With Groove

Let's take a break from all that New Black and add a splash of colour! All together now; “We all live in a Bright Yellow [TLG]/Yellow [BL] Submarine, a Bright Yellow [TLG]/Yellow [BL] Submarine, a Bright Yellow [TLG]/Yellow [BL] Submarine.” That song is in your head now, isn't it.

21306 The Beatles Yellow Submarine is the result of Kevin Szeto's successful LEGO® Ideas submission adapted by LEGO designer Justin Ramsden. It will be released on 1 November with an RRP of £49.99/ US$59.99/ €59.99. I don’t have much affection for the animated film on which this design is based (or indeed the song) but it certainly was seminal for its time and the style defines the hippie trippy age of animation.

Seventh Heaven

Today we have an extensive review of the parts that come in LEGO® Ideas 21307 Caterham Seven 620R, peppered with comments from the designer of the original concept, Carl Greatrix. I could not be happier for Carl, who is a top bloke and a remarkable builder. He’s also fun at parties.

This is big, Peter, this is very big

Despite having been released way back in January, I've still got a lot to say about the astonishing  LEGO® Ghostbusters 75827 Firehouse Headquarters! Indeed, many of its new and recoloured parts still remain exclusive nine months later, so sit back and discover what I found when sifting through its 4,624 parts.

Triple Trouble

Love it or hate it, LEGO® BIONICLE holds a pivotal and remarkable place in the history of LEGO products. Since November 2014, New Elementary has been lucky enough to have the Barnick brothers writing superb, detailed analyses of selected sets and parts in the relaunched range. It may surprise some readers to hear that many of these posts are among the most popular in this site's history. Today, Andrew Barnick returns to examine some of the sets in what has now been confirmed as being the final wave of the reboot. 

Hello, New Elementary readers! Today I’ll be reviewing three of the summer 2016 LEGO BIONICLE sets: 71313 Lava Beast, 71314 Storm Beast, and 71315 Quake Beast. I apologize for the lateness—this review is somewhat bittersweet for me, with the recent news that this latest wave of Bionicle will be the last one for the foreseeable future. But I would be remiss to let the theme go without offering New Elementary’s audience an assessment of some of these final sets and the unique parts and recolors they contain. Without further ado, it’s time to look at what new elements they have to offer.

One for the bucket list

Now for our final review of the summer LEGO® Technic sets and Ryan Welles has saved the biggest until last: 42055 Bucket Wheel Excavator! It's now available, priced £179.99 / US$279.99 / €229.99.

This is the only LEGO Technic set released in the second half of 2016 which is not a model of a licensed property, and I also applaud the Danes for experimenting with something different to the countless number of regular excavators and other yellow construction vehicles. 42055 Bucket Wheel Excavator is also the biggest LEGO Technic set ever produced, not only in size but also in piece count. There is a natural limit to how big sets can be, considering the flexible qualities of Technic parts, and with this set this limit seems to be nearly reached...

Claas Act

Time to review another summer LEGO® Technic set: 42054 Claas Xerion 5000 TRAC VC. We have a new guest contributor too: Steve Jarratt is an editor and writer who has launched many gaming and technology magazines including Edge and T3. More importantly, he has been a LEGO fan since receiving 055 Basic Building Set as a kid.

Even though it’s been a while since LEGO Technic visited agricultural vehicles, tractors have played a key part in the line since its inception in 1977. The current trend seems to be that TLG is revisiting old sets and remaking them, only larger and with more sophisticated functions. As 2009’s 8258 Crane Truck is a forerunner to last year’s 42043 Mercedes Arocs, and the brilliant 42009 Mobile Crane II is a sequel to the 8053 Mobile Crane of 2010, so the Claas Xerion could be seen as an update of 8049 Tractor with Log Loader, also from 2010. But what an update…

Dark Azure Immersion

The release of 10252 Volkswagen Beetle marks the third year in a row that the LEGO® Group have released a large-scale vehicle under the Creator Expert banner (following 10248 Ferrari F40 last year and 10242 Mini Cooper in 2014) plus of course there have been others in 2011 and 2008, both Volkswagen vehicles. Let's hope this annual tradition continues, as these are absolutely wonderful sets for many reasons - I'll hand over to Elspeth De Montes (azurebrick) to describe why, once she's out of the bath.

I am on a Dark Azur (TLG)/Dark Azure (BL) high at the moment following my total immersion in my favourite colour with Creator Expert 10252 Volkswagen Beetle. This 1,167 piece set is now available priced £69.99 / US$99.99 / €89.99. The VW Beetle has been immortalised in LEGO form before, back in 2008 with 10187 Volkswagen Beetle, which contained 1,626 parts and had a studs-on-show look that now looks somewhat ‘retro’, but nevertheless sells well above its original recommended retail price.

Pump it real good

Time for another of the amazing new LEGO® Technic sets, so we turn to Ryan Welles (merman) to give us the run-down on what makes 42053 Volvo EW160E so different. The set is released on 1 August.

