LEGO® Speed Champions 2020: The new pieces

Tomorrow is January 1 and that means new LEGO® sets, which in turn means new LEGO parts! We asked Duncan Lindbo to locate all the new moulds and printed parts in the 2020 range of Speed Champions, and additionally tasked him with exploring the capabilities of those exciting new moulds.

A few weeks ago, LEGO revealed the first wave of 2020 Speed Champions sets which are available from January 1 2020.

• 76895 Ferrari F8 Tributo
• 76896 Nissan GT-R NISMO
• 76897 Audi Sport Quattro S1
• 76898 Formula E Panasonic Jaguar Racing GEN2 Car & Jaguar I-PACE eTROPHY
• 76899 Lamborghini Urus ST-C & Huracán Super Trofeo EVO

But we’re not here to talk about the sets themselves, we’re here for the parts!

New moulds in LEGO Speed Champions 2020

LEGO® Architecture Review: 21051 Tokyo

We hope you all had a good Christmas and got some brick-based treats from Santa. Looking forward to 2020? Ben Davies is here to get you in the mood with a beautiful new Architecture set: 21051 Tokyo.

LEGO® Architecture goes small in Japan in the latest addition to the Skylines subtheme. 21051 Tokyo depicts a composite skyline of the capital city, featuring eight different landmarks. The 547-piece set will be available January 1st, 2020, retailing for US$59.99 / £59.99.

Fabuland Lives On: Exquisite but Exclusive

Welcome to the fourth article in our Fabuland Lives On series, celebrating the 40th anniversary of this unique LEGO® theme from yesteryear.  So far we have looked at Fabuland's introduction of new colours, Fabuland elements that continue to this day and Fabuland's 'hidden side' when elements popped up into other themes. Now, this article focusses on some of the Fabuland elements that were exclusive to, and retired with, this much-loved theme.

For those Fabuland experts out there, I will say that this is not a list of ALL the elements that were exclusive to Fabuland. I picked a selection that I felt were a little special in terms of their attractive or detailed appearance but there are plenty more if you care to look.

LEGO® Creator Expert review: 10267 Gingerbread House

Continuing our pre-Christmas look at more 2019 sets, today Victor Pruvost examines the latest LEGO® Winter Village set in great detail. Missed our interview about it with Design Manager Specialist Jamie Berard? Read it here.

Winter will soon be upon us; the holiday season is approaching. LEGO gave AFOLs the perfect opportunity to decorate their homes for this occasion ten years ago with the Winter Village line.  We’ve mostly seen buildings made for humans so far, but this time, LEGO decided to make a surprising addition to the Winter Village by giving our minifigures edible neighbours. Indeed, this year’s Winter Village set is 10267 Gingerbread House.

10267 Gingerbread House: Designer Interview with Jamie Berard

Tomorrow we will publish our review of this year's Winter Village set - 10267 Gingerbread House - but back in May in Billund we chatted with LEGO® Creator Expert Design Manager Specialist Jamie Berard  about it. It has 1477 pieces, including three LEGO minifigures, and is priced £84.99/ US $99.99/ CA $139.99/ DE €89.99/ FR €94.99/ 799DKK/ AUD $159.99 and is already available directly from LEGO.

(CW:HP) LEGO® Harry Potter review & alt build: 75958 Beauxbatons' Carriage

Jonas Kramm continues our final run of 2019 sets that caught our interest parts-wise, with an August release from LEGO® Harry Potter which he has not only reviewed but also created an alternate build of his own design with! Editorial note: Although views expressed by Harry Potter's creator do not align with that of New Elementary, we continue to cover HP sets. Read about our stance here.

The recent series of sets from the Wizarding World brings us a bunch of scenes from the fourth movie: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. Our pick is 75958 Beauxbatons' Carriage: Arrival at Hogwarts including 412 pieces and priced at £44.99 / $49.99 / 49.99€.

