LEGO® Hidden Side Review: 70418 J.B.’s Ghost Lab

With so many amazing Parts Festival builds pouring out of our talented builders, let's just take a little break – and round off our reviews of LEGO® Hidden Side sets! Ben Davies takes a look at 70418 J.B.’s Ghost Lab.

To complete our coverage of LEGO Hidden Side, today we will be examining the smallest of the retail sets, 70418 J.B.’s Ghost Lab. As the set name would suggest, this set depicts the laboratory where scientist extraordinaire J.B. studies the ghosts that are haunting Newbury, and tests out the latest ghost-hunting gadgets.

LEGO® Ideas review: 21320 Dinosaur Fossils

Back in early 2017, Fan Designer Jonathan Brunn launched his idea "Dinosaurs Fossils Skeletons - Natural History Collection" on the LEGO® Ideas platform. Some two and a half years later, two dinosaur skeletons and a pterosaur reptile have made it to the final product, with a little extra surprise or two included.

Announced today, 21320 Dinosaur Fossils has 910 pieces and is priced at US$59.99/ €59.99/ UK£54.99 and will be available from 1 November, 2019. So let's brush off the dirt and uncover the bones of this latest Ideas set.

LEGO® CITY review: 60234 People Pack - Fun Fair

While we tend not to to focus on minifigures heavily here at New Elementary, we often look at minifigure accessories, body wear and headgear as they can often be utilised within builds completely differently than being simple minifigure elements. 60234 People Pack Fun Fair (available at Amazon.com – paid link) was released this summer and contains enough interesting, new elements for us to take a closer look.

60234 People Pack Fun Fair contains 183 elements, 14 minifigures and is priced at  £34.99 / $39.99 / 39.99€.

LEGO® Hidden Side review: 70423 Paranormal Intercept Bus 3000

Continuing our examination of the new LEGO® Hidden Side theme, Ben Davies (ProfessorBrickkeeper) takes a look at 70423 Paranormal Intercept Bus 3000 which is now available priced £54.99 / $59.99 / 59.99€.

For all the different LEGO® buses produced over the years, there’s been surprisingly few depictions of school buses. Historically, LEGO has instead opted to reproduce public transport and tour buses. With the launch of LEGO Hidden Side 70423 Paranormal Intercept Bus 3000, they have finally rectified the situation. The Paranormal Intercept Bus 3000 is modeled off of a typical American school bus, retrofitted with various gizmos and gadgets to help heroes Jack, Parker, and J.B. defeat the ghosts of the Hidden Side.

LEGO® Hidden Side review: 70419 Wrecked Shrimp Boat

Our third LEGO® Hidden Side set review is one of the cheaper sets, 70419 Wrecked Shrimp Boat. It has 310 elements, four minifigures and one sticker sheet with 15 stickers. It retails at £24.99 / US$29.99 / 29.99€.

Let's take a look and see if this set has any interesting new elements to float the boat of New Elementary readers.

LEGO® Hidden Side review: 70422 Shrimp Shack Attack

Hidden Side is a new LEGO® theme for 2019 featuring brick-built sets that combine with augmented reality (AR) to give a physical and digital aspect to each set. The Hidden Side range features eight building sets and interaction is via a smartphone app which reveals a hidden world of interactive mysteries and challenges to solve, using AR.

We are taking a look at a few Hidden Side sets and following 70425 Newbury Haunted High School, our second set up for review is 70422 Shrimp Shack Attack. This set has 579 pieces, one sticker sheet with 16 stickers, five minifigures and retails at £44.99 / US$49.99 / 49.99€.

LEGO® Hidden Side review: 70425 Newbury Haunted High School

We interrupt your Parts Festival to bring you the first of our reviews of LEGO® Hidden Side sets, of which we will examine five over the coming weeks. Jonas Kramm takes reviewing duties of 70425 Newbury Haunted High School.

Hidden Side is the new LEGO® theme in town, and brings us eight new play sets. To start we’re exploring the biggest one: it’s not a new Elementary School, but Newbury’s Haunted High School.

Opening the box reveals nine bags containing 1474 pieces, one big instruction booklet and two sheets with 44 stickers to apply. The biggest interest for me is always what new parts are included so let’s take a look what treasures are buried here.

