LEGO® DOTS: Cole Blaq's Beasts from Below

Cole Blaq took up our challenge of using some LEGO® DOTS bracelets in his own creations, firstly to create some intriguing abstract sculptures and today we reveal his next collection of creations. Cole is a visual artist and educator based in Germany who is primarily influenced by the mediums of graffiti and LEGO. The Dots products in this article were provided for free by LEGO; the author's opinions are not biased by this.

I received three copies each of 41900 Rainbow, 41902 Sparkly Unicorn, 41901 Funky Animals and 41912 Love Birds to use as seed parts. My limited collection of the newer ‘bubblegum’ colours is rather small for exploring larger builds. I’d love to have also received the black bracelets from 41903 Cosmic Wonder as I consider those more useful due to their neutral colouring.

Ray

LEGO® DOTS: Cole Blaq's Viruses

One of the more unusual elements introduced in 2020 is the LEGO® DOTS bracelet, and we love a challenge here at New Elementary – almost as much as we love challenging others! So Elspeth De Montes asked Cole Blaq if he would take on the challenge of using some Dots bracelet sets in his own creations. If you don’t know of Cole, he’s been a legendary figure on the AFOL scene for well over a decade. He is a visual artist and educator based in Germany who is primarily influenced by the mediums of graffiti and LEGO. The Dots products in this article were provided for free by LEGO; the author's opinions are not biased by this.

I was sent 41900 Rainbow, 41902 Sparkly Unicorn, 41901 Funky Animals and 41912 Love Birds. The parts selection is very limited in these sets, so I concentrated on smaller builds, initially to find useful implementations highlighting the bracelets (Design ID 66821) which are most interesting. Their flexibility really opens up possibilities. An issue however is the amount of studs, and where they are positioned. This makes these irregular parts even more irregular.

Tipper Ends: Eero Okkonen's Aurora Sievert & Hurricane III

Yesterday, Eero Okkonen examined in great detail the history and geometry of the 'Tipper End Family' of LEGO® pieces, especially Vehicle, Tipper End Flat with Pins (Design ID 3145) and Vehicle, Tipper End Sloped (3436). Today he reveals this never-before-published model he built in February using tipper ends, but first he takes us through earlier models where he utilised these unusual parts that were introduced five decades ago.  

Previous Builds

A more mathematical approach to tipper ends is a new and exciting world to me, but I’ve used them few times before, mostly as armour shells or clothing, something akin to Constraction shells.

Minifig Posing Stand: Pierre-E Fieschi's starfighters

This year we have been examining an interesting new LEGO® part: the new posing element (Design ID 65578) known as "Handle, No.1", "Minifigure, Utensil Posing Stand, Bar with Hollow Stud" or "Bar, Angled with Stud on End". Following on from Jonas Kramm's and Kevin Levell's analyses, our final article reveals what gaming concept artist Pierre-E Fieschi (see his Instagram, ArtStation) created using the posing stands we sent him.

Mini LEGO TIE interceptor

I had the idea to make a mini TIE interceptor from Star Wars - which is one of my favourite TIE designs – using the 45° trans-clear thingies instead of the usual hinge/clip assemblies for the wings.

LEGO® NINJAGO™ Arcade Pods: Victor Pruvost's Computer and Rover

2020 seems to be a bit of a year for LEGO® pods. The Friends, Ninjago and Trolls lines all feature large two-piece containers that you might struggle to think of uses for. Today, Victor Pruvost examines the second of these: the LEGO NINJAGO Arcade Pods which come in sets 71714 Kai Avatar, 71715 Jay Avatar and 71716 Lloyd Avatar.

Breaking away from the usual spinners, flyers and other Spinjitzu-related entry-level sets, LEGO® released three Arcade Pods as part of the latest Ninjago wave, which is inspired by video games. Like the new Friends Play Cubes, these Arcade Pods are built around two specialized new parts, which we’re examining today.

Those two elements are:

• Arcade Front (Design ID 65067), which comes in the three classic colours Bright Red/ Red (Element ID 6287556), Bright Blue/ Blue (6287557), and Dark Green/ Green (6287559). It is called Design Element, Front, 6X6X7 by TLG/Brickset, Minifigure, Utensil Arcade Game Cabinet Body by BrickLink and Pod, Arcade Machine by Rebrickable.
• Arcade Back (Design ID 65068), which is only available in Dark Stone Grey/ Dark Bluish Gray (Element ID 6287562). It is called Design Element, Back, 6X8X1, W/3.2 Shaft by TLG/Brickset, Minifigure, Utensil Arcade Game Cabinet Back by BrickLink and Plate Special 6 x 8 x 1 with Bar, Door by Rebrickable.

