LEGO® set review: 10276 Colosseum

Following his examination of the elements in LEGO® 10276 Colosseum, Kevin J. Walter (Public BRICKstory) now reviews its construction. This 9036-piece set is available from 27 November 2020 priced 499.99€/ £449.99/ US$549.99/ CA$649.99/ AU$749.99. 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 free by LEGO; the author's opinions are not biased by this.

So, senatus populusque romanus, let us now delve into the actual model and the building process. 

Act II. – The Build

Bags 1 to 9 build the foundation of the Colosseum, the base plate, and the hypogeum – the underground basement of the amphitheater with a complicated system of ramps, shelters, cages, and lifts in which gladiators, criminals or animals were kept before their ‘show’.

LEGO® parts review: 10276 Colosseum

10276 Colosseum is the largest LEGO® set to date, and here is our colossal review! Our guest author is historian and LEGO enthusiast Kevin J. Walter who founded the site Public BRICKstory to combine his two passions, and even built a LEGO Colosseum that hit 10k supporters on LEGO Ideas last month! Available priced 499.99€/ £449.99/ US$549.99/ CA$649.99/ AU$749.99. 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 free by LEGO; the author's opinions are not biased by this.

“Ave imperator, morituri te salutant!”

“Hail, Emperor, those who are about to die salute you!” – Suetonius, Vita divi Claudii 21,6

What football provides in modern-day Europe, American Football in the US or cricket in India, was provided in the ancient Roman Empire by ludi – the entertainment of the people with various kinds of games, most of all the bloody gladiatorial fights. All of these sports have one thing in common: they were, and still are, hosted in massive stadiums and arenas.

With the latest Creator Expert model, 10276 Colosseum, LEGO® has finally revealed the archetype of every modern sports stadium, one of the “New7Wonders of the World” and the biggest tourist attraction in Rome. With 9036 (!) parts, LEGO is releasing its biggest set to date and the inventory isn’t the only huge aspect; the measurements of 52x59x27 cm (20.5x23.5x10.5 inches) quite literally earn this set the epithet “colossal”!

LEGO® Winter Village parts review: 10275 Elf Club House

Following his review of the build yesterday, today Lee (cityson on Flickr) examines all the pieces in LEGO® Winter Village 10275 Elf Club House to show you the newer and less common ones that you may like to add to your collection. The products in this article were provided for free by LEGO; the author's opinions are not biased by this.

To conclude my LEGO® Winter Village 10275 Elf Club House review, let's take a deep dive into its parts. This photo of its 1197 elements gives you a sense of the colour distribution in this set.

LEGO® Winter Village set review: 10275 Elf Club House

Unwittingly, we seem to have turned new contributor Lee (cityson on Flickr) into our Christmas correspondent; following his tussle with Winter Snowball Fight, this week he takes on LEGO® Winter Village 10275 Elf Club House. Before discussing its parts tomorrow, let's take a look at the build. The products in this article were provided for free by LEGO; the author's opinions are not biased by this.

The Winter Village subtheme of LEGO® Creator Expert has always been a curious existence to me. With their 12+ age suggestion, I tended to think of them as being a transitional phase for builders to get a taste of some more advanced techniques without being overwhelmed, and appropriately so given the family nature of the festival itself. However, this year’s offering, 10275 Elf Club House, has been given the new 18+ branding. Does the model live up to such a jump in rating? Let's find out!

LEGO® Creator Expert review: 10271 Fiat 500 – The Build

Following his examination of the new parts, Inthert returns today to report on the actual build of LEGO® Creator Expert 10271 Fiat 500. (And don't forget, you could win a copy of the set in our latest building competition!)

While the most striking thing about the LEGO® Creator Expert Fiat 500 is unquestionably its Cool Yellow/ Bright Light Yellow base colour, the set has much more to offer than just recolours! Today we’ll be delving deeper into the build process before taking a look at the completed model.

LEGO® Creator Expert review: 10271 Fiat 500 – The Parts

The annual LEGO® Creator Expert vehicle is a treat to many and brings exciting new elements to all, and 2020's 10271 Fiat 500 is no exception – in fact its vast raft of recolours is astonishing and will open up new building opportunities with one of the less-common LEGO colours, as Inthert discovers in the first part of his review today. 

LEGO® Creator Expert review: 10267 Gingerbread House

Continuing our pre-Christmas look at more 2019 sets, today Victor Pruvost examines the latest LEGO® Winter Village set in great detail. Missed our interview about it with Design Manager Specialist Jamie Berard? Read it here.

