LEGO® Unikitty: the floppy puppy ear

In the last of his series investigating the interesting parts introduced for the LEGO® Unikitty! theme, Sven Franic turns his attention to the floppy ears of Unikitty's brother, Little Prince Puppycorn. (Yes, the unicorn/cat thing has a unicorn/dog thing for a sibling. Keep up.)

For our final study of unusual new Unikitty elements, it is time for Design Plate 1X1, No. 1 (Design ID 35463) or, by BrickLink’s more descriptive terminology, Tile, Modified 1 x 1 with Tooth / Ear Vertical, Triangular.

Visually, it is a similar element to what we know as Plate, Modified 1 x 1 with Tooth Vertical (Design ID 15070), which uses a plate instead of a tile for its foundation. The older piece probably could have sufficed, but only the best is good enough for Prince Puppycorn, so a new element was developed for his ears leaving a smooth, tiled finish.

Unlike the familiar tooth-plate, Puppycorn’s ear-shaped extension is wider than one module which means it is not possible to place two of the same elements directly next to each other, nor any other piece with a protruding extension such as the vertical tooth, or brackets.

The current colour palette consists of White (6231380), Black (6231382), Bright Blue [TLG]/ Blue [BL] (6223617), Bright Bluish Green [TLG]/ Dark Turquoise [BL] (6231379), and Dark Orange (6231383). The Bright Blue variant is most common and the only one available outside 41775 Unikitty! blind bags.

The only connection point is the tile’s anti-stud which makes using the element quite challenging outside its intended role of flopped ears on brick-built critters. Perhaps it would be a good part for future Creator brick boxes aimed at younger builders.

The lack of a stud on top makes the element possible to incorporate next to each other’s opposing sides. It takes a lot of SNOT hodgepodge to orient the pieces this way, but it is possible if you should ever want to do such a thing. By placing it sideways I thought it could form an arrow symbol, a stylised letter A, maybe a play button?

Except what sort of contraption has such large, ugly play buttons? Fortunately, I still vaguely remember the '80s.

It will be interesting to see if and how these ears will be used in other sets. Being a decorative element with limited connectivity, its potential for clever usage seems low, but that is part of the fun.

This element in Black was used in the New Elementary parts workshops at Skærbæk Fan Weekend 2018 and Bricks in Florence Festival 2018. A few builders also got a handful of the pieces to put their own creative twist on the subject, so expect to see more of Prince Puppycorn’s ears in upcoming posts.





READ MORE: Now meet the LEGO designers who created the Unikitty theme. Sven has also covered the 1x3 inverted tile, the 4-petal flower and the 3x5 cloud from Unikitty! sets

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