NEXOGON: Coronae Softworks

Another of the 14 featured builders in our parts festival using LEGO® NEXO KNIGHTS™ piece 'Rotor w/ 4.85 hole' makes his premiere today: Christian Benito (a.k.a. Little Brick Root). He lives in Portland, Oregon, as do two other builders I chose... by sheer coincidence!

When my Nexogons arrived, I was in the midst of a pre-convention building frenzy and I barely had time to do a bit of fiddling. With the con behind me, I had a particularly interesting tablescrap that I just didn’t know how to use. It uses Nexogons to make a really interesting shape, but nothing has come of it yet. Then in one of Tim’s articles I saw six Nexogons arranged in a star. A building came together in my head and Coronae Softworks was born.

NEXOGON: Classic Space scene

We left you on a bit of a cliffhanger when we showed you Kevin Levell's initial creations for our parts festival using the LEGO® NEXO KNIGHTS™Combo Power shield. Wait no more: let's blast off into Classic Space!

When I was building spheres for my NEXO Globeships, I heard the news that The LEGO Movie Sequel would be set in space. Surely this would mean 'Benny's space': Classic Space, the 'space' of my childhood? Suddenly my sphere needed to be a dome, a habitat or space lab for spacemen! (It’s probably pertinent to mention that I had just seen The Martian too.)

I’ll admit, I got a bit carried away after I had the ‘Hab/Dome’ built.

NEXOGON: The Enforcer

We welcome another new builder to the parts festival today: Luc Byard (on Facebook and Flickr) who is an active builder in the UK and in the Eurobricks ‘role building game’ Andromeda’s Gates. Today, he approaches LEGO® part 27255 in a wholly different way.

No civilian disturbances in sector 12

NEXOGON: Swamp Shrine

For his fourth instalment in our parts festival using the new hexagonal LEGO® piece 27255, Duncan Lindbo (donutsftw) abandons space in favour of... a swamp!

For my next build, I decided to do something a bit different from my standard fare, and went with a fantasy build rather than something sci-fi. The result is this abandoned shrine/temple, hidden away deep in a swamp. Just what is that glowing macguffin inside? The Fountain of Youth? A magic energy crystal? I don't know, but it looked cool.

NEXOGON: Patterns with pentagons

Our next builder in the NEXOGON parts festival, our celebration of LEGO® NEXO KNIGHTS™ Combo Power shields, is Tom Klatt (thirteenthmonkey on Flickr) who hails from the state of Minnesota, USA. Tom's initial investigations paired the Nexogon with another brand-new LEGO piece we investigated recently...

This first build came together as I had the parts to LEGO Minecraft 21130 Nether Railway and one of the Nexo Knights battle suits lying near each other on my table. When I put the new Minecraft piece, Reddish Brown 'Plate 2x2, w/ design' (Element ID 6163991|Design ID 27928), where the NEXO power shield would normally go, I saw the potential for a face.

NEXOGON: More tips using part 27255

Let's take another breather from the amazing builds using LEGO® NEXO KNIGHTS™ Combo NEXO Power shields and explore the geometry of this new piece further, this time with regular contributor Gary Davis (Bricks for Brains). 

The Nexogon joins a small family of LEGO® elements with attachment points at a rotation separation of 60° (and 30° in some cases).

NEXOGON: Hangar & launch tube

Duncan Lindbo returns today with this third set of creations in our parts festival using the LEGO® NEXO KNIGHTS™ piece Rotor w/ 4.85 hole, a.k.a. the Nexogon.

This build was inspired by a shape Tim built in his original post on the Nexogon's geometry. My original thought was that that would serve as a good base for a micro-scale train yard turntable, but trains aren't really my jam, so instead I built a spaceship hangar with a launch tube, inspired by the likes of Battlestar Galactica and EVE: Valkyrie.