LEGO® Technic review: 42100 Liebherr R 9800

As we approach Christmas, we will be reviewing some of the sets from 2019 that caught our interest parts-wise, in case you're looking (or asking!) for a present... or just hoping for some discounted sets in the post-Christmas sales! We start with LEGO® TECHNIC 42100 Liebherr R 9800, with Ryan Welles on reviewing duties.

This last summer, with an appropriate amount of excitement, here at New Elementary we showed you the new Powered Up System that replaced the Power Functions mainly used in the LEGO® TECHNIC product line. In our review of 42099 4x4 X-Treme Offroader we showed you the possibilities of the system that can be controlled with a smart phone device with the use of Bluetooth technology. We also predicted that the true potential of the system would be demonstrated with set 42100 the Liebherr R 9800, that includes a total amount of seven motors and two smart hubs.

Considering the fact it has been on backorder ever since its release, expectations for this €450/ US$450/ £400 set are even higher. For many brick-stackers this is quite a hefty sum of money. So, is it all worth it?

2019 parts Fest #2: Okkonen's Kekkonen and Tempietto

Finnish builder Eero Okkonen returns to our Parts Festival today for a fourth outing using new LEGO® parts. You can see his earlier builds here and follow his builds on his blog.

Portrait of the President

The person in the portrait is Urho Kaleva Kekkonen (1900-1986), the eighth president of Finland. His reign lasted from 1956 to 1982, over 25 years, which is unusual in democratic country that limits its president’s career to two six-year terms.

2019 Parts Fest #2: Peter Ilmrud's gunship, flying city and bathhouse

Our final new Parts Festival participant is Peter Ilmrud, a Swedish AFOL who is a building engineer in real life but builds wondrous fantasy, castle and steampunk builds in his LEGO® life. His most well-known creations are perhaps his beautiful scenes contained within glass domes.

This build is an alien gunship often referred to as "Bullet Bill" by the survivors in the year 2119, 50 years after The Invasion.

2019 Parts Fest #2: Mansur Soeleman's Star Wars

Today, another new participant for this Parts Festival presents his first builds. Mansur “Waffles” Soeleman (Flickr & Instagram) is a former art & design student who, having just come out of his Grey Age (that's a semi-Dark Age), has been building with LEGO® elements seriously for just a year now, but mostly digitally.

For a newbie it is always an exhilarating surprise to be recognised for your work, and to be invited to challenges that only elevate your skills. Such was my reaction to find out that I had been recommended for this year’s second Parts Festival by several world-renowned Classic Space builders.

Clone Turbo Tank and AT-TE

2019 Parts Fest #2: The Finch's candy and craft

We have new arrivals to our LEGO® Parts festival today: Alice Finch of BippityBricks.com (famed for her massive Hogwarts and Rivendell models) has a range of creations. She even got the family involved; her sons Thorin (16) and Hadrian (11) have chipped in too!

Candy dispenser

This tasty creation uses the grappler and the weapon pack discs from Mini Accessory, No. 10  (40598|6266155), and the circular saws from Mini Accessory, No. 11 (50018|6266977).

2019 Parts Fest #2: Tim Goddard's Star Trek & Star Wars

Back to the Parts Festival today – yes, we have lots more LEGO® inspiration for you yet, even some new faces! – but it is Tim Goddard's turn again today, following his recent collection of bots and a hover racer, and other tablescraps. 

USS Enterprise

We start with the spacey franchise Star Trek. Possibly my hardest model ever to photograph.

LEGO® Creator Expert review: 10270 Bookshop - The techniques

The new LEGO® Modular was announced last week and Jonas Kramm was ready with the first part of his review, looking just at the new elements. Today, he builds the model! 

After my roundup of what’s in the new Modular Building set element-wise, let’s take a look at the actual build and the different techniques used here. First we will discover the bookshop, and afterwards, the Teal apartment next to it.

LEGO® Creator Expert review: 10270 Bookshop - The Elements

Whoops, The LEGO Group accidentally released images a few hours early but now the true embargo has passed we can divulge details of next year's Modular. To begin, Jonas Kramm has assessed all of the pieces in the set and figured out which are new or interesting.

