NEXOGON: Landing Platform

Even before Tim Goddard (Rogue Bantha on Flickr) received the shipment of LEGO® NEXO KNIGHTS™ Combo Power shields I sent him for our new parts festival, he was busily playing with some that he bought himself!

[UPDATE: Want to know how the platform is built? Check out this recreation on Mecabricks by Oby1! If you use it in some way, please credit Tim Goddard and Oby1 for their great work.] 

So far on New Elementary we have explored a lot of the potential geometric options, so I am starting with something a bit different. I've effectively built a giant Nexogon and turned it into a landing pad. I added a bit of 'tanscaping' (landscaping built with Brick Yellow [TLG]/Tan [BL] bricks and slopes primarily on their side) and passed the photo to my good friend Rob Damiano who did some wonderful things to bring it to life.

NEXOGON Landing Platform by Tim Goddard with Rob Damiano. Click for larger view.

The New Black - Tim Goddard: Blaze mech

Another of our regular contributors has joined in The New Black parts challenge of their own volition! Today Tim Goddard (Rogue Bantha) pens a love letter to one single new part released by the LEGO® Group this year. 

Ah, Plate 1X1 Round W/3.2 Shaft (Design ID 26047). I thought I was dreaming when I first saw it but it was real! The semi-circular end is made for rotating, it allows you to attach anything with a clip any which way you like which is just perfect for the legs on my mini Blaze mech.

The History of the Space Turtle

The best-known LEGO® model by British AFOL Peter Reid is his Exo Suit, but everyone who bought the official LEGO Ideas version, 21109 Exo Suit, knows his Space Turtle just as well. The turtle has been around much longer, having appeared in the bestselling book he co-created with Tim Goddard – LEGO Space: Building the Future, as well as thrilling thousands of children at LEGO fan shows as a part of his extraordinary Turtle Factory display piece.

We are going to reveal a new turtle exclusive for you here at New Elementary but for context, let’s first look back at the history of the space turtle and ask Peter to take us inside his universe where the robot turtles are hard-working, loyal mechanoids, created by the manufacturing giant Anodyne Systems. The M364 turtle has been deployed on numerous Federation outposts where they perform a wide range of duties, and upgraded M450 units are widely used throughout the corporate security sector.

Space Tools Parts Fest: Tim Goddard

Tim Goddard tools up as guest author this week, in our challenge to create original LEGO® models using 'Space Tools' - the minifigure accessories found in Classic Space sets.

In this instalment of New Elementary's exploration of minifig Space utensils, I look at the space guns / torches / loudhailers / blasters / megaphones. Call them what you will, they are certainly classic parts and are still using in LEGO sets today. Here is my collection!

2019 Parts Fest #2: Tim Goddard's tablescraps

Tim Goddard (Rogue Bantha) is co-author of LEGO Space: Building the Future and a regular contributor to New Elementary, thanks to his ability to face any LEGO® challenge. He even managed to create ingenious builds when we slung a pile of seaside polybags at him from the LEGO Xtra theme. This time Tim was a lot happier with the parts.

What a cornucopia of loveliness this parts fest is, almost an embarrassment of riches. There are almost too many cool parts to explore but I will do my best. It is like several parts fests have come at once but for me the stand out is the good Batman family bag (that is the one with all the 3.18mm bar dream selection known as Mini Accessory, No. 11 also in Silver Metallic – 6266977|50018) so you will see parts from that in all but one of my builds.

Tablescraps

As is traditional, I will start with table scraps and build up. With so any exciting parts it is hard to explore them all in depth and I had a hard time working out where to start but I started here.

Old Elementary: Part 2 of the LEGO® BIONICLE 20th Anniversary Festival

Tim Goddard, Aiden Rexroad, Caz Mockett and Disty continue our celebration of the 20th anniversary of LEGO® BIONICLE, the New Elementary way! Five more parts have been examined by our regular and guest contributors.

2019 Parts Fest #2: Tim Goddard's Bots and Hover Racer

Tim Goddard returns to our Parts Festival today using the new LEGO® parts we sent him to create interesting and inspiring models.

Underwater Geometry

The marine life family bag (Accessories, Marine Life, No. 1 in Vibrant Coral – 49595 | 6262127) is tricky, it basically is what it says on the tin. What else could it be? Of course I have already seen some good uses within this very Parts Festival.

PFC, 24 (plus some seaweed/coral and a couple of extra fish)

I used the pieces in a random underwater geometric shape, again making use of the 120º 3.18mm bar. Having a hollow stud on both sides in the middle of this piece is amazingly useful. The centre is a stud thick; if you put a tile on both sides the height is exactly 1 brick.

