5x5 fest: Caz Mockett's MOCs

Caz Mockett (@cazmockett) is the first of the 5 contributors in our 5x5 fest! We sent her 5 LEGO® sets and asked her to use the new and interesting parts to create MOCs. Every Friday is 5x5 fest day for the next 5 weeks, so come back to see what our next AFOL built.

As a relative newbie to the New Elementary team, I have not been involved in a Parts Festival before, so I was eager to have a go this time. We each received a copy of LEGO® set 71746 Jungle Dragon from the Ninjago theme, 43184 Raya And Sisu Dragon from the Disney lineup, one of the eight VIDIYO™ BeatBoxes and up to two extra small sets of our choice, to use for our MOC festival. To save repetition, we covered the interesting new elements in the two largest sets in our 5x5 fest introductory article, and I took a comprehensive look at the new parts in all of the Beat Boxes previously. We were encouraged to look at the pieces in our sets as seed parts or to give inspiration, but we were quite at liberty to add additional pieces from our own collections to complete our builds.

5x5 fest: Introducing the elements

It's been a while since we ran one of our "parts festivals", where we send LEGO builders some of the most interesting new elements and ask them to create some original models to inspire you. Well, buckle up because we have not one but two parts festivals coming at you this month, and they're a little different to before! We will introduce the second one soon, but today we reveal our 5x5 fest.

No, LEGO have not released a 5x5 plate, it's nothing like that! We simply sent 5 of our gorgeous contributors 5 LEGO sets, and asked them to get busy making gorgeous stuff. As well as parts in the sets, they could use their own part collections. So for the next 5 weeks, every Friday is 5x5 fest day when we will reveal what each of the builders created! The gorgeous bunch are Caz Mockett, Kev Levell, Aron Gerencsér, Thomas Jenkins and Tom Loftus.

Kev Levell's MOCs using LEGO® NINJAGO 71736 Boulder Blaster

Kev Levell (@kevlevell) creates his own models inspired by LEGO® NINJAGO 71736 Boulder Blaster after examining all its new and interesting parts. Buying this set? Consider using our affiliate links, New Elementary may get a commission: USA LEGO Shop | Australia LEGO Shop | UK LEGO Shop/for Europe 'Change region'. Products in this article were provided by LEGO; the author's opinions are their own.

Released in January 2021 as part of the LEGO® NINJAGO Legacy subtheme, it comes as no real surprise that this update of set 70747 from 2015 uses close to twice as many pieces. 71736 Boulder Blaster is beefed up, improved and generally just more impressive-looking.

LEGO® Friends review + MOC: 41449 Andrea's Family House

Eero Okkonen (@eerookkonen) casts his critical eye over the architecture of LEGO® Friends 41449 Andrea's Family House today, before creating a brand new model inspired by some of its parts. Buying this set? Consider using our affiliate links, New Elementary may get a commission: USA LEGO Shop | Australia LEGO Shop | UK LEGO Shop/for Europe 'Change region'. Products in this article were provided by LEGO; the author's opinions are their own.

41449 Andrea's Family House - released in January 2021 - adds a new building to the series of homes inhabited by the main characters of Friends. Let's analyse its architecture and interesting parts before getting creative with the parts.

LEGO® Creator review + alt builds: 31115 Space Mining Mech

Thorin Finch, who contributed to one of our parts festivals a couple of years back, returns with a guest review today of LEGO® Creator 3-in-1 31115 Space Mining Mech, as well as designing some alternate builds of his own. Buying this set? Consider using our affiliate links, New Elementary may get a commission: USA LEGO Shop | Australia LEGO Shop | UK LEGO Shop/for Europe 'Change region'. Products in this article were provided by LEGO; the author's opinions are their own.

With the recent success of NASA’s latest Mars exploration rover Perseverance (and the even more recent but less successful test of SpaceX’s SN10 rocket), the wonders and dangers of space exploration have been at the forefront of society’s collective consciousness. And, for anyone looking to extend their newfound interests in space exploration into LEGO®, a simple search for the keyword ‘space’ on the LEGO website produces, among other things, Creator 31115 Space Mining Mech. 

LEGO® Super Mario August 2021: the new recolours

Ben Davies (@ProfBrickkeeper) has analysed the whole summer 2021 LEGO® Super Mario range - sets 71360, 71387, 71389, 71391, 71393 and 71394 – to show you all the parts that have been colour changed for this latest wave. Buying any? Consider using our affiliate links, New Elementary may get a commission: USA LEGO Shop | Australia LEGO Shop | UK LEGO Shop/for Europe 'Change region'.