Today marks the reveal of the 2020 addition to the Modular Buildings series - arguably the most popular LEGO® series among fans. And having survived the Black Friday madness in the last few stressful days, it’s now time to relax and take the first glimpse at the newest building in town: the Bookshop.

This Creator Expert set comes with 2504 pieces, costs US$179.99/ CA$199.99/ €159.99/ £149.99/ 1299DKK and will be available, as is traditional, from 1st January 2020.

2019 Parts Fest #2: Oscar's Anti-Gravity Repair Bay 5

Oscar Cederwall returns for a third time to our Parts Festival following his previous articles: an exploration of geometric joys and clips and crustacean.  This time Oscar has been using those greeble-tastic Batman LEGO® elements in a sci-fi scene. Get your spanners ready, we are about to land on Oscar's futuristic Anti-Gravity Repair Bay 5.

2019 Parts Fest #2: Andreas Lenander's oversized camera

Oops! I left one creation out of yesterday's post of vintage electronics by Andreas Lenander. 

Oversized camera

About two years ago I built an old camera which I was fortunate enough to be able to display in the LEGO® House Masterpiece Gallery. I really wanted to try something similar again and came to the conclusion that using two of the rims (Motorcycle Rim Ø 75 Solid "Fat boy" in Medium Stone Grey/ Light Bluish Gray – 6268590|46334) would give me the appropriate size for the objective.

2019 Parts Fest #2: Andreas Lenander's vintage electronics

Following his fantasy builds with the Fat Boy rims and his varied builds using 3x3 domes, we have some more down-to-earth LEGO® creations from Andreas Lenander today as we continue our second Parts Festival for 2019, which uses all these seed parts.

Headphones

Continuing my new found affinity for the big Fat Boy rims (Motorcycle Rim Ø 75 Solid in Medium Stone Grey – 6268590|46334), I decided to tackle a real-life object.

I realized the size of the rims were ideal for large headphones and adding another type of rim on the outside gave it a pretty “real” look, so that was the starting point for this build. The new 1x2 plates with rounded corners and holes were a great fit when creating the band of the headphones, of course with some 3mm flex tubes inside.

LEGO® DC Comics Super Heroes Review: 76139 1989 Batmobile – The New Elements

This year marks the 30th anniversary of Tim Burton’s iconic Batman movie and The LEGO Group have announced 76139 1989 Batmobile, built from over 3,300 pieces, measuring over 60cm long and sitting on a rotating display plate. It includes two one-of-a-kind LEGO® elements designed specifically for this set, to get a close representation to the original movie.



1989 Batmobile is now available priced at €249.99 / $249.99 US / £219.99. Before reviewing the complete build, we thought we would take a look at all the new elements in this set.

2019 Parts Fest #2 : Eero's Fig-barf

Minifigures are not something you see an awful lot of on New Elementary but for his next Parts Festival submission, Finnish builder Eero Okkonen used the seed parts to create some awesome outfits and accessories!

I used to make lot of custom minifigures, usually in so-called 'barfs' of four to six figs but I last made one in August 2016, over three years ago.  Some of seed parts seemed useful at minifig scale, so I began fiddling. At first these figs were going to be on the bridge scene which developed into the creation called Frost Serpent Arises but they didn’t work in that context. In a way, this is a special gift to anyone who has asked me to make another barf or wondered why I ever stopped.

2019 Parts Fest #2: Kev's Robots

UK-based builder Kevin Levell is back and, as with many other Parts Festival creations, these ideas are spawned from those amazing LEGO® Batman accessory packs. Many of you readers have expressed frustration that these are unavailable from Bricks & Pieces, because they are 'locked' to the Batman license. It seems there might be good news on the way about this – part 50018 is now listed on B&P, although out of stock – so we will keep you updated.

I very often like to build in a freeform, directionless, even Zen-like way. Part of the delight of a Parts Festival for me is the opportunity to experiment with new parts in that exact way. I very rarely have a clear idea of what I want to do, I normally just tinker, putting things together in abstract ways, in regimented or geometric ways, until something 'speaks' to me. Often, multiples of the same part are a particularly effective way to do this, and this is a further delight of a Parts Festival.