Winter will soon be upon us; the holiday season is approaching. LEGO gave AFOLs the perfect opportunity to decorate their homes for this occasion ten years ago with the Winter Village line.  We’ve mostly seen buildings made for humans so far, but this time, LEGO decided to make a surprising addition to the Winter Village by giving our minifigures edible neighbours. Indeed, this year’s Winter Village set is 10267 Gingerbread House.

10267 Gingerbread House: Designer Interview with Jamie Berard

Tomorrow we will publish our review of this year's Winter Village set - 10267 Gingerbread House - but back in May in Billund we chatted with LEGO® Creator Expert Design Manager Specialist Jamie Berard  about it. It has 1477 pieces, including three LEGO minifigures, and is priced £84.99/ US $99.99/ CA $139.99/ DE €89.99/ FR €94.99/ 799DKK/ AUD $159.99 and is already available directly from LEGO.

LEGO® Creator Expert review: 10270 Bookshop - The techniques

The new LEGO® Modular was announced last week and Jonas Kramm was ready with the first part of his review, looking just at the new elements. Today, he builds the model! 

After my roundup of what’s in the new Modular Building set element-wise, let’s take a look at the actual build and the different techniques used here. First we will discover the bookshop, and afterwards, the Teal apartment next to it.

LEGO® Creator Expert review: 10270 Bookshop - The Elements

Whoops, The LEGO Group accidentally released images a few hours early but now the true embargo has passed we can divulge details of next year's Modular. To begin, Jonas Kramm has assessed all of the pieces in the set and figured out which are new or interesting.

Today marks the reveal of the 2020 addition to the Modular Buildings series - arguably the most popular LEGO® series among fans. And having survived the Black Friday madness in the last few stressful days, it’s now time to relax and take the first glimpse at the newest building in town: the Bookshop.

This Creator Expert set comes with 2504 pieces, costs US$179.99/ CA$199.99/ €159.99/ £149.99/ 1299DKK and will be available, as is traditional, from 1st January 2020.

LEGO® Creator Expert review: 10269 Harley-Davidson Fat Boy

Just announced, LEGO® Creator Expert 10269 Harley-Davidson® Fat Boy® will be available directly from LEGO exclusively for LEGO VIP members from 17 July 2019, with general availability beginning on 1 August. The price will be £84.99/ US$99.99/ CA$139.99/ DE€89.99/ FR€94.99/ 799DKK. We asked Ben Davies (ProfessorBrickkeeper) to take it for a spin to see what new and recoloured elements it includes.

Until now, the LEGO® Creator Expert vehicles subtheme has focused purely on four-wheeled vehicles. The newly announced 10269 Harley-Davidson Fat Boy marks a departure from this, by using bricks to depict the popular motorcycle.

LEGO® Apollo 11 Lander: Jamie Berard interview

At the Recognised LEGO® Fan Media Days event in Billund recently we spoke to Creator Expert Design Manger Specialist Jamie Berard who introduced their newest set, 10266 NASA Apollo 11 Lunar Lander, which we reviewed a few days ago.

This looks incredible, Jamie. Who designed the set?

Jamie: Lars Joe was the designer, he normally works on Architecture but he also did the Winter Village firehouse, that was his first Creator Expert model and now this is his second one. You might also see some influence of Mike Psiaki, he did some of the original configuration for this and the triangulation on the legs. Then, when Lars Joe was working with it further, I pitched in a little bit on the upper part in the locking mechanism. We all couldn't help ourselves but to want to play with certain parts! But it's definitely Lars Joe.

LEGO® Creator Expert review: 10266 NASA Apollo 11 Lunar Lander

Revealed today, the spectacular LEGO® Creator Expert 10266 NASA Apollo 11 Lunar Lander comes with 1087 pieces, and will be available June 1st 2019 for 89.99€/ US$99.99. Sven Franic took this modular module for a spin, and had a blast!

The LEGO Group (TLG) has a longstanding relationship with NASA which has ensured minifigures are no strangers to space travel. They once sent three minfigures as far as Jupiter, just for fun. If the number of NASA-themed LEGO Ideas proposals are anything to go by, there seems to be a recent increase in popularity of non-fictional space sets. The LEGO Ideas 21309 Apollo 11 Saturn V rocket is great for demonstrating the different rocket stages and modules, but despite its impressive size, the most iconic landing module which touched the surface of the moon was tiny compared to the entire vessel.

LEGO® Creator review: 10265 Ford Mustang

The LEGO Group have just announced the next car in the LEGO® Creator Expert series 10265 Ford Mustang, based on the 1967 Fastback and will be racing into LEGO stores and online from 1 March 2019. It has 1,471 elements and priced US $149.99/€129.99/£119.99. Jonas Kramm gets into gear to take a closer look under the hood of this 1960s American muscle car.