Following our exclusive coverage of the new moulds that would be appearing in the August 2021 wave of LEGO® Super Mario sets, today we will be looking at part recolours you can expect to find in the upcoming sets. A total of 46 recolours appear across the upcoming wave, in 18 different colors. 

Old Elementary: Eero Okkonen's ball turret and deltoid

Eero Okkonen (on Instagram) continues his occasional series of articles today looking at techniques using specialised LEGO® parts he likes to put in his own creations. In previous articles he examined Windscreen 9x3x1 2/3 Bubble Canopy and Wedge 4x3 Cut Back with Cutout; then Wedge 4x3 Open with Cutout and the two 3x4x1 2/3 Curved Vehicle Mudguards. Today's selections, dating from the 1990s and 2000s, have no particular similarity other than being the kind of LEGO part that some people complain about being too specialised!

Cylinder Hemisphere 2 x 2 Ball Turret Socket Base (part 44358) and Cylinder Hemisphere 3 x 3 Ball Turret (44359)

Cylinder Hemisphere 2 x 2 Ball Turret Socket Bases, introduced in 2002 LEGO® Star Wars Episode II sets, are a deceptively useful part. They’re currently available in 37 sets, used mostly as ball turrets as their name suggests, but also as eyes, catapult buckets and pots.

Which LEGO® sets have the most new parts? June & July 2021

Following our list of new LEGO® parts from July 2021, today we list the most recent sets showing the quantity of new parts each of in them. This covers sets added to Rebrickable in June and July, so it's the bumper crop of summer LEGO sets! Of course, many of these are not being released in North America until August.

Developed in partnership with TobyMac (from Rebrickable), our table shows both quantity as well as overall percentage of new elements. So if you like to buy sets knowing they'll contain stuff you don't yet own, you may like to use our table as one of your purchasing factors.

LEGO® DOTS review + MOC: 41921 Extras Series 3

Caz Mockett (@cazmockett) examines – and then creates her own model – using the parts from 2021 LEGO® DOTS set 41921 Extras Series 3. Buying this pack, priced £3.99 / US$3.99 / 3.99€? Consider using our affiliate links, New Elementary may get a commission: UK LEGO Shop | USA LEGO Shop | Australia LEGO Shop.

I liked the LEGO® DOTS Series 1 Extras when they were first released, but wasn’t as enamoured with Series 2. However, the Series 3 polybag caught my attention as it contains many elements in colours I enjoy. LEGO sent me five copies of the bag, and I added a sixth of my own for this review and MOC. I immediately cracked a packet open to see exactly what it contained.

Aron Gerencsér's MOCcing with Monkie Kid

Aron Gerencsér (@_pohaturon) reviewed LEGO® Monkie Kid sets 80018, 80019, 80020, 80021, 80022, 80023 & 80024 earlier this year and now, as promised, he presents MOCs he created inspired by the new elements in the range. If you're getting Monkie Kid sets from LEGO.com, please consider using our affiliate links, New Elementary may get a commission: USA | Australia | UK - for EU countries 'Change Region'. Products in this article were provided by LEGO; the author's opinions are their own.

I recently had the chance to review the first wave of LEGO® Monkie Kid sets released this year, which brought many new interesting recolours and a couple of new moulds to the table. While we took a closer look at the pieces themselves in the respective reviews, the best way to show off new bits is in action, so I’ve built a couple of MOCs to explore their utility!

LEGO® Technic designer interview: Samuel Tacchi & Milan Reindl reveal 42128 & 42129

The LEGO® Technic brand has just revealed more sets for the second half of 2021: the pneumatic-powered 42128 Heavy-duty Tow Truck and remote-control 42129 4x4 Mercedes-Benz Zetros Trial Truck.

Samuel Tacchi (pictured left) and Milan Reindl (right), two designers from The LEGO Group's Technic division, joined New Elementary's Zach and Caz (the palindrome team!) for a chat during the Recognised LEGO Fan Media Days about these two upcoming big rigs as well as Technic element design. The following transcript has been edited for clarity, readability and narrative flow.

What new LEGO® pieces were released in July 2021?

TobyMac (on Rebrickable) has created a parts list showing all 131 new LEGO® elements added to Rebrickable in July 2021, with links to which sets they come in. Don't be missing parts in new colours that you've been waiting for years to put in your MOC! Check through our list and buy them from LEGO Bricks & Pieces!

This month's list has been prepared for you in record time, thanks to TobyMac exploring Django programming to refine his processes. Our lists require a manual check because LEGO often re-release elements in the same colour as before but assign them a new Element ID. We remove these, because as far as we builders are concerned, they're not new.