2016 already seems to be a record year when it comes to licensed Technic sets. Whereas one licensed set a year seemed to be the rule, in 2016 alone we have a staggering three sets involving some form of partnership. The smallest of these is 42053 Volvo EW160E, a wheeled excavator that the Swedish vehicle manufacturer introduced rather recently. The set contains 1166 parts, relies heavily on the new V2 pneumatic system that came with last year’s 42043 Mercedes-Benz Arocs 3245 and retails for £69.99/US$119.99. Now, do we actually pay loads for the license or is this a pretty good deal... and is it an interesting build? Let’s find out.

Back to school

We have an unusual post today; we are covering some LEGO-branded merchandise. LEGO stationery has been released before, but has it ever been this pretty? More importantly, the range incorporates actual LEGO elements.
We also have a new author: Dr. Richard Jones who hails from Melbourne, Australia. He runs his own LEGO blog, The Rambling Brick, where he rambles on about bricks.

I was excited to be asked to look at these new stationery items. The new gear has a minimalist look: unmistakably LEGO, but not overly decorated. White is the predominant colour – is this now a sign of corporate luxury? First the iPod in 2002, and now LEGO stationery 14 years later: Coincidence? Probably. The colours are kept to a minimum on the whole, but where they are used, they add a touch of class to the line.

Cave of colours

It's been a long time since we looked at a LEGO® Elves set, which are always full of new parts and vibrant recolours. We begin to redress that today with a review by Andrew Barnick of a 2016 set, 41175 Fire Dragon’s Lava Cave.

LEGO Elves may have even surpassed Bionicle as my favorite new theme of 2015, with a fantastic range of colorful and magical-looking sets and a heartwarming story and characters. So I’m happy to return this year with reviews of some new Elves sets. This year’s Elves sets focus on Emily Jones and the Elves’ quest to rescue the Dragon Queen from the evil Elf Witch Ragana, and feature both adorable baby dragons and fantastic brick-built adult dragons to accompany the Elves on their journey. And like last year’s sets, these sets include a plethora of new and rare elements in an array of bright colors that are far less common in other themes. So without further ado, let’s take a look at what 41175 Fire Dragon’s Lava Cave has to offer!

A True Supercar?

I'm excited to have Ryan Welles (merman) return today to be one of the first to review a thrilling new LEGO® Technic set, 42056 Porsche 911 GT3 RS. It is available to buy online from today (June 1st), but in terms of physical stores, is exclusive to the thirteen German and Austrian LEGO stores for the whole of June and July.

For the past couple of years, the LEGO® Technic range has given the aficionados of gears, pins, axles and beams more than they could have possibly hoped for. Still, the adult community committed to this product line which was launched almost forty years ago, is among the most critical of all AFOLs. To most of them a perfect Technic set does not exist and there is always room for improvement. Perhaps that is the charm of being a Technic builder. In recent years, Technic has undergone a massive improvement in both set quality and parts count. But it comes with a price tag as well.

Eggs, balloons and buns

After hating the initial images, I was pleasantly surprised to see some LEGO® Angry Birds sets 'in the brick' recently... full of craziness, fun colours and those cute piggies left me squealing with delight. Now, our angry mummy bird (too many nappies to change now she has twins), Elspeth De Montes, has written a review revealing some of the most interesting new parts included in this range.

It is time for another one of my New Elementary reviews and this time I turn my eyes to 75824 Pig City Teardown. Last time, when reviewing 10247 Ferris Wheel, I had to apologise for not actually building the set but this time I can proudly say “here’s one I prepared earlier…” and show off my own review over on The Brothers Brick. I'll link to the review at the end as I want to show you all the lovely details first.

Enter the Hunter

We return to our LEGO® BIONICLE reviews today and this time it is the turn of Andrew Barnick to look at one of the 2016 sets, 71310 Umarak the Hunter.

Bionicle’s second year may have brought new forms and allies for the heroic Toa, but what are heroes without a villain to fight? Umarak the Hunter is the Toa’s newest foe, and may be one of the most impressive villain sets of the rebooted Bionicle theme. Umarak may share the $19.99/£14.99/19.99€ price point with the largest standalone Toa sets, but at 172 pieces, this set has more parts than any other set in the rebooted Bionicle theme (including more expensive combo sets like last year’s 70795 Mask Maker vs. Skull Grinder or this year’s 71311 Kopaka and Melum Unity Set). And as is to be expected for a new Bionicle set, many of those parts are brand-new designs and recolors. Let’s take a look!

Two Toa

Continuing our 2016 LEGO® Bionicle analysis, we have a review from Scott Barnick of two sets: 71305 Lewa Uniter of Jungle and 71307 Gali Uniter of Water.

