Tom Loftus' MOCs using May 2025 Pick a Brick parts

LEGO® Pick a Brick paused this service earlier this year, but they have just resumed the addition of new parts a month earlier than anticipated!

3 images: random lego pieces, and 2 extreme closeups of models created from them.

We caught up with the team in February 2025 at the Bricktastic show in Manchester, UK where they displayed the elements due to arrive on Pick a Brick (PaB) when the service resumed. At the end of the show they kindly offered these elements to me – one of each – and I've explored their potential in original LEGO build creations using my own collection.

Some elements in this article were gifted by The LEGO Group; the author's opinions are their own.

This article contains links to search Pick a Brick on LEGO.com for the mould mentioned, or all available elements from the set mentioned. These are affiliate links; we may get a small commission if you purchase.

I've had a bit of a break from New E so what better way to return than with my very own mini-Parts Festival!

various lego bits scattered on a surface.

Having such a wide variety of elements was equal parts exciting and daunting. Most originate from late 2024 sets such as 76294 The X-Mansion, 21353 The Botanical Garden, 10335 The Endurance, 10340 Wreath and LEGO® Spring Festival sets like 80117 Good Fortune.

They includes a sizeable selection of desirable decorated elements, like the Antarctica map (6518605) and 6x6 dish with orange slice detail (6509614).

Research Rover

2 lego parts - a clear curved corner and a black curved side piece

To beat the "choice overload" felt when looking at the bag of goodies, I grabbed one of the biggest and shiniest of the bunch: the 5 x 5 x 3 1/3 curved corner panel in trans-clear (6501847 | 5925), originally from LEGO® Ideas set 21353 The Botanical Garden.

I also selected a 6 x 5 x 3 1/3 curved panel in black (6509389 | 5065, also available in trans-clear, white and trans-black) from LEGO® Icons set 10335 The Endurance. Although it was introduced a few months earlier, it is a natural companion to the corner version as they are both examples of a new family of curved bricks that have no vertical section at the base; a perfect curve descends all the way.

Embracing the fact I only had one of each to play with, I went all-in on an asymmetric vehicle:

2 views of an unusual lego spaceship being developed. it is black and clear with azure and orange highlights.

Although a rough shape emerged quickly, I soon ran out of steam. "Does it need another colour? Should that bit be changed? What's going to go here?" The questions I usually love to encounter while building were becoming a slog to resolve. In other words, the vibe was off with this one; and the void in the medium azure section next to the cockpit was starting to make my eye twitch.

completed lego spaceship on a lavender alien surface with an astronaut approaching.

Lime green frying pans were my unlikely heroes. They ended up being just the kind of jazzy greeble that had eluded me. Plus they introduced a new accent colour to compliment the existing orange/blue/black colour palette.

Despite my grumblings, I'm quite pleased with the finished vehicle, especially its asymmetry.

I might even prefer the far side because it presented one of the more enjoyable challenges I had to solve during the build, shown below left:

left picture: closeup of a transparent 4x4 dome attached sideways close to a vertical surface. Because it actually extends into the vertical surface, the surface has been replaced with 2 triangular lego pieces to create a gap. Right picture: a curved black lego panel on the spaceship with lots of small grey pieces within it, creating a wall matching its curve.

The issue was the 4x4 trans-clear dome (6551130 | 35319 – back on PaB after 6 years absence from sets) clashing with the trim around the cockpit 'glass'. Two butted-up 4 x 2 wedge plates (left 65429 and right 65426) provided the solution. Since each wedge is actually 3.5 modules long because of their cut tips, together they cover a 2 x 7 module area with a cut-out that is aligned just right to clear the dome. I think it's the first time I've utilised the peculiar wedge plate dimension having seen it cleverly exploited in the LEGO® Speed Champions set 76908 Lamborghini Countach.

Above right is pictured the cockpit interior's rear wall; pictured here because I spent way too much time elaborately in-filling it to remain unseen.

