LEGO® DREAMZzz™ 2024 new parts and minifigures, and design team interview

The LEGO® DREAMZzz™ sets for January 2024 maintain the eclectic, fantastical nature of the theme with five new sets made up of bright shades, sinister baddies and wild mash-ups.

Naturally we're starting with a review of the new and rare parts in the wave. Sharing info along the way are designers Carter Baldwin, Trine Kinch Møller and Freddy Charters, and executive producer Tommy Andreasen. It's a very minifigure-focused wave but that didn't stop the design team from also stuffing in 16 recoloured curves, decorative pieces and more—some in the all-new colour Reddish Orange. Let's enter the Dream World and see what new pieces we find.

LEGO® DREAMZzz™ review: August 2023 parts and minifigures

LEGO® DREAMZzz™ is the new flagship action theme from The LEGO Group with a tie-in animated series. In this first article, I will go through the exciting new parts appearing in the sets on 1 August 2023 and take a close look at the wild range of minifigures populating them. 

Grab your pyjamas, fluff your pillow and fall into a state of bliss in this beautiful dreamworld!

Minifigs & recolours: LEGO® 75551 Brick-Built Minions and Their Lair & 75549 Unstoppable Bike Chase

Last time, Tim Johnson began working through all the new LEGO® parts from Minions: The Rise of Gru 75551 Brick-Built Minions and Their Lair (£44.99/ $49.99/ 48.73€) as well as 75549 Unstoppable Bike Chase (£17.99 / $19.99 / 19.49€) and today he completes this analysis by examining the Minion minifigures and the recolours. The products in this article were provided for free by LEGO; the author's opinions are not biased by this.

LEGO® Minifigures in 75549 and 75551

75549 comes with Stuart, Gru and Bob. Gru has 2 expressions and printing on the rear of his torso. The Minions come in their traditional overalls.

(CW:HP) LEGO® Accessories review: 40419 Harry Potter Hogwarts students

Our second and final review of the new LEGO® accessory packs of minifigures features characters from the Harry Potter universe, as Erik H. from HokayBricks explains. These sets are released 1 June 2020 and Brickset estimates they will cost US$12.99/£11.99 but this is unconfirmed. Editorial note: Although views expressed by Harry Potter's creator do not align with that of New Elementary, we continue to cover HP sets. Read about our stance here.

This accessory pack includes four minifigures and the pieces and instructions needed to build a small bookcase. The bookcase build is simple but effective. It does not include any new or exclusive parts, but considering that this set is likely to be purchased several times over by some customers I'm sure any number of MOCs could benefit from the parts included here. The interest here, however, is all about the minifigures.

LEGO® Accessories review: 40418 Marvel Super Heroes Falcon & Black Widow

There are new LEGO® accessory packs featuring minifigures being revealed today and Erik H.  from HokayBricks is here to talk you through them, starting with set 40418 featuring characters from the Marvel Super Heroes universe. (Tomorrow: Harry Potter!) These sets are released 1 June 2020 and Brickset estimates they will cost US$12.99/£11.99 but this is unconfirmed.

This accessory pack includes four minifigures and the pieces and instructions needed to build an energy turret stud-shooter - or in this case, a cylinder-shooter. The build is simple but effective. It includes two full sets of six Transparent Fluorescent Green/ Trans-Neon Green 1x1 round bricks. The build does not include any new or exclusive parts, but the minifigures do!

LEGO® Ideas review: 21322 Pirates of Barracuda Bay - the new pieces & minifigures

Jonas Kramm already took a look at the construction of the new LEGO® Ideas set 21322 Pirates of Barracuda Bay and saw that it can change from a pirate hideout into a complete ship, but there was so much to say he didn’t get around to taking a detailed look at all the new pieces and minifigures included. So we do that today!

LEGO® Ideas try their best to work without creating any new moulds, so we don’t get any in 21322 Pirates of Barracuda Bay. That statement turns out to be not completely true however, as you will see later.

Recoloured LEGO® pieces in 21322 Pirates of Barracuda Bay

Most interesting are the recolours – existing elements changed to new colours – and there are more in this set than I thought.

The first surprise while building was the colour of the palm leaves used in this set. From the picture on the box I would have bet that they are the usual Dark Green/ Green (shown top right), but all 16 are actually Bright Green (6299808|10884, shown lower right).

21322 Pirates of Barracuda Bay: Designer interview with Milan Madge & Austin William Carlson

The next LEGO® Ideas set, 21322 Pirates of Barracuda Bay, seems to be dividing opinion in the community. Regardless, you will be interested to hear what its designers, Milan Madge (set) and Austin William Carlson (graphics and minifigures) have to say about their adaptation of Pablo Jiménez's original design. And for this exclusive interview they've also shared the seven prototypes showing the model's development!

