Set review: 10355 Blacktron Renegade remake by LEGO® Icons

Black and yellow designs and patterns have great visual impact. They're used effectively on hazard tape, warning signs and all manner of things that we should be wary of. That was part of the instant appeal of the original LEGO® Space Blacktron sets. They captured the eye and the imagination, and hinted at some unseen danger. Wild styling was also a feature of those first five sets back in 1987, and the wildest was arguably 6954 Renegade. 

Like a queen space wasp, the redesigned LEGO® Icons 10355 Blacktron Renegade has flown in rapidly on a stealthy mission, and hit me with a surprise attack! Those Blacktron spies have returned and I did not see them coming – they're obviously doing their job, so I guess it's time I did mine and inspected their new tech.

Parts review: January 2025 LEGO® Friends sets

The first wave of 2025 LEGO® Friends contains 20 sets in total, including 2 only-partly-poly-but-mostly-paper bags. Across these, I’ve counted 222 new elements for us to enjoy, and so before I review the individual sets, I’ve put the most prominent, fresh molds in an overview for you.

Parts review: 10355 Blacktron Renegade from LEGO® Icons

In 1987, LEGO® Space turned to the dark side. Blacktron was introduced, and suddenly we had villains in the void. They had the same enigmatic smiling faces that our good guys did, but that obviously made their scheming and spying all the more concerning.

The combination of black, yellow, trans-yellow and trans-red parts was highly effective in creating visual impact in the design of the original Blacktron sets. In 2025, the theme returns for a one-off LEGO® Icons nostalgic recreation – we're Back in Blacktron! – and almost all of the new parts in 10355 Blacktron Renegade come in that established colour palette.

Designer reveal: 10355 Blacktron Renegade from LEGO® Icons

They're back, they're bigger and they're more powerful than ever. Those pesky Blacktron folk have been playing a long game, and on 1 January 2025, it all comes to fruition as LEGO® Icons set 10355 Blacktron Renegade invades stores! 

Who better to introduce it than Jae Won Lee, Senior Designer at The LEGO Group, who has brought his own swoosh factor to this 1987 classic LEGO® Space set?

Review: 10343 Mini Orchid and 10344 Lucky Bamboo from LEGO® Botanicals

In July, I reviewed LEGO® Botanicals sets 10368 Chrysanthemum & 10369 Plum Blossom. They were pronounced to be two of the Four Gentlemen: a set of traditional plants in East Asian culture. The remaining two are bamboo and orchid. Those flowers are less straightforward to make into LEGO sets: orchid because it already appeared in sets 10311 Orchid and 43237 Isabela's Flowerpot (review of 43237 by me, again), and bamboo because it's basically some sticks, and thus not interesting… or so we thought. 

On 1 January 2025, sets 10343 Mini Orchid and 10344 Lucky Bamboo will be available, and today I am going to see if they are worthy successors to the first pair – both of which got good marks from me.

Review + MOC: 10359 Fountain Garden from LEGO® Icons

August 2023 saw the introduction of LEGO® Icons 10315 Tranquil Garden, a Japanese-inspired model which is a little bit larger than minifigure scale and features modular components to vary the garden layout. At the time, we assumed that this was a one-off.

However, set 10359 Fountain Garden, led by senior designer Henrik Saaby, will be released on 1 January 2025 under the new LEGO Icons sub-theme "Gardens of the World". Let's take a look at the parts and construction of the Fountain Garden to see what delights await.

Review + MOC: 71478 The Never Witch's Midnight Raven from LEGO® DREAMZzz™

The last 2024 LEGO® DREAMZzz™ set we're reviewing is another great example of the quirky set design of this original theme: a witch's hut nested atop a gigantic raven. So far, I've been critical towards many sets of this wave due to unfocused and messy set design. I've associated this with the alternative builds. I like how these sets offer different designs using the same parts, emphasising the nature of this medium – but so far, it has deemed sacrifices on the design coherence.

Obviously, it's much easier to make one focused set design with a specific set of parts. In this respect, 71478 The Never Witch's Midnight Raven is closer to the original August 2023 wave. There is a distinct B-Model, but it shares about 85% of the structure with the main model while still supporting very different play patterns. How does the raven fare?

