Subject:
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Re: What's in a part name? (WAS: 4679 Fall Spring Cleaning Bonus)
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.parts
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Date:
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Thu, 15 Sep 2005 13:31:08 GMT
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Viewed:
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5041 times
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In lugnet.market.shopping, Allan Bedford wrote:
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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 I don’t think anybody uses that ridiculous and outdated Auczilla term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outdated(1), but by definition it’s not a bad name at all for those bricks.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?
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Definitely studs, as even french people use, not mainly but only, this term.
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Are they offset or jumper plates?
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AZMEP plates :)
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Are they headlight or washing machine bricks?
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Erling bricks :)
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And my favorite.....
Are they plates or slim bricks?
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If you talk about System plates, I’ve read “one third brick” from a LEGO book.
If you talk about Duplo plates you have to talk about “half brick”
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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.
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A very good group IMHO. For instance, there are a lot of place talking about new
sets....but I’ve not been able to see a place talking about new parts, which is
of higher interest for MOCers.
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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.
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In the same way, it’s surprising to see how color names are different in
BL/Peeron/TLC.
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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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Regards,
Didier
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