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In lugnet.market.shopping, Kevin Salm wrote:
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In lugnet.market.shopping, Erik Olson wrote:
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The US 4679 bonus was a wild mix typically including unpaired skew bricks.
-Erik
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Part names. One of my favorite topics. :)
While I was working on the Brickopedia for my book I spent a lot of time thinking about part naming and
categorization.
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Wow. I don’t think anybody uses that ridiculous and outdated Auczilla term
anymore.
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I don’t know that I’d label that name as “ridiculous”. It may be outdated(1),
but by definition it’s not a bad name at all for those bricks. The word
skew means (among other things), “to take an oblique course or direction.”
And that’s pretty much what the one side of those elements does.
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Now (as you know I am sure) they are classified as WEDGES
http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItem.asp?P=6564
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They are indeed classified as wedges by some people. But I would argue that
they’re not named as accurately as they could be since the word wedge
typically means, “A piece of material, such as metal or wood, thick at one edge
and tapered to a thin edge at the other for insertion in a narrow crevice, used
for splitting, tightening, securing, or levering.” And looking at the blunt end
of those bricks, I’d sure hate to try and split logs with one of them. It might
end up being a long cold winter. :)
Does that mean that using wedge to describe these elements is completely
wrong? No, I don’t think so. But there might be value in looking at why it
ended up called that, and perhaps seeing if another name might be more
applicable. I think this approach could be taken with a number of pieces.
There’s also the issue of regional differences when it comes to naming parts.
That could be the region between me and my friend who lives across the street.
Or it could be the difference between someone in Canada and someone in the U.K.
For example:
Are they studs or knobs?
Are they offset or jumper plates?
Are they headlight or washing machine bricks?
And my favorite.....
Are they plates or slim bricks?
The answer to all of the above is, “both”. In every case someone somewhere uses
one or the other of those terms to describe those elements. And they’re all
correct. O.K. maybe no one uses slim bricks anymore, but they did at one
time. It was the LEGO company.
So what’s the point of this rambling post? Twofold:
1) To try and generate some traffic for one of my favorite groups,
LUGNET.parts.
2) To try and illustrate the fact that no names are ever wrong when it comes to
describing LEGO parts. For some purposes (maybe Bricklink, or LDRAW, or Peeron)
a certain name needs to be adopted by a large group of people so that its
meaning is established and clear. For the average builder I think it’s just as
appropriate to nickname bricks in any way they see fit. It can add a very
personal touch to a very fun hobby.
To finish, I might note that in the Brickopedia I took a slightly different
approach and labeled ‘wedge’ elements as beveled bricks. In looking at the
meaning of ‘wedge’ I wasn’t convinced that it was the best word for my purposes.
So I went with bevel in the way it described, “the angle or inclination of a
line or surface that meets another at any angle but 90°.” Using those bricks
can (in some installations) result in the side or top of a model having a
surface that is beveled in relation to the rest of the walls or surfaces.
It would be interesting to see if we could get some discussion going around the
topic of part naming. I suspect that some of the names in use today could
benefit from being dusted off and re-examined. Some are great and are
completely suitable. While others..... hmmmm maybe it’s time to go back to the
dictionary. :)
Best regards,
Allan B.
The Unofficial LEGO Builder’s Guide
(1) Or it may not. It may simply have fallen out of use. That’s different than
being outdated.
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Message has 4 Replies:
Message is in Reply To:
 | | Re: 4679 Fall Spring Cleaning Bonus
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| (...) Skew Bricks, huh?? Wow. I don't think anybody uses that ridiculous and outdated Auczilla term anymore. Now (as you know I am sure) they are classified as WEDGES (URL) yeah, there were a lot of unmatched wedges in the TRU bonus boxes from last (...) (19 years ago, 13-Sep-05, to lugnet.market.shopping)
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