Fan Media Days are approaching!

I'm excited to report that because our GoFundMe campaign is going so well, our first goal is a certainty: to send a reporter to the LEGO® Fan Media Days in Billund, Denmark in a couple of weeks' time! This is a three-day event is an initiative of Kim Ellekjaer Thomsen from The LEGO Group's AFOL Engagement department, who wanted to provide fan media with the same opportunities that the mainstream media enjoy: most importantly a day-long interview junket with staff from various LEGO themes (like this fine bunch from Bionicle in 2016).

Brickheadz 41597 Go Brick Me

The LEGO® Brickheadz theme seems to have been a huge success for The LEGO Group. We sent a copy of 41597 Go Brick Me to Chris McVeigh and asked him to... er... go brick himself.

41597 Go Brick Me asks you to build yourself as a BrickHeadz. It’s the best kind of LEGO set; one that provides structure through a branching building guide, but ultimately nudges you outside the lines. The template for your BrickHeadz is you, and that means the end result is always unique.

Support us

For nigh on five years now, New Elementary has been publishing quality articles about new parts and other LEGO® topics.

We offer this completely free of charge, and one of the ways that we keep on going is via generous support from you – our lovely readers. It's true that we get sent products by The LEGO Group (and still thank our lucky stars for this recognition of our work) but more is needed to keep running this site. Advertising raises very little revenue... perhaps because we've chosen not to shove it down your throats at every opportunity!

We have some specific goals coming up, and we'd like to ask for your help.

Shanghai Pete: New turtles, weapons and ships

Regular readers will know that Peter Reid loves fresh turtle. He's been building them since 2004 and his LEGO® Ideas Exo Suit set also included an official – and legal – version of the MkIII M364 Turtle. It’s one of this Neo-Classic Space fan’s most popular designs and as the years pass by, the key parts to build the turtle become available in new colours. Peter always seizes on these opportunities to add to his turtle army, so when the 2018 LEGO Architecture set 21039 Shanghai introduced the 3x3 radar dish in Bright Reddish Violet [TLG]/Magenta [BL] (Element ID 6217587|Design ID 43898), we knew we just had to get Peter a copy to see what he’d make this time. Click/tap images to view larger.

“The Shanghai set is great. It's got five magenta 3x3 dishes, which means I can finally make magenta robot turtles. As per tradition I've experimented with a couple of heavy weapons: the Twin Heavy Blaster and Armoured Quad Cannon.”

The History of the Space Turtle

The best-known LEGO® model by British AFOL Peter Reid is his Exo Suit, but everyone who bought the official LEGO Ideas version, 21109 Exo Suit, knows his Space Turtle just as well. The turtle has been around much longer, having appeared in the bestselling book he co-created with Tim Goddard – LEGO Space: Building the Future, as well as thrilling thousands of children at LEGO fan shows as a part of his extraordinary Turtle Factory display piece.

We are going to reveal a new turtle exclusive for you here at New Elementary but for context, let’s first look back at the history of the space turtle and ask Peter to take us inside his universe where the robot turtles are hard-working, loyal mechanoids, created by the manufacturing giant Anodyne Systems. The M364 turtle has been deployed on numerous Federation outposts where they perform a wide range of duties, and upgraded M450 units are widely used throughout the corporate security sector.

21036 Arc De Triomphe

We head back to 2017 today with 21036 Arc De Triomphe, from the perspective of someone who's never bought a LEGO® Architecture set before; Jay Phoenix, who can be found on Flickr and Twitter.

So, first off I’ve got a bit of a guilty confession to make – even though LEGO Architecture’s been around for a decade now and had over 40 sets released… I’ve never actually been interested enough in the theme itself to actually buy any of ‘em before. As someone who’s always been more sucked in by minifig-scale themes like City, Friends, Creator and occasionally more action-y ones like Ninjago, Architecture has always been one of those things I’ve occasionally seen on the shelves, gone “Oh, that looks alright I guess” and continued on my merry way.

So when Tim handed me a shiny new copy of 21036 Arc De Triomphe to rebuild for here, I had a little bit of a think about how exactly I should approach it. Instead of just rebuilding the model into something else like last time, I decided to do a lil’ review of the set itself as an insight into the mind of an ‘Architecture Virgin’, as such (also, note to self: never use the phrase ‘Architecture Virgin’ ever again).

LEGO® Jurassic World 2018: Elementosaurus Part 2

For her second post about the latest LEGO® dinosaurs, Elspeth De Montes looks at the new 2018 versions of previous moulds, comparing them to the original themes, and goes even further back in LEGO history to dabble in freakish genetic experiments... 

The series of tie-in LEGO® sets released ahead of this year’s summer blockbuster Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom feature a toothsome line-up of LEGO dinosaurs.

Part 1 of our review introduced the three new full-size dinosaurs - Carnotaurus, Indoraptor and Stygimoloch - and now we will take a look at the remaining dinosaurs, as there are some interesting recolours of old friends.

LEGO® Jurassic World 2018: Elementosaurus Part 1

Elspeth De Montes goes dino-crazy today with LEGO® sets from Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, which are now available.

The LEGO Group have released a series of tie-in sets ahead of this year’s summer blockbuster. In total there are 12 Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom sets being released and, in addition to these, 75932 Jurassic Park Velociraptor Chase allows you to re-enact the iconic ‘velociraptor in the kitchen’ scene from the original movie. We have been able to review the parts and dinosaurs from the eight main sets (the other five being two Juniors sets, two Duplo sets and a BrickHeadz set). We will be taking a look at all the new elements included at a later date, but first let’s take a look at the return of the LEGO Jurassic beasts.

London AFOLs: Space

Now for the final of our three posts featuring creations by London AFOLs using new LEGO® parts. London AFOLs are - you guessed it - a bunch of adult fans of LEGO who meet in London. In a pub! It's very friendly and informal, and new and international visitors are always welcome. They meet on the second Monday of every month, so check out the group on meetup.com/LondonAFOLs. 

Today it is the turn of the Spacers to show what they came up with in 20 minutes using the seed parts and the stock of other bricks.

Garmadon hats - also known as Minifig, Headgear Hat, Conical Asian with Raised Center (Design ID 26007) have proved very popular across this parts festival despite their singular connection point, and here make a very slick microscale ship.

The Unlikely Fan

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Ways you can help

Looking for reviews of the brilliant sets LEGO are producing inspired by Chinese culture? Here is one and there are plenty more coming soon.

Looking for our quality reviews of LEGO Elves sets? Here they are