Review: LEGO® 40702 Christmas Picture Frame gift with purchase

Still doing your Christmas shopping – or just starting? After midnight Friday 13 December 2024, the 40701 Ballerina & Nutcracker Scene is gone from LEGO.com, but a new Gift with Purchase (GwP) becomes available that isn't limited to LEGO® Insiders and has a lower threshold. Let's pull out those holiday snaps in readiness for 40702 Christmas Picture Frame. 

Pick a Brick: Standard service paused in North America – and obsolete elsewhere

This article contains affiliate links to LEGO.com; we may get a small commission if you purchase.

 In what is surely our final update on LEGO® Pick a Brick for 2024, we have been informed that the service has temporarily paused "Standard" elements in the US and Canada over the holiday period as usual. However, "Bestseller" elements remain fully operational, with over 4000 elements available with fast delivery. 

Canada: note that they are temporarily unable to ship orders to certain rural areas due to the ongoing disruptions with Canada Post.

In Europe, Australia and New Zealand, there’s no change because everything is now available through the Bestseller service! There is one change though: you will see that the site has been updated to completely remove this Bestseller/Standard distinction. Hooray! A great and symbolic end to an incredible year of improvements from the Pick a Brick team. Can't wait to see what 2025 brings!

All text ©2024 New Elementary unless otherwise attributed.

Mind that Banana contest: The winners

With the new LEGO® Fortnite Odyssey social roleplay experience Brick Life launching today, 12 December 2024, now's the perfect moment to announce the winners of our Mind that Banana contest and find out which original creations won the prizes of LEGO Fortnite sets! 

We asked readers to create non-banana MOCs using LEGO bananas. With 102 entries to judge, finding the pick of the bunch was no easy task.

LEGO® parts 77845 & 77850: rounded plates

Occasionally, a new LEGO® part will present opportunities that I haven't encountered before. The family of rounded plates received two further wonderful new additions in 2023, and although they’re not quite so new anymore I felt that they were worthy of some exploration.

Review: 10342 Pretty Pink Flower Bouquet from LEGO® Botanicals

2025 is not here yet, but we're having an early start with the new element mega-party pack, LEGO® Botanicals 10342 Pretty Pink Flower Bouquet. The "Botanical Collection" no longer sits under the LEGO® Icons branding and instead becomes its own theme, so are these plant sets still worthy of adult hobbyists?

Review: 40701 Ballerina & Nutcracker Scene gift with purchase

Starting midnight Friday December 6 2024, a new Gift with Purchase (GwP) becomes available to LEGO® Insiders... plus, LEGO® Insiders 2x Points are back too! 

So let's get into the spirit of the holidays with 40701 Ballerina & Nutcracker Scene.

Review: 10350 Tudor Corner from LEGO® Icons Modular Buildings Collection

The latest set in the LEGO® Modular Buildings Collection was announced yesterday as 10350 Tudor Corner.  The set is a corner building which houses a restaurant, a haberdashery, a clockmaker’s workshop and an attic apartment.

Let's take a look at the new elements and the eight minifigures first, before groundwork starts on the pub.

Designer interview: 10350 Tudor Corner with François Zapf and Ashwin Visser

Just revealed, the 2025 LEGO® Icons Modular Buildings Collection set is 10350 Tudor Corner! Our review is coming tomorrow, but first we have a rather special introduction with exclusive photos.

At Fan Media Days in Denmark in September 2024, I joined Andrew Becraft from The Brothers Brick to have the lead designer François Zapf (above right) and graphic designer Ashwin Visser (above left) talk us through the new Modular's features and development.

Contest entry gallery: Mind that Banana

Our building contest – where you had to use a LEGO® banana, but were not allowed to make a banana – has finally split. Entries closed earlier today, and now it is up to our three judges to pick the most apeeling creations. In the meantime, you can enjoy all 103 entries yourself, thanks to all the wonderful participants who joined in and showed off their creative skills!

After-Party Fest: Nathan Don's MOCs

Today we welcome guest Nathan Don (woomy_world), who is our final builder in After-Party Fest, our LEGO® building challenge using seed parts of interesting moulds released by LEGO over the last 12 months. Nathan's stunning work was selected for display until September 2025 at the prestigious LEGO House Masterpiece Gallery in Denmark, where Tim and Jonas met him at the time of installation. He then attended our Skaerbaek Fan Weekend building workshop, where these seed parts came from, and we sent him home to the US with a baggie to experiment with further!

What are the new LEGO® parts in December 2024 sets?

