Showing posts with label LEGO® Technic. Show all posts
Showing posts with label LEGO® Technic. Show all posts

19 November 2020

LEGO® Technic reveal: 42123 McLaren Senna GTR

Posted by Admin


Just revealed, and available 1 January 2021, LEGO® Technic 42123 McLaren Senna GTR contains 830 parts and will cost 49,99€/ US$49.99/ £44.99/ AU$89.99/ CA$69.99. The age mark is 10+, and the model is 32cm (12in.) long. We will be reviewing this set just as soon as it is released, but in the meantime we thought we'd share some of the new elements we spotted in the official images.

02 October 2020

LEGO® Technic review: 42111 Dom's Dodge Charger

Posted by Admin
Today we welcome back Alexandre Campos (the Ambassador for PLUG, a Portuguese LEGO User Group) for his insightful and, as ever, comical review of LEGO® Technic 42111 Dom's Dodge Charger. The products in this article were provided for free by LEGO; the author's opinions are not biased by this.


Much has already been said about 42111 Dom's Dodge Charger, especially about its fidelity to the source material (or lack thereof) and the source material choice itself, so I won't delve into that again. Instead I'll focus not so much on the final result, but more on how it was reached.

16 July 2020

LEGO® Technic review: 42107 Ducati Panigale V4 R

Posted by Admin
Applications for volunteer New E contributors close soon: Friday 17 July 11.59pm GMT
Victor Pruvost returns today with a fascinating look at the latest LEGO® Technic motorbike, which contains new elements that may be useful even in non-Technic builds.


Today we take a look at the latest motorbike from the LEGO® Technic line: 42107 Ducati Panigale V4 R. It comes with 646 pieces (the highest part count yet for a Technic bike), including some elements that might be interesting even for System builders.

12 June 2020

LEGO® MINDSTORMS® 51515 Robot Inventor: reveal and interview

Posted by Admin
The new LEGO® MINDSTORMS® has just been revealed, however we were lucky enough to be 'present' at the digital launch event at LEGO Fan Media Days a couple of weeks ago. Lena Dixen, Head of Product and Marketing Development and Dan Meehan, Creative Design Lead talked us through set 51515 Robot Inventor and answered a few questions from the LEGO fan media present. It has 949 pieces and will be available "sometime in early Q4 2020", priced £329.99/ US$359.99/ €359.99.

Lena Dixen:
"We're very excited about the launch we're here to talk about today. We want to share with you, up front, that we had planned for this awesome new product to be ready to go on sale in August this year. Unfortunately we've experienced some unavoidable delays in product development and as a result, we've decided to delay the launch until later in 2020.


"Here it is: the latest addition to the much loved LEGO MINDSTORMS. The new Robot Inventor 51515 unleashes a new world of creative coding possibilities that we believe provides the ultimate playful learning experience. Builders can create and code one of the set's five personality-packed models, or build and bring to life anything they can imagine.

25 February 2020

LEGO® Technic review: 42110 Land Rover Defender - the model

Posted by Admin
In part 1 of his review, Victor Pruvost (Flickr) examined all the exciting Olive Green pieces and new moulds found in LEGO® Technic 42110 Land Rover Defender, and he concludes today by building the model, revealing its surprising techniques and showing you the functions.

Although the LEGO® Technic 42110 Land Rover Defender contains almost 2600 parts, the bags are only numbered from 1 to 4. These four big steps are: the rear of the chassis, the front of the chassis, the rear of the bodywork and the front of the bodywork.

23 February 2020

LEGO® Technic review: 42110 Land Rover Defender - the elements

Posted by Admin
Victor Pruvost (Flickr) returns today to examine the thrilling colour and new moulds found in LEGO® Technic 42110 Land Rover Defender, which retails at £159.99 / 179,99€ / US$199.99.

