Showing posts with label Parts Festivals. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Parts Festivals. Show all posts

13 January 2019

2018 Parts Fest #1: Luc Byard's The Alchemist

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One of the 2018 LEGO® elements that we sent to builders to investigate was the new minifigure neck bracket with four bar attachments (Element ID 6215458 | Design ID 36452). One of our talented buiders, Luc Byard, used it to create a walker mech and has now come up with another interesting creation based upon this unusual part.

This build came out of looking for a way to connect the two shafts that are at 90° to each other. ‘Easy enough,’ I said to myself but the placement is not as convenient as I expected. It’s a tight fit and I think I’m pushing tolerances but I managed to secure them.

15 December 2018

LEGO® Minecraft animals: Horse and Wolf

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Jonas Kramm has been examining the LEGO® Minecraft animals and thinking up inspiring ideas as to how they might be used for something other than blocky animals! 

Welcome to the last lesson of Minecraft Anatomy class. Today we will analyse the horse and the wolf to see what can be done with grey Minecraft moulds.

14 December 2018

LEGO® Minecraft animals: Cat and Rabbit

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Continuing his challenge to use the LEGO® Minecraft animal heads in original ways, Jonas Kramm takes a look at another two animals.

In today’s lesson about Minecraft animals we will take a closer look at the moulds of the cat and the rabbit. (If you missed my last class featuring the silverfish and chicken parts, you can catch up here.) We also have a guest builder, my friend Cole Blaq!


12 December 2018

LEGO® Minecraft animals: Silverfish and Chicken

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I've always been intrigued by the animal head elements that were specially introduced for LEGO® Minecraft sets. They're highly specialised and don't entirely conform to the System, but their blockiness and intriguing shapes made me wonder what else could be done with them. Who could I challenge to take on such a challenging challenge? The brilliant Jonas Kramm accepted my evil task! Over the course of three posts he will examine six Minecraft animal moulds.

Under the radar of most AFOLs, LEGO® has added several new Minecraft animal moulds to their assortment, which seem to be quite strange on first sight. But in a series of articles here on New Elementary I will dive into the blocky world, analyse the geometry of several Minecraft moulds and show you examples for the capability of these elements.

29 November 2018

2018 Parts Fest #1: Tim Goddard's BrickHeadz (and spaceships)

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We sent a varied selection of new LEGO® parts from 2018 to some fan builders to build at home, and Tim Goddard (co-author of LEGO Space: Building the Future, plug plug) not only built at home but also down the boozer. Following on from his main builds that we posted two months ago, here are some fun extras.

On the second Monday of every month, London AFOLs hold a gathering in a pub near Euston station. Prosaically, the meeting after I was given this parts selection, London AFOLs had a meetup and that month it was a BrickHeadz-themed evening.

I went prepared, taking this sub-build which uses the interesting hooped minifigure accessory (Element ID 6207840|Design ID 35485) which is only found in LEGO Super Heroes 76100 Royal Talon Fighter Attack and 76103 Corvus Glaive Thresher Attack.

Using the healthy stock of parts provided at the pub I ended the evening with this post-apocalyptic version of myself...

22 November 2018

2018 Parts Fest #1: Luc Byard's Walker

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We sent a varied selection of new LEGO® parts to some expert fan builders for them to explore techniques and models to share with you. Here's one from Luc Byard (Flickr).

I love Tim; no-one can give you some really awkward LEGO® parts and say ‘build something with those’ quite like he can. The latest bunch included that new minifigure neck bracket with 4 bars (Element ID 6215458 | Design ID 36452) which looks cool… then you try and build with it!

My finished build is a micro Robotech-style walker. And with all that black, I just had to pair it with trans-yellow to give it a Blacktron scheme.


04 November 2018

2018 Parts Fest #1: James Pegrum's creepy tomb

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We sent a varied selection of new LEGO® parts from 2018 to some fan builders, and in an occasional ‘parts festival’ series we are showing you the techniques and models they came up with. 

For some four years I've been plugging away on a certain history-themed project, a key feature being the size of each build which I've restricted to a 16x16-module base.  There's a large number of builds in the series and ideas have sometimes been hard to come by. So when the guys at New Elementary asked if I would like to play around with some new parts it spurred me on to build some new ideas and in the end the final model included each of the parts they gave me.



The final model comprises includes various separate builds and there are three I want to focus on: a base, some flowers and a stained glass window.

27 September 2018

2018 Parts Fest #1: Steve Guinness in space

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We sent a varied selection of new LEGO® parts to some fan builders to explore techniques and models. This time we have the talented Steve Guinness: one half of the team who won Series 1 of Channel 4's LEGO Masters who now undertake commissions as The Brick Guys.

Clockwork Robots 

When I saw the 1x3 jumper plate (Design ID 34103) I liked the unusual pattern on the underside, as it has no anti-studs or pegs. The tiny triangles reminded me of teeth so I came up with these Clockwork Robots.


19 September 2018

2018 Parts Fest #1: Tim Goddard's Engaging Elements

Posted by Admin
In addition to our Portugal workshop we also sent a varied selection of new LEGO® parts from 2018 to some fan builders, and in an occasional ‘parts festival’ series over the next month or two we’ll be showing you the techniques and models they came up with. First up, our good friend Tim Goddard, co-author of LEGO Space: Building the Future.

At Bricktastic in Manchester this year Tim J mentioned he had a selection of new parts and would I like to explore them for New E. Being the parts monkey that I am, I of course said yes, and what an interesting selection of parts I got!


Let's start small... possibly the smallest LEGO element to date (I am saying this knowing that New E readers will correct me if I am wrong) are the Infinity Stones, which I was supplied with in Transparent Yellow (Element ID 6223002 | Design ID 36451).

