(Written by BLProductions)

Now that we are in the new year, many of the 2015 LEGO sets are available with plenty of exciting new pieces. Today we will continue our discussion on new LEGO elements (you can find previous sessions at the end of this post). So far I’ve found around 39 new elements for 2015, which includes six minifig parts. In this post we will focus on 5 functional elements – these are parts that can perform a function (like launching things) without the use of many individual parts. But first I’d like to share a few other neat pieces that I think are quite interesting. 🙂

The new #10246 LEGO Creator Detective’s Office contains several new pieces. One of them is what’s most likely going to be called PlateRound W. 1 Knob, it is basically a 2×2 round tile with a completely open stud in the middle (so you can put a rod through it). It is an incredibly useful piece that so far appears only in white in the following 2015 sets: #10246 LEGO Creator Detective’s Office, #41071 LEGO Elves Aira’s Creative Workshop, #41093 LEGO Friends Heartlake Hair Salon, and #70223 LEGO Legends of Chima Icebite’s Claw Driller. Another new piece is a very nice-looking pair of scissors for minifigures, presumably called Mini Scissors, which comes in silver-metallic in the first three of the above mentioned sets. The last brand-new piece from the LEGO Creator Detective’s Office is exclusive to the set; a true Reflective Mirror. The mirror is on a white piece of plastic (the same size as a 4×6 windowpane), protected with a thin layer of paper on both sides – so you won’t see how awesome it is until you are putting together Al’s Barber Shop. You can find the LEGO Creator Detective’s Office at the Online LEGO Shop. And now we will look at the functional elements, so follow along.

➡ LEGO Super Jumper 4X3X1 w/ Angles –This is a springboard type of element, where you stand the minifig in the designated spot, push down on the board, and when it’s released, the whole board shoots upwards, taking the minifig with it. The color of this element is transparent clear. One Super Jumper comes in all the 2015 LEGO DC Comics Super Heroes Justice League sets (see at the Online LEGO Shop) and the LEGO Marvel Super Heroes Avengers: Age of Ultron sets that will be released in the spring.

➡ LEGO Disk Shooter 1X4 – This – at least to me – is a quite pointless piece. It appears to be similar to the spring-loaded shooter from last year, but it works differently. You put a 2×2 round tile inside, push an axle into the back of the shooter, and the tile will spring out. Again, I don’t see the point in making this, as we’ve had multiple disk shooter mechanisms before, but I suppose this is more space and part efficient? Anyways, it can be found in medium-stone-gray on eight of the 2015 LEGO Legends of Chima sets: #70222 LEGO Chima Tormak’s Shadow Blazer, #70224 LEGO Chima Tiger’s Mobile Command, #70226 LEGO Chima Ice Mammoth Base, #70227 LEGO Chima King Crominus’ Recue, #70229 LEGO Chima Lion Tribe Pack, #70230 LEGO Chima Ice Bear Tribe Pack, #70231 LEGO Chima Crocodile Tribe Pack, and #70232 LEGO Chima Sabre Tooth Tiger Pack. You can find all the new LEGO Legends of Chima sets at the Online LEGO Shop.

➡ LEGO Rapid Shooter – This is easily the coolest shooter of the year. This dark-stone-gray piece works like this: you turn an axle that runs through the center of it, and a mechanism turned by the axle pushes out the six 1×1 round plates as it turns. Pretty neat, huh? It appears in all six LEGO BIONICLE Protectors (see at the Online LEGO Shop), and three 2015 LEGO Star Wars sets: #75084 LEGO Star Wars Wookiee Gunship, #75088 LEGO Star Wars Senate Commando Troopers, and #75089 LEGO Star Wars Geonosis Troopers. You can find the newly released 2015 LEGO Star Wars sets at the Online LEGO Shop.

➡ LEGO Mini Shooter 1×2 – This is a new version of 2014’s Mini Shooter. Rather than a shaft for a minifigure to grab, this version comes with a 1×2 plate at the bottom that can be attached to studs. It works the same way as before, and comes in black and white in what appears to be a total of 13 sets that we know of so far. Because there are so many sets this part appears in I won’t list them hear, but you can see the shooters on the wings of Green Lantern’s jet below.

The last new element I would like to mention is the one legogeek talked about the other day in his article on the #70169 LEGO Ultra Agents 4×4 Agent Patrol. It is an attachment to the 2014 Spring-loaded Shooter that looks like a hook or anchor – I believe that this is used to allow a length of rope to be attached to the shooter dart. I suppose this helps with not losing the dart, and there may be a wind-up winch on the vehicle to reel it back in, although we can’t say this for certain just yet.

As you can see, LEGO is going all out on new parts for the year, and many of them look quite interesting and useful. We should soon have better images and more information (specifically design IDs) for each of them, along with even more new elements. The first wave of 2015 sets have been released a couple of days ago, so if you would like to get any of the sets mentioned above you can visit the Online LEGO Shop.

So, what do you think? Do you find any of these parts useful? Particularly, how do you like the new shooter designs? Are you planning to get any of the 2015 LEGO sets they appear in? Feel free to share your thoughts and discuss in the comment section below! 😉

And you may want to check out the following related posts:

• New LEGO Elements in 2015 – Part 1
• New LEGO Elements in 2015 – Part 2
• LEGO Detective’s Office Review & Thoughts
• 2015 LEGO Ultra Agents 4×4 Agent Patrol
• January 2015 – New LEGO Sets & Promotions