Interestingly enough, Element IDs 6287558, 6287560 and 6287561 aren’t assigned, so I wonder if there could be more Arcade Pods in the future for the other Ninjas, with different colours.

LEGO® Xtra: Inthert uses 40376 Botanical Accessories as seed parts

You may recall we recently challenged Inthert to get creative with a couple of polybags from the LEGO® Xtra range. We already published his creations based upon 40375 Sports Accessories and today comes the other bag: 40376 Botanical Accessories which has 32 pieces and is priced £3.99 / $3.99 / 3.99€.

 

For the green-fingered among you, there is 40376 Botanical Accessories (not to be confused with 2018’s 40310 Botanical Accessories).

LEGO® Xtra: Inthert tackles 40375 Sports Accessories

Sometimes The LEGO Group offer us polybags from the LEGO® Xtra range to review, and although these don't contain completely new elements or recolours we still love the challenge of figuring out what to do with them! In the past Tim Goddard has taken on the challenge but this time we've asked another UK Spacer, Inthert, to get creative with them. 

Unless you’re willing to purchase multiple sets or rummage in the build-a-minifigure section in store, obtaining a good selection of themed parts direct from LEGO® can be tricky. At least that was the case before the LEGO Xtra polybags hit shelves. Each bag typically consists of a handful of accessories along with a few basic bricks that can be used to make a suggested small build or two. Today we’ll be focusing on 40375 Sports Accessories; we’ll look over the parts included, then dive into some MOCs I made using the bag’s contents as seed elements.

Minifig Posing Stand: Kevin Levell's Fishy Fun

We sent a few builders an interesting new LEGO® part and following on from Jonas Kramm's analysis last month, UK-based builder Kevin Levell reveals what he made of these small but useful angled bar and stud elements.

The new posing element (Design ID 65578) is officially known as "Handle, No.1", while BrickLink call it "Minifigure, Utensil Posing Stand, Bar with Hollow Stud" and Rebrickable have gone with the neat "Bar, Angled with Stud on End" and can be found in 71026 DC Superheroes Collectible Minifigure series. It looks to be another wonderfully versatile addition to the selection of small LEGO parts.

Minifig Posing Stand: Jonas Kramm's fantastic furniture

As soon as we saw the LEGO® DC Super Heroes Collectable Minifigure Series, we knew that we had to get our hands on the new little transparent angled bar included with the figures. We gave a handful of these new elements to three creative minds to see what they thought, and we will publish these over the coming weeks. First up is Jonas Kramm who analyses its geometry and possibilities.

Jumping, flying and fighting: these poses and many more can now be achieved easily by your LEGO minifigures. With the new element introduced in the DC Super Heroes Collectible Minifigure Series, called "Handle No.1" (6285587|65578) by The LEGO Group and "Minifigure, Utensil Posing Stand" by BrickLink, minifigures can strike a suitably super stance by connecting it to the bottom or the back of their legs. Regardless of which DC character you get, you get one posing stand and often even an extra one spare.

2019 Parts Fest #2: Eero Okkonen's trio of characters

Well it's been our biggest, longest Parts Festival to date but today our LEGO® building fiesta comes to an end with not one, not two but three incredible characters designed by Eero Okkonen featuring the new 2019 pieces we sent him. You can also see his earlier parts fest builds here and follow his builds on his blog.

Gwathlo of Order of Morning Star

2019 Parts Fest #2: Mansur Soeleman's kitchen, church and temple

Today sees the return of Mansur “Waffles” Soeleman (Flickr & Instagram) to our Parts Festival, who previously blew us away with his LEGO® Star Wars creations. We have a really varied range of creations from him, using the seed parts we provided.

Life Sized Stove

Exploring the jumper plate-like characteristics of the 'Frozone board' (32627) led me to discover its real life counterpart one morning when I spilled freshly brewed espresso on a stove-top: perfect knobs, unlike the ones I had to clean the coffee from.

2019 Parts Fest #2: Thorin Finch's Republic Assault

When we sent new LEGO® parts to Alice Finch she got her sons involved in the Parts Festival fun! We saw many of their resulting builds last year but today we showcase an epic Star Wars diorama built entirely by Thorin (aged 16) as well as a gunship.  

