2019 Parts Fest #2: Kev Levell's Classic Flash Double Gloucester Gordon Theme

Next to join our Parts Festival is Kevin Levell, a UK-based LEGO® builder who participated in our Nexogon fest and has written other lovely articles for us in the past. Kev just loves a bit of Space, he does. 

I may have squealed like a little child when I opened and emptied out the parcel from Tim, because immediately I could see more than a couple of handfuls of utterly awesome new parts. Some of which I had already (unsuccessfully) been on the scout for. It was these currently ‘unavailable’ parts that interested me most… I could almost smell the potential.

2019 Parts Fest #2: Tim Goddard's tablescraps

Tim Goddard (Rogue Bantha) is co-author of LEGO Space: Building the Future and a regular contributor to New Elementary, thanks to his ability to face any LEGO® challenge. He even managed to create ingenious builds when we slung a pile of seaside polybags at him from the LEGO Xtra theme. This time Tim was a lot happier with the parts.

What a cornucopia of loveliness this parts fest is, almost an embarrassment of riches. There are almost too many cool parts to explore but I will do my best. It is like several parts fests have come at once but for me the stand out is the good Batman family bag (that is the one with all the 3.18mm bar dream selection known as Mini Accessory, No. 11 also in Silver Metallic – 6266977|50018) so you will see parts from that in all but one of my builds.

Tablescraps

As is traditional, I will start with table scraps and build up. With so any exciting parts it is hard to explore them all in depth and I had a hard time working out where to start but I started here.

2019 Parts Fest #2: Sagh's robots and coconuts

Our next LEGO® Parts Festival participant is Paulo 'Sagh' Carreira, an architect that works for a company managing conservation and restoration of Portuguese heritage. 

After finally being able to participate in one of the New Elementary workshops at Skaerbaek Fan Weekend this year, I was very pleased to also be invited to participate in the Parts Festival. This challenge proved to be a great experience, making me build a lot of different stuff, and it was also good at pulling me out of the building hiatus I had fallen to.

Fujin the Samurai Droid 

Some folks have the patience of an angel, but not him: his heart, well, it yearns for vengeance. No one really knows what actually happened, but after the attack to the Holy City in Jedha, Fujin the Samurai droid has been one fierce enemy of the Empire, spreading justice through his swords, swift like the wind.

2019 Parts Fest #2: Peter Reid's Bits of Batman

Our next Parts Festival participant is Peter Reid, fan designer of LEGO® Ideas 21109 Exo Suit and father to an army of weaponised turtles.  Peter has taken part in previous parts fests and other articles on New Elementary so regular readers should be familiar with his fantastic LEGO builds and Spacer style.

I love the new Batman bits bags - Mini Accessory, No. 10 in Silver Metallic/ Flat Silver (6266155|40598) and Mini Accessory, No. 11 also in Silver Metallic (6266977|50018). The elements go really nicely with those hammer pieces in Silver Metallic (6037878|11106) and other shiny things too. The turtle's name is Michael.

2019 Parts Fest #2: Yvonne Doyle's marine research

Our next Parts Festival participant is Yvonne Doyle, a UK-based Irish builder who likes to dabble in the different scales offered by Belville and Scala. She also has the rare honour of having been immortalised as a green Classic Space minifigure, in LEGO® Ideas 21109 Exo Suit. While other participants have seemingly battled with using the Friends marine multipack parts, Yvonne has flourished!

Biff is Buffing

Biff is buffing his quarter scale model car. The new pieces from Mini Accessory, No. 11 in Silver Metallic ( 50018 | 6266977 ) are interesting and great for attachment points, while the little Octopus from Accessories, Marine Life, No. 1 in Vibrant Coral (6262127|49595) reminded me of some cleaning cloths.

2019 Parts Fest #2: Pierre-E Fieschi's sci-fi containers and launch pad

Our next Parts Festival participant is Pierre-E Fieschi, a concept artist and architect from France who is also well-known in the LEGO® community for his unique, futuristic vehicles and SHIPs (Seriously Huge Investment in Parts - a spaceship that is at least 100 studs in length, often made for SHIPtember).

SCI-FI CONTAINERS

The Brick 1X6X4 1/3, W/ 4.85 Hole, No. 1 in Dark Stone Grey/ Dark Bluish Gray (49699|6263879) immediately caught my eye and I thought 'space containers'! 

2019 Parts Fest #2: Eero Okkonen's Herald and Shepherd

Returning now to our Parts Festival, the next participant is Finnish builder Eero Okkonen. Eero is best known for his character builds and he is currently displaying some of his work within the Masterpiece Gallery at LEGO® House. Eero took part in the infamous Iron Builder with Duplo Grass as the seed part, so this Parts Festival should be a breeze by comparison! You can read more about Eero and his builds on his blog.

