Under Construction Quiz | Other Games & Toys

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1. One of the most basic ways to vary direction in LEGO is to have the studs of some bricks not point upwards but sideways, down or diagonally. This is illustrated in the railings of this bridge, using sideways parts. What is the slightly yucky name for this technique?

Answer: SNOT (Studs Not On Top)

SNOT building is an advanced technique that every LEGO builder interested in making their own designs should master. A multitude of LEGO parts support this technique; the most commonly used one is a 1x1 brick that has an extra stud on the side (or possibly several of them).

2. One thing to remember when trying to build sideways is that a LEGO brick is slightly higher than it is wide. In this picture of a house construction site, the "spine" of the unfinished roof uses horizontally arranged 1x1 bricks with extra studs. What are the dimensions of a LEGO brick? (Count it off in the picture if you need - just make sure you account for the perspective)

Answer: 5 bricks high is 6 bricks wide

In this example, I have used five horizontally oriented bricks (each with four hollow side studs) to make up the top spine of the roof. They are arranged between two 1x2 bricks with a hole and there are six studs between the two walls. You can bridge any even horizontal distance because the plates (the low height parts) are 1/3 of a full brick's height, thus every even horizontal distance can be matched to a buildable vertical one.

3. This stained glass window was built using the same technique as the bridge railing in question 1. It however uses a different base part - what are the black parts making up the frame for these windows? (In their main use, those pieces are usually freestanding.)

Answer: Fences

This construction begins with a column to the left and right of the window incorporating several extra-stud 1x1 bricks. Then, I use basic plates to adjust thickness and finally put fences on those, bridging an overall window width of 4 bricks (each fence is 2 bricks high, of which 1/6 is the base).

Then, colored transparent 1x1 plates (in this case, rounded ones) are put into the square holes of the fence and reinforced with a meshing layer of clear 1x2 plates from the rear.

4. When building sideways or diagonally, quite often the studs of regularly oriented pieces would get into the way. Thankfully, there are studless plates (here shown making up most of a floor mosaic - I put in some with studs to have a surface to attach minifigures to). What is the name given to these special plates?

Answer: Tiles

Tiles are among the most versatile gap-filling pieces available in LEGO. Their normal use is to create smooth surfaces, but you can also use them to create a flush surface upon which to rest a horizontally oriented SNOT segment or a diagonally oriented section.

5. Let's come back to the building shown in question 3. If you look closely, the walls of this building don't orthogonally link up but are placed at an angle to each other. Their bottom rests on a studless surface, so they're not really supported there, but what keeps them together?

Answer: Hinge bricks or plates

Hinges - which exist both as bricks and plates as well as both for horizontal movement - make for a very flexible way to put some walls of a building at a diagonal angle. The first and fourth wall segment are orthogonal to each other and linked to the middle two segments via a pair of hinges at each touching edge.

This setup provides a very high flexibility in choosing the final shape by modifying segment widths but still results in a rigid structure (whereas a structure with three or more intermediate segments would be able to flex).

The "Battle of Helm's Deep" set from LEGO's "Lord of the Rings" line makes extensive use of the same technique to build the roughly quarter-circular wall segments of the keep.

6. You can build diagonally even without the use of any parts except for basic bricks and plates. This watchtower uses diagonals to support the structure that are just made of such plates, but this technique only permits a limited set of angles and structure lengths. What is its mathematical basis?

Answer: The Pythagorean theorem

The most frequently used setup for this kind of diagonal building makes use of the 3-4-5 right triangle or multiples thereof. When planning a right triangle setup in LEGO, you need to keep in mind that the side lengths of the triangle are one stud more than their actual mathematical lengths - the true triangle sides go from the center of the first to the center of the last stud.

In this case, I use an 11 stud length diagonal across a 7 by 9 stud rectangle, based on the 6-8-10 triangle. I used a layer of 1x1 plates to separate the diagonal bars from the studs beneath; if you want to put such a diagonal directly onto a contiguous surface, use tiles in the diagonal's path.

7. This suspension bridge uses vertical hinges to make up both the support for the planks and the "ropes"). You notice that the parts making up the rope are upside down - what parts make up the supports between planks and ropes?

Answer: A cone (hollow stud), a simple bar and a round brick (hollow stud, upside down)

Plain bars that come in various lengths can be combined with hollow-studded pieces to invert the sense of the studs. The diameter of these bars is exactly the inside diameter of a hollow stud, and also the grip diameter of a minifigure hand. As an additional bonus, this building technique allows me to freely adjust the length of the resulting assembly, thus I can give the bridge its desired shape. I have achieved extra shaping through an offset on the middle two supports: Their lower end rests on a so-called jumper plate and is thus half a stud offset from their upper end, which creates a bending tension between the two bridge layers and the desired shape.

8. While the gears and racks have been primarily designed to facilitate moving models with advanced functions, they can often also be used for good purpose in static builds. What product line do they originally come from?

Answer: LEGO Technic

KEGO Technic pieces have surprisingly many applications in otherwise non-technical builds. Not only do they often fit well into a model as visible parts (like they are used here in this broken water wheel), but they can also be used to enable flexible rotation of segments of your build and stability - the long technic bricks with pin holes (up to 16 studs long) and associated pins make for excellent girders to support a long span in a model.

9. When creating buildings, many advanced builders model the interior as well, even when it is not easily visible in the completed model. To provide access to the interior, they then make parts of the building (usually entire floors) easily removable by creating a smooth surface with only a handful of studs holding one level to the next. Named after a line of advanced LEGO sets representing a typical city street, what is this technique called?

Answer: Modular building

Modular building is a great way to create detailed, multi-level builds with a fully fledged interior. To make a modular build, you end one level of your build with a layer of tiles and just the minimum number of studs (plates) to ensure your next level won't slide on it. If you then place the next floor onto that surface, it will just lock securely enough to prevent slipping but not so much as to make taking it back off difficult. Modular building is also great if multiple builders want to work together because each one can build their floor independently from the others.

In the picture, I have removed the top shell of the building to show the hidden wizard's study beneath it, complete with two bookcases that each use several SNOT applications to create the desired look.

10. Finally, after seeing all these parts, you may wonder just how many pieces I used - it may be less than you think because the invisible parts of a model are usually hollow and supported by a comparatively small number of often off-colored bricks. What do LEGO builders call these ultimately invisible bricks?

Answer: Filler bricks

Filler bricks are used beneath the surface of a build to give it the needed strength. Most serious LEGO builders have a special box for these into which they put all those bricks that are no longer really suitable for visible building, be it because of yellowing (white bricks are most prone to that) or damage.

In spite of using fillers and hollow supports, the whole model I have built (a fantasy temple district measuring about 5 feet square) still took over 30,000 parts. However, this is nowhere near what some of the most ambitious builders in the hobby use - if you want to see some even grander constructions, search for LEGO Hogwarts and LEGO Rivendell to see just two examples that are light years better than my models.

Source: Author WesleyCrusher

This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor gtho4 before going online.
Any errors found in FunTrivia content are routinely corrected through our feedback system.

Under Construction Trivia Quiz

At first glance, Lego is all about upright bricks and right angles, but advanced builders can do fascinating things by ignoring this rule, often using parts specifically made for these shenanigans. Learn how to do it!

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