02 June 2017

NEXOGON: The Nexacore Building

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Luc Byard surprised me with another creation for our parts festival today! LEGO® part 27255 is critical but nearly invisible in his bold piece of architecture.

One of the first things I thought about doing with Nexogons was using them for the core of some kind of structure, and here's where that led me.

To do so, I knew I would first need a better solution than I used in the Starglider to give the Nexogon a truly six-sided application.

23 May 2017

NEXOGON: The Nexo-mixer

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Take a ride with Gary Davis (Bricks for Brains) as he presents another creation for our parts festival using the LEGO® NEXO KNIGHTS™ Combo Power shield (Design ID 27255). 

This simple mixer ride came to mind when I was thinking about using the Nexogons to create fractal patterns. Fractal patterns occur throughout the natural world whereby one simple shape is repeated multiple times to create complicated patterns.





I needed a base for the mixer and it suddenly came to me that a giant Nexogon would be a neat solution.

20 May 2017

NEXOGON: Wearable LEGO® creation

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When selecting builders for our parts festival, one thing I was looking for was the unusual. So I couldn't pass up on Blair Archer's wild idea to add Nexogons to the outfit he was developing for his local LEGO® convention in Portland, Oregon! He shares the ups and downs of this inspiring project with us today. (Oh - and if you haven't yet seen Blair's 1979 ALIEN Xenomorph on his Flickr page, you totally need to check that out too.)


For some time now, I had a ‘wearable LEGO creation’ concept rolling around in my mind and various sketches in my notebooks. I'd been wanting to build a cyberpunk-style Samurai suit of armor/battledress, but was struggling with the fashion design element since LEGO connections don't lend themselves to creating curves or complex polygons very easily (at least not ones that can withstand motion, without being overly rigid/heavy/uncomfortable to wear). I jumped at the chance last year to load up on Mixels joints in bulk, thinking these would be ideal for creating a LEGO wearable piece that could conform to the shape of a human body, and withstand some bending and movement.

15 May 2017

NEXOGON: Dragon’s head and scaling technique

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Our next post from Gabriel Thomson (qi_tah on Flickr) for our parts festival describes the results when he tried using LEGO® Rotor, W/ 4.85 Hole (Design ID 27255) to create the effect of scales.


One of the first things I thought of when I received the Nexogon parts in bulk was the potential to arrange them in a scale-like pattern. I started off with a ‘spine’ of a single column of parts, and used them to create a dragon-like creature.

11 May 2017

NEXOGON: Sanctum of the Clockwork King

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Duncan Lindbo (donutsftw) is back again today with his Nexogons (the new hexagonal LEGO® piece 27255), taking things a step up...

Phew! This build used up all the Nexogons Tim sent me, and then some!


09 May 2017

NEXOGON: Shanghai Tower

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Following our run of spaceships utilising the new hexagonal LEGO® part 27255, today Li Li from MOC Recipes returns with a towering example of modern architecture! 

One of the buildings that I’ve always wanted to build is the Shanghai Tower, the world’s second-tallest building after Burj Khalifa. It has a very intriguing twisted shape. I didn’t have a good solution for it — until I saw the Nexogon. It’s perfect for building triangles with concentric centers.


04 May 2017

NEXOGON: The Millennium Falcogon

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May the Fourth be with you... and for once, we actually have something Star Wars-related to share with you, courtesy of Kevin Levell and his penchant for nexogonal LEGO® spacecraft.

Whilst building the flying saucergon I noticed some familiar shapes, at least to my eyes: there was a passing resemblance to the “circular” main body of the Millennium Falcon...

Millennium Falcon LEGO model by Kevin Levell

30 April 2017

NEXOGON: Starglider

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We welcome Luc Byard back today with another exciting creation using LEGO® part 27255, giving us insight into how he came up with this sleek starglider.


It began with a Nexogon on its edge. The idea was to use it as the central piece and build a cockpit forwards from it and a tri-cluster of engines and wings back from it using the Nexogon to influence the overall shape.

26 April 2017

NEXOGON: The Inexorable

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Tim Goddard (Rogue Bantha on Flickr) is certainly no stranger to Neo-Classic Space creations but our parts festival using the new hexagonal LEGO® part 27255 is pushing him to greater heights. His latest ship, The Inexorable, now takes off...

For this build I started with a tablescrap (a small build, normally of no particular purpose, a bit like a doodle) and that turned into an engine. More detail on that in a moment, but first let's look at the main body of the craft.

24 April 2017

Minecraft 2017: Steampunk Spider

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Jonas Kramm has sort of been running a mini-parts festival here on New Elementary recently using a piece from the new LEGO® Minecraft sets, and today he brings it to our other parts festival...

For this build I combined the 'birdhouse' plate (Design ID 27928) with another part that is being reviewed on New Elementary currently, the Nexogon (Design ID 27255). The result is a three-legged Steampunk spider creature.

23 April 2017

NEXOGON: Stacking

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For his next investigation of the LEGO® Plate, Modified 6 x 6 Hexagonal with Pin Hole (Design ID 27255), Brian D'Agostine (Dag) went back to basics to discover what happens when Nexogons are stacked.

For my third exploration I was curious about stacking pieces. Gary Davis had suggested the idea and shown a few neat stacking ideas but didn't take them further. My thought was to stack the 2x2 portions on top of each other to create a tighter pattern than some of Tim's initial offerings.

The idea first came from trying to get a sense of the geometry. In my first post I had used a 2x4 Technic plate to judge where the central hole was in relation to the sets of 2x2 studs. Doing this required a 2x2 plate to lift the Technic piece above the ridges and relief on the surface. The Technic plate later came off but I snapped another Nexogon on top of that 2x2. And then another. And another. Soon I had a tight little pyramid of sorts, all stacked up.