Original articles about LEGO® pieces, set reviews, building techniques and brick model ideas
Today, Ben Davies reports on the exciting news that the physical LEGO® Store in LEGO House, Billund will re-open this week on Thursday 4 March 2021 and a new exclusive set will be available for sale.
A new month means new LEGO® sets are available today! Although if you wait until 6 March (date may vary across countries) and spend US$99 / €99 / £99 you also get the gift-with-purchase 40450 Amelia Earhart Tribute, which Kev Levell reviews for you now. No matter when you buy LEGO, please consider using our affiliate links: UK LEGO Shop | USA LEGO Shop | Australia LEGO Shop, for other countries 'Change Region'. New Elementary may get a commission. The products in this article were provided for free by LEGO; the author's opinions are not biased by this.
Before Christmas, my little girl was doing a topic at school about Amelia Earhart. In preparing for this review, I asked my resident Earhart expert what she knew about the aviation pioneer. Brace yourself for a little turbulence here, we have apparently learnt that Amelia was “cool”, “had a red airplane” and “flewed it ‘cross the ‘lantic ocean.” Oh, to be seven again!
Aron Gerencsér (@_pohaturon) continues to work through the 2021 LEGO® Monkie Kid sets with 80022 Spider Queen's Arachnoid Base. It is available from tomorrow, 1 March 2021 along with the rest of the range, so get ready! – and please consider using our affiliate links: UK LEGO Shop | USA LEGO Shop | Australia LEGO Shop, for other countries 'Change Region'. New Elementary may get a commission. The products in this article were provided for free by LEGO; the author's opinions are not biased by this.
A month ago, Kev Levell (on Flickr) reviewed the parts and the build of LEGO® Ideas 21325 Medieval Blacksmith and today he presents a whole bunch of his own alternate models using only parts from the set and sticking with the set's theme. The products in this article were provided for free by LEGO; the author's opinions are not biased by this.
I love banging on about LEGO®, and beating something into shape using the elements found in one set. I've been forging ahead on a few ideas I had for MOCs inspired by the Medieval Blacksmith.
Aron Gerencsér (@_pohaturon) continues his 2021 LEGO® Monkie Kid coverage today with 80021 Monkie Kid's Lion Guardian, coming 1 March. Buying this set? Consider using our affiliate links: UK LEGO Shop | USA LEGO Shop | Australia LEGO Shop, for other countries 'Change Region'. New Elementary may get a commission. The products in this article were provided for free by LEGO; the author's opinions are not biased by this.
Omid (@nwbricks) is back today, monster-jam-packed with more LEGO® Technic reviews for you: 42118 Monster Jam Grave Digger and 42119 Monster Jam Max D. Buying these sets? Consider using our affiliate links: UK LEGO Shop | USA LEGO Shop | Australia LEGO Shop, for other countries 'Change Region'. New Elementary may get a commission. The products in this article were provided for free by LEGO; the author's opinions are not biased by this.
Aron Gerencsér (on Flickr) already has another 2021 LEGO® Monkie Kid review for you today – two little ones actually! 80018 Monkie Kid’s Cloud Bike & 80019 Red Son’s Inferno Jet. Buying Monkie Kid sets? Consider using our affiliate links: UK LEGO Shop | USA LEGO Shop | Australia LEGO Shop, for other countries 'Change Region'. New Elementary may get a commission. The products in this article were provided for free by LEGO; the author's opinions are not biased by this.
Tim Goddard (@tim_goddard928) gets inspired by a 2020 LEGO® City set today, 60263 Ocean Mini-Submarine – or rather, one of its massive parts: 44665. The products in this article were provided for free by LEGO; the author's opinions are not biased by this.
The LEGO Group has a long and glorious history of underwater themes, whether fantastical like Aquazone or more contemporary – like a LEGO® City subtheme of sets. Indeed, in 2020 we once again journeyed underwater with the Deep Sea Explorers sets which have the tagline ‘Supporting National Geographic Explorers’. This seems to mean some cool aquatic animals and a light-touch pro-environmental feel. LEGO Friends also took part in this collaboration in 2020 with some jungle themed sets which also came with some nice, somewhat cuter animals.
Aron Gerencsér (on Flickr) kicks off his series of 2021 LEGO® Monkie Kid set reviews today, commencing with the stunning 80020 White Dragon Horse Jet. Buying this set when it is released 1 March? Consider using our affiliate links: UK LEGO Shop | USA LEGO Shop | Australia LEGO Shop, for other countries 'Change Region'. New Elementary may get a commission. The products in this article were provided for free by LEGO; the author's opinions are not biased by this.