NEXOGON: Our parts festival begins

Our next parts festival, NEXOGON, is progressing nicely! The new LEGO® part 27255, a.k.a. "Plate, Modified 6 x 6 Hexagonal with Pin Hole" or "Rotor , w/ 4.85 hole, No. 1" or the "Combo NEXO Power shield" is found in several 2017 sets from the NEXO KNIGHTS™ range. Bulk amounts of this part are now on their way to 14 select builders around the world and indeed some of the builders have received them already. One of them, Gary Davis, was so excited he immediately sent me this picture... so I guess the festival is officially underway!

2019 Parts Fest #2: Tim Goddard's Star Trek & Star Wars

Back to the Parts Festival today – yes, we have lots more LEGO® inspiration for you yet, even some new faces! – but it is Tim Goddard's turn again today, following his recent collection of bots and a hover racer, and other tablescraps. 

USS Enterprise

We start with the spacey franchise Star Trek. Possibly my hardest model ever to photograph.

Ultimate alternate

Just a quick note. In recent posts, fellow builders have been reworking sets from The LEGO® Movie to create alternate models. Perhaps you've considered giving it a try yourself...
well here's some further inspiration for you!

ReBrick, the MOC bookmarking site run by TLG, are running a competition with some rather unique LEGO Movie prizes. To enter you must build an alternate model using only the pieces from one official set of your choice. It's for 16 year-olds and over and closes at the end of March.

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Hey, this seems like a good chance to remind ourselves of the alternate models we've come up with here at New Elementary over the last month!

Peter Reid's favourite Classic Space LEGO® elements

Inventive AFOLs have been creating their own LEGO® “themes” for a long time now. For example, Lord of the Rings was a popular MOC choice for many AFOLs long before the Peter Jackson films arrived and became licensed by TLG. But my favourite AFOL-invented theme has to be Neo Classic Space (NCS); models that respectfully bring the “Classic Space” era of LEGO sets (1978-1987) into the 21st Century with new techniques and elements mixed in with the old.

NCS is showcased in the new book LEGO® Space: Building the Future, which (just in case you missed it) I published a cool little teaser trailer for yesterday. Although I’m yet to see an actual copy, I'm expecting a science fact/fiction narrative that builds on the disparate stories suggested by those original Classic Space sets, all richly illustrated with the exquisite models of Peter Reid and Tim Goddard - as you can see from this exclusive preview image of a perfectly-formed little shuttle; the LL-290. Click/tap to enlarge.

LEGO® Xtra 40341 Sea Accessories

We're always excited to receive new sets from The LEGO Group but this supplementary set was definitely one of the stranger offerings... so after scratching our heads we challenged a man who will seemingly face any LEGO® challenge, Tim Goddard (Rogue Bantha), to actually build something with them!

The LEGO® Xtra line is a very welcome one, offering a chance to purchase some useful parts at a reasonable price. The Xtra set 40312 Streetlamps released last year contains particularly great parts such as the new lantern (Design ID 37776). I was sent three copies of the new 2019 set 40341 Sea Accessories to, um, review I guess.

There is something a bit fishy about this Xtra set though; the parts are not quite so useful as those found in other sets in the range and I am not sure I would be tempted to buy a copy myself.

LEGO® Classic review + MOCs: 11027 Creative Neon Fun & 11028 Creative Pastel Fun

Today, guest author Mansur 'Waffles' Soeleman takes a look at two smaller sets from the January 2023 wave of LEGO® Classic sets, 11027 Creative Neon Fun and 11028 Creative Pastel Fun, both of which offer a modest range of basic elements... with some exciting recolours.

Elements from 11027 Creative Neon Fun and 11028 Creative Pastel Fun. Skrunkle not included

With the help of Skrunkle (a.k.a. LEGO® BIONICLE® Tahu from last year’s 11021 90 Years of Play), I will give an overview of 11027 & 11028's noteworthy bits as well as their main builds, and follow that with MOCs I made with my good friends Tim Goddard and Alec Hole.

2018 Parts Fest #1: Tim Goddard's BrickHeadz (and spaceships)

We sent a varied selection of new LEGO® parts from 2018 to some fan builders to build at home, and Tim Goddard (co-author of LEGO Space: Building the Future, plug plug) not only built at home but also down the boozer. Following on from his main builds that we posted two months ago, here are some fun extras.

On the second Monday of every month, London AFOLs hold a gathering in a pub near Euston station. Prosaically, the meeting after I was given this parts selection, London AFOLs had a meetup and that month it was a BrickHeadz-themed evening.