Republic assault on an outer rim Separatist science facility

2019 Parts Fest #2: Pierre-E Fieschi's Imperial Star Destroyer and Chibi Tanks

The LEGO® parts festival we ran in late 2019 was so big and so successful, we didn't have time to finish publishing all the amazing creations our chosen builders came up with! So at last, over the next few days, we will publish the remaining models featuring our selected elements introduced in 2019. Warming us back up is French concept artist and architect Pierre-E Fieschi who showcases more of his inspiring ideas, following on from his Liebherr tunnelling machine and his sci-fi containers and launch pad.

Imperial Star Destroyer

This small Imperial Star Destroyer was a lot of fun to build. The large hook/grappler kind of resembles the trapezoid of the ISD bridge. It is found in the 'Batman bag' (Mini Accessory, No. 10 – 6266155| 40598).

2019 parts Fest #2: Okkonen's Kekkonen and Tempietto

Finnish builder Eero Okkonen returns to our Parts Festival today for a fourth outing using new LEGO® parts. You can see his earlier builds here and follow his builds on his blog.

Portrait of the President

The person in the portrait is Urho Kaleva Kekkonen (1900-1986), the eighth president of Finland. His reign lasted from 1956 to 1982, over 25 years, which is unusual in democratic country that limits its president’s career to two six-year terms.

2019 Parts Fest #2: Peter Ilmrud's gunship, flying city and bathhouse

Our final new Parts Festival participant is Peter Ilmrud, a Swedish AFOL who is a building engineer in real life but builds wondrous fantasy, castle and steampunk builds in his LEGO® life. His most well-known creations are perhaps his beautiful scenes contained within glass domes.

This build is an alien gunship often referred to as "Bullet Bill" by the survivors in the year 2119, 50 years after The Invasion.

2019 Parts Fest #2: Mansur Soeleman's Star Wars

Today, another new participant for this Parts Festival presents his first builds. Mansur “Waffles” Soeleman (Flickr & Instagram) is a former art & design student who, having just come out of his Grey Age (that's a semi-Dark Age), has been building with LEGO® elements seriously for just a year now, but mostly digitally.

For a newbie it is always an exhilarating surprise to be recognised for your work, and to be invited to challenges that only elevate your skills. Such was my reaction to find out that I had been recommended for this year’s second Parts Festival by several world-renowned Classic Space builders.

Clone Turbo Tank and AT-TE

2019 Parts Fest #2: The Finch's candy and craft

We have new arrivals to our LEGO® Parts festival today: Alice Finch of BippityBricks.com (famed for her massive Hogwarts and Rivendell models) has a range of creations. She even got the family involved; her sons Thorin (16) and Hadrian (11) have chipped in too!

Candy dispenser

This tasty creation uses the grappler and the weapon pack discs from Mini Accessory, No. 10  (40598|6266155), and the circular saws from Mini Accessory, No. 11 (50018|6266977).

2019 Parts Fest #2: Tim Goddard's Star Trek & Star Wars

Back to the Parts Festival today – yes, we have lots more LEGO® inspiration for you yet, even some new faces! – but it is Tim Goddard's turn again today, following his recent collection of bots and a hover racer, and other tablescraps. 

USS Enterprise

We start with the spacey franchise Star Trek. Possibly my hardest model ever to photograph.

2019 Parts Fest #2: Oscar's Anti-Gravity Repair Bay 5

Oscar Cederwall returns for a third time to our Parts Festival following his previous articles: an exploration of geometric joys and clips and crustacean.  This time Oscar has been using those greeble-tastic Batman LEGO® elements in a sci-fi scene. Get your spanners ready, we are about to land on Oscar's futuristic Anti-Gravity Repair Bay 5.

2019 Parts Fest #2: Andreas Lenander's oversized camera

Oops! I left one creation out of yesterday's post of vintage electronics by Andreas Lenander. 

Oversized camera

About two years ago I built an old camera which I was fortunate enough to be able to display in the LEGO® House Masterpiece Gallery. I really wanted to try something similar again and came to the conclusion that using two of the rims (Motorcycle Rim Ø 75 Solid "Fat boy" in Medium Stone Grey/ Light Bluish Gray – 6268590|46334) would give me the appropriate size for the objective.