The first thing many people will say is that the final product diverges significantly from the original fan model. How did you come to the decision to make these changes, and was there much input from the fan designer?

Milan: The first step was building the fan designer Pablo’s model, but it became obvious early on that I was missing a lot of elements. Many of the pieces have been out of production for some time, so we had to get creative. The biggest hurdle was the raised baseplate, which meant a total redesign of the structure of the model, but even tiny changes such as the new boat hulls being wider than the ones in Pablo’s submission meant that all the proportions needed altering – a real headache!

Minifig Posing Stand: Jonas Kramm's fantastic furniture

As soon as we saw the LEGO® DC Super Heroes Collectable Minifigure Series, we knew that we had to get our hands on the new little transparent angled bar included with the figures. We gave a handful of these new elements to three creative minds to see what they thought, and we will publish these over the coming weeks. First up is Jonas Kramm who analyses its geometry and possibilities.

Jumping, flying and fighting: these poses and many more can now be achieved easily by your LEGO minifigures. With the new element introduced in the DC Super Heroes Collectible Minifigure Series, called "Handle No.1" (6285587|65578) by The LEGO Group and "Minifigure, Utensil Posing Stand" by BrickLink, minifigures can strike a suitably super stance by connecting it to the bottom or the back of their legs. Regardless of which DC character you get, you get one posing stand and often even an extra one spare.

LEGO® Build a Minifigure: Exclusive elements from January 2020

Every three months, new LEGO® elements are added to the Build a Minifigure towers in LEGO Stores worldwide and last year The LEGO Group started including some pieces in exclusive colours or with decorations not found in sets. Erik H. from HokayBricks has scrutinised January's offerings for us all!

The parts described below are all completely new – they have not appeared in any officially released set prior to the January 2020 (Q1) batch of new parts for Build a Mini (BAM) Towers at LEGO Stores worldwide. Previous iterations of the design have been listed along with their origins.

Old Elementary: The 1x2 plate with handle

Let's take a momentary break from our amazing Parts Festival to enjoy another look back into LEGO® element history. Skye Barnick suggested we discuss a tiny change to a familiar piece that occurred in 1983 and stepping up to the task we have Inthert, a UK-based builder who participated in our earlier Parts Festival this year.

Coming alongside the introduction of the beloved minifigure in 1978, the 1x2 plate with handlebars (Mini Handle - Design ID 3839) was among the first LEGO® elements to feature 3.18mm diameter bars, essentially meaning it was perfect for being held by tiny minifigure hands… or was it?

LEGO® CITY review: 60234 People Pack - Fun Fair

While we tend not to to focus on minifigures heavily here at New Elementary, we often look at minifigure accessories, body wear and headgear as they can often be utilised within builds completely differently than being simple minifigure elements. 60234 People Pack Fun Fair (available at Amazon.com – paid link) was released this summer and contains enough interesting, new elements for us to take a closer look.

60234 People Pack Fun Fair contains 183 elements, 14 minifigures and is priced at  £34.99 / $39.99 / 39.99€.

LEGO® Build a Minifigure: Exclusive elements from October 2019

Every three months, new LEGO® elements are added to the Build a Minifigure towers in LEGO Stores worldwide and recently The LEGO Group have started including some pieces in exclusive colours or with decorations not found in sets. Erik H. (HokayBricks) has scrutinised October's offerings for you!

The parts described below are all completely new – they have not appeared in any officially released set prior to the 1 October 2019 Quarter 4 (Q4) batch of new parts for Build a Minifigure (BAM) Towers. All previous iterations of the parts have been referenced along with their origins.

LEGO® Build a Minifigure: Exclusive elements from July 2019

Back in July we published an article by David Gregory about some seemingly new colours/ decorations/ lack of decorations of LEGO® elements found in Build a Minifigure towers. In August our friend and avid follower AFOL Jack asked Vice President of Design Matthew Ashton whether these were intentionally being produced as exclusives – which Matthew confirmed! Meanwhile, Erik H. (HokayBricks) had been researching these new elements and shares his findings with us today. There are surely more than these, for example Erik hasn't tried to identify any heads yet – so if you are aware of more, do comment!

The parts described below are all completely new – they have not appeared in any official set prior to the release of the July 2019 batch of new parts for Build a Minifigure towers at LEGO Stores worldwide. For comparison I have photographed most of the previously released variants of each design, with the new one on the right.

Long Straight Hair (12890) is now available in Bright Orange/ Orange, previously available in Cool Yellow (one Collectible Minifigure and Build a Minifigure) and Black (one set). This piece debuted in Cool Yellow with the Trendsetter from Collectible Minifigure Series 10 in 2013.