I've created a list showing all 43 new LEGO® elements added in late November and early December 2024, with links to which sets they come in so you can check for the ones you might be interested in. For those of you who instead prefer our list of sets showing which contain the most new elements, click here.

Parts review: LEGO® Friends, LEGO® City and LEGO® Disney Advent Calendars

Welcome to December already! It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas, although the 2024 LEGO® advent calendars were actually revealed back in August. Stop reading now if you want to keep every aspect of your LEGO® City, LEGO® Friends or LEGO® Disney Advent calendars a surprise. Although we won't be spoiling the final mini-builds here, we have collected the new elements, new prints and rare elements from each of the three advent calendars to show you. 

There's some fun new elements amongst the usual fires with marshmallows toasting, ice hockey and Christmas trees!

Review: 10363 Leonardo Da Vinci's Flying Machine from LEGO® Icons

Humankind has been dreaming of taking to the skies ever since we saw birds and insects soaring. Many flying machines have been designed in the past, usually unsuccessful, and one of the most famous was sketched in the 15th century by all-round Renaissance genius Leonardo Da Vinci. Today, we’ll build a LEGO interpretation of his designs with LEGO® Icons set 10363 Leonardo Da Vinci’s Flying Machine.

Pick a Brick: Black Friday 2024 price cuts

To everyone’s surprise, the biggest discounts on LEGO.com this Black Friday are on Pick a Brick! And only New Elementary has the list of what is discounted – you can’t even find this info on Pick a Brick itself. They don't show their sale prices, they simply change the price.

In addition to some discounts of up to 77% that already went live earlier in November, LEGO® Pick a Brick are also reduced their prices on Black Friday on a few hundred more popular elements from the “Last Chance” list of pieces, which are due to be deleted from the service on 3 December 2024.

The price changes are now live worldwide. Continue reading to see the lists.

LEGO® Black Friday Toy Deals

LEGO® Black Friday Toy Deals are underway, with even new sets like Christmas Table Decoration and the LEGO® Botanical Collection Wreath discounted. However the biggest discounts can be found in the Pick a Brick aisle!

Review: 40729 Shackleton's Lifeboat GwP for LEGO® Black Friday

A tie-in gift with purchase (GwP) of the Brick Friday 2024 release 10335 The Endurance, which I reviewed earlier this week, LEGO® Icons 40729 Shackleton’s Lifeboat is a minifigure-scale replica of the James Caird – which is the lifeboat that Shackleton used to save his crew, as we will see in the second half of this review.

Unlike the LEGO Endurance it comes with minifigures, making it a highly desirable gift with purchase for LEGO Insiders purchasing set 10335 from Friday 28 November to Monday 2 December... if stocks last that long!

Review: 40668 Captain America & Red Hulk from LEGO® BrickHeadz™ Super Heroes

LEGO® BrickHeadz™ 40668 Super Heroes Captain America & Red Hulk are tie-ins with the new Captain America: Brave New World movie due for release in February 2025.

These LEGO Brickheadz characters represent the Sam Wilson version of Captain America, portrayed by Anthony Mackie in the movies, and U.S. President Thaddeus Ross in his Red Hulk form, to be portrayed by Harrison Ford.

Best new LEGO® parts of 2024

The end of the year is typically a time for reflection, and for us New Elementarians, that means looking back at some of the coolest new LEGO® elements that were released in 2024!

Interview: 10363 Leonardo Da Vinci's Flying Machine from LEGO® Icons

Coming 1 January 2025, LEGO® Icons set 10363 Leonardo Da Vinci's Flying Machine is quite unlike anything you've seen before from The LEGO Group! 

We were present at the reveal of the set at Fan Media Days in Denmark in September 2024, where Antica Bracanov, Senior Designer (above) and Nathan Davis, Graphic Designer spoke about the product they helped develop.

Set review: 10335 The Endurance from LEGO® Icons

Black Friday falls this week, and the big release on the day is LEGO® Icons set 10335 The Endurance; a recreation of the ship used by Ernest Shackleton in his attempted expedition to cross the Antarctic. 

After I examined what the LEGO Endurance is made of last week, let us now look at how she is built. In addition to that, I have a short historical overview about Ernest Shackleton and the real Endurance.