The local fauna

After a turbulent first build, I felt the need to do something smaller; a palate-cleanser of sorts.

4 lego pieces: a lime snake mask for minifigs, peony flowers, a large curved tan brick and a wide flat curved grey canopy panel.

Even cuter than the minifigure-compatible reptilian heads seen in the LEGO® NINJAGO® theme, the lime snake head (6516506) from 80116 Trotting Lantern seemed like a fun element to tackle.

Together with a handful of generic seed parts, I made this tiny slice of alien landscape:

lego alien frog on a rock on a planet. The lime snake mask is embedded in tan rock to hide some of its height and other small lime pieces around it create feet. The peony flowers grow on the rock. The large curved tan brick is laid sideways to form some of the flat rock. The curved grey canopy panel forms one rock in the background.

A snake head may not make the most convincing frog body, but I'm not sure that matters: this is an alien planet after all.

Blade Bot

In search of fresh inspiration, I selected another batch of elements from the pile; all one colour this time.

Since their release in 2021, I've always had a soft spot for 'Porsche bows' (left 77180 and right 77182). Together with a lone 1 x 4 x 1 2/3 Slope (3573) from 2023, the trio held some solid MOC potential.

various combinations of black and yellow curved lego parts.

I had envisioned a Vic Viper-style spaceship, with the single curved slope as the tail fin and the larger bows as forward prongs. However, after unearthing from my collection a handful of 3x3 yellow quarter domes (76797 – seven colours have just been added to PaB), a new idea took hold.

a highly stylised black and yellow lego robot with curved limbs

Between the colour scheme and the claw-like hands, there's definitely something Wolverine-y about this bot.

It's an appropriate resemblance too, seeing as quite a few of the seed elements I'm working with hail from 76294 The X-Mansion – even though the specific seed parts used here do not.

4 poses of the black and yellow lego robot mech

For something with limited articulation, I'm quite pleased with the range of poses it can strike.

Mech builds have always felt like uncharted territory for me but with this and the alternate builds I made with LEGO Speed Champions 76924 Mercedes-AMG G 63 & SL 63, I think I'm starting to get the hang of it.

Bunny Bot

As soon as I spotted the decorated quarter domes (left 6529380 and right 6529379) from 40813 Lucky Cat, I knew I had to use them somehow.

3 lego curved quarter dome pieces. 2 white ones printed, one reddish orange.

I didn't have to look too hard for something to pair them with - the 5 x 5 x 1 quarter-dome in reddish orange (6524594 | 76776) from 80117 Good Fortune is practically luminous!

a round head with arms, legs and big bunny ears. Its lower jaw is reddish orange

It formed the lower jaw of this... even I'm not sure what this is. An Easter gremlin perhaps? Probably known for stealing eggs rather than handing them out.

same head but with a new white jaw, opened. It has sturdy robotic shoulders with joints awaiting arms.

After couple of days with the Easter gremlin on my desk, I decided to redesign the body into a more substantial mech. At some point I ended up ditching the reddish orange quarter-dome in favour of a more muppet-like mouth, for increased cuteness.

robot bunny mech with oversized hands and feet made of dishes and quarter domes respectively.

The quarter-dome's legacy lives on in the final build thanks to the reddish orange T-bar (6486091 | 4697) accents on the arms, and in the design of the feet which each use the same quarter-domes in white. The mech's new hands use the beautifully printed 8x8 (6519101) from the same set combined with 6x6 orange slice dishes (6509614) from 10340 Wreath.

3 close up details on the lego robot bunny's limbs and back.

Outside of seed element usage, I'm quite pleased with the chunky aesthetic the build has; particularly the legs and arms which can be repositioned a couple of different ways.

front and rear view of robot lego bunny mech.

If it isn't clear already, I loved making this one – it's hard to get frustrated with a model when it smiles back at you!

Closing thoughts

And with that, my mini-parts fest draws to a close. I hope my MOCs are of interest or perhaps even inspiration for some Pick a Brick creations of your own.

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30 April 2025