5 June 2017

More new LEGO® pieces for 2017

As promised, here are a few more brand new LEGO® parts coming this summer that caught my eye among the 780 in the latest update to Brickset's parts database.

Macaroni columns! Or, more officially, Wall 2X2X5, 1/4 Circle, W/ Cutout (Design ID 30987). I like this idea, as a stack of five 2x2 curved bricks is not super stable. These are panels rather than solid bricks - note that the interior curve is now a right angle, so that you can place a square element inside. To start with, it comes in LEGO Elves sets in Spring Yellowish Green (Element ID 6186075) in 41188 Breakout from the Goblin King's Fortress, and Earth Blue [TLG/Dark Blue [BL] (6190141) in 41187 Rosalyn's Healing Hideout.
Shell, 4X6X2/3 (Design ID 32739) is the name of this plate/slope hybrid. It's big, but I think this could be quite useful. It matches the triple wedge used for vehicle rooves (Element ID 52031), which is how it is used in the LEGO CITY theme, to which it is exclusive for now. It comes in Bright Yellow (Element ID 6194333) in 60154 Bus Station, White (6184866) in 60164 Sea Rescue Plane and 60165 4 x 4 Response Unit, and also Bright Orange (6194337) in 60160 Jungle Mobile Lab and 60161 Jungle Exploration Site. I find it interesting in light of the number of two-plate-high parts in recent years, as well as the trend for 'stepped' parts like the baby bow and the slipper. 

I almost skipped past this one on Brickset, thinking it was DUPLO. But no, it is System... a round 4x4 tile with two studs in the centre. The TLG name is Plate 4X4, Circle, W/ 2 Knobs (Design ID 33490). As it happens, we can already tile a round 4x4 area by using four pairs of the 2x2 macaroni tiles (27925) introduced in January with the quarter-circle tiles (25269) from last year. Nevertheless this is a great part - well, it will be when it comes unprinted! This spotty one (Element ID 6187472) comes in The LEGO Batman Movie 70917 The Ultimate Batmobile (available from Amazon USA and UK) where it is used as a minifigure stand.

A 2x6 45° slope. Did we really need this? We have the 2x8, 2x4, 2x3, 2x2 and the 2x1. Oh well, you will find it in Brick Yellow [TLG]/ Tan [BL] in Star Wars 75180 Rathtar Escape and it comes in Black in DC Super Hero Girls 41238 Lena Luthor Kryptomite Factory.

To end; this is a DUPLO piece, possibly the first I've ever mentioned on New Elementary! And I'm only doing so to make the joke that it looks like the Nexogon of DUPLO. If you fancy giving it a whirl, 3 Arm Element, W/ Tube, W/O Clutch Power (Element ID 6184955 | Design ID 29139) is found in the rather awesome 10840 Big Fair.

Next time I will highlight a few of the exciting recolours of existing parts that are new this summer.




  1. I'd call that Duplo piece the Fidget Spinner brick :)

  2. Oh, you're slipping! I figure you're pointedly skipping a lot of the new shapes because they're minifig accessories or animals and such, but you missed two new shapes right at the top of the second page. 1x2 bricks with vertical bars on the ends. The really weird thing is, they look like the same shape, but the bar is actually positioned a tiny bit differently on the two pieces. On one, it's flush with the ends of the tabs. On the other, it shares the same center of radius as the tabs. So, since the flush-end version comes in a dozen different sets, what is it about that design that was so inadequate that they had to design an almost-identical part at almost the same time just for the Ultimate Batmobile?

    1. "Oh, you're slipping!" is a very unkind way to phrase it. It sounds almost gleeful and troll-like, which I'm sure is not what you intended.

      I left it out because the piece has already been mentioned on the blog. Thanks for pointing out the design alteration, I had noticed a new ID had been assigned but not looked closely.

    2. Assuming your description is accurate (i.e. in the old one the bar is flush with the tabs, and the tabs have the same size and radius in both 34816 and 26597), the older design ID shouldn't let you do something like this: http://i.imgur.com/h7wTj0j.png

      However, I cannot check because I own neither.

    3. @caperberry: Many years ago, maybe about precisely half a generation or so, there was still this thing called good-natured ribbing. It's perhaps fallen a bit out of practice, what with people throwing bricks through store windows now to let the world know that they're a bit confused when things didn't go 100% according to plan (and BTW, thanks for not being that person). I really miss those days.

