5x5 fest: Tom Loftus' Raya and Sisu Dragon MOCs

Tom Loftus (@inthert.lego) completes our 5x5 fest today! Moving away from the LEGO® VIDIYO elements that have fascinated him so, today he bases his creations on the new parts to be found in a LEGO Disney set.

Today I’ll be showing you two MOCs inspired by elements from 43184 Raya and Sisu Dragon. Coincidentally, both concern liquids which is appropriate given Sisu’s affinity with water.

The eagle-eyed among you will have noticed there’s something missing from the set image. Well there’s a very good reason for that which will become clear as we discuss my first build.

LEGO® Disney review + MOC: 43189 Elsa and the Nokk Storybook Adventures

Eero Okkonen (@eerookkonen) takes a look inside LEGO® Disney 43189 Elsa and the Nokk Storybook Adventures, before using some of its new parts in an original creation. Buying this set? Consider using our affiliate links, New Elementary may get a commission: USA LEGO Shop | Australia LEGO Shop | UK LEGO Shop/for Europe 'Change region'. Products in this article were provided by LEGO; the author's opinions are their own.

LEGO® has recently shown interest in releasing sets that look like books, without actually being books. LEGO Ideas 21315 Pop-Up Book was released in 2018, and the first four Disney Storybook Adventures sets were introduced in early 2020. These lacked the advanced pop-up mechanism of the Ideas set, being simple cases fitting small playsets inside, easily closed for storage or travel.

These sets got a lone successor in January 2021 with 43189 Elsa and the Nokk Storybook Adventures. As the Frozen franchise is very popular, it is not surprising to see another storybook concerning it. I must warn you: the popularity of the franchise is the only thing I know about it!

5x5 fest: Introducing the elements

It's been a while since we ran one of our "parts festivals", where we send LEGO builders some of the most interesting new elements and ask them to create some original models to inspire you. Well, buckle up because we have not one but two parts festivals coming at you this month, and they're a little different to before! We will introduce the second one soon, but today we reveal our 5x5 fest.

No, LEGO have not released a 5x5 plate, it's nothing like that! We simply sent 5 of our gorgeous contributors 5 LEGO sets, and asked them to get busy making gorgeous stuff. As well as parts in the sets, they could use their own part collections. So for the next 5 weeks, every Friday is 5x5 fest day when we will reveal what each of the builders created! The gorgeous bunch are Caz Mockett, Kev Levell, Aron Gerencsér, Thomas Jenkins and Tom Loftus.

LEGO® Disney review & MOCs: 43187 Rapunzel’s Tower

Caz Mockett (BlockHeadUK) takes a look at a 2020 LEGO® Disney set today, 43187 Rapunzel’s Tower. She takes a special look at the new swing piece before using parts from the set in her own creations! 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.

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.

LEGO® ART review: 31202 Disney’s Mickey Mouse

We have another 2021 LEGO® Art set for you today: 31202 Disney’s Mickey Mouse, reviewed by Omid (@nwbricks). It has 2658 pieces and will be released 1 January 2021 priced 119.99€/ £114.99/ US$119.99/ CA$149.99/ AU$199.99/ 1099 DKK. Buying this set? Consider using our affiliate links: USA LEGO Shop at Home|UK LEGO Shop at Home. 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.

If you’ve been following our articles recently you may have guessed this review was coming! TobyMac dived into LEGO® ART 31201 Harry Potter Hogwarts Crests which teed me up for a go at the slightly smaller but similarly impressive 31202 Disney’s Mickey Mouse. 

I must admit, when the first round of Art sets were revealed I wasn’t exactly blown away. That was due in equal parts to the subject matter and the inescapably sly marketing which requires you to spend upwards of £400 for a complete set of all four possible images. 

LEGO® Disney 43179 Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse: new set reveal

Following an accidental leak last week, the proper announcement of upcoming LEGO® Disney set 43179 Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse Buildable Characters is now here.

The set is on its way to us for review but we couldn't resist posting about it straightaway, as not only are there some really fascinating, useful new moulds but also the first pieces cast in a new 'colour' (or to describe it more properly, an 'effect') that was spotted on the LEGO palette earlier this year.