I went prepared, taking this sub-build which uses the interesting hooped minifigure accessory (Element ID 6207840|Design ID 35485) which is only found in LEGO Super Heroes 76100 Royal Talon Fighter Attack and 76103 Corvus Glaive Thresher Attack.

Using the healthy stock of parts provided at the pub I ended the evening with this post-apocalyptic version of myself...

LEGO® Ideas Exo Suit: the logo

Exciting news today; the LEGO® CUUSOO team have given New Elementary readers this exclusive first look at the official logo to be used on their forthcoming set, the Exo Suit! The set will be released in August 2014. Knowing how special the Exo Suit is to the fan community, the CUUSOO team took the unusual step of deciding to work hand-in-hand with AFOLs to decide how the set should be packaged and marketed. So the designer of the original Exo Suit, British AFOL Peter Reid, assembled a team and I was fortunate enough to be included.

Firing up Chima

We're reviewing quite a few LEGO® summer sets over the next few weeks and several are from Legends of Chima, as they offer many new parts and colours of elements. Kicking things off today with 70135 Cragger's Fire Striker is builder extraordinaire and actual real scientist guy Tim Goddard, who also tells us of his special relationship with Chima...

When I first saw the Fire and Ice Chima sets it was a bit of an assault on the senses: crazy colours and shapes everywhere, but now that I’m used to it I think it’s rather clever. There are plenty of new bits to get excited about and it gives a nice clear divide between factions, reminiscent of Space themes past.

LEGO® Super Mario Power-Up Pack reviews: 71384 Penguin Mario & 71385 Tanooki Mario

Tim Goddard (@tim_goddard928) returns with more LEGO® Super Mario reviews today by looking at the two Power-Up Packs for the Mario figure – which unfortunately he does not own! The products in this and our other 2021 LEGO Super Mario articles were provided free by LEGO (the author's opinions are not biased by this) and we weren't aware at time of acceptance that the range does not include the figure. Buying Mario sets? Consider using our affiliate links: UK LEGO Shop | UK Amazon | USA LEGO Shop | USA Amazon | Australia LEGO Shop, for other countries 'Change Region'. New Elementary may get a commission. 

In this, the second wave of Super Mario sets, we get two new Power-Ups to upgrade our hero: 71384 Penguin Mario & 71385 Tanooki Mario, priced £8.99/ US$9.99/ 9.74€. There are new moulds and some recoloured hats and overalls to provide him with his new outfits. Mario’s body is not supplied with these two sets, which the packaging makes very clear, and is indeed at pains to point out that the starter course set 71360 Adventures with Mario with its barcodes is needed. I do not have that set and therefore no Mario to dress up, but no matter, I have a plan!

2019 Parts Fest #2: Kev's Robots

UK-based builder Kevin Levell is back and, as with many other Parts Festival creations, these ideas are spawned from those amazing LEGO® Batman accessory packs. Many of you readers have expressed frustration that these are unavailable from Bricks & Pieces, because they are 'locked' to the Batman license. It seems there might be good news on the way about this – part 50018 is now listed on B&P, although out of stock – so we will keep you updated.

I very often like to build in a freeform, directionless, even Zen-like way. Part of the delight of a Parts Festival for me is the opportunity to experiment with new parts in that exact way. I very rarely have a clear idea of what I want to do, I normally just tinker, putting things together in abstract ways, in regimented or geometric ways, until something 'speaks' to me. Often, multiples of the same part are a particularly effective way to do this, and this is a further delight of a Parts Festival.

2019 Parts Fest #2: Kev Levell's Classic Flash Double Gloucester Gordon Theme

Next to join our Parts Festival is Kevin Levell, a UK-based LEGO® builder who participated in our Nexogon fest and has written other lovely articles for us in the past. Kev just loves a bit of Space, he does. 

I may have squealed like a little child when I opened and emptied out the parcel from Tim, because immediately I could see more than a couple of handfuls of utterly awesome new parts. Some of which I had already (unsuccessfully) been on the scout for. It was these currently ‘unavailable’ parts that interested me most… I could almost smell the potential.

LEGO® Cloth Fest: Eero Okkonen

Some products in this article were provided by LEGO®; the author's opinions are their own.

In the first part of New Elementary's Cloth Fest, Áron Gerencsér - now a set designer, congrats Áron! - dived deep into the history of cloth parts in LEGO® sets. In this final part, I'll have a look at the connections of these parts, also presenting three new MOCs that use them as, well, clothing.