Herald of the Carp Speeder

I like bright colours, so I find some of the more vibrant seed parts the most inspiring. Among the seed parts there was a bag of small sea creatures from Friends marine-themed line.

Recycle my Bicycle: The entries, part 2

Here is the second half of entries we received to our recent building competition where we invited you to use the new LEGO® bicycle frame (Design ID 50015) as something different. The five winners will be announced tomorrow, but who is your favourite? If you missed the first half, check them out here.

Double Headed Dragon

Ben Tritschler (modestolus)

Once I went to the flea market and found something for my living room. It was a small model of a "Double Headed Dragon" which now is hanging on the wall in the living room - as you can see on the first picture.

Recycle my Bicycle: The entries, part 1

Our recent building competition invited you to use the new LEGO® bicycle frame (Design ID 50015) as something different. It closed last week, and before we announce the five winners we're going to show you all 33 entries; half today and half tomorrow.

2019 Parts Fest #2: Oscar Cederwall's geometric joys

Following Andreas Lenander, our second Parts Festival builder is Oscar Cederwall, a fantastic builder also from Sweden. He is probably best known for his spaceships and other vehicles, but Oscar is very much an all round talented guy when it comes to LEGO® MOCs. Here is the first bunch of his explorations and creations.

The two accessory parts packs in Silver Metallic/Flat Silver from new Batman sets (Mini Accessory, No. 10 - 6266155|40598 & No. 11 – 6266977|50018) will undoubtedly be used as greebling by many builders. I thought it was fun to connect them in geometric patterns.

2019 Parts Fest #2: Andreas Lenander's Fat Boy inspiration

Now that we have shown you the new LEGO® elements that we sent our latest Parts Festival participants, it is time to start taking a look at the results of their hard work. We invite inspiring builders to explore new elements for inspiring ideas, connections and techniques. We start with a favourite builder of mine who is taking part in our Parts Festival for the first time. Andreas Lenander is from Sweden and, despite being a busy medical doctor with three children, he has blown us away with his builds for this parts fest and the speed at which he delivered them - the first pictures appeared only two days after receiving the parts!

As a builder that has a tendency to jump between themes and challenges, I was very pleased when asked to make some MOCs using some of the newer LEGO pieces. I received the parts during the fan weekend in Skaerbaek and spent most of the (long) drive home thinking about what I could build with them. When going through the parts there were some that I instantly loved (the greebling pieces from Batman in particular) and others that I was less blown away with... yes, seashells, so many seashells… haha!

Helicopter NE-P Defender II

I decided to try and tackle the biggest piece first, which is the new rim from the Harley-Davidson Fat Boy set (Motorcycle Rim Ø 75 Solid in Medium Stone Grey – 6268590|46334).

2019 Skærbæk Workshop: Batman bits

In September 2019 we ran a workshop at the Skaerbaek Fan Weekend in Denmark. 60 AFOLs were given two hours to make interesting stuff using some of the newest LEGO® parts, and a supply of mostly random brick stock. Of the hundreds of models and tablescraps created, we are presenting some of the most interesting to inspire your own creations. My thanks to the SFW organisers, the New Elementary team on the day and our cheery photographer, Andrew Tipping.

To finish our selection of workshop builds we look at Mini Accessory, No. 10 (40598 | 6266155) and Mini Accessory, No. 11 both in Silver Metallic/ Flat Silver (50018 | 6266977); two accessory packs from Batman sets that contain amazing pieces and proved so popular, you get an extra-long post!

Edward Eggens “Light tank”

Torbjörn Kristiansson “Dark Pearl Palace”

2019 Skærbæk Workshop: lots of bits!

In September 2019 we ran a workshop at the Skaerbaek Fan Weekend in Denmark. 60 AFOLs were given two hours to make interesting stuff using some of the newest LEGO® parts, and a supply of mostly random brick stock. Of the hundreds of models and tablescraps created, we are presenting some of the most interesting to inspire your own creations. My thanks to the SFW organisers, the New Elementary team on the day and our cheery photographer, Andrew Tipping.

Rather than highlighting particular elements, today's creations use various seed parts from the array in ingenious ways.

Erik Smit “Deer”

2019 Skærbæk Workshop: the round grey bits

In September 2019 we ran a workshop at the Skaerbaek Fan Weekend in Denmark. 60 AFOLs were given two hours to make interesting stuff using some of the newest LEGO® parts, and a supply of mostly random brick stock. Of the hundreds of models and tablescraps created, we are presenting some of the most interesting to inspire your own creations. My thanks to the SFW organisers, the New Elementary team on the day and our cheery photographer, Andrew Tipping.