LEGO® Disney review: 43182 Mulan's Training Grounds

Today we are examining a LEGO® Disney set which, for its size, packs in a lot of interesting parts: 43182 Mulan's Training Grounds.

It is not to be confused with the first Mulan set, 41151 Mulan's Training Day, which was released in 2018 and was swiftly followed by… no more. Until 2020 that is, when she was granted a Storybook Adventure (which includes a training ground) and today’s focus, Mulan's Training Grounds. That Mulan, she loves the training. 

LEGO® Disney review: Storybook Adventures - the new parts

On Monday, TobyMac examined the recoloured and printed parts to be found in the new LEGO® Disney Storybook Adventure sets (43174 Mulan’s Storybook Adventures, 43175 Anna and Elsa’s Storybook Adventures, 43176 Ariel’s Storybook Adventures, and 43177 Belle’s Storybook Adventures). Today he completes his review by examining the new moulds, including the new 'Micro Doll' figures.

New parts in LEGO® Disney Storybook Adventures

Firstly we will examine the elements that comprise the books themselves.

The spine consists of a single part: Plate Special Book Cover Back 6 x 16 (65200). It is 16 studs long (or high, given that a book stands upwards in a bookcase) and the center consists of a plate with 4 x 16 studs with, for some reason, gaps of 2 x 2 in the middle. On the sides are curved walls with a pin hole on the ends, which allow the connection to the book covers.

LEGO® Disney review: Storybook Adventures - the recolours and printed pieces

We're excited to have our friend TobyMac, from the fantastic website Rebrickable.com(which shows you what other models you can make with your existing parts) reviewing the new LEGO® Disney Storybook Adventure sets for you across two posts this week. A Technic fan as a child, Tobias came back to LEGO around 10 years ago when he discovered Peeron.com. When that great resource sadly stopped updating he stumbled upon Rebrickable and, soon becoming utterly LEGO-obsessed, he became an admin there in 2016. 

This week I’ll be looking at four sets at once:
 43174 Mulan’s Storybook Adventures, 43175 Anna and Elsa’s Storybook Adventures, 43176 Ariel’s Storybook Adventures, and 43177 Belle’s Storybook Adventures. This series of sets consists of a LEGO-build book with a small diorama on the inside and figures, to play out your own stories.


These sets caught my eye because of the new style of figures introduced, which BrickLink call Micro Doll. Then I also noticed the large book pieces. Unneeded, single-use parts? Or could a creative mind do more with them? I’ll describe them for you, and let you be the judge.


New LEGO® Colour 364 Transparent Medium Reddish Violet with Opalescence

It seems that 2020 is not limited to bringing us 362 Transparent Blue Opal, but also 364 Transparent Medium Reddish Violet with Opalescence. We are calling them new colours because they have been given a LEGO Colour ID but it seems that adding the Opalescence effect is not likely to classify this as part of the "one colour in, one colour out policy" as far as we can tell.



One of our readers, BrickoMotion, mentioned that the 1x4 Panel in Transparent Medium Reddish Violet/ Trans-Dark Pink from Disney' 43173 Aurora's Carriage was "weirdly colored" and it seems it was also pearly and iridescent. They were right, so let's take a look at this second new colour.

New LEGO® Colour 362 Transparent Blue Opal

Following on from the introduction of new LEGO® hues over the last couple of years, it seems that 2020 continues the tradition. In 2018, 107 Bright Bluish Green/ Dark Turquoise returned, 2019 gave us 353 Vibrant Coral and now 2020 brings 362 Transparent Blue Opal.

As far as we know this new colour only appears in two sets, both within the Disney theme. [Edit: there's also a pink version too.] Our thanks to Ryan Howerter for the heads-up. We thought would take a look at this sparkly, iridescent hue.

LEGO® review: 71044 Disney Train and Station

Announced today, LEGO® set 71044 Disney Train and Station is a mammoth, detailed set containing a 77cm-long train, and a station based on Disney theme parks measuring 39cm x 35cm. Victor Pruvost has reviewed it for us and it retails at £299.99/ US$329.99/ CA$379.99/ DE€329.99/ FR€329.99/ 2499DKK/ AU$549.99.

