LEGO® Super Mario review: 71381 Chain Chomp Jungle Encounter & 71382 Piranha Plant Puzzling Challenge

Nicolas Geeraert returns today to complete our coverage of  January 2021 LEGO® Super Mario, looking at the smaller sets 71381 and 71382. Buying these? Consider using our affiliate links, New Elementary may get a commission: UK LEGO Shop | USA LEGO Shop | Australia LEGO Shop, for other countries 'Change Region'. Products in this article were provided by LEGO; the author's opinions are their own.

Today, we are reviewing two further sets from the January wave of LEGO® Super Mario, namely 71381 Chain Chomp Jungle Encounter and 71382 Piranha Plant Puzzling Challenge. Both sets are situated in the Soda Jungle world of the Super Mario Universe. Thus we can expect lots of purple to represent the poisoned soda and a series of matching enemies.

New Elementary's 8th Birthday Party-Fest

It's our 8th anniversary today! We've published over 800 original articles in those 8 years... 182 of them since our 7th birthday. And what a year it has been – I still haven't implemented half the stuff I intended to but we have literally doubled our average visitor rate since this time last year and best of all, I roughly doubled our core team of contributors. They're a fabulous gang who consistently deliver awesome content, and keep me sane! Thank you all. We recently updated our About Us page, so now you can meet them all... You Will Learn Something About Each Of Them That Will Surprise You.

8-Year Old Elementary: Jonas Kramm's 8 LEGO® Pieces That Look Like An 8

It's our 8th anniversary of publishing LEGO® articles today! As part of our celebrations, here's a fun article from Jonas Kramm.

To celebrate eight years of part analysis and geeking out with New Elementary I searched my collection for exactly eight LEGO pieces that look like an eight!

Let’s take a closer look, starting with the smallest one and going bigger every time!

8-Year Old Elementary: Celebr8 with Kev Levell

It's our 8th anniversary of publishing LEGO® articles today! As part of our celebrations, here's a fun article from Kev Levell.

Congratulations to Tim on 8 phenomenal years running New Elementary. In honour of those 8 years, I have picked 8 “parts”, most of these were (as usual) sitting on my build table, among the essential group of parts that I more often than not tend to have to hand, just to see how they might fit or what they will look like in whatever it is I’m building. Another day, it might have been a slightly different 8!

8-Year Old Elementary: Eero Okkonen's 8 LEGO® Pieces For 8 Years

It's our 8th anniversary of publishing LEGO® articles today! As part of our celebrations, here's a fun article from Eero Okkonen.

The basic unit of LEGO® System is not a millimetre, module, stud or plate. It is a part, or piece, or element (or sometimes probably brick, but that being also a subtype leads to confusion and turmoil). All sets and MOCs and exhibits and contest entries consist of pieces and, as this is New Elementary, we like to talk about pieces.

This little article (articlette?) goes through 8 pleasant, nice and useful pieces. There is no common theme binding them together; some are old, some are new, some are super common and some might be a bit obscure. This is not a “top 8 pieces ever” list - just a little love letter to helpful little moulds that make building fun.

LEGO® Ideas reveal: 21327 Typewriter

The LEGO Group has just revealed the new LEGO® Ideas set, 21327 Typewriter, and on top of the details from the press release we also have additional information for you from the team behind this thrilling new set! It measures 27 x 26 x 12cm, contains 2079 pieces and will cost £179.99/ US$199.99/ €199.99/ AU$329.99/ CA$269.99. Availability to LEGO VIPs is from Wednesday 16 June 2021 and general sale is from 1 July. When the time comes we’d appreciate if you would consider using our affiliate links, New Elementary may get a commission: UK LEGO Shop | USA LEGO Shop | Australia LEGO Shop, for other countries 'Change Region'.

LEGO® Creator 31107 Space Rover Explorer: Professor's "One Set" MOCs

The Professor (on Instagram) is back today with more of his excellent alternate builds, this time using the 2020 LEGO® Creator 3-in-1 set 31107 Space Rover Explorer. Buying this set? Consider using our affiliate links, New Elementary may get a commission: UK LEGO Shop | USA LEGO Shop | Australia LEGO Shop, for other countries 'Change Region'. Products in this article were provided by LEGO; the author's opinions are their own.

I’ve always liked the LEGO® Creator 3-in-1 sets as they’re often a good basis on which to create plenty of MOCs! 31107 Space Rover Explorer contains many pieces specific to the theme of Space. Let's take a quick look at its parts and 3 models, before I experiment with my own creations using only the parts in the set.

New LEGO® pieces for June 2021

TobyMac (on Rebrickable) has created a list showing all 895 new LEGO® elements added in June 2021, with links to which sets they come in so you can check for the ones you might be interested in. There's a lot of interesting stuff here!

Whenever you're buying from LEGO.com, including Bricks & Pieces, please consider following our affiliate links to get there, New Elementary may get a commission: USA, UK or AU. Other countries, choose 'Change Region'.

LEGO® Marvel Super Heroes set review: 76178 Daily Bugle

Thomas Jenkins (@thomas_jenkins_bricks) completes his 2-part coverage of LEGO® Marvel Super Heroes 76178 Daily Bugle today, analysing the build. It is available now priced €299.99/ £274,99/ $299,99/ 499.99 AUD/ 399.99 CAD. Please consider using our affiliate links to purchase, New Elementary may get a commission: UK LEGO Shop | USA LEGO Shop | Australia LEGO Shop, for other countries 'Change Region'. Products in this article were provided by LEGO; the author's opinions are their own.

76178 Daily Bugle is unlike any LEGO set I’ve built before. It’s part modular building, part playset, part diorama and it does all of these things really well. The accompanying host of minifigures are integrated into the design of the building itself, and sometimes quite spectacularly, too - as is the case of the Green Goblin bursting through the window of the second floor.

I analysed its pieces last time but there’s a ton of interesting building techniques, parts usage, and little details scattered throughout the build to still discuss. We’ll work our way up the building and take a look at them.

LEGO® Friends review: 41684 Heartlake City Grand Hotel

Saija Saarenpää (@saija_kristina) is our brand new guest reviewer today, examining the new LEGO® Friends set 41684 Heartlake City Grand Hotel. Hailing from Finland, Saija codes and does graphics for her day job. She finished her Dark Age in 2014 via the Architecture Studio set, after which she was gradually lured back to the world of colourful bricks. Will you be buying this colourful set? It is released at midnight tonight 1 June 2021 priced £89.99/ 99,99 €/ AU$169.99; and in North America, 1 August US$99.99. Regardless of what you're buying, please consider using our affiliate links, New Elementary may get a commission: UK LEGO Shop | USA LEGO Shop | Australia LEGO Shop, for other countries 'Change Region'. Products in this article were provided by LEGO; the author's opinions are their own.

LEGO® Friends 41684 Heartlake City Grand Hotel is a big package, and seven-year-old me would have screamed for happiness if I got this as a present. It’s also super fun to build and is as exciting as the previous version of the Grand Hotel (set 41101 from 2015).