NEXOGON: Starglider

We welcome Luc Byard back today with another exciting creation using LEGO® part 27255, giving us insight into how he came up with this sleek starglider.

It began with a Nexogon on its edge. The idea was to use it as the central piece and build a cockpit forwards from it and a tri-cluster of engines and wings back from it using the Nexogon to influence the overall shape.

Bricktastic 2017, Manchester UK

The third annual Bricktastic show takes place on the weekend of 1st and 2nd July at Manchester Central. Come along! And tell anyone you know who lives in the Northwest to get there too - it's worth travelling to experience this big, friendly LEGO show with a great atmosphere. Many of the UK's greatest AFOL builders make the effort to be there, because it is run by and in aid of Fairy Bricks, the wonderful charity who raise money to buy LEGO sets for children's hospitals.

I'll be there too! The New Elementary table will feature some of the amazing Nexogon models you're seeing from our talented UK builders, and Elspeth De Montes will be adding some colourful creations, no doubt injected with her colourful sense of humour.

Here's another of the amazing models that will premiere at the show; Jamie Douglas has expanded the official set 10253 Big Ben to show the entire Houses of Parliament!

NEXOGON: The Inexorable

Tim Goddard (Rogue Bantha on Flickr) is certainly no stranger to Neo-Classic Space creations but our parts festival using the new hexagonal LEGO® part 27255 is pushing him to greater heights. His latest ship, The Inexorable, now takes off...

For this build I started with a tablescrap (a small build, normally of no particular purpose, a bit like a doodle) and that turned into an engine. More detail on that in a moment, but first let's look at the main body of the craft.

Minecraft 2017: Steampunk Spider

Jonas Kramm has sort of been running a mini-parts festival here on New Elementary recently using a piece from the new LEGO® Minecraft sets, and today he brings it to our other parts festival...

For this build I combined the 'birdhouse' plate (Design ID 27928) with another part that is being reviewed on New Elementary currently, the Nexogon (Design ID 27255). The result is a three-legged Steampunk spider creature.

NEXOGON: Stacking

For his next investigation of the LEGO® Plate, Modified 6 x 6 Hexagonal with Pin Hole (Design ID 27255), Brian D'Agostine (Dag) went back to basics to discover what happens when Nexogons are stacked.

For my third exploration I was curious about stacking pieces. Gary Davis had suggested the idea and shown a few neat stacking ideas but didn't take them further. My thought was to stack the 2x2 portions on top of each other to create a tighter pattern than some of Tim's initial offerings.

The idea first came from trying to get a sense of the geometry. In my first post I had used a 2x4 Technic plate to judge where the central hole was in relation to the sets of 2x2 studs. Doing this required a 2x2 plate to lift the Technic piece above the ridges and relief on the surface. The Technic plate later came off but I snapped another Nexogon on top of that 2x2. And then another. And another. Soon I had a tight little pyramid of sorts, all stacked up.

NEXOGON: In the arms of droids

Brian D'Agostine (Dag) returns today with his second exploration of the LEGO® Plate, Modified 6 x 6 Hexagonal with Pin Hole (Design ID 27255). 

With the 2D geometry explored, I turned my attention to some 3D exploration. Tim initially showed some variants of icosahedra and after parts were issued to builders, a tighter truncated icosahedron had quickly been built by Gary Davis. There were two main explorations I wanted to do.

The first was to see how tightly I could put the Nexogons together in 3D space. This would require a bit of Technic wizardry, something I lack. Nonetheless I pulled out my case of Technic bits and started away. I knew I wanted to match corners together in rotational symmetry and that they should all be connected. Starting with the Technic axle connector hub with 3 axles (Design ID 57585) I experimented to find the proper angle connector. The 112.5° connector #5 (Design ID 32015) got about as close as I could wish for.