The last decade saw a massive increase in the size of LEGO® Technic sets. In 2011 the first set with over 2000 parts was released, 8110 Mercedes-Benz Unimog U400, and in 2019 three sets with more than 2000 parts were released, including the biggest Technic set so far, 42100 Liebherr R 9800. Today we’ll be taking a look at another of them, 42110 Land Rover Defender, which is made of 2573 elements.


16 December 2019

LEGO® Technic review: 42100 Liebherr R 9800

Posted by Admin
As we approach Christmas, we will be reviewing some of the sets from 2019 that caught our interest parts-wise, in case you're looking (or asking!) for a present... or just hoping for some discounted sets in the post-Christmas sales! We start with LEGO® TECHNIC 42100 Liebherr R 9800, with Ryan Welles on reviewing duties.

This last summer, with an appropriate amount of excitement, here at New Elementary we showed you the new Powered Up System that replaced the Power Functions mainly used in the LEGO® TECHNIC product line. In our review of 42099 4x4 X-Treme Offroader we showed you the possibilities of the system that can be controlled with a smart phone device with the use of Bluetooth technology. We also predicted that the true potential of the system would be demonstrated with set 42100 the Liebherr R 9800, that includes a total amount of seven motors and two smart hubs.

Considering the fact it has been on backorder ever since its release, expectations for this €450/ US$450/ £400 set are even higher. For many brick-stackers this is quite a hefty sum of money. So, is it all worth it?

05 September 2019

2019 Parts Fest #1: Jarekwally's chair and speeder

Posted by Admin
Following his earlier creations for our Parts Festival, LEGO® builder Jaroslaw Walter (jarekwally) focuses on some of the stranger elements among our seed parts.

Office chair

For the base of my retro furniture I used three of the seed parts: Black Turntable 2X2X1 w/ Function (6252373| 40145), Dark Stone Grey Turntable Holder W/ Cross Axle (6252372|40144) and Black Pneumatic Connecting Piece, No. 1 (6249327|41817).


31 August 2019

2019 Parts Fest #1: Jessica Farrell's microscale

Posted by Admin
Another quick post for our Parts Festival, from Jessica Farrell today. Following her animals last week, we have a couple of microscale creations using some of the LEGO® parts we sent her. This is a good moment to explain that we don't send all the chosen builders exactly the same parts; for example Jessica received some of the new 3x3 Technic frames. 

BAVARIAN ICE CREAM CONE CASTLE

Invert the inverted printed cone piece (Cone 2X2X2, Inverted, No. 1 in Medium Nougat – 6261728|52116) and you get something that resembles the turrets of a fairytale castle. At least, it would if it was in microscale!

23 August 2019

2019 Parts Fest #1: Sarah Beyer's Technic experiments

Posted by Admin
Swedish LEGO® builder Sarah Beyer (betweenbrickwalls on Flickr) usually builds modern house interiors and microscale buildings, and her initial contributions to our Parts Festival are no exception!

I received a whole bunch of various new parts from New Elementary, and some of them belong to the Technic category. I rarely build Technic MOCs but I find those parts very useful, especially when it comes to microscale builds. The Round Plate 2x2 Thin with Rotation Stem (Design ID 40145), and Liftarm 1 x 3 with Connections for Hose and Rubber Bladder (41817) first caught my attention.


The circular shapes make great microscale watch towers like in this fort somewhere in the desert.

The round plate can also be used in minifigure scale builds. It´s a perfect alternative to using Support 2 x 2 x 2 Stand (3940/19798) or a Telescope (64644) when building a stool. You need a Round Tile 1x1 with Bar and Pin holder (20482) to connect it to a stud.

In the room below I´ve used the round plate to create a side table. It fits well in a Swedish home from the early 20th Century.

As you may notice I´ve also used Brick, Modified 1 x 1 x 2/3 No Studs, Curved Top (49307) to create arm rests for the sofa.



Help New Elementary keep publishing articles like this. Become a Patron!

