lucky 170-ish got chosen. Each year the participants receive a limited edition set, the subject of which is handpicked by the Kristiansen family to commemorate this special occasion.

The box gets handed out at the end of an intense 2.5 day journey deep into the real LEGO “land”. After learning so much about moulding, visiting the factory and meeting the LEGO designers (above), it is a true highlight to be given one of these.

Shanghai Pete: New turtles, weapons and ships

Regular readers will know that Peter Reid loves fresh turtle. He's been building them since 2004 and his LEGO® Ideas Exo Suit set also included an official – and legal – version of the MkIII M364 Turtle. It’s one of this Neo-Classic Space fan’s most popular designs and as the years pass by, the key parts to build the turtle become available in new colours. Peter always seizes on these opportunities to add to his turtle army, so when the 2018 LEGO Architecture set 21039 Shanghai introduced the 3x3 radar dish in Bright Reddish Violet [TLG]/Magenta [BL] (Element ID 6217587|Design ID 43898), we knew we just had to get Peter a copy to see what he’d make this time. Click/tap images to view larger.

“The Shanghai set is great. It's got five magenta 3x3 dishes, which means I can finally make magenta robot turtles. As per tradition I've experimented with a couple of heavy weapons: the Twin Heavy Blaster and Armoured Quad Cannon.”

London AFOLs: Space

Now for the final of our three posts featuring creations by London AFOLs using new LEGO® parts. London AFOLs are - you guessed it - a bunch of adult fans of LEGO who meet in London. In a pub! It's very friendly and informal, and new and international visitors are always welcome. They meet on the second Monday of every month, so check out the group on meetup.com/LondonAFOLs. 

Today it is the turn of the Spacers to show what they came up with in 20 minutes using the seed parts and the stock of other bricks.

Garmadon hats - also known as Minifig, Headgear Hat, Conical Asian with Raised Center (Design ID 26007) have proved very popular across this parts festival despite their singular connection point, and here make a very slick microscale ship.

London AFOLs: Abstract

We took a box of new LEGO® pieces to a meet up of London AFOLs for some fast-paced building adventures. London AFOLs meet in a pub every second Monday of the month, and new and international visitors are always welcome. Check out the group on meetup.com/LondonAFOLs. 

Last time we shared some of the real-world objects the builders made; today it's the abstract builds. People had just 20 minutes to create something using some new LEGO parts, some elements that have recently come in new colours, and London AFOLs' general brick stock. 

Love this simple usage of  Brick 1X1X1 2/3 W/ Vert Knobs in Bright Red [TLG]/Red [BL] (Element ID 6187620|Design ID 32952) to create a spiral. Those 1x4 tiles are Bright Green (6195267|2431); these are back again having briefly appeared in 2012/13. They come in the exclusive set 21037 LEGO House which also introduces 1x1 tiles in this colour!

2017 Skærbæk Parts Festival: Cristiano Grassi and Oscar Cederwall

Two participants of our parts festival at Skærbæk Fan Weekend last September continued building with the new LEGO® pieces after they got home from Denmark.

Oscar Cederwall

Oscar was very interested in the strange Minecraft railway track piece, Plate 2X2, W/ Design in Reddish Brown (Element ID 6163991|Design ID 27928).

He pulled some crafty moves to set the whole of the interior of this flower box at 45°.

New 2018 LEGO® NEXO KNIGHTS™ parts

Today we have a parts review and building ideas from Tyler Clites and Sean Mayo, who are well-known around the AFOL world for their incredible building prowess - and recently they've started a new venture as the designers at BuildBetterBricks.com (aka “B3”). Great to have you here guys!

The latest 2018 wave of LEGO® NEXO KNIGHTS™sets are providing us builders with some incredible new elements. We are seeing a surge of Transparent Bright Green pieces in the ‘bad guy’ vehicles and new colors for some of the newer tile elements. But the most interesting pieces are those with the new molds we've never seen before. We've boiled this first 2018 wave of Nexo Knights sets down to three new parts, and will highlight these the most.