You got the cutest little baby bow

Eagle-eyed reader Diggydoes spotted a glaring omission from my recent post about new bows. It was deliberate, honest; I saved up this exciting new part for a post of its own.

Plate W. Bow 1x2x2/3, Design ID 11477

Olive Green | Element ID 6031787
White | Element ID 6034044
Dark Stone Grey [TLG] | Element ID 6029948

It’s been known about for a while – I first heard of it from reports of the Nuremberg Toy Fair in February – and anticipation has been great. A little sister for all those other one-stud-wide bows! Until someone comes up with a better name I shall christen her the baby bow. Here’s how she looks combined with those elder siblings, and some 1xn slopes.

At first I assumed the shape of her curve must be different to all previous LEGO curves, but soon after getting my hands on one I realised it isn't. It’s basically half of a 'telephone bow' (Design ID 93273)…

…which came out in 2011, and a quarter of this lovely bow introduced way back in 2009, Plate W. Bow 2x4x2/3 (88930).

It also sits perfectly level with the lower edge of Design ID 44675, which I always considered to be an ugly piece until I started discovering neat techniques for it - now I have one more.

Similarly so mudguards, which long languished in my box that I mentally label “use these parts in vehicles and nothing else”, before I realised their various usages. This one, part 41854, now happily lives in my box of bows, and now that two baby bows placed inside it complete its shape, I expect to be using this combination a fair bit in future. Not necessarily for weird purple flowerpots.

The other new element planted into in the above example is the Reddish Brown round grille brick (Element ID 6036503 | Design ID 92947), which comes in 75017 Duel on Geonosis - a great set for new elements, including Dark Brown cheese (Element ID 6033014) and the new mould of the minifig neck plate with half a Technic pin in Dark Bluish Gray [BL] / Dark Stone Grey [TLG] (6036639).

But of course what makes the baby bow better than all them other bows is her teeny-tininess, able to crawl into all those nooks and crannies where previously you’d probably have settled for cheese or a cheese grater. I can instantly imagine vehicle builders, spaceship builders and microscale builders going mad for her – but frankly everyone will; she's a wonderful piece that we’ll surely see in many more colours - and in many of your MOCs.

There are more 1xn bows available that I didn’t bother to couple her up with in my earlier picture. For example when I combined her with Brick W. Arch 1X1X1 1/3 (6091) it made me think of a retro rocket ship fin. Note I used another four baby bows on a Dalek SNOT brick to shape the nose.

There’s a problem with the baby bow though. She’s really hard to remove! Admittedly I was acting a little gingerly at first in an attempt to keep my babies pristine. But it’s hard to find purchase with such a small piece and the one-plate split level design limits the angles at which you can pull it off. I can imagine kids resorting to teeth pretty quickly with them, and I’ll even stick my neck out with a prediction here – that LEGO will re-mould this element, adding a groove (or should that be removing a groove?), like tiles and cheese have.

READ MORE: Why did LEGO change all their arch bricks? To fit bows that don't yet exist

---

Shopping on Amazon? Consider using our affiliate links to buy your LEGO sets (or anything); this helps support New Elementary! USA: Amazon.com Canada: Amazon.ca UK: Amazon.co.uk

---