Article about the 10 most useful LEGO bricks.

The_Mack

I'm curious about other peoples opinion on this.
http://gizmodo.com/the-10-most-useful-lego-bricks-493088302

kez

Yeah, I got this guys book as a present today for my birthday, it also featured the top 10 most useful pieces :-)

CCC

Most of them are not bricks. So fail for me.

The most useful parts really depend on your style of building, especially if you are into microscale vs say minifig scale.

CapnRex101

I would endorse this list to an extent, although a couple of those pieces do not belong on the list in my opinion. My favourite parts include:

Headlight Brick
Cheese Wedge
Jumper Plate
1x1 Round Tile
1x2 Masonry/Profile Bricks

The_Mack

I think my favorite from my youth is the 1x4 hinge plate, I never had enough of them, and was a way of being able to make your LEGO move. But my favorite as an Adult is the Headlight or 'Earling' brick. It has so many functions, and it's fun to connect them together in a spiral.

ACWWGal2011

I don't agree with all of them. Cheese slopes would be on my LEAST useful brick list. They are annoying to put on, annoying to take off, EXTREMELLY prone to cracking for some, and the extras that pile up are a nuisance for me.

1x1 ‘Headlight’ Brick really doesn't belong. It's not as handy as the flush mounted version.

There are more useful parts out that. 1X1 tiles, brick separators, 16X16 plates, different tiles, etc

CCC

ACWWGal2011 said:

1x1 ‘Headlight’ Brick really doesn't belong. It's not as handy as the flush mounted version.

There are more useful parts out that. 1X1 tiles, brick separators, 16X16 plates, different tiles, etc

I agree with the headlight brick. The "Brick, Modified 1 x 1 with Stud on 1 Side" is much more useful, especially as it is the cross section between two families - the 1x1 bricks with side studs and the 1xX bricks with studs on one side. To have both on the top 10 list is a waste of one space.

And 16x16 plates. I reckon I use those in just about every build I do.

rocao

"1 x 1 round plate with hole" seems like a pretty odd choice. It has a use, but it's far from being one of the most useful

Paperballpark

Obviously different people will have different things they build and different techniques, so will have different ideas of what the most useful bricks are.

If you micro-build for example, the headlight brick will be useful as windows.

CCC

rocao said:

"1 x 1 round plate with hole" seems like a pretty odd choice. It has a use, but it's far from being one of the most useful

Especially as jumpers can be used for the same thing as suggested. Different shape, of course, but you can still poke a stick in it.

prof1515

They left out the Lego frog! It's an amphibian! It's a gargoyle! It's a hat-rack! It's a faucet! It's a paperweight! It's a pet toy! It's a sex toy! Wait, scratch that last one. :-D

leemcg

@CCC Or a buried 1x1 brick with technic hole.

ACWWGal2011

prof1515 said:

They left out the Lego frog! It's an amphibian! It's a gargoyle! It's a hat-rack! It's a faucet! It's a paperweight! It's a pet toy! It's a sex toy! Wait, scratch that last one. :-D

That's a pretty good point.

rocao said:

"1 x 1 round plate with hole" seems like a pretty odd choice. It has a use, but it's far from being one of the most useful

I was debating about putting that one on my list but since I'm not really into technic, I couldn't make a proper judgement on that one.

rocao

^ it's not a technic piece. It's just a round plate with a hole through the stud. It appeared in the Shave A Sheep game as eyes for the sheep. Prof1515 might be pairing it with the frog for hours of fun.

CCC

If they can come up with stupid names like Ross for a 1x1 with stud on side, Ross as it is half of Davros, who in turn is half a dalek and a 1x1 with four studs on sides is a dalek, then why is the 1x1 round plate with hole not called a polo. Is that too simple?

Schwallex

To each his own. The only real, actual, objective problem with that list is the title.

Typically, when people say "most useful", they really mean "most versatile". While some of the commenters here take "most useful" to mean "used most". So we get such funny suggestions as the 16×16 plate. (Come on, people, headlight bricks and cheese slopes can be, and are, used for literally everything from a microscale animal to the Tower Bridge; the 16×16 plate cannot be used for either.)

Likewise, nobody even defined what constitutes "a use" in the first place, so we get such funny suggestions as the brick separator.

Rebrickable actually has nice cold stats. That's yet another (perfectly valid) definition of "useful".

I do have to say, though, that "annoying to put on" is completely orthogonal to any definition of "useful" I can think of. Pants are annoying to put on, too. (I will also add that I have never once seen a cracked cheese slope, and don't find them annoying in the least, even though I have huge hands in point of fact.)

And then of course some people say "bricks" to mean "parts", while others take "bricks" to mean "bricks", while others still mean "only system bricks but not Technic ones", yadda yadda.

The way I see it, the brick separator is not even a part, the 16×16 plate has exactly one use, and the 1×1 round plate with open stud is simply way too new to say anything about it with confidence.

But again, that's just me. Until we clearly state what our criteria are, or at the very least give that list a less ambiguous title, all discussion is sort of pointless.

In the video for the Tower Bridge, Jamie Berard stated that his favorite parts were the headlight brick, the jumper plate, and the cheese slope. These would be my picks as well, but that's beside the point. The point is he called them a) "favorite", b) his favorite, and c) stopped at three. He is a wise man.

"Most" should serve as an invitation to come up with very few select things. "Ten most" is only asking for trouble.

CCC

Schwallex said:

The way I see it,.... the 16×16 plate has exactly one use,

What is the one use you know. As a Floor? As a roof (angled or flat)? As a drawbridge on a castle? As a section of a wing on a large plane? As a base for a pencil holder?

prof1515

CCC said:

Schwallex said:

The way I see it,.... the 16×16 plate has exactly one use,

What is the one use you know. As a Floor? As a roof (angled or flat)? As a drawbridge on a castle? As a section of a wing on a large plane? As a base for a pencil holder?

Starship hull plating. Duh!

CapnRex101

Everyone makes a very good point about the 16x16 plate, I have found those incredibly useful recently thanks to their strength and while they still need some support, the density of bricks required to hold them is greatly reduced.

jasor

16X16 plates and SNOT pcs make pretty good mosaic billboards/graphiti on the side of a building too..... just sayin'.