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: instructions to build your own

Jump to: Download Instructions for LEGO® 4002019 Christmas X-Wing

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.

(CW:HP) LEGO® Harry Potter review & alt build: 75958 Beauxbatons' Carriage

Jonas Kramm continues our final run of 2019 sets that caught our interest parts-wise, with an August release from LEGO® Harry Potter which he has not only reviewed but also created an alternate build of his own design with! Editorial note: Although views expressed by Harry Potter's creator do not align with that of New Elementary, we continue to cover HP sets. Read about our stance here.

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?

LEGO® Creator Expert review: 10270 Bookshop - The techniques

The new LEGO® Modular was announced last week and Jonas Kramm was ready with the first part of his review, looking just at the new elements. Today, he builds the model! 

After my roundup of what’s in the new Modular Building set element-wise, let’s take a look at the actual build and the different techniques used here. First we will discover the bookshop, and afterwards, the Teal apartment next to it.

LEGO® DC Comics Super Heroes Review: 76139 1989 Batmobile – The New Elements

This year marks the 30th anniversary of Tim Burton’s iconic Batman movie and The LEGO Group have announced 76139 1989 Batmobile, built from over 3,300 pieces, measuring over 60cm long and sitting on a rotating display plate. It includes two one-of-a-kind LEGO® elements designed specifically for this set, to get a close representation to the original movie.



1989 Batmobile is now available priced at €249.99 / $249.99 US / £219.99. Before reviewing the complete build, we thought we would take a look at all the new elements in this set.

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 measuring 39cm x 35cm. Victor Pruvost has reviewed it for us and it retails at £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 set review: 21318 Treehouse

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 parts review: 21318 Treehouse

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.