A Common Nomenclature for Lego Families

Thousands of different Lego exist, yet when your seven-year-old asks for “a clippy bit,” you know exactly what to hand him. GILES TURNBULL surveys a caucus of children and determines a common nomenclature.

Back when I was a youngster, many of these pieces did not exist in our LEGO™ collection. (Can I have my curmudgeon certificate now?) Mainly it was the single- and double-wide pieces, of standard thickness and the thin plate pieces, and 4×4 roof pieces: angled, and interior and exterior corners. Not much more than that. I think I noticed the explosion of newer pieces with the introduction of the spaceship sets my brother got: hinged and rotating pieces, non-rectangular plates and real windows.

Colored bubbles arise after 15-year quest

Zubbles

Standard food coloring or dyes have no effect; they simply run down the sides of the bubble, creating a drop of color on the bottom. Other dyes can stain bubbles, but when they pop they also stain clothes, dogs and eyes, as Kehoe discovered during one accident. Other tests, including one for a bubble dye that washed out, didn’t fare much better.

I don’t know about the food coloring running down the side — the dilution is so great that for amount I’ve added when I tried this, the effect is simply unnoticeable.