2019 Parts Fest #2: Tim Goddard's Bots and Hover Racer

Tim Goddard returns to our Parts Festival today using the new LEGO® parts we sent him to create interesting and inspiring models.

Underwater Geometry

The marine life family bag (Accessories, Marine Life, No. 1 in Vibrant Coral – 49595 | 6262127) is tricky, it basically is what it says on the tin. What else could it be? Of course I have already seen some good uses within this very Parts Festival.

PFC, 24 (plus some seaweed/coral and a couple of extra fish)

I used the pieces in a random underwater geometric shape, again making use of the 120º 3.18mm bar. Having a hollow stud on both sides in the middle of this piece is amazingly useful. The centre is a stud thick; if you put a tile on both sides the height is exactly 1 brick.

2019 Parts Fest #2: Sagh's bugs

Returning to our Parts Festival today is Paulo 'Sagh' Carreira from Portugal with more fun and inspiring creations using some of the newest LEGO® parts.

When I arrived home from Skaerbaek Fan Weekend with the seed parts, I decided that I would not look up these parts on the internet. I didn’t want to see their original uses, to avoid being influenced. While the use of some parts is quite clear, like Will’s hair or Bo Peep’s staff, others presented themselves as mysteries. The Mini Accessory, No. 11 in Silver Metallic (6266977|50018) was one of those mysteries. What a great set of parts!

Giant Elk Beetle

The Giant Elk Beetle walks the woods in search for food with a slow but steady pace to save energy for the mating season. That’s when the males became very active, fighting each other by making use of their big antlers.

The mix of joints with different angles and connections in this pack of parts were the perfect means to replicate different creature’s articulations. I took inspiration from different species of large beetles with horns, and after some fiddling with the parts a robust dark red beetle was born.

2019 Parts Fest #2: Pierre-E Fieschi's Liebherr Tunnelier

Today, Pierre-E Fieschi returns to our Parts Festival. Following his sci-fi creations, Pierre burned the midnight oil to make another model using new LEGO® elements from our selection.

I got into the small polybags of Silver Metallic/Flat Silver tools and connectors known officially as Mini Accessory, No. 11 (50018 | 6266977) - and all are incredible! Somehow looking at these parts led to me finally building a Liebherr Tunnelier.

Old Elementary: The 1x2 plate with handle

Let's take a momentary break from our amazing Parts Festival to enjoy another look back into LEGO® element history. Skye Barnick suggested we discuss a tiny change to a familiar piece that occurred in 1983 and stepping up to the task we have Inthert, a UK-based builder who participated in our earlier Parts Festival this year.

Coming alongside the introduction of the beloved minifigure in 1978, the 1x2 plate with handlebars (Mini Handle - Design ID 3839) was among the first LEGO® elements to feature 3.18mm diameter bars, essentially meaning it was perfect for being held by tiny minifigure hands… or was it?

2019 Parts Fest #2: Oscar Cederwall's Clips and Crustacean

Today Oscar Cederwall returns to our Parts Festival, following his first post of geometric explorations, to present more fun and clever uses for our selection of new LEGO® elements.

The Shepherd's Staff

Sadly, Bo Peep's crook (Tool, No. 10 in Medium Azure – 49492 | 6256157) loses its clutch power on the curved hook part, so it can't be used with clips. It works great as antennae though. Here is some made-up crustacean.

2019 Parts Fest #2: Andreas Lenander's 3x3 dome inspiration

Following his first post of LEGO® creations for our Parts Festival, Andreas Lenander returns today with three varied builds that were all inspired by one piece.

The new rounded 3x3 dome (Sphere 3X3X11/3, W/ Knob in Medium Stone Grey – 49308 | 6263183) was a piece that I instantly loved when I first saw it. I can see it being used in a variety of builds since it works equally well for nature-scenes (rock work, etc) as it does for sci-fi builds (greebling on a spaceship, etc).