Thanks to our 'Vibrant Coral' patrons: Gerald Lasser, Big B Bricks, Dave Schefcik, David and Breda Fennell, Iain Adams, Huw Millington, Neil Crosby, Antonio Serra, Beyond the Brick, Sue Ann Barber & Trevor Clark, and Kevin Gascoigne. You're all awesome!

You can also help us by doing what you perhaps do already - buying from Amazon. Amazon USA: Amazon.com Canada: Amazon.ca UK: Amazon.co.uk Deutschland: Amazon.de

Search New Elementary


Products mentioned in this post were kindly supplied by the LEGO Group. All content represents the opinions of New Elementary authors and not the LEGO Group. All text and images are © New Elementary unless otherwise attributed.

01 August 2019

LEGO® Technic review: 42099 4x4 X-Treme Off-Roader

Posted by Admin
Our final review of summer 2019 LEGO® Technic sets is 42099 4x4 X-Treme Off-Roader which uses the new Control+ system, has 958 pieces and is available as of today for US$249.99/ £199.99/ 229.99€. This time, we welcome back Ryan Welles to reviewing duties! 

It was the year 2007 when the good people in Billund introduced a new motorized system. The Power Functions system, known for its orange banded box art and incorporated in both Creator and Technic sets, is the electrical system that has had the longest lifespan in LEGO® history to date. The powerful motors came in several types and sizes, with infrared remote controls and receivers, and initially showed a combination of studded and studless connections. Later additions to the Technic line included a Large Motor and Servo Motor introduced in 2012, that only allowed for studless mounting. 



29 July 2019

LEGO® Technic review: 42097 Compact Crawler Crane

Posted by Admin
Continuing our reviews of this summer's wave of LEGO® Technic sets, today Alexandre Campos and friend return to review 42097 Compact Crawler Crane, available from 1 August 2019.



Cranes have been a frequent presence in LEGO® Technic almost since the beginning, when in 1978 the 855 Mobile Crane was launched. It was also in this set that a very important part that is still a familiar sight to this day appeared: the Connector Peg/Cross Axle (Design ID 6562).

Yet, with all the cranes that have been pouring out during these last 41 years, the Technic team has managed to release one of a type never done before: the spider crane. Or, should we say the 42097 Compact Crawler Crane? Although the "CCC" abbreviation is tempting, "Spider Crane" sounds way cooler, so that's what I'll be calling it throughout this review. And, as you'll see in a while, I suspect I'm not the only one with this opinion.

18 July 2019

LEGO® Technic review: 42098 Car Transporter (part 2)

Posted by Admin
Yesterday, Alexandre Campos showed you the interesting parts in upcoming LEGO® Technic set 42098 Car Transporter along with the build process. In this, the second part of his review, he discusses the finished set and gives his verdict. 42098 Car Transporter has 2493 parts and will be available from 1 August 2019 priced €149.99/ £139.99/ US$179.99. 

The finished set is definitely a beast. The colour scheme chosen for the truck looks good and utilitarian, thankfully without any weird colours to make parts gathering for MOC construction harder (42039 24 Hours Race Car, 42050 Drag Racer, 42066 Air Race Jet, and 42069 Extreme Adventure: I'm looking at you all).

17 July 2019

LEGO® Technic review: 42098 Car Transporter (part 1)

Posted by Admin
We have three of the upcoming LEGO® Technic sets to show you over the coming weeks. First up is 42098 Car Transporter which has 2493 parts and will be available from 1 August 2019 priced €149.99/ £139.99/ US$179.99. Our technically minded friend Alexandre Campos (Ambassador for PLUG, a Portuguese LEGO User Group) took a look at its parts and construction.


Amongst all the construction machines, trucks and sports cars released in the LEGO® Technic range, a car transporter is something almost unique: the only previous example is the B-model of the 8872 Forklift Transporter, from 1993.

The 42098 Car Transporter picks up this legacy. Let's see what 26 years of LEGO Technic evolution has brought.

