Showing posts with label Set review. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Set review. Show all posts

16 March 2020

LEGO® Xtra: Inthert tackles 40375 Sports Accessories

Posted by Admin
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.

07 March 2020

LEGO® DOTS Review: the Bracelet sets

Posted by Elspeth De Montes
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.

04 March 2020

LEGO® Disney review: Storybook Adventures - the new parts

Posted by Admin
On Monday, 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.

02 March 2020

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

Posted by Admin
We're excited to have our friend 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.


25 February 2020

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

Posted by Admin
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.

23 February 2020

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

Posted by Admin
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.


04 February 2020

LEGO® Architecture review: 21052 Dubai

Posted by Admin
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.

24 January 2020

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

Posted by Admin
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.

21 January 2020

LEGO® Ideas review: 21321 International Space Station

Posted by Elspeth De Montes
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...

16 January 2020

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

Posted by Elspeth De Montes
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.

11 January 2020

LEGO® Overwatch review: 75976 Wrecking Ball

Posted by Admin
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.

04 January 2020

LEGO® Employee Gift 4002019 Christmas X-Wing: instructions to build your own

Posted by Elspeth De Montes

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.

29 December 2019

LEGO® Architecture Review: 21051 Tokyo

Posted by Admin
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.

20 December 2019

LEGO® Creator Expert review: 10267 Gingerbread House

Posted by Admin
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.


17 December 2019

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

Posted by Admin
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€.


16 December 2019

LEGO® Technic review: 42100 Liebherr R 9800

Posted by Admin
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?

09 December 2019

LEGO® Creator Expert review: 10270 Bookshop - The techniques

Posted by Admin
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.


02 December 2019

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

Posted by Elspeth De Montes
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.

15 November 2019

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

Posted by Admin
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.

16 October 2019

LEGO® Ideas review: 21320 Dinosaur Fossils

Posted by Elspeth De Montes
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.