Elementarium IV

The first time I picked up the rounded 3x3 domes (Sphere 3X3X11/3, W/ Knob in Medium Stone Grey – 49308 | 6263183), I knew I had to build a spaceship.

2019 Parts Fest #2: Eero Okkonen's Doctor Who and the Frost Serpent

Finnish builder Eero Okkonen returns to our Parts Festival today with another two varied creations using new LEGO® parts. You can see his earlier two builds here and follow his builds on his blog.

Frost Serpent Arises

Sometimes the bulk of a creation stays almost the same while the concept changes completely. 

2019 Parts Fest #2: Kev Levell's Classic Flash Double Gloucester Gordon Theme

Next to join our Parts Festival is Kevin Levell, a UK-based LEGO® builder who participated in our Nexogon fest and has written other lovely articles for us in the past. Kev just loves a bit of Space, he does. 

I may have squealed like a little child when I opened and emptied out the parcel from Tim, because immediately I could see more than a couple of handfuls of utterly awesome new parts. Some of which I had already (unsuccessfully) been on the scout for. It was these currently ‘unavailable’ parts that interested me most… I could almost smell the potential.

2019 Parts Fest #2: Tim Goddard's tablescraps

Tim Goddard (Rogue Bantha) is co-author of LEGO Space: Building the Future and a regular contributor to New Elementary, thanks to his ability to face any LEGO® challenge. He even managed to create ingenious builds when we slung a pile of seaside polybags at him from the LEGO Xtra theme. This time Tim was a lot happier with the parts.

What a cornucopia of loveliness this parts fest is, almost an embarrassment of riches. There are almost too many cool parts to explore but I will do my best. It is like several parts fests have come at once but for me the stand out is the good Batman family bag (that is the one with all the 3.18mm bar dream selection known as Mini Accessory, No. 11 also in Silver Metallic – 6266977|50018) so you will see parts from that in all but one of my builds.

Tablescraps

As is traditional, I will start with table scraps and build up. With so any exciting parts it is hard to explore them all in depth and I had a hard time working out where to start but I started here.

LEGO® Hidden Side Review: 70418 J.B.’s Ghost Lab

With so many amazing Parts Festival builds pouring out of our talented builders, let's just take a little break – and round off our reviews of LEGO® Hidden Side sets! Ben Davies takes a look at 70418 J.B.’s Ghost Lab.

To complete our coverage of LEGO Hidden Side, today we will be examining the smallest of the retail sets, 70418 J.B.’s Ghost Lab. As the set name would suggest, this set depicts the laboratory where scientist extraordinaire J.B. studies the ghosts that are haunting Newbury, and tests out the latest ghost-hunting gadgets.

2019 Parts Fest #2: Sagh's robots and coconuts

Our next LEGO® Parts Festival participant is Paulo 'Sagh' Carreira, an architect that works for a company managing conservation and restoration of Portuguese heritage. 

After finally being able to participate in one of the New Elementary workshops at Skaerbaek Fan Weekend this year, I was very pleased to also be invited to participate in the Parts Festival. This challenge proved to be a great experience, making me build a lot of different stuff, and it was also good at pulling me out of the building hiatus I had fallen to.

Fujin the Samurai Droid 

Some folks have the patience of an angel, but not him: his heart, well, it yearns for vengeance. No one really knows what actually happened, but after the attack to the Holy City in Jedha, Fujin the Samurai droid has been one fierce enemy of the Empire, spreading justice through his swords, swift like the wind.

2019 Parts Fest #2: Peter Reid's Bits of Batman

Our next Parts Festival participant is Peter Reid, fan designer of LEGO® Ideas 21109 Exo Suit and father to an army of weaponised turtles.  Peter has taken part in previous parts fests and other articles on New Elementary so regular readers should be familiar with his fantastic LEGO builds and Spacer style.

