Nexo-Classic Space: Drew Hamilton

We have a fun week ahead! In January the LEGO® Group sent a delicious selection of new parts, mostly from the Nexo Knights theme, for New Elementary to play with and we will be publishing the results over the next week. Come back every day to check it out. As you can see below there were a lot of Neo-Classic Space colours in there so I couldn't resist asking a bunch of Spacers to come up with something Spacey!

Two Toa

Continuing our 2016 LEGO® Bionicle analysis, we have a review from Scott Barnick of two sets: 71305 Lewa Uniter of Jungle and 71307 Gali Uniter of Water.

Hi again, New Elementary readers! Today, following up on my brother’s review of two of this year’s Bionicle creatures, I will be reviewing the two corresponding Toa. Incidentally, these are also two of the same characters I reviewed from last year’s range of sets. 71305 Lewa Uniter of Jungle has 79 pieces (6 fewer than last year’s 70784 Lewa Master of Jungle) and 71307 Gali Uniter of Water has 87 pieces (the same as last year’s 70786 Gali Master of Water). They retail for the same price in the United States, $14.99, although their price in Great Britain has been deducted from £12.99 to £9.99 (resulting in less of a price discrepancy between the two countries). So what value do they offer in parts, or for that matter as assembled figures? Read on to find out!

More than just a pricey dinosaur?

We have a new contributor today, Simon Pickard (brickspartan), who you may be familiar with from his astonishing work with Brick to the Past collective or his excellent techniques guides in Blocks magazine. For us, he's looking back at a set from last summer; 75916 Dilophosaurus Ambush.

I, like many people, really only saw the original Jurassic Park sets as a way of obtaining more dinosaurs in figure form. Given that the re-sale prices of the last range, featuring such moulded dinosaurs, will put you back about as much as those original sets cost it’s not hard to see why just buying them for the dino-figures alone makes a lot of sense. In such a mindset, this particular Jurassic World set was the standout model for me, as it is the only set to offer a completely new dinosaur species to the current moulded figure repertoire (I’m not counting the fictional Indominus Rex of course) and I have to say that the Dilophosaurus mould is a very nice piece for those building such a collection.

Creature Feature

The Barnicks are back in 2016 with more LEGO® BIONICLE analysis, to alert you to some cool new Constraction and Technic elements and to review how the sets compare to last year's offerings. Kicking things off, Andrew has two of the small £6.99 / US$9.99 sets to examine which include some elemental creatures with frankly spooky sidekicks!

In 2016, the Bionicle theme features the return of last year’s Toa with new designs, masks, and armor. But instead of the humanoid Protectors from last year’s sets, the smaller sets of 2016 are elemental creatures which can “unite” with the Toa, attaching to their backs to grant them additional powers and abilities. I’m happy to be reviewing two of these creatures for New Elementary: 71300 Uxar - Creature of Jungle, and 71302 Akida - Creature of Water. So without further ado, let’s look at the unique new parts these sets have to offer!

Bledge Khalifa

The managers of the LEGO Architecture range aren't too shy about instituting change; they've tweaked the formula of the sets gently in various ways over the years since launching in 2008. The new set 21031 Burj Khalifa is an interesting indicator of this, being the first set in the range to offer a new version of a building that has been released previously - in this case, 21008 Burj Khalifa from 2011 (on the left in the picture). I absolutely love the LEGO Architecture theme but there are some sets I never bothered with, 21008 being one of them. The model is a pretty enough object but paying £22.99 for the pleasure of stacking 112 round bricks was never something that piqued my interest.

Sunbeams from a Ferris Wheel

It's time for another review in my "Better Late than Never" series! Elspeth De Montes (azurebrick) has been helping out with builds and photographs in recent months but this is her first actual post for New Elementary. She's a prolific builder and new recruit to The Sisters Brick who originally hails from Scotland. Even though you can't hear her right now, you can tell she's not English because she uses funny words like 'loch' and thinks that a tea-stirrer is for stirring coffee.

I don’t normally build let alone review sets but I do love new parts and playing with them to create new builds. I’m afraid this is not a review of 10247 Ferris Wheel in the traditional sense, but don’t worry, there are lots of reviews out there with part-built photos, discussion of techniques and final model commentary (eg. Brickset). This is more of a 'new element' review, which seems particularly apt for the New Elementary blog.

Let's get ready to rumble

I've nearly recovered from the huge "Brick 2015" LEGO event which took place in London from last Thursday to Sunday - nearly! - and can say that I had a really great time. It was especially wonderful to meet more New Elementary readers, even some from overseas.

The first afternoon was AFOLcon, consisting of a few talks given by fans as well as LEGO Senior Designer Mark Stafford who revealed some of the thinking and the work behind Nexo Knights, the new Castle-meets-Space theme (and TV show) coming in January 2016. There was plenty of chat about the new elements designed for the theme, some of which have a dramatic V-shape which evokes the angular forms of castles and heraldry, whilst also distinguishing the theme from the organic forms of Chima elements.

Older and Skully

The return of the LEGO® BIONICLE theme in 2015 appears to have been popular, as have the articles about it written for New Elementary by two of the Barnick brothers. I've been slow at posting this review of five summer releases by Andrew Barnick, so the sets are perhaps old news to some, but Andrew's thorough examination of the available parts and the new characters is always a welcome analysis to have!

The sets in the 2015 winter wave of Bionicle featured a dearth of foes for the Toa to fight besides the omnipresent Skull Spiders, so a wave consisting almost entirely of larger villain sets was in high demand. While the Toa sets from the winter wave were all based on characters from the classic theme, the figures from the summer wave all represent brand new antagonists. I’m happy to say that these sets don’t disappoint, either in terms of their builds or their vast selection of new and recolored parts. Read on to get a taste of what these sets have to offer!

Skylines

2016 will be the ninth year of the LEGO® Architecture theme; quite a remarkable success. It's a theme that I love, in fact it was responsible for the end of my Dark Age, yet I've felt a bit bored by it recently. The LEGO Group must be feeling the same, as they are adding something new into the mix next year with the release (in January 1st, I believe) of three sets which take a fresh approach: each includes a number of buildings and monuments from a city, rather than a single building. The first three sets represent Berlin, New York and Venice.

Bow and arch

The best thing about doing this blog is meeting people who like it! A noticeable amount of these people mention that their favourite post is "that one about the arches", which I wrote back in March 2014 detailing the ways in which the part designers were raising up the interior curves in arched bricks. If you haven't read it you may like to do so first, as I have a little more to say on the subject today, but first we need to take a look at a related part which Gary mentioned last time, in his review of 41101 Heartlake Grand Hotel, the bow window.