08 April 2024

Eero's MOCs using parts from New Elementary review sets

Posted by Thomas Jenkins

What happens to all the sets that New Elementary contributors receive after they are done reviewing them? 


Well, often the elements they contain inspire new MOCs! Today, Eero Okkonen shares his projects inspired by some of the elements he received over the past year in New E. review sets.

Some of the products in this article were gifted by The LEGO Group; the author's opinions are their own. This article contains affiliate links to LEGO.com; we may get a small commission if you purchase.

Princess Sapphire


Eero says that this character started life from the interesting technique used to create the pattern on the upper thighs – you can just about see a few Trans Blue Snowflake (x789) elements peeking out from behind the Medium Lavender leaves. This pattern, along with the Trans Purple elements in the stockings, determined the future-fantasy direction of the MOC.

The leaf pattern is complimented nicely with a Medium Lavender breastplate made from the new Plant Round 1 x 2 with Layered Leaves (6466045 | 5058) from the recently reviewed 42620 Olly & Paisley's Family Houses. 

The stylized snowflake print on the Trans-Purple Hexagonal Flag (6342727) from 43189 Elsa & the Nokk Storybook Adventures is the perfect design for the princess' skirt, emphasizing the character's ice-queen aesthetic.

Eero provided us coverage of the entire first wave of LEGO® DREAMZzz™ sets and they proved to be a good source of the new Trans- Satin effect colour; Eero used both a Crystal in Satin Trans-Purple (6442192 | 28623) from 71456 Mrs Castillo's Turtle Van and a 3 x 3 Dish in Satin Trans Dark Blue (6337410 | 35268) from 71460 Mr Oz's Spacebus in the helmet.

While he didn't mention it in his review, as it's a relatively common part, the Key element in Pearl Gold (6372622 | 78169) which appears 43239 Mirabel's Photo Frame made an excellent decorative pommel for her sword.

Tahu

It's no secret that Eero is a big LEGO® BIONICLE® fan. You can find plenty of the theme's uniquely-shaped specialized elements hidden in his models (lots of organic shapes that are very useful for building in his signature style) but even a brief flick through his Flickr photostream or personal blog – Cyclopic Bricks – reveals a wealth of builds inspired by the theme. This one reimagines the leader Tahu with a techno feudal Japan-inspired spin. 


The iconic flaming sword has been updated with the LEGO DreamZzz 'splat sword', as Eero calls it. This particular one in Trans Yellow (6447085 | 1995) was taken from 71456 Mrs Castillo's Turtle Van. That's not the only aspect of the character that's received an update: Eero has rebuilt and upscaled all the original classic LEGO Bionicle elements with a mixture of LEGO System and Technic System parts. 

There's incredible synergy between the two types of parts: my favorite example of this is in the mask, which at first glance looks like it could be a single moulded element but a closer inspection reveals a dense composition of all kind of elements including minifigure arms and a LEGO Belville shoe (33021) front and centre. The result is an uncanny resemblance to the original Tahu mask – and Eero has integrated this element in a brilliant way to create the character's forehead. Very meta!

Morak

Here's another LEGO Bionicle character reimagined. 


It's always interesting to see the ways that builders interpret the specialized LEGO Bionicle parts and recreate them with System elements. In this case, Eero has given the Rahkshi head (44807), which has featured in multiple LEGO Bionicle characters, a facelift – now it resembles something more like a crustacean. This is accomplished with the Satin Trans Light Blue elements he received in 43189 Elsa & the Nokk Storybook Adventures, namely the LEGO Nexo Knights windshield (27262), 2x3 Pentagonal Tiles (22385), and Diamond (35469) elements. I'm impressed how much use Eero got out of that little set!

This little build draws from all corners of the LEGO inventory: that cannon is a LEGO® DUPLO® gas can (45141)!

Postcard from Hervanta


The new elements from last year's LEGO DreamZzz sets continue to fuel Eero's MOCs, as the wispy cloud in this postcard was supplied by 71457 Pegasus Flying Horse. You might recognize those trees from another of Eero's New E. contributions: they appeared in his Neito Niemen Nenässä MOC built for our Flower Fest.

The Wingnut Crew 


A few New E. parts found their way into this motley crew. While this MOC was built for last Year's Bio-Cup, Eero acquired all those Silver grenade elements (from the Minifigure Weapons Pack, ID 40598) when he contributed to our Batman parts festival held way back in 2019. 

More recent elements include two printed parts from 21329 Fender Stratocaster, but you might not have recognised them. The White 1x3 tile and Reddish Brown 2x6 tiles are brilliantly repurposed as details on the right-most figure's corset.

Those LEGO DreamZzz sets proved once again useful contributing to the central character's facial hair. 71459 Stable of Dream Creatures contained only 2x Reddish Brown Cam (6404660 | 6575) elements, so Eero had to acquire a few more to complete that magnificent beard.

Jäähy


Eero says that the title of this piece, Jäähy is a difficult word to translate into English: it's something akin to a cooling down between sessions in the sauna. The expression of this chap makes me think it might feel a bit like basking in the splendour of all these gorgeous MOCs Eero has built! 

In this model, Eero has found some wonderfully subversive uses for minifigure hairpieces found in 80035 Monkie Kid's Galactic Explorer: the Orange Mohawk (93563) and beard (93223) elements from the Sandy minifigure have been repurposed as a moustache and eyebrows, respectively. 

READ MORE: What are the new LEGO® parts for April 2024?

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