The LEGO Creator Expert theme’s new addition to your garage is a classic 1967 Ford Mustang. It’s a dark blue beast that comes with two play features and - even more importantly – includes two new moulds and more delicious recolours.

LEGO® Creator Expert 10268 Vestas Wind Turbine

LEGO® Creator Expert 10268 Vestas Wind Turbine is the latest set to get re-issued by The LEGO Group. How does this monster measure up? We tasked brainy builder Gary Davis with finding out... and managing to fit it all into one photograph.

I liked the 10268 Vestas Wind Turbine set form the moment I first saw it for real.  The completed model has great presence.  With one of its blades pointing straight up, it's nearly a metre tall, and what's more, it moves!  Unusually for a Creator Expert set, the Vestas Wind Turbine includes Power Functions lights and a motor to get those blades whizzing round.  (The model isn't quite as environmentally friendly as the real thing.)

This is a re-issue of the almost identical set (4999) from ten years ago.  That was a Limited Edition set only available to Vestas employees, but now it's available to us all.  There are some minor changes between the two sets, for example the Vestas branding has been updated and, reportedly, the mounting of the tower is now more stable. 

LEGO® Creator Expert 10264 Corner Garage: new parts usage

Now that we have outlined the new elements within LEGO® Creator Expert 10264 Corner Garage it is time to take a closer look at how these parts are used within the set.

New Elements in position

First, lets start with the two new elements. White Turntable 2x2 Female (Element ID 6238334 | Design ID 27448) has a central hole with a small lip around the inside that allows certain elements to snap onto the lip and spin whilst maintaining clutch.

Very few parts actually connect to this hole at the moment; Plate 4X4 Round W. Snap (Design ID 60474), Plate 6X6 Round with Tube Snap (Design ID 11213) and Plate Octagonal 10X10 W. Snap (Design ID 89523) were the three elements I could find. [EDIT: Read the comments for more highlighted by our readers!]

LEGO® Creator Expert 10264 Corner Garage: the new parts

The anticipation surrounding the next modular building always starts to build in November until the big reveal.  Read on to find out more about the next LEGO® Creator Expert modular building, 10264 Corner Garage, as we look under the hood to find new elements.

10264 Corner Garage is rated for Ages 16+ and has 2,569 pieces, including six minifigures: gas station owner, mechanic, vet, woman, man and a girl, plus bunny, parrot, dog, frog and fish figures.

The model is a three-storey building styled as a 1950s gas station at ground level, an animal clinic on the first floor, a well-equipped apartment on the second floor and finally a rooftop terrace.

LEGO® 10262 James Bond Aston Martin DB5

Each summer the LEGO® Creator Expert theme release a large scale vehicle, such as last year's 10258 London Bus. This year, the subject remains frightfully British: today The LEGO Group revealed 10262 James Bond Aston Martin DB5. Sven Franic took an early look to find all the new parts and of course, to play with the gadgets!

The latest LEGO® Creator Expert car model is an acquired taste. To be fair, the slick Superleggera design is not easily translated to brick form. I learned to love this model through the building experience and it turned out to be one of the most ingenious LEGO model designs I have ever come across.

LEGO® Creator 10261 Roller Coaster

The fairground sub-theme of LEGO® Creator continues in 2018 with the thrilling 10261 Roller Coaster. Sven Franic has braved the ride to bring you info on all the new parts in this 4080-piece set, priced £299.99 / US$379.99 / 329.99€ and on general sale from 1 June 2018.

When the new roller coaster tracks were first introduced last autumn, I think we all knew TLG hadn’t made six new elements purely for the Joker Manor. It was just a matter of time before we saw the first ever official roller coaster set.

Even with specialized track and car elements, the 10261 Roller Coaster is a feat of mathematical LEGO engineering. All that geometry serving both structural and aesthetic functions had to be legal, which looks simpler than it actually is.  In terms of overall dimensions, I think this is the largest LEGO set ever. Besides, it is a sort of milestone in the LEGO System.




10260 Downtown Diner: New parts and colours

After our Tealicious appetiser looking at all the Teal parts in LEGO® Creator Expert 10260 Downtown Diner, your main course of new parts is now on the menu. So slip into a comfortable position in that little red diner stool because your waitress Elspeth De Montes is scooting towards your table to serve up new LEGO elements.

Now before we start, I know we don’t normally focus much on minifigures here at New Elementary but in the case of Downtown Diner I must make an exception. There’s no easy way to say this so I’m just going to get it off my chest - the boxer in this set has the most ridiculously bouffant hairstyle I have ever seen in a boxing ring. Can you pick out the boxer’s hairstyle? Hint: I can only assume that Jamie Berard must have won a bet for using this hairstyle on a bloke!