In 2016, LEGO released the first series of Disney Collectable Minifigures, followed by a big set. This year, LEGO released the second series of Disney Collectable Minifigures, and it is also followed by a big set. 71044 Disney Train and Station comes with 2925 pieces and five minifigures, which we’re about to examine!

LEGO® Ideas Review: 21317 Steamboat Willie

The next LEGO® Ideas set, 21317 Steamboat Willie, marks the 90th anniversary of the most famous cartoon character ever, Mickey Mouse. His fame was sparked in the 1928 black-and-white animated short film called Steamboat Willie which was also the first Disney film to have synchronized sound. Let's steam ahead with Mickey and take a look at the set that will be available from 1st April 2019 priced US $89.99/CA $119.99/DE €89.99/UK £79.99 and contains 751 parts.

The original LEGO Ideas proposal was submitted in 2016 by Máté Szabó who lives in Budapest and is an animator. The proposal hit the 10k votes mark in July last year and it was only revealed that the proposal would become a set last month when the review results were announced. Clearly a lot has been going on behind the scenes as the set has evolved into a larger, functional, impressive version of the original proposal. Let's take a closer look.

LEGO® BrickHeadz: Marcos Bessa interview part 2

In the first part of this interview with LEGO® BrickHeadz design lead Marcos Bessa, Are J. Heiseldal asked him about the advantages and the complexities of working with multiple intellectual properties (IPs), and the inherent limitations of the BrickHeadz concept itself. Today he asks about the new and recoloured parts as well as the production process... and which character is Marcos' favourite!

At New Elementary, we love new parts so the two new types of glasses that we got in the Go Brick Me set are particularly interesting for us. What can you tell us about the development process of those?
Marcos: The brief for the BrickHeadz line actually came with a request to do something like this. The idea for the Go Brick Me set came very early, in early 2017, so the brand was just about to come out officially on the market. We were already planning what to do for 2018 and so the importance of customisation, allowing people to represent their features was of key importance for this. So we immediately started looking into what that would mean in terms of new elements –  how to make glasses, do we need something new? I started exploring and came up with a whole lot of variations of new elements that we could make, trying to come up with something that would work and fulfil the brief for this purpose, but become a versatile enough element that it could become interesting for other uses. And I think we ended up finding something that is pretty cool for what we do in the set, but also offers a lot of other opportunities, and I’m really looking forward to seeing what comes out of it.

LEGO® Minifigures: Tara Wike & Austin Carlson interview

The LEGO® Minifigures theme has given us a great deal of interesting new parts, particularly minifigure accessories, since the arrival of the first blind bags eight years ago. At the Recognised LEGO Fan Media Days, Are J. Heiseldal sat down for a chat with designers Tara Wike and Austin Carlson to see if we could make them spill the beans on what the future holds (not really).

You represent a very successful line – since the beginning in 2010, and I did some counting, there’s been 441 figures released…
Tara: Oh my God. I lost count after we reached the 300 mark. I stopped counting then.

That’s 55 per year, pretty much one per week, for eight years. Are you going to slow down?
Austin: I don’t think so.
Tara: Not if I have anything to say about it.

Brickheadz: Super Heroes & Disney

The LEGO® BrickHeadz are available today on VIP Early Access! They are on general release from March 1 priced £9.99/ US$9.99/ 9.99€. Sven Franic returns to examine the remaining sets.

As I said last time, there are certain pointers which tell me this theme could be a great success. Apart from its collectible perspective, the theme is jam-packed with pieces in new colours and exclusive printed elements, and I would assume this kind of budgetary flexibility isn't given to every LEGO design team.

Previously I built (and destroyed) the characters from The LEGO Batman Movie for your delectation; today it is the turn of the MARVEL LEGO Super Heroes and the characters from Disney's Beauty and the Beast.

Towering achievement

Have you all already decided whether or not to buy 71040 Disney Castle? At £299.99 / US$349.99 / €349.99, the first obstacle is cost. Beyond that, if you are a Disney fan, I imagine it is a must-have. If you crave large, challenging LEGO® builds this is definitely something out of the ordinary. If you love to wow your friends with your latest LEGO display, this is a great choice — aside from being appealing and highly detailed with loads of rooms inside referencing different Disney films, it is a good shape for display in that the model’s footprint is relatively small compared to the overall height. We even have a human being to show you just how big it is...