LEGO® Creator Expert review: 10272 Old Trafford - Manchester United

Today Ben Davies plays with a set the size of a football field! LEGO® Creator Expert 10272 Old Trafford - Manchester United clearly has a target audience of certain football fans, but will certain LEGO fans appreciate it for its techniques and many parts, including new moulds? The set is priced £249.99 / $299.99 / 269.99€.

With the exception of the occasional LEGO® Friends set, the last time LEGO tackled the subject of football (or for our American readers, soccer) was in 2006 for the LEGO Sports theme. That changes with 10272 Old Trafford - Manchester United, introduced in February to the LEGO Creator Expert line.

Old Trafford stadium was first opened in 1910 in Greater Manchester, England, and since then has served as the home stadium of the famous Manchester United Football Club. It is currently celebrating its 110th anniversary, which LEGO is capitalizing on with the release of this set.

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® Ideas review: 21322 Pirates of Barracuda Bay - the build

Just revealed, 21322 Pirates of Barracuda Bay is the next LEGO® Ideas set and we have not one but three articles about it for you this week! Later we have a fascinating interview with the designers Milan Madge and Austin William Carlson, but first up Jonas Kramm reviews the set across two articles: today he looks at the ship, bay and Easter eggs and next will be the new parts and the minifigures.

Ahoy sailor! Did you ever wonder what happened to Redbeard and his beloved vessel, the Black Seas Barracuda? Then come closer and I will tell you the tale of the Pirates of Barracuda Bay: the newest LEGO® Ideas set.

Pitched by Pablo Jiménez (Bricky_Brick) as “The Pirate Bay” in 2019, the submission that took only 25 days to reach the required 10,000 supporters has now been turned into an official set and will be available from 1 April 2020. It contains 2,545 pieces and the price point is US$199.99/ CA$259.99/ €199.99/ £179.99/ 1599DKK.

LEGO® DOTS review: 41908 Extra Dots - Series 1

A range of new sets from LEGO® DOTS hit the market earlier this month, and one set that looked interesting to me was 41908 Extra Dots - Series 1. These little packs are advertised as containing 109 colourful tiles, with "10 surprise charms included" so we thought we would open some up to see what we got.

Each pack is priced at  £3.99 / US$3.99 / 3.99€ which works out at 3.7 pence/cents per tile, although it works out slightly less than this due to the inclusion of spare pieces.

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.

LEGO® DOTS Review: the Bracelet sets

The latest theme from everyone's favourite Danish toy manufacturer is a creative, crafty experience called LEGO® DOTS. We recently published articles about the Dots launch event in London and the actual bracelet strap element, but we were also keen to look at the five sets that make up the range of Dots bracelets: 41900 Rainbow, 41901 Funky Animals, 41902 Sparkly Unicorn, 41903 Cosmic Wonder and 41912 Love Birds.



The LEGO Dots bracelets are now available to buy for £4.99 / $4.99 / 5.99€ per pack from LEGO online and in store of course, but also at a wide range of toy stores and retailers. No need to panic buy them yet: despite some LEGO sites showing some Dots sets to be temporarily out of stock, there are plenty of other options.

LEGO® Disney review: Storybook Adventures - the new parts

On Monday, Tobias Witmer (TobyMac) examined the recoloured and printed parts to be found in the new LEGO® Disney Storybook Adventure sets (43174 Mulan’s Storybook Adventures, 43175 Anna and Elsa’s Storybook Adventures, 43176 Ariel’s Storybook Adventures, and 43177 Belle’s Storybook Adventures). Today he completes his review by examining the new moulds, including the new 'Micro Doll' figures.

New parts in LEGO® Disney Storybook Adventures

Firstly we will examine the elements that comprise the books themselves.

The spine consists of a single part: Plate Special Book Cover Back 6 x 16 (65200). It is 16 studs long (or high, given that a book stands upwards in a bookcase) and the center consists of a plate with 4 x 16 studs with, for some reason, gaps of 2 x 2 in the middle. On the sides are curved walls with a pin hole on the ends, which allow the connection to the book covers.

LEGO® Disney review: Storybook Adventures - the recolours and printed pieces

We're excited to have our friend Tobias Witmer (TobyMac), from the fantastic website Rebrickable.com (which shows you what other models you can make with your existing parts) reviewing the new LEGO® Disney Storybook Adventure sets for you across two posts this week. A Technic fan as a child, Tobias came back to LEGO around 10 years ago when he discovered Peeron.com. When that great resource sadly stopped updating he stumbled upon Rebrickable and, soon becoming utterly LEGO-obsessed, he became an admin there in 2016. 

This week I’ll be looking at four sets at once:
 43174 Mulan’s Storybook Adventures, 43175 Anna and Elsa’s Storybook Adventures, 43176 Ariel’s Storybook Adventures, and 43177 Belle’s Storybook Adventures. This series of sets consists of a LEGO-build book with a small diorama on the inside and figures, to play out your own stories.


These sets caught my eye because of the new style of figures introduced, which BrickLink call Micro Doll. Then I also noticed the large book pieces. Unneeded, single-use parts? Or could a creative mind do more with them? I’ll describe them for you, and let you be the judge.


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

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.

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

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.

