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.

New Elements

There are no less than 13 new elements in set 10247, although all apart from the last three in the list below are the débuts of a new colour only.

• Br.Yellow (TLG)/Yellow (BL) 6x6 Parabola (Element ID 6117737 | Design ID 44375)
• Bright Green 6x6 Parabola (Element ID 6117758 | Design ID 44375)
• M.Lilac (TLG)/Dark Purple (BL) 6x6 Parabola (Element ID 6117755 | Design ID 44375)
• Medium Blue 1x12 Brick (Element ID 6117710 | Design ID 6112)
• Medium Blue 1x8 Flat Tile (Element ID 6117716 | Design ID 4162)
• Trans Yellow Plate 1x2 W. Shaft 12M a.k.a. the ‘coffee stirrer’ (Element ID 6121435 | Design ID 99784)
• Bright Green Front 2x2 Sport (Element ID 6117748 | Design ID 30602)
• Trans Yellow Flap 2x8 Friction/Fork (Element ID 6117724 | Design ID 14137)
• Tr.Br.Orange (TLG)/Trans. Orange (BL) Flap 3x12x2/3 W.Fork (Element ID 6117721 | Design ID 57906)
• Trans.Fl.Blue (TLG)/Trans. Medium Blue (BL) Plate 1x2 (Element ID 6121436 | Design ID 6225)
• White Brick 1X3X2 W. Inside Bow (Element ID 6110019 | Design ID 18653)
• White Flat Tile 2X2 No. 262 a.k.a. “Ice Cream Cone Advert” (Element ID 6117629 | Design ID 21654)
• Br.Yellow (TLG)/Yellow (BL) Mini Head “No.1738” a.k.a. “Uncertain Boy” (Element ID 6121896 | Design ID 22186)

The only new element that is a completely new mould is the Brick 1X3X2 W. Inside Bow. A full look at this part can be seen in an earlier New Elementary blog post, which includes my 'Dimensional Portal Washing Machine', Tim’s very 1970s curves and Rod Gillies’ lovely ‘SNOT S curve’.

The Trans. Medium Blue Plate 1x2 appears as a new colour in this set, with 24 supplied. You can see from the comparison image below that it offers a nice 'watery' colour selection. I see seas, lochs, waterfalls and oceans of differing depths in this part.

The Medium Blue 1x12 brick appears for the first time in 10247 and is supplied in a generous quantity of 20. As you can see from the current single-width bricks in the photo, 1x12 is by far the longest length introduced thus far and is a great addition for those larger builds. 1x1, 1x2 and 1x4 length bricks are also included in 10247 along with the 20 new 1x12 parts.

The Medium Blue 1x8 tile is exclusive to this set and nearly completes the full line-up from 1x1 to 1x8: we just need the 1x6 now. Eagle-eyed New E readers will notice that I appear to be missing a 1x3 Medium Blue tile so I subtly used red instead. I found out that the Medium Blue 1x3 is only available in one set, 9486 Oil Rig Escape, so it is a little more pricey than the others. I'm very pleased about these new Medium Blue parts as it is a colour I use often; to me it is a perfect clear blue sky.

While Dk.Green (TLG)/Green (BL) Stalk W. 1,5 Shaft And 3,2 Shaft a.k.a. ‘6-stems’ (Element ID 6097232 | Design ID 19119) is not entirely new, it is a recent element so I thought I would take a closer look at it. The 10 supplied with 10247 are my first encounter with this great part. Obviously both the older part 3742 Flowerhead and part 33291 Bracelet Upper Part fit perfectly as flowers should on a stem. What about other objects?

From left to right:

• Both red and green apples can grow on LEGO 6-stem trees, although the red crop was a bit more reluctant this year.
• The cherry tree is in full bloom including the Lime ones which I secretly think are actually grapes.
• The Friends accessories such as the butterfly, ladybird, rose and 7-petals flower etc. can all grow on 6-stem trees.
• For those a little more peckish, you can have a chicken drumstick tree...yummy!

Moving on the more 'interesting' horticultural specimens, we have:

• Trees made of pneumatic T-pieces and those little 'Plume Dragon Wing' headgear accessory parts that I can never quite work out what to do with.
• The Bike and Spatula Tree, an evergreen favourite.
• Finally we have the Track Tree perfect for planting in rough, undulating terrain and those looking for a rougher bush.

The rejection pile on the right includes the following parts which did not grow: the small hole at the end of taps, the smaller hole in the telescope, the Fabuland telephone receiver hole, the small hole on the side of the bar with clip and the Plate, Round 2 x 2 Thin with Wheel Holder, the smaller hole of the clockwork turning handle and the smaller hole within the skeleton leg.

Anyone managed to grow anything else on Part 19119?

Next up, there are three new colours for the 6x6 Parabola (more commonly known as 6x6 Dish): Br.Yellow (TLG)/Yellow (BL), M.Lilac (TLG)/Dark Purple (BL) and Bright Green. Builder F@bz used the Dark Purple for his Cyberpunk Bike to great effect.

I’ve seen 6x6 dishes used for all sorts of things especially in Space and vehicle creations. I love these builds of a yoyo and a service bell by Lino Martins and Kosmas Santosa respectively, showing other great ways to use the 6x6 dish:

The 6x6 dishes are used as the Ferris Wheel’s carriage roofs, while the walls of the carriage are formed by the Front 2X2 Sport slopes. As Yellow and Dark Purple have already been introduced, Bright Green is the only new colour in this part. A supply of 32 suggests there may be a repetitive nature to their use when building the Ferris Wheel! Some people see cars and mechs when they look at this particular slope; I see landscape, rolling hills with little sheep munching on the grass as shown in my alternative build for the new parts in set 10247. Much more peaceful than a fairground!

The new Tr.Yellow and Tr.Orange Flaps (I always think of these as helicopter rotor blades) and coffee stirrer part will be of interest to many I am sure. I have to admit that my use of these parts in the past has been very limited as I seem to only see them as rotors – so no points for me here at thinking outside the box – but this time was different as I immediately thought of sunbeams when I saw the Trans.Yellow variant.

The coffee stirrer in Tr.Yellow may well be useful in some builds especially for the Neo Classic Space colour scheme of trans-yellow/blue/light bley. Personally, I find the Tr.Clear coffee stirrer very useful to help position minifigs or objects as it’s easy to remove in post-production.

A new 2x2 tile printed with an ice cream cone advert forms part of the vendor's marketing campaign to entice children to her stall. I don’t have too much to say about the tile other than it looks like a nice strawberry ice cream cone and it is useful for those ice-cream parlours and stalls.

I have left one of my favourite new elements until last: the “Uncertain Boy” minifig head. The fairly generic toothy grin on one side is good but I really like the uncertain expression on the other. Does Uncertain Boy have a fear of heights but wants to have a ride on the Ferris Wheel? Does he have a gluten intolerance but doesn’t want to upset his kindly Grandpa by refusing to eat the pretzel he bought? I was going to post a whole selection of uncertain moments with this face (first potential kiss, tricky mathematical question, forgotten to send Mother’s Day card and desperately trying to think of excuse) but I think that I will wait and see what others produce. I’m normally more of a fan of 'fleshie' heads, but this expression is comedy gold.

Thanks to LEGO CEE for providing this set and thanks to Tim for giving it to me when I was on my bike. I won’t give you the exact measurements (although I’m sure Huw had his tape measure out), suffice to say that it’s a big one and I can confirm that cycling home with set 10247 is a challenge in itself. I suggest it is a set best collected from the store in a car!