We have more LEGO® BrickHeadz for you today as TobyMac (on Rebrickable) examines the upcoming 40442 Goldfish and 40443 Budgie which will be released on 1 March 2021. Buying BrickHeadz? Consider using our affiliate links: UK LEGO Shop | USA LEGO Shop | Australia LEGO Shop. New Elementary may get a commission. The products in this article were provided for free by LEGO; the author's opinions are not biased by this.
LEGO has introduced a new subtheme for BrickHeadz this year: BrickHeadz Pets. In January we saw 40440 German Shepherd and 40441 Shorthair Cats, which Victor Pruvost recently reviewed. The sets each have a grown-up and a baby version of the animal sitting on a joined display. We've seen similar displays before, for instance with seasonal BrickHeadz, but not for 2 figures together yet.
Thomas Jenkins (on Instagram) reviews two upcoming LEGO® Brick Sketches today: 40456 Mickey Mouse and 40457 Minnie Mouse which will be released on 1 March 2021 priced £14.99/ US$16.99. Buying them? Consider using our affiliate links: UK LEGO Shop | USA LEGO Shop | Australia LEGO Shop, for other countries 'Change Region'. New Elementary may get a commission. The products in this article were provided for free by LEGO; the author's opinions are not biased by this.
Victor Pruvost (leewanlego) reviews 3 LEGO® BrickHeadz sets for you today: 40440 German Shepherd, 40441 Shorthair Cats and 40466 Chinese New Year Pandas. Buying your BrickHeadz from LEGO.com? Consider using our affiliate links: UK LEGO Shop | USA LEGO Shop | Australia LEGO Shop, for other countries 'Change Region'. New Elementary may get a commission. The products in this article were provided for free by LEGO; the author's opinions are not biased by this.
Today Alexandre Campos brings us a pre-release review of the latest LEGO® Technic set, 42120 Rescue Hovercraft, which will be available from 1 March 2021. Buying this set? Consider using our affiliate links: UK LEGO Shop | USA LEGO Shop | Australia LEGO Shop, for other countries 'Change Region'. New Elementary may get a commission. The products in this article were provided for free by LEGO; the author's opinions are not biased by this.
After 42113 Bell-Boeing V-22 Osprey got cancelled at the last minute, Technic Rescue Services had to scramble to find something else to rescue figures with: a hovercraft.
We love to keep you up to date with the newest LEGO® parts and so once again, TobyMac (on Rebrickable) has created this list showing all new elements added in February 2021, with links to which sets they come in, so you can check for the ones you might be interested in.
Caz Mockett reviews LEGO® Monkie Kid set 80011 Red Son's Inferno Truck and designs some MOCs of her own using its parts. Buying this set? Consider using our affiliate links: UK LEGO Shop | USA LEGO Shop | Australia LEGO Shop, for other countries 'Change Region'. New Elementary may get a commission. The products in this article were provided for free by LEGO; the author's opinions are not biased by this.
I confess I haven’t been watching the animated series, so I can’t comment on how close these builds are to anything which has been seen so far. I was however intrigued by the pieces in the set, so let’s take a closer look at those.
French concept artist and architect Pierre-E Fieschi (@pierreefieschi) returns today but this time with one of our strangest briefs ever: we sent him rolls of LEGO® Xtra 854048 Road Tape & 854065 Water Tape. The products in this article were provided for free by LEGO; the author's opinions are not biased by this. Thanks to Adeel Zubair for product photography.
Kev Levell (on Flickr) completes his exploration of the 2020 LEGO® NINJAGO® set 71720 Fire Stone Mech today by creating his own MOCs inspired by some of its parts. Buying this set? 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. The products in this article were provided for free by LEGO; the author's opinions are not biased by this.
In the past when I’ve used review sets to build alternative models for New Elementary, I’ve been strict and have only used the parts provided in the sets. I don’t think that’s an essential criteria at all though, in fact I love seeing what is possible when the “envelope is opened out”. So with the LEGO® NINJAGO set I analysed yesterday, 71720 Fire Stone Mech, I want to show you what makes this a set to buy for its parts selection – and not just bulk-buy those funky stepped panels!
It's time to mech up your mind...
An incredible 45 sets were released within the LEGO® NINJAGO® theme in 2020; that’s a lot even allowing for magazine cover mounts and the perennial pocket money “character spinner” variants. It’s a number exceeded only by LEGO Friends sets, while LEGO Star Wars languishes just behind with 43.
It's been a while since our last list of the newest LEGO® sets that shows the quantity of new parts each of in them. This edition includes December 2020 as there were so few new releases. Developed in partnership with Toby Mac (from Rebrickable), we show both quantity as well as overall percentage of new elements. So if you like to buy sets knowing they'll contain stuff you don't yet own, use our table as one of your purchasing factors.