LEGO® Architecture review: 21052 Dubai

Examining another 2020 LEGO® Architecture set today, we have Ben Davies. 21052 Dubai is part of the Skylines series, has 740 pieces and is priced £54.99 / US$59.99 / 59.99€.

21052 Dubai is one of the latest sets in the long-running LEGO® Architecture range and depicts several buildings from the United Arab Emirates’ most populous city, arranged in Architecture’s signature Skylines format.

LEGO® BrickHeadz review: Lucky Cat, Wedding Groom and Bride

Jonas Kramm is here to tell you about some cute new additions to the LEGO® BrickHeadz line for 2020, and whether their inventories might be of interest to builders.

Today we will take a look at three new BrickHeadz, now available: the Wedding Bride and Groom, and just in time for Chinese New Year: the Lucky Cat.

LEGO® IDEAS review: 21321 International Space Station

The next LEGO® Ideas set to be released is 21321 International Space Station. This year marks the 20th anniversary of the ISS as it has been maintaining a continuous human presence in space since November 2000. It seems apt that it is being enshrined as a LEGO Ideas set this year.

The selection of the ISS as an Ideas set was via a slightly different route as a mark of the 10 years anniversary of LEGO Ideas (originally LEGO Cuusoo) This time, the LEGO Ideas team looked back at all the submissions that had reached 10K but had not passed review, and selected four for fans to vote for to make the final decision. The ISS by by fan designer Christophe Ruge won the public vote. The new LEGO Ideas International Space Station is rated 16+, contains 864 pieces and priced at US $69.99 / CA $99.99 / DE €69.99 / FR €59.99 / UK £64.99 / DK 549DKK from LEGO stores and online from February 1st.
Let's take a look at those new elements...

LEGO® Friends Review: Series 1 Play Cubes 41400-41404

One of the new concepts that LEGO® has released this year are the Friends Play Cubes - compact, portable little sets that are part of a collectible series and can be stacked together.  Each Play Cube set costs US$9.99/ £7.99/ 9.99€ and there are five to collect in Series 1.

We thought we would take a look at the complete first series of Friends Play Cubes to check out the new elements; in particular to take a closer look at the play cubes themselves.

LEGO® Overwatch review: 75976 Wrecking Ball

LEGO® Overwatch 75976 Wrecking Ball is one of the two Overwatch sets released in October 2019, selling for £17.99 / US$19.99 / 19.99€ although perhaps you may now be seeing it on sale. We've taken a different approach to this review: both Jonas Kramm and Inthert received copies and have each built alternate models with the set! But before we reveal those, here is their shared review, starting with Jonas.

The Build

The model represents the playable vehicle from the game, piloted by Hammond, a hamster. Depending on the situation on the battlefield the mech can transform between two different modes.

Gun-Mode

In gun-mode the mech has four stubby legs and deploys two assault cannons on each side.

LEGO® Employee Gift 4002019 Christmas X-Wing: Build Your Own

Each Christmas, The LEGO Group give their employees all over the world a special gift set. Since this year is the 20th anniversary of LEGO® Star Wars, it seems they have decided to incorporate the theme by designing a Yuletide X-Wing complete with R2-D2 sleigh and Yoda's igloo. The problem with employee sets is that they are are not released for purchase although inevitably a large amount seem to find their way to the secondary marketplaces.



Recognised LEGO Fan Media (like us!) are lucky enough to also receive one and so we thought we would take a look at this exclusive set with the aim of reassuring you that if you want to build it, that is almost entirely possible thanks to the scarcity of exclusive elements in it.

LEGO® Architecture Review: 21051 Tokyo

We hope you all had a good Christmas and got some brick-based treats from Santa. Looking forward to 2020? Ben Davies is here to get you in the mood with a beautiful new Architecture set: 21051 Tokyo.

LEGO® Architecture goes small in Japan in the latest addition to the Skylines subtheme. 21051 Tokyo depicts a composite skyline of the capital city, featuring eight different landmarks. The 547-piece set will be available January 1st, 2020, retailing for US$59.99 / £59.99.

LEGO® Creator Expert review: 10267 Gingerbread House

Continuing our pre-Christmas look at more 2019 sets, today Victor Pruvost examines the latest LEGO® Winter Village set in great detail. Missed our interview about it with Design Manager Specialist Jamie Berard? Read it here.

Winter will soon be upon us; the holiday season is approaching. LEGO gave AFOLs the perfect opportunity to decorate their homes for this occasion ten years ago with the Winter Village line.  We’ve mostly seen buildings made for humans so far, but this time, LEGO decided to make a surprising addition to the Winter Village by giving our minifigures edible neighbours. Indeed, this year’s Winter Village set is 10267 Gingerbread House.

LEGO® Harry Potter review & alt build: 75958 Beauxbatons' Carriage

Continuing our final run of 2019 sets that caught our interest parts-wise, we have an August release from LEGO® Harry Potter which Jonas Kramm has not only reviewed but also created an alternate build of his own design with!

The recent series of sets from the Wizarding World brings us a bunch of scenes from the fourth movie: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. Our pick is 75958 Beauxbatons' Carriage: Arrival at Hogwarts including 412 pieces and priced at £44.99 / $49.99 / 49.99€.

LEGO® Technic review: 42100 Liebherr R 9800

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?