LEGO® NINJAGO™ Review: 71710 Ninja Tuner Car

Back in January, a new wave of LEGO® NINJAGO™ sets was released including today's focus: 71710 Ninja Tuner Car.  The sets tie-in with Season 12 of the Ninjago television series where an old game called Prime Empire is unearthed, resulting in havoc.  No wonder the sets have a definite cyberpunk video game vibe.



Ninja Tuner Car has 419 elements, including four minifigures and is priced at £34.99 / $39.99 / 39.99€. This set caught our eye thanks to its retro colour scheme, like a ski jacket from the 1980s! And of course we were drawn to the new elements underneath that hyper-cool exterior.

LEGO® Trolls World Tour: the new parts

It's hard to ignore LEGO® Trolls, and in fact there are a lot of interesting things going on with the parts from this new 2020 theme. To kick our coverage off, Jonas Kramm examines the new, recoloured and printed elements (and foam ones!) to be found in four of the sets from this theme.

Glitter and bright colours! The new series of LEGO® sets dedicated to DreamWorks’ Trolls World Tour movie are here. To the adult eye they might seem a bit crazy, but we got them anyway… to investigate in true New Elementary fashion by seeing what new pieces and colours they bring and how those might be used.

LEGO® Creator Expert review: 10271 Fiat 500 – The Build

Following his examination of the new parts, Inthert returns today to report on the actual build of LEGO® Creator Expert 10271 Fiat 500. (And don't forget, you could win a copy of the set in our latest building competition!)

While the most striking thing about the LEGO® Creator Expert Fiat 500 is unquestionably its Cool Yellow/ Bright Light Yellow base colour, the set has much more to offer than just recolours! Today we’ll be delving deeper into the build process before taking a look at the completed model.

LEGO® Creator Expert review: 10271 Fiat 500 – The Parts

The annual LEGO® Creator Expert vehicle is a treat to many and brings exciting new elements to all, and 2020's 10271 Fiat 500 is no exception – in fact its vast raft of recolours is astonishing and will open up new building opportunities with one of the less-common LEGO colours, as Inthert discovers in the first part of his review today. 

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 set review: 21322 Pirates of Barracuda Bay

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, 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 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: 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.