I love the new Batman bits bags - Mini Accessory, No. 10 in Silver Metallic/ Flat Silver (6266155|40598) and Mini Accessory, No. 11 also in Silver Metallic (6266977|50018). The elements go really nicely with those hammer pieces in Silver Metallic (6037878|11106) and other shiny things too. The turtle's name is Michael.

2019 Parts Fest #2: Yvonne Doyle's marine research

Our next Parts Festival participant is Yvonne Doyle, a UK-based Irish builder who likes to dabble in the different scales offered by Belville and Scala. She also has the rare honour of having been immortalised as a green Classic Space minifigure, in LEGO® Ideas 21109 Exo Suit. While other participants have seemingly battled with using the Friends marine multipack parts, Yvonne has flourished!

Biff is Buffing

Biff is buffing his quarter scale model car. The new pieces from Mini Accessory, No. 11 in Silver Metallic ( 50018 | 6266977 ) are interesting and great for attachment points, while the little Octopus from Accessories, Marine Life, No. 1 in Vibrant Coral (6262127|49595) reminded me of some cleaning cloths.

2019 Parts Fest #2: Pierre-E Fieschi's sci-fi containers and launch pad

Our next Parts Festival participant is Pierre-E Fieschi, a concept artist and architect from France who is also well-known in the LEGO® community for his unique, futuristic vehicles and SHIPs (Seriously Huge Investment in Parts - a spaceship that is at least 100 studs in length, often made for SHIPtember).

SCI-FI CONTAINERS

The Brick 1X6X4 1/3, W/ 4.85 Hole, No. 1 in Dark Stone Grey/ Dark Bluish Gray (49699|6263879) immediately caught my eye and I thought 'space containers'! 

2019 Parts Fest #2: Eero Okkonen's Herald and Shepherd

Returning now to our Parts Festival, the next participant is Finnish builder Eero Okkonen. Eero is best known for his character builds and he is currently displaying some of his work within the Masterpiece Gallery at LEGO® House. Eero took part in the infamous Iron Builder with Duplo Grass as the seed part, so this Parts Festival should be a breeze by comparison! You can read more about Eero and his builds on his blog.

Herald of the Carp Speeder

I like bright colours, so I find some of the more vibrant seed parts the most inspiring. Among the seed parts there was a bag of small sea creatures from Friends marine-themed line.

Recycle my Bicycle: The winners!

Time to reveal the judge's five favourite entries to our recent building competition, where we invited you to use the new LEGO® bicycle frame (Design ID 50015) in a clever way.

We had 33 lovely entries. (Didn't see them? Check them out here!) We thank you all for building and hope you all had fun. Jaime Sanchez, the LEGO Element Designer who created the new bike frame (as well as the mountain bike frame from 2018), messaged us to let us know he's been following the results, "and the results have been excellent. Great contest and I look forward to seeing the winners."

Recycle my Bicycle: The entries, part 2

Here is the second half of entries we received to our recent building competition where we invited you to use the new LEGO® bicycle frame (Design ID 50015) as something different. The five winners will be announced tomorrow, but who is your favourite? If you missed the first half, check them out here.

Double Headed Dragon

Ben Tritschler (modestolus)

Once I went to the flea market and found something for my living room. It was a small model of a "Double Headed Dragon" which now is hanging on the wall in the living room - as you can see on the first picture.

Recycle my Bicycle: The entries, part 1

Our recent building competition invited you to use the new LEGO® bicycle frame (Design ID 50015) as something different. It closed last week, and before we announce the five winners we're going to show you all 33 entries; half today and half tomorrow.

2019 Parts Fest #2: Oscar Cederwall's geometric joys

Following Andreas Lenander, our second Parts Festival builder is Oscar Cederwall, a fantastic builder also from Sweden. He is probably best known for his spaceships and other vehicles, but Oscar is very much an all round talented guy when it comes to LEGO® MOCs. Here is the first bunch of his explorations and creations.

The two accessory parts packs in Silver Metallic/Flat Silver from new Batman sets (Mini Accessory, No. 10 - 6266155|40598 & No. 11 – 6266977|50018) will undoubtedly be used as greebling by many builders. I thought it was fun to connect them in geometric patterns.