After-Party Fest: Caz Mockett's MOCs

When my allocation of the eclectic mix of  LEGO® elements from the New Elementary Skærbæk Fan Weekend workshop arrived through my letterbox, I was immediately inspired by some of the seed parts, and perplexed by others. But I do love a parts fest, so I started by noodling around with a couple of tablescraps, which is usually a good way to get the creative juices flowing. Let's see what happened.

Review: 40699 Retro Record Player GwP for Black Friday/Cyber Monday

As well as 40700 Winter Holiday Train which I reviewed earlier, the Black Friday/ Cyber Monday weekend includes a second Gift with Purchase (GwP) with a higher threshold. 40699 Retro Record Player is available to LEGO Insiders from midnight 29 November to 2 December 2024.

Pick a Brick: Christmas cutoff dates, and List Upload rollout

The exciting updates from the LEGO® Pick a Brick (PaB) team keep coming thick and fast! Read on for further country rollouts of their recent platform updates in time for LEGO Insiders Weekend on 23 and 24 November 2024, as well as the Christmas cutoff dates for receiving Bestseller elements. 

Revealed: Formula 1® joins multiple LEGO® themes in 2025

LEGO® Speed Champions, LEGO® City, LEGO® DUPLO® and LEGO® Collectables are teaming up with Formula 1® to drive the excitement of the racetrack to your home. In January, March and May 2025, new waves of LEGO sets will launch that feature all ten F1 teams.

Review: 21350 Jaws from LEGO® Ideas

Growing up near many of the Massachusetts shooting locations for 1975's Jaws, my interest was understandably piqued when The LEGO Group announced development of a set based on the film. Now, just a year-and-a-half after that announcement, I'm excited to examine the final set and the parts it contains. Fortunately, almost all of these elements are now available for purchase via the LEGO® Pick a Brick service, if desired in quantity.

Parts review: 10335 Endurance from LEGO® Icons

Set sail and head towards the South Pole with LEGO® Icons 10335 Endurance. After the massive Titanic LEGO set in 2021, this is the next historical ship to release on a Black Friday. While significantly smaller and with fewer parts than its predecessor, it is a worthy contender for LEGO set of the year. In this first article, we are investigating the parts from which the Endurance is made.

After-Party Fest: Kev Levell's MOCs

One of my favourite LEGO® activities is a good old New Elementary parts festival. I love taking part, for a number of reasons. A bundle of lovely new parts arrive, supplied in the kind of quantities that would be prohibitively expensive for me to acquire in any of the normal ways. There are elements I perhaps might not gravitate to buying, and that's a nice challenge to face. There's a shared experience with fellow builders in the creation of MOCs that generally surprise and delight, both from my own build table and those of my co-contributors. They have become rarer in recent years and that too makes them a sweet experience. In short, even as a regular contributor to New Elementary, it's a privilege and an honour to be included.

Review: 40700 Winter Holiday Train GwP for Black Friday LEGO® Toy Deals 2024

Several Christmas-themed LEGO® trains, both big and small, have appeared over the years and this coming holiday season brings us 40700 Winter Holiday Train, a Gift with Purchase (GwP) available to LEGO® Insiders from midnight 29 November to 2 December 2024.

Revealed: 77037 Aloy & Varl vs. Shell-Walker & Sawtooth from LEGO® Horizon Adventures™

The LEGO Group have revealed set 77037 Aloy & Varl vs. Shell-Walker & Sawtooth, a tie-in with the LEGO® Horizon Adventures™video game that released 4 days ago. We also have some pictures of it from Fan Media Days in Billund in September, including new moulds created for the set! 

Pick a Brick: Germany and UK get upload option plus more new features

Yet more exciting news from the LEGO® Pick a Brick online development team! The ability to upload a wish list, which premiered in North America recently, has now been rolled out to the UK and Germany... with even more new features included than before.

2024 Skærbæk workshop and After-Party Fest: introducing the elements

New Elementary ran a building workshop at Skærbæk Fan Weekend in September 2024. During the event, attendees were tasked with making something using 10 elements released in the last 12 months as seed parts; we will show you some of the results in due course, but first up, it's our turn! We rounded up some of the reclaimed seed parts from the workshop to run one of our "parts festivals", and dispatched them to a couple of our regular contributors: Kev Levell and Caz Mockett, and one of the workshop attendees, Nathan Don as a guest builder.