      No, it was not meant with malicious intent. A bit of humor, yes, but not trying to be mean. And I can't believe I forgot about 26597 that quickly. I mean, I scrolled back through weeks of Nexagon posts looking for anything involving new sets, only to find out it was just three posts back. Must have gotten too caught up in the dino tails. BTW, the Polka-Dot Man disc doesn't appear to have any stud notches on the outer edge, which means it will be very limited in how it can be attached to things compared to the macaroni tiles.

      @Paulo: I have absolutely no idea how the tabs compare. I mean, they look pretty much the same, but according to what I'm seeing I own exactly zero of 26597, and the only 34816's I own are still sealed in a copy of the Ultimate Batmobile. I can't even see how 26597 is used in most of the sets that contain it. All I can positively ID is in Harley Quinn Dorm and Wonder Woman Dorm, I can spot one of the bars sticking out of the largest component of each set. I assume this is meant to allow you to clip them to the main school set (the school set description on S@H does mention that this is possible, but doesn't show any demo pics). With them having largely moved away from baseplates in favor of free-standing models, maybe they didn't think of spacing issues until they got working on the Ultimate Batmobile set, and maybe that kinda forced the issue. Still, if 26597 ends up being phased out in favor of 34816, I can only think of two part designs that were abandoned so quickly. In the very first wave of Batman sets back in 2006, the Batmobile (regular, not UCS) and the Bat-dragster both _initially_ came with a really cool-looking wheel with some very pronounced mag-wheel styling. During the run on those same sets, those wheels got phased out in favor of the new dual-sided spokes-n-bolts wheels that have become so common in multiple sizes. The other one was the revised jumper plate when they added the groove to the original design and then almost immediately tweaked the second version to have four ribs instead of the short section of bar on the underside. I mean, the Type A and/or Type B clip-plates may have been scrapped just as fast, but I honestly don't remember if I got a mix of those parts as a child (though I did get a Type B version in dark-bley from a Monster Hunters set), and I couldn't tell you when they changed from A to B to C. I just know that D came in much more recent times with the near-standardization of the clip geometry.

    4. I built the Ultimate Batmobile in LDD yesterday, and replaced 34816 with a 1x1 brick and a 1x1 brick with bar. The reason they came up with a new part is that the Bat-tank can't fit any further into the smaller Batmobile than using the new version of the brick with the bar further out, because the exhausts on the two vehicles bump into each other.

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  4. There are so many new parts I want... beginning to think I can't afford this hobby!

  5. What the...

    On page 10 of the Brickset list, in the bottom row, there's a dark-purple 1x1 plate w/ horizontal C-clip (which makes sense). Right next to it is a black 1x1 plate w/ horizontal U-clip, which should have been phased out when the C-clip version came out in 2010-ish (Bricklink claims 2005, but the set photos don't begin to show it for a few more years). Even if they're still using the old molds (which they sometimes do), the newest version should be the default when compiling inventories and designing instructions, shouldn't it?

    BTW, I just opened the Ultimate Batmobile. The Polka-Dot Man stand is very limited in what it will attach to. As I pointed out previously, there are no stud notches on it. The OD is slightly smaller than a 4x4 radar dish (maybe 1/64"?), and the rim is quite a bit thicker, so the ID is way too small to attach to a 2x4 pattern. There's a 2x2 plate underside formed into the bottom, so it will actually attach to stuff with a 2x2 or smaller pattern. There are reinforcement ribs running from the single tube to the four sides of the 2x2 square, and the rib that runs centered below both studs extends all the way to the outer rim. The rib that runs between the studs stops at the 2x2 walls. As far as a minifig stand goes, it'll be more stable than the Green Army Man stand, but far less useful than either that or the CMF stand because both of those can be plunked down in the middle of a baseplate. Frankly, I'm not sure why they didn't just use a 4x4 radar dish instead, given that PDM is always posed standing on one foot like Cosmic Boy (who stands on a 4x4 radar dish). I'm sure anyone who really wants to find uses for this will be able to come up with something, but I don't see it being realized as the ideal solution to many design problems.

  6. FYI, the black 1x6 slope from your list above is now available from Bricks & Pieces (at least for me here in Australia). None of the other items listed above are available yet (nor is that brick with the 2 vertical studs on side from the other post).

    Although I suspect a lot of what you listed here will become available in the near future.