LEGO® review: 71044 Disney Train and Station

Announced today, LEGO® set 71044 Disney Train and Station is a mammoth, detailed set containing a 77cm-long train, and a station based on Disney theme parks measuring 39cm x 35cm. Victor Pruvost has reviewed it for us and it retails at £299.99/ US$329.99/ CA$379.99/ DE€329.99/ FR€329.99/ 2499DKK/ AU$549.99.

In 2016, LEGO released the first series of Disney Collectable Minifigures, followed by a big set. This year, LEGO released the second series of Disney Collectable Minifigures, and it is also followed by a big set. 71044 Disney Train and Station comes with 2925 pieces and five minifigures, which we’re about to examine!

New versions of shield and mermaid tail

Recently, David Gregory of IndyLUG got in touch with us about a couple of interesting finds at LEGO® retail stores.

If you’re familiar with the Build-A-Minifigure bins at LEGO® retail stores, then you’ll be aware that those bins can sometimes be a source of otherwise rare minifig parts and accessories.  In June in Illinois and Indiana, USA I came across two parts that are from known molds, but have new printings – or lack thereof.

The first part is an unprinted version of the mermaid tail in Dark Green [TLG name]/ Green [BrickLink name] and the second is a new print on the large escutcheon shield.

LEGO® Ideas Review: 21317 Steamboat Willie

The next LEGO® Ideas set, 21317 Steamboat Willie, marks the 90th anniversary of the most famous cartoon character ever, Mickey Mouse. His fame was sparked in the 1928 black-and-white animated short film called Steamboat Willie which was also the first Disney film to have synchronized sound. Let's steam ahead with Mickey and take a look at the set that will be available from 1st April 2019 priced US $89.99/CA $119.99/DE €89.99/UK £79.99 and contains 751 parts.

The original LEGO Ideas proposal was submitted in 2016 by Máté Szabó who lives in Budapest and is an animator. The proposal hit the 10k votes mark in July last year and it was only revealed that the proposal would become a set last month when the review results were announced. Clearly a lot has been going on behind the scenes as the set has evolved into a larger, functional, impressive version of the original proposal. Let's take a closer look.

LEGO® MOVIE 2 review: 70827 Ultrakatty & Warrior Lucy!

THE LEGO® MOVIE 2: The Second Part is assembling in cinemas in February 2019, and we happened to stumble upon a few of the tie-in sets placed on the shelf early in a John Lewis store. We took this opportunity to review some of the sets before their official release starting with 70827 Ultrakatty & Warrior Lucy! This set contains 348 parts and is due for release 26th December 2018 in the UK priced at £24.99/ US$29.99/ €29.99.

Clearly, we have not yet seen THE LEGO® MOVIE 2: The Second Part but from the trailers and the various promotional information we know that it takes place five years after the end of the first movie. We saw some DUPLO characters appear just as the final credits started to roll and it seems those invaders turned awesome Bricksburg into a post-apocalyptic wasteland, now known as Apocalypseburg.

The LEGO® Minifigure at 40: Inside the factory

The LEGO® Group have sent us these amazing images to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the LEGO minifigure and we just had to share them with you.

How are LEGO® minifigures printed? And as the elements that make up their torsos and legs are moulded separately, how are they then assembled? These pictures come from the production line of the LEGO factory in Kladno, Czech Republic. Tap/click any image to enlarge. And scroll down for video!

LEGO minifigure heads being printed

Wheee! Heads will roll... and then they'll get printed.

The LEGO® Minifigure at 40: Moulds

The LEGO® Group have sent us these amazing images to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the LEGO minifigure and we just had to share them with you.

How are LEGO® minifigures made? Here are all the different moulds that make the parts needed for one LEGO minifigure. Click/tap any image to enlarge.

The LEGO® Minifigure at 40: development prototypes

The LEGO® Group have sent us these amazing images to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the LEGO minifigure and we just had to share them with you.

Meet the minifigures before minifigures. Here are three of the original minifigures released in 1978 alongside their rather spooky developmental stages. Tap/click any image to enlarge.

Development of the LEGO® police minifigure

1. I'm glad they ditched ol' lumpy-squarehead guy pronto. 
2. The second one you probably recognise, as this non-moving style of minifigure was released in sets in the mid-1970s. It is interesting to note the filenames of the images we were sent indicate these are called "stage extras", a name I've never heard before.
3. Amusing that it took until 2013 for TLG to release the third one, but pretty cool that they did!
4.  The final figure as released in 1978 – note the stickered torso. Boy did I hate those as a kid! Sort of charming now though.