Today's selection of creations feature interesting uses of the various circular Medium Stone Grey/ Light Bluish Gray pieces we included in the seed parts: Sphere 3X3X11/3, W/ Knob (49308 | 6263183), Plate 4X4, Circle, W/ 2 Knobs (32627 | 6250188) and finally Motorcycle Rim Ø 75 Solid (46334 | 6268590). Of course the builders used other seed parts too, but hey I've got to string these posts together somehow.

Patrick Koningh “Mad Scientist with Death Ray”

2019 Skærbæk Workshop: the crook bit

In September 2019 we ran a workshop at the Skaerbaek Fan Weekend in Denmark. 60 AFOLs were given two hours to make interesting stuff using some of the newest LEGO® parts, and a supply of mostly random brick stock. Of the hundreds of models and tablescraps created, we are presenting some of the most interesting to inspire your own creations. My thanks to the SFW organisers, the New Elementary team on the day and our cheery photographer, Andrew Tipping.

We were surprised how popular the shepherd's staff, or crook (Tool, No. 10 in Medium Azure – 49492 | 6256157) proved at the workshop, so what better way to start this Parts Festival than to look at the creative ideas people came up with. Sadly the curved section is thinner than 3.18mm and so clips cannot connect to it, but that didn't stop them.

Axel Meyer “Curtain”

2019 Parts Fest #1: Duncan Lindbo's star-stuff

Yes, our completed LEGO® Parts Festival came back again! But it definitely finishes today, and what better way than with a creation by Duncan Lindbo who has really pushed the boat out with this festival. 

Everything is made of star-stuff, to paraphrase the late, great Carl Sagan. In the case of this MOC, that’s not just true in an abstract cosmic sense, it’s true in a more literal “I used a bunch of the new star pieces”.

I was casting around for ideas when it dawned on me that because the stars (Design Plate, 4X4X2/3, No. 1 in Bright Yellow/ Yellow – 6248804|39611) are two plates high, with a one plate high base and one plate high points, two columns of stars would mesh together easily. Throw a few meshed columns together, and they looked like the teeth of a gigantic shredder.

2019 Parts Fest #1: Ben Tritschler's Bone Fish

There's been a surprise rebirth of the LEGO® Parts Festival we ran in August and September! Two more models have just surfaced so we will bring them to you today and tomorrow, in advance of the next Parts Festival which kicks off very soon. Ben Tritschler (modestolus on Instagram and Flickr) was unfortunately unable to participate but has recently had time to create something. Ben is a member of the German online community RogueBricks and likes building all themes but recently has preferred Castle.

The first time I saw the shoulder pad, I knew I had to build a fish. The result is a a little scene in a museum and it shows the exhibit of the New Elementary Bone Fish – or to give it its Latin name: Nova Elementum Ossa Piscis.

Old Elementary: Insectoids legs

Duncan Lindbo returns today with another look at a weird LEGO® part from history and how it might be used in your creations today.

Today, we’re going to venture back into the dark days of the 1990s once again and take a look at some more parts from the Insectoids theme. Last time, we looked at some of the properties of the Insectoid wings; this time we’re looking at the legs. Bug legs! Weird biomechanical big legs!

Old Elementary: The 1x2 plate with the arm that moved

Today's look back into LEGO® part history comes from Felix Stiessen, an avid LEGO enthusiast from Austria who is always interested in discovering new and interesting techniques to exploit the unique geometry of certain LEGO bricks.

Making its first appearance in 1984’s LEGO Castle range, the basic design of the LEGO® 1x2 plate with a vertical bar attachment has now been around for 35 years. However, in 2008 LEGO introduced a subtle design change that might have gone unnoticed by many.

This article will explore the difference between Design ID 4623 - Plate W. Hook 1X2, and Design ID 88072 - Plate 1X2 W. Vertical Schaft (sic).

How the LEGO® element team designed the new gear wheels

We’ve really enjoyed this latest Parts Festival, which now draws to a close, and we are so grateful to the talented artists who gave us their time and creative talents for everyone’s pleasure; in no particular order – Jessica Farrell, Inthert, Jaap Bijl, Duncan Lindbo, Samuel Pister, Sarah Beyer and Jaroslaw Walter.

To complete the festival we will take another look at what are arguably the most noticeable parts in the selection; the new gear wheel plates that we affectionately named ‘splat gears’. You may recall back in March, Elspeth wrote a fantastic post listing the different kinds of LEGO gears through history, including an examination of the new splat gear family.

It seems LEGO enjoyed her post too! – we later received this fascinating email from Marinus Jasperse on behalf of the Element Design Platform Team at the LEGO Group about the development of the new gear family...