New Elementary looks at the new parts in Assembly Square. This will be the year of the tile. I can't wait to get a bunch of those and figure out something cool.
Yes, the new tiles are long overdue and have tremendous potential. I forget the set, but they use the new 1/2 circle tiles to make very nice lily pads.
Now if they can work in rounded cheese slopes.
Speaking of New Elementary, I meant to bring up the direction LEGO has been going with their new elements. This
New Elementary article touched on a bit of what I was thinking.
A lot of builds and new elements utilize the 3.18 mm bar, clips, and hollow studs. This provides a lot of possibilities especially when building in the smaller scale. Before the 1x1 round plate with hollow stud (all the way through) was a rarity used almost exclusively for LEGO games (not video games) theme. Now, it is everywhere in sets. LEGO had a rule that studs should not be hollow as the stud appearance with the LEGO logo was part of the branding. It seems it's become a bit more relaxed. Perhaps with parts that are almost always covered as I believe all the new plates with small ball joints have hollow studs and from what I've seen are always covered in a build.
"Classic LEGO" was mostly a stud based connection system. Today, it seems LEGO has embraced the 3.18 mm connection and small ball joints which expands the building system dramatically. I'm not opposed to it, just an observation. I mean in the past we've seen the inclusion of Technic and Contraction into the LEGO System sets.
Anyway, just wondering if any others had thoughts on the proliferation of the 3.18 mm elements, clips, hollow studs, and small ball joints. Or is it just my imagination?
EDIT: I do realize the 3.18 mm clip isn't new, but these new and relatively new elements (two on left below) as discussed in the New Elementary article have no stud connectors and rely completely on the 3.18 mm connection types.