2019 Parts Fest #2: Andreas Lenander's Fat Boy inspiration

Now that we have shown you the new LEGO® elements that we sent our latest Parts Festival participants, it is time to start taking a look at the results of their hard work. We invite inspiring builders to explore new elements for inspiring ideas, connections and techniques. We start with a favourite builder of mine who is taking part in our Parts Festival for the first time. Andreas Lenander is from Sweden and, despite being a busy medical doctor with three children, he has blown us away with his builds for this parts fest and the speed at which he delivered them - the first pictures appeared only two days after receiving the parts!

As a builder that has a tendency to jump between themes and challenges, I was very pleased when asked to make some MOCs using some of the newer LEGO pieces. I received the parts during the fan weekend in Skaerbaek and spent most of the (long) drive home thinking about what I could build with them. When going through the parts there were some that I instantly loved (the greebling pieces from Batman in particular) and others that I was less blown away with... yes, seashells, so many seashells… haha!

Helicopter NE-P Defender II

I decided to try and tackle the biggest piece first, which is the new rim from the Harley-Davidson Fat Boy set (Motorcycle Rim Ø 75 Solid in Medium Stone Grey – 6268590|46334).

2019 Skærbæk Workshop: Batman bits

In September 2019 we ran a workshop at the Skaerbaek Fan Weekend in Denmark. 60 AFOLs were given two hours to make interesting stuff using some of the newest LEGO® parts, and a supply of mostly random brick stock. Of the hundreds of models and tablescraps created, we are presenting some of the most interesting to inspire your own creations. My thanks to the SFW organisers, the New Elementary team on the day and our cheery photographer, Andrew Tipping.

To finish our selection of workshop builds we look at Mini Accessory, No. 10 (40598 | 6266155) and Mini Accessory, No. 11 both in Silver Metallic/ Flat Silver (50018 | 6266977); two accessory packs from Batman sets that contain amazing pieces and proved so popular, you get an extra-long post!

Edward Eggens “Light tank”

Torbjörn Kristiansson “Dark Pearl Palace”

2019 Skærbæk Workshop: lots of bits!

In September 2019 we ran a workshop at the Skaerbaek Fan Weekend in Denmark. 60 AFOLs were given two hours to make interesting stuff using some of the newest LEGO® parts, and a supply of mostly random brick stock. Of the hundreds of models and tablescraps created, we are presenting some of the most interesting to inspire your own creations. My thanks to the SFW organisers, the New Elementary team on the day and our cheery photographer, Andrew Tipping.

Rather than highlighting particular elements, today's creations use various seed parts from the array in ingenious ways.

Erik Smit “Deer”

2019 Skærbæk Workshop: the round grey bits

In September 2019 we ran a workshop at the Skaerbaek Fan Weekend in Denmark. 60 AFOLs were given two hours to make interesting stuff using some of the newest LEGO® parts, and a supply of mostly random brick stock. Of the hundreds of models and tablescraps created, we are presenting some of the most interesting to inspire your own creations. My thanks to the SFW organisers, the New Elementary team on the day and our cheery photographer, Andrew Tipping.

Today's selection of creations feature interesting uses of the various circular Medium Stone Grey/ Light Bluish Gray pieces we included in the seed parts: Sphere 3X3X11/3, W/ Knob (49308 | 6263183), Plate 4X4, Circle, W/ 2 Knobs (32627 | 6250188) and finally Motorcycle Rim Ø 75 Solid (46334 | 6268590). Of course the builders used other seed parts too, but hey I've got to string these posts together somehow.

Patrick Koningh “Mad Scientist with Death Ray”

2019 Skærbæk Workshop: the crook bit

In September 2019 we ran a workshop at the Skaerbaek Fan Weekend in Denmark. 60 AFOLs were given two hours to make interesting stuff using some of the newest LEGO® parts, and a supply of mostly random brick stock. Of the hundreds of models and tablescraps created, we are presenting some of the most interesting to inspire your own creations. My thanks to the SFW organisers, the New Elementary team on the day and our cheery photographer, Andrew Tipping.

