Old Elementary: 10 years of LEGO® Friends

With LEGO® Friends celebrating its 10th anniversary this year, I wanted to take a look at what the history of this theme has brought to us LEGO fans. And I’ll start off with this statement: I love LEGO Friends! The models are colorful, detailed, and take place in ‘real-life’. They are great for city-building, and they have excellent playability. They also offer lots of ‘MOC-food’; with all the new elements and colors they have made available, Friends has made a great contribution to MOC design.

While LEGO City also offers great buildings, they are on a much smaller scale. The majority of Friends sets can easily be integrated into a city, whereas City has a lot of off-shoot subthemes that are much trickier to incorporate, like the Stuntz and Lunar Base series. And how many police stations does a city really need?

LEGO® Technic parts review: 42143 Ferrari Daytona SP3

Products in this article were provided by LEGO®; the author's opinions are their own.

Every couple of years the LEGO® Technic team treats car enthusiasts to a new Ultimate car set. The 3778-piece Ferrari Daytona SP3 is an intricate and beautiful recreation of Ferrari's latest "Icona" car and its design utilizes a heaped helping of new moulds and recoloured elements. Join us as New Elementary examines the Daytona SP3's notable parts including several new Technic panels, printed elements, and of course those gorgeous twisted rims.  

LEGO® Minifigures review: 71033 The Muppets

Ever since 21324 Sesame Street was announced I have been looking forward to today’s set, or rather, series of sets: 71033 The Muppets Collectible Minifigures. Capturing the unique looks of the characters would be impossible without introducing some new parts, so naturally we’re gonna take a closer look at them. The series consists of 12 characters, all coming with newly moulded heads, and most bringing new prints for the torsos and legs.

LEGO® DOTS Parts review + MOC: 41945 Neon Tiger Bracelet & Bag Tag

Products in this article were provided by LEGO®; the author's opinions are their own.

The LEGO® DOTS bag tag range was launched in 2021 and returned in January 2022 with two sets combining a bag tag with a bracelet. I've taken a closer look at the parts of one of these, 41945 Neon Tiger Bracelet & Bag Tag (AU$22.99/ CA$16.99/ DE€14.99/ FI€16.95/ £12.99/ US$14.99). The set also features some pieces in the new Neon Yellow colour introduced this year. At the end of this article I'll also share a new MOC of mine inspired by these parts.

LEGO® Cloth Fest: Áron Gerencsér

Some products in this article were provided by LEGO®; the author's opinions are their own.

Editor's note: It is with sadness and joy that we announce this is Áron Gerencsér's final article for New Elementary, as he will soon join the LEGO Group as a designer! We can't thank Aron enough for the immense energy and creativity he has brought to us these last couple of years and trust that New E chums Sven, Lee, Markus and Chris will welcome him warmly in Billund. We can't wait to review his first product!

What with diving deep into the world of LEGO® pieces on a regular basis, we often find ourselves up to our necks in plastic of all shapes and sizes - it’s what we do after all. However, taking closer looks at all the various new elements does also result in us handling other materials as well - albeit rarely! 

Back in 2020, fellow New Elementary contributor Tom Loftus took a look at the inner cardboard packaging you get with some sets, but this time around Eero Okkonen and I will be taking a look at another non-plastic LEGO® material: cloth!

LEGO® Art review: 31206 The Rolling Stones

Products in this article were provided by LEGO®; the author's opinions are their own.

Two years ago, the LEGO Group introduced the LEGO® Art theme which has brought us 10 sets so far. These sets have a lot in common: They consist of a canvas made out of Brick Special 16 x 16 x 1 1/3 with Pinholes (65803) that is covered with 1 x 1 round tiles and/or plates to create a mosaic image, and as a finishing touch, a border is added. New Elementary has reviewed some of these sets already.

LEGO has now decided to change things up, bringing us 31206 The Rolling Stones: a 1,998 piece set available from 1 June for €149,99 / $149.99 / £129.99. Consider using our affiliate links if you're buying from LEGO.com; New Elementary may get a commission: USA LEGO Shop | Australia LEGO Shop | UK LEGO Shop/for Europe 'Change region'. 

Will this shake-up have me shouting, "Wooo wooo" or will it have me saying, "I can’t get no satisfaction"?

LEGO® Monkie Kid parts review + MOCs: 80036 The City of Lanterns

Products in this article were provided by LEGO®; the author's opinions are their own.

2022 brought us a whole new wave of LEGO® Monkie Kid sets, a theme that caught our attention several times before with its creative builds and interesting pieces. Today we are shining a light on the inventory of LEGO® Monkie Kid 80036 The City of Lanterns, which launched January 1st.

The Glow Demon: Si-MOCs vs. Monkie Kid

Simon Liu (@si_mocs) returns as our guest builder today! A stalwart of LEGO® fan communities both in Canada and online, we knew Si would just love to take on another MOCcing challenge. Products in this article were provided by LEGO®; the author's opinions are their own.

For my previous New Elementary guest article, I had the ‘privilege’ of reviewing 31200 LEGO® Art The Sith mosaic set, which was chosen for me. Much like the Iron Builder contest I help to run, the set offered pretty specific pieces to work with: about 3000 Plate Round 1 x 1. This time around, perhaps having proved myself a bit, I got to choose the set I would build MOCs out of. So I went off looking at sets that had an abundance of ‘interesting’ pieces.

One thing I’ve always loved working into my builds are LEGO pieces that are reactive to ultraviolet light. This gives MOCs that extra sci-fi feel, and there was only one set at the time that included a bunch of White Glow (aka Glow in the Dark) elements: LEGO Monkie Kid 80028 The Bone Demon.

What are the new LEGO® parts for May 2022 and which sets contain the most?

I've created a list showing all 338 new LEGO® elements added in May 2022, with links to which sets they come in so you can check for the ones you might be interested in. And for those of you who instead prefer our list of sets showing which contain the most new elements, click here.

LEGO® Horizon Forbidden West review & interview: 76989 Tallneck

Products in this article were provided by LEGO®; the author's opinions are their own.

Role-playing games elicit high hopes. Players expect a deep story, stunning graphics, and fulfilling gameplay, and only the best games spawn a successful franchise. Horizon Forbidden West solidifies the impact left by Aloy and her robo-dino co-stars of Horizon Zero Dawn, and now just three months after the sequel’s release a LEGO® set celebrating the series has just hit the shelves.

LEGO® Star Wars review: 75325 The Mandalorian’s N-1 Starfighter

Products in this article were provided by LEGO®; the author's opinions are their own.

Today we’re taking a look at LEGO® Star Wars 75325 The Mandalorian’s N-1 Starfighter, a ship described as being faster than a fathier and as smooth as a gonk’s scomp jack, and 'a real classic', according to Peli Motto. But how does the LEGO version stack up? Read on and see.