Hi again, New Elementary readers! Today, following up on my brother’s review of two of this year’s Bionicle creatures, I will be reviewing the two corresponding Toa. Incidentally, these are also two of the same characters I reviewed from last year’s range of sets. 71305 Lewa Uniter of Jungle has 79 pieces (6 fewer than last year’s 70784 Lewa Master of Jungle) and 71307 Gali Uniter of Water has 87 pieces (the same as last year’s 70786 Gali Master of Water). They retail for the same price in the United States, $14.99, although their price in Great Britain has been deducted from £12.99 to £9.99 (resulting in less of a price discrepancy between the two countries). So what value do they offer in parts, or for that matter as assembled figures? Read on to find out!

More than just a pricey dinosaur?

We have a new contributor today, Simon Pickard (brickspartan), who you may be familiar with from his astonishing work with Brick to the Past collective or his excellent techniques guides in Blocks magazine. For us, he's looking back at a set from last summer; 75916 Dilophosaurus Ambush.

I, like many people, really only saw the original Jurassic Park sets as a way of obtaining more dinosaurs in figure form. Given that the re-sale prices of the last range, featuring such moulded dinosaurs, will put you back about as much as those original sets cost it’s not hard to see why just buying them for the dino-figures alone makes a lot of sense. In such a mindset, this particular Jurassic World set was the standout model for me, as it is the only set to offer a completely new dinosaur species to the current moulded figure repertoire (I’m not counting the fictional Indominus Rex of course) and I have to say that the Dilophosaurus mould is a very nice piece for those building such a collection.

Creature Feature

The Barnicks are back in 2016 with more LEGO® BIONICLE analysis, to alert you to some cool new Constraction and Technic elements and to review how the sets compare to last year's offerings. Kicking things off, Andrew has two of the small £6.99 / US$9.99 sets to examine which include some elemental creatures with frankly spooky sidekicks!

In 2016, the Bionicle theme features the return of last year’s Toa with new designs, masks, and armor. But instead of the humanoid Protectors from last year’s sets, the smaller sets of 2016 are elemental creatures which can “unite” with the Toa, attaching to their backs to grant them additional powers and abilities. I’m happy to be reviewing two of these creatures for New Elementary: 71300 Uxar - Creature of Jungle, and 71302 Akida - Creature of Water. So without further ado, let’s look at the unique new parts these sets have to offer!

Bledge Khalifa

The managers of the LEGO Architecture range aren't too shy about instituting change; they've tweaked the formula of the sets gently in various ways over the years since launching in 2008. The new set 21031 Burj Khalifa is an interesting indicator of this, being the first set in the range to offer a new version of a building that has been released previously - in this case, 21008 Burj Khalifa from 2011 (on the left in the picture). I absolutely love the LEGO Architecture theme but there are some sets I never bothered with, 21008 being one of them. The model is a pretty enough object but paying £22.99 for the pleasure of stacking 112 round bricks was never something that piqued my interest.

Sunbeams from a Ferris Wheel

It's time for another review in my "Better Late than Never" series! Elspeth De Montes (azurebrick) has been helping out with builds and photographs in recent months but this is her first actual post for New Elementary. She's a prolific builder and new recruit to The Sisters Brick who originally hails from Scotland. Even though you can't hear her right now, you can tell she's not English because she uses funny words like 'loch' and thinks that a tea-stirrer is for stirring coffee.

I don’t normally build let alone review sets but I do love new parts and playing with them to create new builds. I’m afraid this is not a review of 10247 Ferris Wheel in the traditional sense, but don’t worry, there are lots of reviews out there with part-built photos, discussion of techniques and final model commentary (eg. Brickset). This is more of a 'new element' review, which seems particularly apt for the New Elementary blog.

Older and Skully

The return of the LEGO® BIONICLE theme in 2015 appears to have been popular, as have the articles about it written for New Elementary by two of the Barnick brothers. I've been slow at posting this review of five summer releases by Andrew Barnick, so the sets are perhaps old news to some, but Andrew's thorough examination of the available parts and the new characters is always a welcome analysis to have!

The sets in the 2015 winter wave of Bionicle featured a dearth of foes for the Toa to fight besides the omnipresent Skull Spiders, so a wave consisting almost entirely of larger villain sets was in high demand. While the Toa sets from the winter wave were all based on characters from the classic theme, the figures from the summer wave all represent brand new antagonists. I’m happy to say that these sets don’t disappoint, either in terms of their builds or their vast selection of new and recolored parts. Read on to get a taste of what these sets have to offer!

Skylines

2016 will be the ninth year of the LEGO® Architecture theme; quite a remarkable success. It's a theme that I love, in fact it was responsible for the end of my Dark Age, yet I've felt a bit bored by it recently. The LEGO Group must be feeling the same, as they are adding something new into the mix next year with the release (in January 1st, I believe) of three sets which take a fresh approach: each includes a number of buildings and monuments from a city, rather than a single building. The first three sets represent Berlin, New York and Venice.