In part 1 we analysed all the new moulds found in 11501 Tulip Bouquet and 11509 Flowering Cactus; now it's time to tackle the mountain of recolours they contain, plus those found in 11504 Peace Lily and 11508 Daisies... not forgetting the beautiful builds themselves of course!
Many LEGO® Super Heroes sets have relatively little to offer for hobbyists not interested in elaborate minifigures. Action figures are a staple in the super hero merchandise, and the recent efforts in this field have been varying in quality. 76344 Iron Man Mark 3 Collectors' Edition takes a more statuesque approach, but presents a whole Iron Man instead of mere bust or a helmet. As a human character build, it looks like one of the best so far.
2026 is almost here and that means new moulds are on the way! Today we take a look at five exciting new elements found in the upcoming LEGO® Botanicals sets 11501 Tulip Bouquet and 11509 Flowering Cactus.
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LEGO® Minifigures 71051 Series 28 fully embraces the joy of animal costumes. There are 12 different ones to collect, adding to the host of minifigures dressed as animals from previous years. Since this is a theme-based collection, I imagine it will be a "Marmite" series: love it or hate it, depending on whether minifigure costumes are your thing or not!
The end of the year is always a chance to look back – and at New Elementary, that means digging through the parts bins of 2025 to find the highlights. This year The LEGO Group gave us no shortage of interesting new moulds: just over 400 by our reckoning; or about 340 if you exclude foils, cloth and electronics.
And so, in no particular order, let’s celebrate the ones that caught our eye (and our builds), with links for you to learn a bit more about each of them via the awesome New Elementary team, who have invested so much time investigating them for you in 2025!
Today, I conclude my look at the August 2025 LEGO® Speed Champions wave with 77240 Bugatti Centodieci Hyper Sports Car and 77238 Lamborghini Revuelto & Huracán STO. Or, as I call them: the white one™, the orange one™ and the dark azure one™!
No time for sleep, as LEGO® DREAMZzz™ enters 2026 with a new wave of 5 sets to be released in January. The theme is known for bringing extravagant builds, while introducing unique new elements. Let’s see if this wave also contains the stuff of dreams.
The 1:18 scale range of LEGO® Technic vehicles (colloquially known as the “Car Transporter Gang” due to the first vehicle in this scale appearing in that set) is dominated by modern sports cars and SUVs, but 42223 1966 Ford GT40 MKII shakes things up by bringing a classic machine into the mix.
What else does this set bring? Read on to find out!
LEGO® Star Wars™ has been around for 26 years without a break. Despite being galaxy-wide, the theme has been making certain subjects over and over again. Although minifigure scale has been the standard, the first large-scale characters – using both LEGO® System and LEGO® Technic System bricks – were released soon after the theme's beginning. Recently, we have seen statuesque, LEGO System-based character models such as 75371 Chewbacca (see my Chewbacca review) and 75398 C-3PO (see my review of the parts in C-3PO). These have been 18+ sets sporting an extravagant air, with blue-on-black information plaques and designer remarks in the instructions.
75428 Battle Droid with STAP seems to be something in between those and normal sets. It has standard instructions without remarks, and no 18+ branding on the box – the age mark is 12+. The model is poseable, but on the other hand, it has the aforementioned plaque and a sleek, black stand. However, my passion lies in some new recolours it has, which imply that we're getting some sweet ball joint recolours for the first time since 2011. Thus, this article features a parts review, a set review, an "Old Elementary" section and an original model by me. Roger roger!