We were surprised how popular the shepherd's staff, or crook (Tool, No. 10 in Medium Azure – 49492 | 6256157) proved at the workshop, so what better way to start this Parts Festival than to look at the creative ideas people came up with. Sadly the curved section is thinner than 3.18mm and so clips cannot connect to it, but that didn't stop them.

Axel Meyer “Curtain”

Inside LEGO® Campus: Opening the new HQ

We're such teases... we were going to start our Skærbæk workshop results today but Francesco Spreafico has delivered this hot-off-the-press tale of the new LEGO® headquarters. He attended the opening of its first phase yesterday to give us all a glimpse inside the workings of The LEGO Group.

In July 2016, The LEGO Group announced their plans for their new headquarters in Billund, that would take the place of the then-current HQ, located in the street called Åstvej (where they’d been since the 1970s) and the Højmarksvej factory behind it that had recently been decommissioned. The LEGO House was almost ready and this project seemed to follow its steps, proposing a wonderfully modern building surrounded by nature, once more right in the middle of Billund. Soon after the announcement the construction works started and, as it often is the case, an observation point was also set up, so that the public could see how the works proceeded. Eventually even the old HQ were taken down and nothing else was left.

Fast-forward to yesterday, when the so-called “first phase” of the building officially opened! The whole “Campus” (as it is called now) will be finished in 2021 but a first section is ready (with 500 employees out of the 2000 that will be there in two years).

2019 Parts Fest #2: Introducing the Elements

Well our previous Parts Festival ended just weeks ago but we are ready to crack on with our next one! Over the coming weeks we will be showing you creations from the workshop we held at Skærbæk Fan Weekend in September which included many of these parts, and then we'll bring you creations made by our select group of AFOL builders from around the world.

LEGO® House videos: fans and their models in the Masterpiece Gallery

Following on from our interview with fan builder Simon Hundsbichler & LEGO® Senior Experience Designer Stuart Harris, here are some videos that LEGO made on the day that AFOLs installed their models in the Masterpiece Gallery, which we have been given permission to publish.

They feature many of the builders chosen to display in LEGO House and the fabulous models. Even if you have been lucky enough to see these models in the Masterpiece Gallery already, you will enjoy this as many models are out of their cases and there are some 360° spins in there too.

LEGO® House interview: Fan designer Simon Hundsbichler & LEGO Designer Stuart Harris

On 26 September 2019, LEGO® House threw a party for AFOLs to mark the second anniversary of its inauguration. Among the events was the reveal of the fan models chosen to appear in the Masterpiece Gallery for the coming year, including three creations by Simon Hundsbichler (Simon NH) from Austria who you may recall participating in our 2018 Parts Festival. We met up with Simon for a chat and were joined by Stuart Harris, Senior Experience Designer at the LEGO House, for some context and information about how AFOLs and their artworks are chosen.

What are the intentions of the Masterpiece Gallery, Stuart?

Stuart: When Kjeld was dreaming up the idea of doing LEGO House, the fans were an integral part of his plans so they’ve been involved in everything – even reviewing the architecture and giving us input, which is why we have this giant 2x4 brick on top of the building. So they’ve always been planned in, to be a permanent part of the LEGO House. We have a number of places where the fans can showcase their work and the ‘main’ showcase, if you like, is here in the Masterpiece Gallery. This is the one place where we put together fan collections.

Contest: update

Just a couple of quick important things to mention about our competition, Recycle my Bicycle.

• The closing date is now eight days away: 11:59pm GMT on Sunday 27 October 2019.
• Unfortunately the five winners will not receive their prize until January or February 2020. Because The LEGO Group are providing the prizes and the busy Christmas period is soon upon them, they've said they can't order the deliveries until January – and because of the backlog, it may take until February to arrive. We're really sorry about this but it is out of our hands.

READ MORE: All the info you need to know about the contest