NEXOGON: The Technic connection

This week we return to the geometric properties of the new LEGO® NEXO KNIGHTS™ piece, Rotor w/ 4.85 hole (Design ID 27255). Brian D'Agostine of Portland, Oregon is no stranger to writing about LEGO pieces and techniques - his blog, Dag's Bricks, has been running longer than New Elementary for a start!

When I asked to be accepted into this parts festival my first inclination was to explore the geometry of the shape and figure out the dimensions in detail. I was also, by extension, interested in the geometric patterns that could be created in 2D and 3D space.

With a convention coming and my workload increasing weekly I was relegated to watching others post their discoveries and hoping I could finally get around to my write-up. Others had posted some exploration of the piece but there were still a few more aspects that I had wanted to explore.

Minecraft 2017: More building ideas

Recently we've been lucky enough to have Jonas Kramm (who has literally just won another Iron Builder title!) investigating the pieces that come in the latest wave of LEGO® Minecraft sets for us and one in particular has intrigued him. Today he shows some more of the clever builds he's created using the new piece called “Wedge, Plate 2 x 2 Pentagonal with Center Stud and 1 x 1/2 Raised Tab on Top” by BrickLink and “Plate 2X2, W/ Design” by TLG (Element ID 6163991|Design ID 27928).

Welcome back to more ideas using the new LEGO Minecraft mould. Having shown you two fence designs, amongst others, here are a few more uses of that element, starting with the first idea I built and the one that I like the most of all. In the comments on New Elementary someone already called this new modified wedge plate a “birdhouse plate” and that actually fits pretty well, as the part is just perfect for building birdhouses.

LEGO Birdhouse

NEXOGON: Flying Saucergon

Kevin Levell is back with another new creation using the LEGO® NEXO KNIGHTS™Combo Power shield, part 27255. Also, he's back on Flickr, so you can keep up with him after this parts festival is over!

As my previous builds had been, for the most part, geodesic, I wanted to start off at least by using the Nexogons as a flat building platform (of sorts). I had intended to do something other than another spaceship, but the Nexogon is just such a sci-fi looking object! Despite trying various explorations of the part, I kept being led back to all things sci-fi, in my failure to avoid another spacecraft I have built a flying saucer.

NEXOGON: The Exalted Order

Rounding off our run of the first creations by Gabriel Thomson (qi_tah on Flickr) using LEGO® Rotor, W/ 4.85 Hole (Design ID 27255) we have something altogether different once again!

So, I’m not that good at Space creations, but Nexogons seem made for them, so I thought I’d use the challenge to give the genre a go. I started off making a bulkhead doorway of some kind, but somewhere along the line it kind of morphed into a very large medal. A space medal… the Exalted Order of the Nexogon perhaps?

NEXOGON: Guardian of the Golden Pearl

Following his hunter's tent, today Gabriel Thomson (qi_tah on Flickr) has a vastly different build using the same technique with the Plate, Modified 6 x 6 Hexagonal with Pin Hole (Design ID 27255) from LEGO® NEXO KNIGHTS™.

My second pentagon-based build is a weed-encrusted giant clam, hiding a golden pearl in its centre. (Click to enlarge.)

NEXOGON: The Hunter’s Camp

We're back for the second wave of our parts festival, NEXOGON, where selected builders from around the world use the new LEGO® NEXO KNIGHTS™ Combo Power shield (Design ID 27255) to create inspiring models. Today sees our first build from Gabriel Thomson (qi_tah on Flickr) from Melbourne, Australia. (Although that's my hometown, sadly I've never met him!)

This simple, small tent belongs to a hunter in the desert. I imagined the grey material of the roof would be the hardened hide of some beast, decorated with fur trimming, woollen cloth sides and sigils for good luck. (Click to enlarge.)

Guggenheim, a museum made of LEGO® pieces

The new LEGO® set 21035 Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum® has just been released (priced £64.99 / US$79.99 / 69.99€, but at time of writing is cheaper than this at Amazon UK) and today I’m reviewing the build and highlighting the new pieces that come in the set.