43187 Rapunzel’s Tower is part of the LEGO® Disney theme, featuring Princess Rapunzel and Flynn Rider and Rapunzel’s cute little chameleon, Pascal, stars of the movie Tangled. The set is aimed at the 6+ age group and, when built, comprises the huge prison tower for Rapunzel, a garden swing and the Snuggly Duckling Inn. Let’s take a closer look at its unique and rare parts.
‘Master your Adventure Maker Set’ - what an impressive name! In order to use any of the Super Mario sets to their full potential you need the 71360 Adventures with Mario starter set, but this is sort of an additional starter set to space out other expansions you might have purchased and to give a bit of room for your character packs to be displayed or line up an attack against any passing plumbers.
That is not all: it comes with some new play features, a special ‘customisation machine’, a 30 second pipe and some new characters. We will look at them a bit later but first on to the parts.
Markus: The LEGO® NINJAGO® City set was a phenomenon. When it came out, my friends were so excited for it that we all bought one each and met up and built them together, ending up with 5 or 6 cities on the same table. There are very few sets that have created similar universal excitement, so getting to design the third in this beloved line of modular sets was of course amazing and at the same time very daunting. Naturally, there are high expectations from both NINJAGO fans and the AFOL community on a set of this calibre. Wanting to make sure I designed a worthy addition to this world we had been building, I put quite a lot of pressure on myself. My amazing design team made that disappear quickly though and now I look back on designing 71741 LEGO NINJAGO City Gardens as an extremely joyful time. Getting to work on it was a dream come true!
The LEGO Group is taking us on a journey in time. Back to Medieval times and, by association, back to the Classic Castle sets of the 1980s.
21325 Medieval Blacksmith is beautiful: this isn’t just a half-timbered house with a characteristically charming second-storey overhang, oh no, there is much more to it. The three floors are packed with authentic-looking details and clever features.
I thought it might be interesting to briefly present several LEGO® pieces I like to use in builds that are not necessarily rare but are maybe a bit forgotten, along with examples of older MOCs of mine. To kick things off, two parts from the early 2000s that sport gentle curves: Windscreen 9 x 3 x 1 2/3 Bubble Canopy and Wedge 4 x 3 Cut Back with Cutout.
Nothing compares to the intensity of the FIA World Endurance Championship. 24-hour long races, mid-race driver changes, and multiple car classes sharing the track are a monumental challenge for any team. Race team AF Corse and racecar builder Ferrari have had an incredibly successful partnership in endurance racing, while The LEGO Group and Ferrari have enjoyed similarly astounding teamwork bringing over 50 co-branded sets to fans since 1997.
Marinus: Let me just start by saying, that is always very thorough research you guys do on elements. In some cases you even manage to surprise us like, “wow – there is a connection there!” So very, very thorough.
That's what we like to hear, we're hoping we're surprising people, especially TLG employees! So when did you begin at the LEGO Group and what has your journey there been?
I started in October 2015, in the Platform team. Back then they were developing the roller coaster track so I came half-way into that project and what an awesome project it was to start with, creating such a unique subsystem! I’m part of the Element Design Team too now; about a year ago I made the decision to move over and go a little more into Downstream.
2021 marks a major milestone for LEGO® NINJAGO®, which celebrates its 10th anniversary this year. Although the theme was originally intended to only last for three years – from 2011 to 2013 -–popular demand from fans led to Ninjago becoming an “evergreen” theme alongside the likes of City, Space, Castle, Friends and Star Wars.
We love keeping you up to date with what new LEGO pieces are available for you to use in your building and so it is high time for another of our lists created by Toby Mac (on Rebrickable) revealing elements recently added. We skipped this last month as December was a quiet month for new releases so those few are included here, along with the absolute avalanche of January releases! There might also be a few pre-December ones that sneaked through.
Unfortunately it seems most if not all new parts are currently unavailable from Bricks & Pieces; at a guess I imagine this is because it is High Season for the LEGO Group. But whenever you're buying from LEGO including Bricks & Pieces, please consider following our affiliate links to get there; USA, UK or AU. New Elementary may get a commission.
In March 2020 The LEGO Group released a series of ‘helmet’ sets under the 18+ branding featuring designs from Star Wars and Iron Man. I eschewed the perhaps more iconic Stormtrooper and Boba Fett for the sleek TIE pilot fighter, depicting John Mollo’s design from the original film in 1977.
Alongside really big licensed LEGO® Technic cars like the Chiron and the Sián are the smaller - but still sizeable - licensed cars intended to be more affordable. while still bringing accuracy and build quality that both kids and adult collectors will appreciate. 42123 McLaren Senna GTR is the latest of these cars. Let’s see if we have a champion on our hands, or if it should have made a pit-stop before primetime.
