Old Elementary: Part 4 of the LEGO® BIONICLE 20th Anniversary Festival

Guest contributors Alex Van de Kleut, Mitch H and Matt Goldberg conclude our celebration of the 20th anniversary of LEGO® BIONICLE with three more parts; examined and utilized in builds.

Old Elementary: Midgard Serpent Head

Mitch Henry (@mitch_henry_czq) returns with further exploration into Constraction elements; this time examining and building with a rare LEGO® Vikings piece.

In 2005, The LEGO Group released a short lived but fondly remembered theme called LEGO® Vikings. It had a limited run of only one release wave. These sets featured fantastical Viking minifigures and mythological beasts such as giant dragons and wolves… but mostly dragons.

One of the largest sets of the theme was 7018 Viking Ship Challenges the Midgard Serpent. It contains 564 pieces, 6 minifigures, and one mean-looking monster, making it the theme’s most iconic playset. While it contains numerous fun and unique LEGO elements, the focus of this article is the element Midgard Serpent Head in Dark Green (53455). The element is appropriately named, as it is unique to this set.

Old Elementary: Part 3 of the LEGO® BIONICLE 20th Anniversary Festival

Max Howell, Kevin Huxhold, Thomas Jenkins, Johann Dakitsch and Zachary Hill join our celebration of the 20th anniversary of LEGO® BIONICLE! Five more parts have been chosen by our regular and guest contributors; they analyse them for you and then get building original creations.

Please consider following New Elementary's affiliate links if you're buying from LEGO.com; we may earn a commission. LEGO.com USA | LEGO.com Australia | LEGO.com UK (for Europe, 'Change region'). 

LEGO® City review: 60307 Wildlife Rescue Camp

Ben Davies (@ProfBrickkeeper) talks to the animals, and dinghy, in LEGO® City 60307 Wildlife Rescue Camp. Don't forget Black Friday/Cyber Monday weekend starts 26 November 2021! Please consider following New Elementary's affiliate links; we may earn a commission. LEGO.com USA | LEGO.com Australia | LEGO.com UK (for Europe, 'Change region'. Products in this article were provided by LEGO; the author's opinions are their own.

Released earlier this year, the LEGO® City Wildlife Rescue subtheme caught the interest of many for its location shift to the African savanna, and the animals it introduced. The largest of the sets, 60307 Wildlife Rescue Camp provides a nice distillation of the subtheme, featuring many of the most interesting new elements in a single set.

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.

Forbidden Elementary: Car Sandwiches

PaulvilleMOCs (@paulvillemocs) joins us for a guest post today, we are excited to say – but he selected a rather terrifying area of the LEGO® parts inventory to explore: promotional tie-in vehicles. Specifically the "cereal cars": a range of LEGO® Racers promotional sets for General Mills and Cheerios. What MOCs can he make from these highly specialised parts?

Imagine yourself way back in 2009. You are at the grocery store, in the breakfast aisle. You can choose between the cereal with a LEGO® race car in it, or the cereal without. Most likely, knowing New Elementary’s audience, you would opt for the one with a LEGO race car. Because of this, a number of these odd car parts have been floating around my LEGO collection for the past 12 years.

Old Elementary: Part 1 of the LEGO® BIONICLE 20th Anniversary Festival

Áron Gerencsér, Eero Okkonen, Mitch H and Ivan Martynov kick off a fresh Parts Festival using old parts, in honour of the weird and wonderful elements from LEGO® BIONICLE.

LEGO® BIONICLE is a beloved, if controversial, theme and it turned 20 this year. Memorable to different people for different reasons - be it its extensive story and mythology, or the feat of saving the company from bankruptcy, or the unusual moulds which at first glance might seem hard to finesse into the broader LEGO building system. The legacy of ‘Constraction’ was kicked off by Slizers / Throwbots, popularized by Bionicle, streamlined with CCBS, and lives on today in brick-built creatures and mechs using tow ball joints. Once revived and twice cancelled, Bionicle still has a dedicated fanbase full of enthusiastic builders. In true New Elementary fashion, we decided to celebrate the occasion by digging into the parts. 

LEGO® Element Development: the Friends Hoop – Interview with Poul A Thomsen

Alexandre Campos and TobyMac complete our current run of Element Developer Q&As today as we speak to Poul A Thomsen, Mechanical Engineer at the LEGO Group, about the LEGO® Friends “hoop element” (77107). Then, Alex and Toby investigate the geometry of this new element. Transcripts were edited for clarity, readability and narrative flow.

Curved LEGO Technic beams, most notably the Technic Gear Rack 1/4 Circle 11 x 11 35 Teeth (24121), aren't common, and any addition is welcome. Indeed, another "banana gear" was just revealed yesterday in the upcoming LEGO Star Wars Ultimate Collector Series 75313 AT-AT!  But today we are here to talk about the Technic Beam Round 11 x 11, revealed earlier this year in LEGO Friends. As you might guess from its name, is a Technic beam that is round and has a diameter of 11 modules.

What new LEGO® pieces were released in November 2021?

TobyMac (on Rebrickable) has created a list showing all 73 new LEGO® elements added in November 2021, with links to which sets they come in so you can check for the ones you might be interested in. We delayed the list a few days this month to include all the new elements in 10294 Titanic!

LEGO® Element Development: the Candelabra – Interview with Henrik Skallebæk

Eero Okkonen (@eerookkonen) resumes our series of Element Developer Q&As today as we speak to Henrik Skallebæk, Senior Mechanical Engineer at the LEGO Group, about the LEGO® Candelabra piece (73117). Then, Eero presents an original MOC using this new element. Transcripts were edited for clarity, readability and narrative flow.

The 3-armed candlestick was specifically designed for the LEGO® version of candlewax-and-brass character Lumiere, from Disney's animated film Beauty and the Beast. However, the piece made its debut in the LEGO Harry Potter theme.