03 April 2019

LEGO® Education SPIKE™ Prime: New Elements

Posted by Elspeth De Montes
Yesterday LEGO Education announced SPIKE Prime, the newest product in the LEGO Education hands-on STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, Math) learning portfolio. They tell us that SPIKE Prime brings together LEGO bricks, a programmable, multi-port Hub, sensors and motors all powered by the SPIKE app based on the Scratch coding language.

© LEGO Group
Of particular interest for New Elementary is that SPIKE™ Prime also brings new elements and we have been playing 'spot the new element' in some of the images and videos released by LEGO as part of their announcement yesterday.

02 April 2019

More on the 3x3 Technic beam

Posted by Elspeth De Montes
Yesterday Victor P discussed the new Magenta Connector Beam 1x3x3 that does not yet appear in any LEGO® sets. Today he reveals it also comes in Black, explores more of its potential and explains how he found it for sale on the LEGO website.

In part 1 we explored the geometry of the new Connector Beam 1x3x3 and the kind of applications it could have in Technic builds. Today we’re going to experiment a bit further and see what other builds are possible with a few of them in hand.  Since I work in construction, one of the first things I thought of doing was a I-beam:



01 April 2019

Magenta 3x3 Technic beam discovered

Posted by Admin
Today we reveal a surprising discovery made by reader Victor P. who got in touch with us when he discovered a new LEGO® part for sale that isn't in any sets.

Buying spare LEGO® parts directly from The LEGO Group’s own service, Bricks & Pieces, seems to be growing in popularity in the AFOL community, perhaps evidenced by the message currently displayed on top of the Bricks & Pieces homepage: “Due to a large number of requests, LEGO Bricks & Pieces orders are taking longer than normal to be delivered”. (Could Jonas Kramm’s monthly parts highlight be responsible for this sudden surge in parts orders?)

I am myself ‘guilty’ of having placed an order on Bricks & Pieces in early March, and made a quite surprising discovery: a part which is not listed on BrickLink, nor on Brickset, and which doesn’t come in any set that I know of. A ghost part, I may say.



30 March 2019

Fairy Bricks auction: Technic Pagani Huayra BC

Posted by Admin
Our friends at our favourite charity, Fairy Bricks, have let us know about an amazing fundraiser coming up. An online Catawiki auction of a Pagani Huayra BC recreated in LEGO® Technic by Jeroen Ottens is taking place so that Fairy Bricks can continue their work of bringing LEGO sets to children in hospitals. To tell us the unusual story of how this has come about, meet Grum.


In 1983 at the age of 19 I had a motorcycle accident in which my neck was broken leaving me a C4/5 Tetraplegic. I was completely paralysed from the upper chest down with no use of my hands and very impaired movement of my arms.

11 March 2019

LEGO® Gears: from Samsonite to splat!

Posted by Elspeth De Montes
When we first saw the images of LEGO® sets due to be released in 2019, one new type of element caught our eye in particular.  Because of their shape we affectionately called this group of elements 'splat' gears, but BrickLink call them Modified Plate with Gear Teeth / Flower Petals, and the official TLG name is Gear Wheel.


Today we take a closer look at these new elements and their place in the history of the LEGO gear. It turns out there is more to LEGO gears than just Technic; they have appeared in various guises over the years including DUPLO, Dacta and Samsonite. Before we take a look back at the ancestors, let's take another look at the new gears on the block.

17 February 2019

Brickset: A history of Technic pins

Posted by Admin
Occasionally we see an article about LEGO® parts that we love so much, we republish it here on New Elementary. (With permission, naturally!) Well our good friend Huw Millington of Brickset wrote this great rundown about the humble Technic pin and we definitely didn't want any of you to miss out.

I can't quite believe I'm writing an article on such a seemingly mundane subject as the history of Technic pins but, given the popularity of last week's article about one such pin, perhaps there'll be similar interest in this one too.

The first Technic sets launched in 1977 came with just one type of pin; however, the very first 'Technic' pin produced predated them by some 7 years, and it wasn't made from plastic...