"Kill Teal" models (Vol. 3)

Now for the third collection of LEGO® models built by New Elementary readers (see the first here) where we asked you to imagine how LEGO designer and AFOL Mark Stafford might kill off this colour, now it is back in the LEGO palette once more. We reveal the judges' choices next week - but which do you like? Comment below!

Sweeping teal under the rug

By Simon Gebraad

With the help of Ryo, Mark Stafford sweaps teal under the rug. Ryo was very happy he could keep his hear, so helping Mark was no problem.

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"Kill Teal" models (Vol. 2)

Here is the second batch of LEGO® models built by New Elementary readers (see the first here) where we asked you to imagine how LEGO designer and AFOL Mark Stafford might kill off this colour now it is back in the LEGO palette once more. We reveal the winners next week - which would you like to win from this bunch?

Not this time Mr. Stafford, not this time...

By Andreas Lenander

Decided to go in a little different direction with this entry. Instead of Mr. Stafford having another go at killing teal as he pleases, I figured there had to be some resistance this time around. So as Mr. Stafford goes about killing teal all over again, figuring no one will be the wiser, a few brave souls decide they have something to say about that.

*disclaimer: this in no way endorses the use of violence, alien or other, to prevent Mr. Stafford from killing teal again ;)

"Kill Teal" models (Vol. 1)

The time has come at last! We asked you to imagine how LEGO® designer and AFOL Mark Stafford might kill off Teal again, now that this colour is back in the LEGO palette once more. We received 79 entries! We will publish a few every day, in the order they were received, and reveal the winners next week. Enjoy, and be sure to tell us your favourites in the comments.

I wanna kill you... again!

By Devid VII

In a secret room in LEGO factory Mark is trying to color the last teal pieces... I wanna kill you again!

London AFOLs: Real-world

We had a box of LEGO® pieces left over from our Skærbæk Parts Festival (which Jason Briscoe kindly drove back to London, thanks Jase!) and so we took them to a meet up of London AFOLs, for more building adventures. London AFOLs are - you guessed it - a bunch of adult fans of LEGO who meet in London. In a pub! It's very friendly and informal, and new and international visitors are always welcome. They meet on the second Monday of every month, so check out the group on meetup.com/LondonAFOLs. 

Over three posts, we will show you just a fraction of what was built that evening. Today we start with some real-world objects the builders dreamt up. Our parts were added to London AFOLs' existing brick stock and head honcho Richard Selby had the idea of restricting build time to just 20 minutes! Then everyone would move tables to try out the different parts on offer. Many of the featured 'seed' parts from the festival had previously been gobbled up by Skærbæk builds, so you'll notice more of the supplementary parts from the festival in these builds. A lot of these were rare or new recolours of existing parts, so I will point some of these out as we go.

2017 Skærbæk Parts Festival: Cristiano Grassi and Oscar Cederwall

Two participants of our parts festival at Skærbæk Fan Weekend last September continued building with the new LEGO® pieces after they got home from Denmark.

Oscar Cederwall

Oscar was very interested in the strange Minecraft railway track piece, Plate 2X2, W/ Design in Reddish Brown (Element ID 6163991|Design ID 27928).

He pulled some crafty moves to set the whole of the interior of this flower box at 45°.

2017 Skærbæk Parts Festival: Techniques

Welcome back to our Parts Festival where we gave 60 LEGO® fans an hour to make whatever they liked using a range of new LEGO elements as 'seed' parts for their constructions.

For our parts festivals we also encourage builders to make 'tablescraps' - little things that aren't models, but might have an interesting technique or use a new part in a clever way. For the final visit to our Denmark workshop, we present some of these tablescraps.

This roof uses two pentagonal pieces in Reddish Brown, Plate 2X2, W/ Design (Element ID 6163991|Design ID 27928) and Flat Tile2X3 W/Angle (6163184|22385), which appears only in the rather beautiful LEGO Dimensions Story Pack 71253 Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them: Play the Complete Movie.)

2017 Skærbæk Parts Festival: Garmadon's Hat

Welcome back to our Parts Festival where we gave 60 LEGO® fans an hour to make whatever they liked using a range of new LEGO elements as 'seed' parts for their constructions.

Yesterday brought many vehicles using Ninjago Mini Hat No 19 (Design ID 26007), also known as Minifig, Headgear Hat, Conical Asian with Raised Center on BrickLink or, I believe, 'Jungle Garmadon's hat' to Ninjago fans. Today we have an even wider range of builds using this decorative piece, even though it only has one connection point.

2017 Skærbæk Parts Festival: Vehicles

Welcome back to our Parts Festival where we gave 60 LEGO® fans an hour to make whatever they liked using a range of new LEGO elements as 'seed' parts for their constructions.

Following on from yesterday's ships, we have some other kinds of vehicles today using new parts, especially the Ninjago Mini Hat No 19 in Dark Brown (Element ID 6198018 | Design ID 26007).

2017 Skærbæk Parts Festival: Ships

Welcome back to our Parts Festival where we gave 60 LEGO® fans an hour to make whatever they liked using a range of new LEGO elements as 'seed' parts for their constructions.

Some used the parts to build ships, which I've collected for you today. Click any image to enlarge.

2017 Skærbæk Parts Festival: Furniture and gates

Welcome back to our Parts Festival where we gave 60 LEGO® fans an hour to make whatever they liked using a range of new LEGO elements as 'seed' parts for their constructions.

Today we present some of the models using Fence 1X4X2 W/ Shaft No 1 in Black (Element ID 6195092 | Design ID 32932) from Ninjago.