LEGO® Ideas review: 21319 Central Perk

Well, it might not have been your day, your week, your month, or even your year but we are here for you with our review of the new LEGO® Ideas 21319 Central Perk set. Could you BE any more excited? Well it might depend on whether you actually ever watched the television series Friends back in the 1990s.

LEGO Ideas 21319 Central Perk is rated for ages 16+ and contains 1070 elements, seven minifigures and a small sticker sheet. It is due for release on 1 September 2019. Let's go and have a coffee with some friends now.

LEGO® review: 71044 Disney Train and Station

Announced today, LEGO® set 71044 Disney Train and Station is a mammoth, detailed set containing a 77cm-long train and a station based on Disney theme parks which is 39cm x 35cm. It will be available direct from LEGO stores from 21 August 2019 for VIPs and general release from 1 September for £299.99/ US$329.99/ CA$379.99/ DE€329.99/ FR€329.99/ 2499DKK/ AU$549.99.

In 2016, LEGO released the first series of Disney Collectable Minifigures, followed by a big set. This year, LEGO released the second series of Disney Collectable Minifigures, and it is also followed by a big set. 71044 Disney Train and Station comes with 2925 pieces and five minifigures, which we’re about to examine!

LEGO® Ideas 21318 Treehouse: the build

Time for the second part of our LEGO® Ideas 21318 Treehouse review, looking at the build. We covered its elements in part 1.

In a great alteration to Kevin Freeser's original fan submission, which had a grey square base, César Soares' official version has an irregular green shape with a stream running through it. The stream is Dark Azure plate (including the 4x8, Element ID 6209672, its third appearance in sets) with a layer of Transparent 1x1 and 1x2 plates on top.

LEGO® Ideas 21318 Treehouse: the parts

Fan designer Kevin Freeser faced an unexpected challenge after submitting his Treehouse to LEGO® Ideas: he had exceeded the 3000 part limit imposed and had to redesign it with fewer elements. Ironically the final retail set exceeds it again, at 3036 pieces, but you can see why The LEGO Group didn’t want to skimp with this set. Folks, this thing is big.

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

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. 



LEGO® Technic review: 42097 Compact Crawler Crane

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.

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

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).

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

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.

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® Overwatch review: 75974 Bastion

Over the next week or so we have a series of LEGO® Overwatch articles for you. Firstly, following on from our reviews of 75975 Watchpoint: Gibraltar and 75973 D.Va & Reinhardt a few months ago, we now have one more set review which we asked Victor Pruvost to check out.

In our third LEGO® Overwatch review, we’re going to examine 75974 Bastion. With 602 parts and  a RRP of £54,99 / US$49,99 / 59,99€, Bastion is the second-largest set of the January 2019 Overwatch wave.

LEGO® Inside Tour 2019: new and exclusive parts

Every year The LEGO Group run a few “Inside Tour” events where they open their doors to a small group of fans. The lucky participants – I say lucky because although they are paying for the pleasure, tickets sell out almost instantly – are given behind the scenes access to LEGO HQ, hang out with designers and receive all manner of goodies. The most notable goodie is the Inside Tour set, a set designed for the tours that (sometimes) remains unavailable elsewhere. Each celebrates an aspect of LEGO history such as the Ferguson tractor, or the LEGOLAND train.

This year’s set is especially exciting to New Elementary as it contains a new element, produced exclusively for the set. It is 3D printed rather than injection moulded, so while its quality is much lower than regular LEGO pieces, it’s still super exciting... and rare. Participants were told it is the first 3D-printed piece ever to appear in a LEGO set (unless any of you readers know otherwise?). They’ve even given it ID numbers; Element ID 6286866|Design ID 66237, but don’t expect it to ever become available anywhere!

75936 Jurassic Park T. rex Rampage: set review

We hope you've been enjoying the run of LEGO® Jurassic World articles we've published recently including two designer interviews and a look at the new parts in 75936 Jurassic Park T. rex Rampage. Today, Jonas Kramm examines the build and techniques of that set.

75936 Jurassic Park T. rex Rampage is only the second set from the LEGO® Jurassic World series that is a homage to the classic movie from 1993. It comes with 3120 pieces that get used to build a huge dinosaur, an enormous gate and an additional minifigure stand.

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.