So, welcome to After-PartyFest! For our first instalment, Tom Loftus introduces all 10 elements and to take a closer look at those that have escaped New Elementary's analytical eye so far. 

Review: 71485 Mateo and Z-Blob the Knight Battle Mech from LEGO® DREAMZzz™

A big mech calls for a big name and 71485 Mateo and Z-Blob the Knight Battle Mech is certainly a long one for this 1333-piece set. Though I can't help but think simply going with Mateo and Z-Blob the Knight Mech would have been enough. Surely 'Knight' and 'Mech' suggests battling is a given, right? We might never know, but by reading this article you will know if this LEGO® DREAMZzz™ set is worthy of the Round Table of New Elementarian Knights. 

Pick a Brick: surprise early release of December elements

Christmas comes early! LEGO® Pick a Brick have added hundreds of new elements to the service today – taking us all by surprise! These are new elements from August 2024 sets, which were going to be added next week.

This article contains affiliate links to LEGO.com; we may get a small commission if you purchase.

View list of all new parts added to LEGO Pick a Brick

New parts: January 2025 LEGO® Monkie Kid and LEGO® Chinese Traditional Festival sets

Earlier this week at the China International Import Expo, the LEGO Group unveiled three new LEGO® Lunar New Year/ Spring Festival sets – some launching on 25 December 2024 in most countries in the Asia Pacific region and worldwide on 1 January 2025 – and two new LEGO® Monkie Kid sets launching 1 January.

As is usual for these themes, these sets feature a wealth of interesting new molds, recolored parts, and printed elements. Let’s take a peek at 80065 Erlang’s Celestial Mech, 80066 Mythical Creature Qilin, 80116 Trotting Lantern, 80117 Good Fortune, and 40813 Lucky Cat to see what the new year has in store!

Pick a Brick update: How to download your cart

The development team at LEGO® Pick a Brick have released another awesome update to the service that LEGO builders have been asking for: you can now download a list of the elements in your shopping cart.

Review: 71814 Tournament Temple City from LEGO® NINJAGO®

71814 Temple Tournament City is the largest set in the 2024 LEGO® NINJAGO® lineup, and as a substantial set of 3489 pieces, it has plenty of interesting parts to talk about. Many of them are now available from LEGO® Pick a Brick (PaB), where you can buy them in bulk.

Review: 76289 Thor vs. Surtur Construction Figure from LEGO® Marvel

76289 Thor vs. Surtur Construction Figure takes its cues from 2017's Thor: Ragnarok. The giant fire demon, Surtur was predicted to destroy Asgard and is depicted here as a large-ish construction figure.

From an initial look, the parts are pretty, but I'm not sure everything about this set is going to Ragna-rock my world!

What are the new LEGO® parts in November 2024 sets?

I've created a list showing all 43 new LEGO® elements appearing in new sets in November 2024, 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.

Review: Cerebro Gift with Purchase from LEGO® Marvel

From midnight Friday 1 November 2024, two new LEGO® sets come with their own Gifts with Purchase (GwP) only for LEGO® Insiders: set 21353 The Botanical Garden comes with 5009005 Entrance Gate, and set 76294 X-Men: The X-Mansion comes with the subject of today's review, 5009015 Cerebro.  

Let's roll with Professor Charles Francis Xavier to find out if his mind-enhancing machine is a big ball of fun, or sends us into a coma.

Review: 42177 Mercedes-Benz G 500 PROFESSIONAL Line from LEGO® Technic

LEGO® Technic is having a strong year, with loads and loads of cars to enjoy. We’ve had sportscars, racecars, supercars and F1 cars in various scales. All of these have one thing in common: they need tarmac to drive on. To go off trail, we need something special, and that’s where today’s set comes in. Set 42177 Mercedes-Benz G 500 PROFESSIONAL Line sure seems to have the right look, so let's take it for a drive.

LEGO® Pick a Brick: element removal and addition for November/December 2024

It's coming to that time of year when LEGO® Pick a Brick remove thousands of elements from the service, and today we have that list – as well as a very small list of new elements added on Tuesday 29 October 2024.

Gift with Purchase update for late October and early November

A new Gift with Purchase, Books Are My Passion, begins Monday 28 October 2024 and there are more GwP offers from Friday 1 November.

View the Black Friday 2024 LEGO® gifts with purchase here. 

This article contains affiliate links to LEGO.com; we may get a small commission if you purchase.