NEXOGON: Globeships

One of my intentions when selecting builders for the NEXOGON parts festival using LEGO® part 27255 was to risk including people I'd never heard of. Kevin Levell used to build but that was eight or so years ago. However his renewed enthusiasm and ideas were so infectious, I just had to put him on the list! I'm already glad I did: here's his first bunch of creations for your enjoyment.

The Nexo Big Thing

An alien flies his old globeship...

 ...to his local ship dealer for a trade-in...

NEXOGON: Space Marine Drop-Pod

A new build for our parts festival from Duncan Lindbo (donutsftw on Flickr) today, using LEGO® NEXO KNIGHTS™Combo Power Shields (Design ID 27255) to fill an awkward gap.

Is it a meteor? A comet? No, it's a space marine drop-pod!

NEXOGON: Mini-Reactor One

Jeremy Williams (Bricking It on Flickr) has written for New Elementary many times and also took part in a previous parts festival. He's more excited about the Combo Power Shield than any other recent LEGO® part, and so he returns for our NEXOGON parts festival.

You may remember seeing my Reactor One model on Flickr last year, or 'in the brick' at Skaerbaek Fan Weekend or The Great Western Brick Show at STEAM. Well, I decided to use two Nexogons to create a miniature version of Reactor One!

NEXOGON: More Building Techniques

In January I made many observations about the geometry of new LEGO® piece 27255, the "Nexogon". There's plenty more to discover though and some of our featured builders are describing their experiments, including Neil Crosby (thevoicewithin on Flickr) who recently created a round one-man spaceship from a Nexogon for us. 

When I first saw the Nexogon I knew it was going to be a piece I wanted to play with. I've always liked geometric shapes and taking things off the LEGO grid, so having another piece with studs in multiple directions on a plane was exciting. When I first got my hands on one I started playing, just trying to work out how the things fitted together and what connections weren't immediately obvious from looking at them.

So, this post isn't going to be a "look at the pretty final model" post. Those posts are great, but to be honest as a reader I sometimes find them a bit intimidating. The thought "I could never get there" has crossed my mind plenty of times in the past when I see the wonderfully intricate pieces that some people come up with. Instead, this post is me documenting some of the process that I went through in my exploration of the Nexogon. Nothing's a final piece, but hopefully some of the connections in here will be useful to some of you.

First up; one of the very first things I did with the Nexogon. It's useful to know that the space between the 2x2 connection points and the central stud hole is half a stud wide, which means you can place a 1x2 plate with rail on each one, tightly forming a triangle. This is, however, only possible on the underside of the Nexogon without raising by one plate first, due to the lip designed to surround a pentagonal Nexo shield.

NEXOGON: Platform and Slugship

Duncan Lindbo (donutsftw on Flickr) has completed his initial creations using part 27255, the Combo Power Shield from LEGO® NEXO KNIGHTS™. Let's start with two of them today.

Normally, I get referred to as "the mecha guy", since giant robots tend to dominate my displays at public events... but I welcome the opportunity to flex my creative muscles, and the NEXOGON parts festival has given me the opportunity to do just that!

NEXOGON: M:TRON Nexoship

The creations for our parts festival, NEXOGON, are now starting to roll in and today we have an effervescent creation from Neil Crosby (thevoicewithin on Flickr) from the UK. Click any picture to enlarge.

Built with the power of a Nexogon at its core, this little bubble of fun is used by the M:TRON crew to tool around a planet's surface having a good time. With a booming sound system in the back, and controls powered by the mind, you're more likely to see this bouncing all over the landscape than making a smooth flight.

NEXOGON: Landing Platform

Even before Tim Goddard (Rogue Bantha on Flickr) received the shipment of LEGO® NEXO KNIGHTS™ Combo Power shields I sent him for our new parts festival, he was busily playing with some that he bought himself!

[UPDATE: Want to know how the platform is built? Check out this recreation on Mecabricks by Oby1! If you use it in some way, please credit Tim Goddard and Oby1 for their great work.] 

