New Elementary's 8th Birthday Party-Fest

It's our 8th anniversary today! We've published over 800 original articles in those 8 years... 182 of them since our 7th birthday. And what a year it has been – I still haven't implemented half the stuff I intended to but we have literally doubled our average visitor rate since this time last year and best of all, I roughly doubled our core team of contributors. They're a fabulous gang who consistently deliver awesome content, and keep me sane! Thank you all. We recently updated our About Us page, so now you can meet them all... You Will Learn Something About Each Of Them That Will Surprise You.

Although I already need to remove someone from that list! Somewhat sadly, but mostly utterly thrillingly, Lee (cityson) has just moved to Denmark to become a LEGO Designer. We've absolutely loved the passionate reviews and original MOCs he created in his brief time with us, such as Chinese Festival sets 80106 & 80107. We leave him in the capable hands of Markus Rollbühler and former contributors Sven Franic and Chris McVeigh – and look forward to building his first set in a couple of years' time! 

I'd also like to thank our guest contributors: in no particular order... and I really hope I don't miss anyone... Andrew Barnick, The Professor, Kevin J. Walter, Saija Saarenpää, Nicolas Geeraert, Stefan, Alice Finch, Simon Liu, Pierre-E Fieschi, Cole Blaq, Ryan Welles, Mansur Soeleman, Kaitlyn Lee, Miller Keys, Duncan Lindbo, Eli Willsea and Marinus Jasperse.

Thanks also to the incredible support from the AFOL Engagement Team at the LEGO Group, especially the tireless efforts of Sara Skahill and Jordan Paxton to go the extra mile to enable us to make great content for you. And no look back over New E history would be complete without thanks to the gone-but-never-forgotten Kim Ellekjær Thomsen.

#Celebr8NewE

I actually only remembered our 8th anniversary 2 days ago (thanks, domain renewal notice) and asked the team if they wanted to do anything. In that short time, they've showered me with a whole bunch of fun, 8-related content! So sit back and enjoy New E's birthday with some MOCs, Old Elementary articles and – naturally – some data analysis!

Pieces of 8

Victor Pruvost built a classy, trans-clear 8 made of 2 octagons made of angled minifigure stands (6285587 | 65578). Check out our previous articles about part 65578!

Zachary Hill baked a tasty cupcake with a cherry on top, but I get to blow out the candles.

Alexandre Campos formed the number 8 with 8 unusual elements, in "the most wonderful LEGO colour"! I think our resident Technic-head is revealing his intergalactic alliances...

Caz Mockett is currently away from her LEGO but nevertheless delivered us a lovely birthday card! It features 8 of her 8x8x8 monofig habitats, which you can see more of on her YouTube channel.

Francesco Spreafico adapted his 40516 Everyone is Awesome to showcase that 8-studded wonder, the 2x4 brick. (A wonder which you can learn more about on his brand-new historical LEGO website The Brick Archive!) 

Tom Loftus answered that age-old question, why is 6 scared of 7? 

It's our birthday but you're invited! Use the hashtag #Celebr8NewE to send us your great eights on Instagram, Twitter or Facebook!

 

The 8 LEGO sets with the most new elements

TobyMac's contribution to our party-fest was to process the last 12 months of Rebrickable data! – to discover which 8 sets contain the most new elements (by which we mean individual new moulds, recoloured parts or printed parts).

Set	Buy *	Quantity Parts	Quantity Parts with new EID	% Quantity new Elements	Elements	New Elements
71741-1 NINJAGO City Gardens	LEGO	5709	587	10	1228	168
75978-1 Diagon Alley (see articles)	LEGO	5549	356	6	1082	107
76178-1 Daily Bugle (see articles)	LEGO	3805	254	7	718	97
80023-1 Monkie Kid's Team Dronecopter (see review)	LEGO	1471	243	17	517	86
21324-1 123 Sesame Street (see articles)	LEGO	1367	162	12	611	82
71722-1 Skull Sorcerer's Dungeons	LEGO	1180	164	14	448	77
76389-1 Hogwarts Chamber Of Secrets (see parts review)	LEGO	1172	178	15	373	76
80024-1 The Legendary Flower Fruit Mountain (see review)	LEGO	1949	200	10	568	72

*Affiliate links, New Elementary may earn a commission.

We publish these lists of sets with most new parts every month or two; they're all listed on this page along with our lists of new parts.

List8cles

Three contributors even went to the lengths of writing an article for the party-fest! Please enjoy these fun lists of LEGO parts:

READ MORE:

• Kev Levell's Celebr8 Parts
• Jonas Kramm's 8 LEGO Pieces That Look Like An 8
• Eero Okkonen's 8 Pieces For 8 Years

Lastly, massive thanks go to all our patrons who help us continue to publish, especially the 'Vibrant Corals': Joe Fontana, Elspeth De Montes, Megan Lum, Markus Rollbühler, Mevits Bricks, Font Review Journal, Baixo LMmodels, Andy Price, Anthony Wright, Chris Cook, London AFOLs, Gerald Lasser, Big B Bricks, Dave Schefcik, David and Breda Fennell, Huw Millington, Neil Crosby, Antonio Serra, Beyond the Brick, Sue Ann Barber & Trevor Clark, and Kevin Gascoigne. Vale Iain Adams, a great supporter of New Elementary. 

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