Top of the world

Our final Elves review for the time being is a big one, both in size and in the number of new recolours! Scott Barnick gets lost in the treetops.

41075 The Elves’ Treetop Hideaway is where Emily Jones’s adventure in Elvendale begins. Unlike 41073 Naida’s Epic Adventure Ship  which I reviewed previously, this set is more focused on slice-of-life play than adventure play. However, it still gives a great taste of how strange and magical this new world is. Fittingly, it includes lots of new parts in quite an exotic selection of colors! Without further ado, let’s take a look!

Year Three

I'm not one for navel-gazing but feel a quick post about what I'm up to is overdue, and given that this week is the second anniversary of starting this blog, now seems a good time. Yeah, two years! Bloody hell. Thank you for reading and a special thanks to everyone who has given up their time and sanity to write for New Elementary. And I can't really let an opportunity like this pass without thanking Kim Thomsen of the CEE Team for his faith and support.

I'm sure many of you have noticed my increased absence from the blog this year and in case you're not aware, it's because of a new project in my life: Bricks Culture magazine. I've finally taken the plunge and 'given up the day job' in favour of easing on down the LEGO brick road.

From rainforest to ocean

He's a Spacer, but Tim Goddard (Rogue Bantha) is also pretty darned handy when it comes to building creatures. We sent him a copy of the delightful Creator 3-in-1 set 31031 Rainforest Animals.

As always here at New E we do not pump out reviews, parrot fashion. We will not be overly dwelling on the much talked-about working bodily functions of the main model in the set. We will also not be recycling cheap jokes. On with the review.

Fairy Bricks limited edition set

As you may recall, we love and support Fairy Bricks here at New Elementary. They raise funds, use them to buy LEGO sets at discounted prices to make the most of , then donate the sets to children's hospitals and hospices around the world. Their latest fundraising endeavour is a limited edition kit of the Fairy Bricks logo in 3D, designed by UK Certified Professionals Bright Bricks. There's only 500 available and you can buy set FB001 now! International customers, it's probably best to contact Fairy Bricks direct at contact@fairybricks.org.

An ‘Appy Medium

Ultra Agents has proven to be a popular and exciting LEGO® theme, and in advance of the new summer sets hitting stores Jeremy Williams (Bricking It) takes a look at one of the currently-available winter sets: 70170 UltraCopter vs. AntiMatter.

My 'eighties childhood was marked (as I’m sure everyone’s is) with some key contests: which is better? Dallas or Dynasty? BA or Murdoch? Neighbours or Home and Away? Blue Thunder or Airwolf? I had answers to all these questions, and (as you’ve probably guessed by now) also had the sallow skin and weak eyes of an indoors, trash-TV addict. And in the case of the latter question, it was Airwolf all the way.

Which is why I am irresistibly drawn to the Ultracopter. In my mind, it lives inside a dormant volcano, ready to unleash terror on any would-be villains. The Ultra Agents playtheme is already a firm favourite, but this has to be the standout set of the range. Bristling with weaponry and oozing with style, I couldn’t wait to get started.

Elven oven heaven

Our comprehensive LEGO® Elves coverage resumes today with Andrew Barnick heading to the bakery, where they seem to be cooking up some great new parts and excellent recolours of existing parts.

The second Elves set I’ve been lucky enough to build is 41074 Azari and the Magical Bakery. And boy, is it a doozy! I knew it would probably be a great set for parts given its vibrant and novel magenta and orange color scheme, but even I wasn’t prepared for just how many of those parts would be new, rare, or otherwise noteworthy. I’d be willing to say that this may well be one of the best sets of the year if you’re looking for a mid-sized set with an interesting and diverse part selection. Let’s take a look!

Our chief minifig is surprise

A brief break from our Elves coverage to look at a Star Wars set: 75082 TIE Advanced Prototype in the hands of Jeremy Williams (Bricking It).

Let’s start with an admission: outside of the six films, my knowledge of the wider Star Wars Expanded Universe is pretty limited. Thus I’m not too familiar with the Rebels series, so I’m going to judge this set on its own merits. And it stands up extremely well. (Except that it doesn’t actually stand up very well at all, owing to those folding wings. But I’m getting ahead of myself).

Clamming up

We continue our LEGO® Elves examination with a review of 41073 Naida’s Epic Adventure Ship from Scott Barnick.

For me, the LEGO Elves theme has been one of the most impressive surprises of the 2015 lineup. With the success of LEGO Friends, more girl-focused themes were of course inevitable, and I’ve been saying for a while that the next step in that direction should be a girl-focused fantasy theme. But I was not prepared for how profoundly the LEGO Elves theme would appeal to me personally. The theme is as magical and character-driven as some of my previous favorite themes like LEGO Ninjago and LEGO BIONICLE, but also brings with it an otherworldly color palette, ornate design language, and a world inspired by both traditional European fairy tales and more modern fantasy stories.

41073 Naida’s Epic Adventure Ship offers a great taste of the theme’s design as well as its adventurous spirit. Like all the Elves sets, it is aimed at a slightly higher age set than LEGO Friends or LEGO City — in this case, 7–12 years. And not only is Naida’s Epic Adventure Ship a stellar set design, but also a treasure trove of new and rare parts in various colors.

Delve into Elves

When pictures first appeared, the new 2015 theme LEGO® Elves certainly caught my attention, and the bizarre recolours were certainly a big part of that! Over the coming weeks the Barnick brothers will be examining them all - yes, today Andrew Barnick writes his first review for us. Andrew shares many of the same interests and favourite LEGO themes as his twin brother Scott (who is a regular here at New Elementary) but is also a video game aficionado; especially Nintendo. 

My brother Scott and I have been ridiculously excited for the new LEGO Elves theme since I first set eyes on it. I had long held a passing interest in recent sets aimed at girls such as the LEGO Friends theme, but ultimately most of that theme’s more realistic, grounded subject matter tended not to sway my purchasing decisions. Elves, on the other hand, promised an elaborate fantasy theme like my favorite themes Bionicle and Ninjago, with elementally aligned heroes and a compelling invented universe. As soon as I saw what this theme had to offer, I knew 2015 was going to be an expensive year.

LEGO® colour chart reference

I have wanted to discuss LEGO® colours more often on this blog but it's a horribly complicated subject. Happily there are those more qualified than I; one is Ryan Howerter, who has produced several valuable resources for AFOLs, which he explains for us today. But for the ease of your future reference, I'll list them up front:

• LEGO Color reference spreadsheet with BrickLink & TLG names
• Brick Colorstream, a visual catalogue - also including additional rarities
• LEGO Color Timeline showing years of production for all known LEGO colors

There are always more LEGO colors than you expect.

With the help of a few other AFOLs, I’ve been attempting to catalogue every color that LEGO has produced. I’m not the first to do this (see Peeron, Isodomos, BrickLink, Brickset, LDraw…), but in combining the existing lists and frequent updates I hope to have a reference for the AFOL community that is as complete as possible.