So far on New Elementary we have explored a lot of the potential geometric options, so I am starting with something a bit different. I've effectively built a giant Nexogon and turned it into a landing pad. I added a bit of 'tanscaping' (landscaping built with Brick Yellow [TLG]/Tan [BL] bricks and slopes primarily on their side) and passed the photo to my good friend Rob Damiano who did some wonderful things to bring it to life.

NEXOGON Landing Platform by Tim Goddard with Rob Damiano. Click for larger view.

NEXOGON: Our parts festival begins

Our next parts festival, NEXOGON, is progressing nicely! The new LEGO® part 27255, a.k.a. "Plate, Modified 6 x 6 Hexagonal with Pin Hole" or "Rotor , w/ 4.85 hole, No. 1" or the "Combo NEXO Power shield" is found in several 2017 sets from the NEXO KNIGHTS™ range. Bulk amounts of this part are now on their way to 14 select builders around the world and indeed some of the builders have received them already. One of them, Gary Davis, was so excited he immediately sent me this picture... so I guess the festival is officially underway!

Quarter tile: Chris McVeigh

Today we have an original LEGO® creation by Chris McVeigh using the little bundle of Medium Azure "1/4 Circle Tile 1X1" (Element ID 6150307 | Design ID 25269) that I sent him.

Quarter tile: Elspeth De Montes

A great new LEGO® part introduced in 2016 is the 1x1 tile in the shape of a quadrant. The first unprinted colour of these I got my hands on was Medium Azure, and I sent some to Elspeth De Montes and Chris McVeigh to see what they could make with them. What with The New Black parts festival overrunning, this mini-festival has been somewhat delayed! But we have some lovely ideas from Elspeth to enjoy today and one from Chris tomorrow. 

As an Azure/Azur fan, be that dark or medium, I was excited to receive a few Medium Azure 1/4 Circle Tile 1X1 (Element ID 6150307 | Design ID 25269) from Tim many moons ago when the summer sun was still warming the northern hemisphere. My excitement waned a little when I realised that I only had this one colour of quarter tile and the lack of any other tiles of a circular nature (other than round) at this time, meant the possibilities were fewer than I first imagined.

Peter Reid's 'bar with towball' idea

Our brief re-exploration of the LEGO® piece 3.2 Shaft W/5.9 Ball (Design ID 22484) seems to be turning into an unexpected parts festival! I was pleased to hear from Peter Reid with a new creation that uses this part. He calls it The Digital Ombudsman.

Tom Poulsom's "Bar with ball" ideas

Following Gary Davis' examination of 3.2 Shaft with 5.9 Ball (Design ID 22484) we have some further ideas from Tom Poulsom (designer of LEGO Ideas 21301 Birds) of ways to use this part, such as making the ears on his aardvark posable!

Ballshaft!

The new Modular, 10255 Assembly Square, is available today and a LEGO® piece that it contains has been analysed by Gary Davis (Bricks for Brains).

It's not a euphemism, an insult or a new action hero. Ballshaft is the name I'm using for a relatively new element officially known as 3.2 Shaft W/5.9 Ball and, on BrickLink, Bar1L with Towbar (Design ID 22484). The ballshaft was introduced early in 2016 in the Nexo Knights range. It was first produced in Transparent Fluorescent Reddish Orange [TLG]/Trans-Neon Orange [BL] (Element ID 6131711) in four sets, and in Transparent Bright Green (Element ID 6139234) in one set. Now the Transparent Bright Green version is available in a second set, 10255 Assembly Square.

It is also available in Dark Stone Grey [TLG]/Dark Bluish Gray [BL] (Element ID 6158469)—a much more useful colour for MOC builders like me. So I was delighted when New Elementary sent me a small batch of dark grey ballshafts to play with. With shafts inserted, the exposed balls can be used represent various things, such as elements of a hairbrush.