This ornamental furniture is exquisite! Note how the one on the left also uses the Plate 1X3 W/ 2 Knobs in Black (Element ID 6199908 | Design ID 34103).

2017 Skærbæk Parts Festival: Patterns

Welcome back to our Parts Festival where we gave 60 LEGO® fans an hour to make whatever they liked using a range of new LEGO elements as 'seed' parts for their constructions.

Faced with parts in large volumes, many were inspired to make patterns.

2017 Skærbæk Parts Festival: the SNOT column

Welcome back to our Parts Festival where we gave 60 LEGO® fans an hour to make whatever they liked using a range of new LEGO elements as 'seed' parts for their constructions.

Today we look at models containing Brick 1X1X1 2/3 W/ Vert Knobs in Bright Red [TLG]/Red [BL] (Element ID 6187620 | Design ID 32952) - except that being such a functional piece, it usually gets buried in the build!

Such as within this spectacular geometric form which makes use of the Nexo Knights pentagonal shield tile (Design ID 22385).

2017 Skærbæk Parts Festival: Cages

Welcome back to our Parts Festival where we gave 60 LEGO® fans an hour to make whatever they liked using a range of new LEGO elements as 'seed' parts for their constructions.

Many people used the Ninjago fence - (Element ID 6195092 | Design ID 32932) Fence 1X4X2 W Shaft No 1 - to create cage-like structures.

This microscale temple covers up parts of the fence, giving it quite a different feel. Many of the seed parts are used here. Note how the two Plate 2X2 W/ Reduced Knobs in Reddish Brown (Element ID 6196221 | Design ID 33909) slightly tuck under the tiles that have been offset using 'triple jumpers' Plate 1X3 W/ 2 Knobs in Black (Element ID 6199908 | Design ID 34103),

2017 Skærbæk Parts Festival: Microscale

Okay, it really is happening! Welcome to our Parts Festival, where we gave 60 LEGO® fans an hour to make whatever they liked using a range of new LEGO elements as 'seed' parts for their constructions. I'll post a handful every day for the next nine days. Hopefully some just might inspire you to get building! 

To kick things off I have selected some of the microscale constructions that the participants came up with. Microscale essentially means that the scale of the model is smaller than one that minifigures could inhabit.

To me this looks like a floating industrial island with traditional housing. Look carefully and you'll see that the builder has made use of the 3.18mm bar connection on the Black Fence 1X4X2 W/ Shaft No 1 (Element ID 6195092 | Design ID 32932) giving an impression of 'floating'.

2017 Skærbæk Parts Festival

On the last weekend of each September, the Skærbæk Fan Weekend brings together hundreds of LEGO® fans from dozens of countries for a few fun-filled days in a remote Danish coastal town. 2017's was the biggest yet, and on the Sunday morning New Elementary ran one of our 'live' parts festivals: a special workshop where, thanks to the LEGO Group, 60 AFOLs got their hands on some of the newest LEGO pieces to see what they could build within the space of an hour.

At long last I'm ready to show you what they made! Well, almost. Today I will introduce the parts I chose for the festival.

PdC Parts Festival: Day Three

Here are the results from the final day of our first ever live parts festival, where AFOLs from all over the world who were attending the Paredes de Coura (PdC) Fan Weekend last June were given just over an hour to come up with ideas of what might be possible using a range of new LEGO® parts. See the parts selection here.

Bill Ward

At the rear of his spaceship, Bill created rather neat vector thrust capability by creating oval shapes from pairs of Mudguard 3X4, W/ Plate, No. 1 (6178912 | 28326). I will show you a breakdown of this technique in my next post, when I explore the geometry of this part a little more deeply. 

PdC Parts Festival: Day Two

AFOLs from all over the world took part in our first ever live parts festival in June in Portugal at the Paredes de Coura (PdC) Fan Weekend. Each day, 15 builders had just over an hour to explore what might be done with a range of new LEGO® parts. See the parts selection here, but today let's look at what the second round of LEGO fans came up with.

Amy Fennell

PdC Parts Festival: Day One

Our first ever live parts festival (or "parts party" as regular reader Håkan put it!) took place in June in Portugal at the Paredes de Coura (PdC) Fan Weekend. Each day, 15 builders had just over an hour to explore what might be done with a range of new LEGO® parts. See the parts selection here, but today let's look at what the first round of LEGO fans came up with.

Michael Studman 

Yes, that's his real name. Jeal much?

Most of the seed parts are present in this characterful chihuahua! Funny, I never thought to use Boomerang (6153574 | 25892) as the structure of a dog's body...

PdC Parts Festival

Back in June, we had a first for New Elementary; our first ever live parts festival! We've run several online parts festivals in the past, where we take some of the newest elements released by the LEGO® Group and challenge builders to explore what they might be used for. This time around, regular contributor Jonas Kramm proposed that we run a workshop at the Paredes de Coura (PdC) Fan Weekend in Portugal to see what builders could come up with - in the space of an hour!

LEGO® House pre-opening event

The new experience centre/museum in Billund, LEGO® House, has now opened to the public but on Friday 22 September 2017 there was a special pre-opening event for hundreds of LEGO fans from around the world. I was lucky enough to be one of them, so here are some photos from the day. If you are planning to go yourself, you might consider any photos to be 'spoilers' but I am glad to report that there is just so much to do and enjoy inside LEGO House, the photos I'd seen beforehand really didn't spoil much for me and I trust this post won't either.

General manager of LEGO House Jesper Vilstrup welcomes us along with third-generation owner, Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen. Behind them is a lenticular made of cheese slopes (Design ID 54200) that shows either the company motto or portraits of the four generations of family owners, depending where you stand.