32952, the new LEGO® SNOT piece

I've been discussing this on Twitter, but figured it was worth sharing with everyone. Many new set inventories for Summer 2017 have been uploaded onto the LEGO® Group's online parts database this week, so we get our first glimpse of new parts that we will soon be able to buy. A couple of people including occasional New E contributor Chris McVeigh pointed out one in particular.

It's a new SNOT brick, and a rather exciting one because it is small, so it will get us all out of some tight fixes. As you can see it is a 1x1 brick but taller than usual and with two side-studs on one face. The official name is Brick 1X1X1 2/3 W/Vert. Knobs (Design ID 32952) and so far I've found myself nicknaming it "the SNOT column". It is only known to exist in Bright Reddish Violet [TLG]/ Magenta [BL] (Element ID 6188999) so far but undoubtedly many recolours are to come.

A very similar piece was released last year, the 1 x 2 x 1 2/3 brick with 4 studs on one side (Design ID 22885). This new little brother is simply half the width, and that is what makes it many times more useful!

 

Both have an unusual height; equal to five plates. A normal LEGO brick is equal to three plates, so five seems unusual until you consider the ratio of a LEGO brick. As we all know, LEGO bricks are not perfect 1:1:1 ratio cubes. Rather, they are 5:5:6, which means if you stack five 1x2 plates, the construction will have the same width and height - a perfect square. Stacking five 2x2 plates makes a perfect cube.

Now that the SNOT technique - or "sideways building" as the LEGO Group tend to call it - has entered mainstream building to such a great degree, the need for new pieces like this becomes more and more apparent. In the example of this new piece, until now if we wanted to attach say a 1x2 tile sideways to a 1x1 stack of bricks, we have used a 1x1 brick with 1 side-stud with two 1x1 plates underneath. The problem is of course that the tile is only attached by one stud and moves about. I'm sure many adult builders will complain about yet another new piece being introduced, but the fact is that kids don't want to have things falling off their models when they play with it.

Where to buy the new LEGO piece 32952

At time of writing it is too soon to buy this piece anywhere on its own. You'll need to buy the first sets it comes in, which are from LEGO Elves. 41186 Azari and the Goblin Forest Escape (see Brickset entry) has two and there are four in 41188 Breakout from the Goblin King's Fortress (Brickset). I love the Little Shop of Horrors vibe to this subtheme! Also, the latter has loads of Spring Yellowish Green pieces including a completely new one I will mention in my next post.

However, you can use the new SNOT column piece right now! For free! I've mentioned the online 3D LEGO building site Mecabricks a few times this year because they're doing such an amazing job; well now they have provided another great service to the community by adding this new piece already! Just head to the Mecabricks Workshop and type 32952 into the Search bar near the bottom.

More new LEGO elements for Summer 2017

The LEGO database populates Brickset's parts database, and Huw put all the 780 new additions live this morning. There are loads of fascinating things to see there like new parts, minifigure prints and recolours of parts you've been dying for! I can't resist pointing out some of the most exciting ones to you, but will do so in my next post.

Huw's done a great job creating the Brickset parts database and it is an invaluable resource for us here at New Elementary. Recently he created another helpful new way you can view the parts, called Design View. If you follow the Brickset link about you will see it alongside Gallery View and Images View. As Huw describes it: "It shows the designs together with all colour variations. If you go back in time the colour variations produced subsequently will be shown as well as those introduced with the design. Because printed and minifig parts made it difficult to see the wheat from the chaff they can be filtered out, thanks to the crowdsourced data." You can achieve this new sorting function by using the Select a Category drop-down menu and the System option is the one that omits minifigures, printed parts and Duplo. Check it out; if you are a New E-head you will find it very useful!

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