2019 Parts Fest #1: Jessica Farrell's microscale

Another quick post for our Parts Festival, from Jessica Farrell today. Following her animals last week, we have a couple of microscale creations using some of the LEGO® parts we sent her. This is a good moment to explain that we don't send all the chosen builders exactly the same parts; for example Jessica received some of the new 3x3 Technic frames. 

BAVARIAN ICE CREAM CONE CASTLE

Invert the inverted printed cone piece (Cone 2X2X2, Inverted, No. 1 in Medium Nougat – 6261728|52116) and you get something that resembles the turrets of a fairytale castle. At least, it would if it was in microscale!

2019 Parts Fest #1: Jaap Bijl - week 2

Time for another update of what's been going through Jaap Bijl's (jaapxaap, found on Flickr and Instagram) head as he is faced with the various LEGO® parts in our Parts Festival.

There was one piece in the parts selection that was just weird to me. It's a white piece with some strange holes and details that didn't feel like LEGO to me. I was wondering why it even existed and why they would make such a part. But hey, if I think a piece doesn't deserve the name LEGO, I feel like that's enough reason to use it.

While looking at the piece, it suddenly came to me that it looked exactly like a security camera. So I took some bricks together and made a little scene to prove that even this piece is useful.

2019 Parts Fest #1: Inhert's Splat Gear Experiments

Back to the Parts Festival fun today as our LEGO® fan builders find uses for 2019 parts. Following his discoveries with the big yellow star, Inthert returns today with fascinating analysis of the gear wheels.

Perhaps it was their bright colours or unusual shape but the three sizes of the affectionately dubbed ‘splat gears’ immediately caught my eye as I emptied all the parts onto my build table.

• Vibrant Coral Gear Wheel 6X6, Z14 (Element ID 6258385 | Design ID 35446)
• Dark Stone Grey [TLG]/ Dark Bluish Gray [BL] Gear Wheel 4X4, Z10 (6252371|35443)
• Medium Lilac [TLG]/ Dark Purple [BL] Gear Wheel 2X2, Z6 (6238330|35442)

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.

2019 Parts Fest #1: Duncan Lindbo's Castle Maze Puzzle

After his initial creation using the new LEGO® stud shooter, Duncan Lindbo returns with a wholly different idea, this time using the new gear wheel, as part of our ongoing Parts Festival.

When I got my shipment of Gear Wheel 4x4, Z10 (Design ID 35443) from New Elementary, it didn’t take me long to come up with an idea for a MOC that used them. With a diameter of six studs including the teeth, and four studs without, they’re big enough to have some space to work on without requiring a tremendous investment in parts. Also, the ones I got were Dark Stone Grey/ Dark Bluish Gray (Element ID 6252371), which works well for a variety of uses (they also come in Medium Azure, 6238331).

So I built a slide puzzle. Not just any slide puzzle, but one in which the pieces also rotate!

2019 Parts Fest #1: Jarekwally's Space Base, candle and summer break

Following his first creation for our Parts Festival, LEGO® builder Jaroslaw Walter (jarekwally on Flickr, Facebook & Instagram) returns today with three more varied builds all using our seed parts.

Base in Space

2019 Parts Fest #1: Samuel Pister's tube and king

Samuel Pister (Pistash on Flickr and Facebook) is a French LEGO® builder and member of Lug’Est. His wild and colourful style seemed the right fit for the wild and colourful elements in our Parts Festival!

When I received the different parts shipped by New Elementary my first question was, “What will I do with this giant coral gear?” (Gear Wheel 6x6, Z14 in Vibrant Coral 6258385|35446.)
Obviously there were two main difficulties with this part. Firstly this element is designed to be used as a functional element, a gear in rotation, not for aesthetic effect. Secondly, the Vibrant Coral. I love this newest colour introduced by LEGO but it is not natural and very difficult to integrate in MOCs.

Despite these difficulties, it is always feasible with LEGO parts to find solutions and that is one aspect of the hobby that I particularly like: everything is possible.

2019 Parts Fest #1: Sarah Beyer's Technic experiments

Swedish LEGO® builder Sarah Beyer (betweenbrickwalls on Flickr) usually builds modern house interiors and microscale buildings, and her initial contributions to our Parts Festival are no exception!

I received a whole bunch of various new parts from New Elementary, and some of them belong to the Technic category. I rarely build Technic MOCs but I find those parts very useful, especially when it comes to microscale builds. The Round Plate 2x2 Thin with Rotation Stem (Design ID 40145), and Liftarm 1 x 3 with Connections for Hose and Rubber Bladder (41817) first caught my attention.

The circular shapes make great microscale watch towers like in this fort somewhere in the desert.

The round plate can also be used in minifigure scale builds. It´s a perfect alternative to using Support 2 x 2 x 2 Stand (3940/19798) or a Telescope (64644) when building a stool. You need a Round Tile 1x1 with Bar and Pin holder (20482) to connect it to a stud.

In the room below I´ve used the round plate to create a side table. It fits well in a Swedish home from the early 20th Century.

As you may notice I´ve also used Brick, Modified 1 x 1 x 2/3 No Studs, Curved Top (49307) to create arm rests for the sofa.

READ MORE: Jaap Bijl shares his initial Parts Fest experiments 

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2019 Parts Fest #1: Jaap Bijl - week 1

The next LEGO® builder to introduce you to is Jaap Bijl (jaapxaap, found on Flickr and Instagram) from the Netherlands and he is a member of Lowlug and Innovalug. His building motto is “Never ask whether something is possible with LEGO or not. Only ask how.” Sounds like an ideal candidate for our challenging Parts Festival! Jaap has taken the unique approach of sending us weekly updates on his progress; an insight into his creative process.

A week ago I got my hands on the parts New Elementary sent me and that made me excited as I had no idea what pieces I would receive. I took the package straight to my room, got a pair of scissors and immediately opened it. Since then they have been sitting on the coffee table in my room! I had a lot of work to finish first but by having them in sight I still saw them a few times a day, to get inspired.

I started experimenting with the pieces that immediately triggered my creativity, such as the purple gear (Gear Wheel 2X2, Z6 in Medium Lilac/ Purple  – 6238330 | 35442). That was not because of the shape but the colour. If you follow me, you might know that I have done a lot of fantasy builds with purple, so getting new purple pieces was a fun surprise! It just looked like a flower to me. This was the same thought I had with the yellow star pieces from The LEGO Movie 2 sets (Design Plate, 4X4X2/3, No. 1 in Bright Yellow/ Yellow – 6248804|39611) which were a lot bigger than I expected, which means a harder (and more fun!) challenge to incorporate them into a build.

2019 Parts Fest #1: Jessica Farrell's animals

The next Parts Festival participant to introduce you to is Jessica Farrell from Ireland, a member of Brick.ie. You may have first seen Jessica's work when her LEGO® version of Her Majesty's Theatre in London gained widespread coverage back in 2015. She runs her own nursery and so you you can expect organic builds from her, and today is no exception as we look at the animals she created from the parts selection we sent her.

I felt genuine anxiety when I received my sealed box of new elements. I had already discovered that, to my chagrin, my creative brain stubbornly does not work this way! When I build a model, I choose the elements to suit the build rather than chose the build to suit the elements. I’d happily put all these new elements away in a drawer somewhere until, one day, I’m puzzling over a tricky, fiddly bit of some enormous model and suddenly a bell rings in my head and I know just the part to fit... but Tim said “Just go and build stuff, I have faith in you,” so (gulp) here goes!

GANDER