As soon as we saw the LEGO® DC Super Heroes Collectable Minifigure Series, we knew that we had to get our hands on the new little transparent angled bar included with the figures. We gave a handful of these new elements to three creative minds to see what they thought, and we will publish these over the coming weeks. First up is Jonas Kramm who analyses its geometry and possibilities.
Jumping, flying and fighting: these poses and many more can now be achieved easily by your LEGO minifigures. With the new element introduced in the DC Super Heroes Collectible Minifigure Series, called "Handle No.1" (6285587|65578) by The LEGO Group and "Minifigure, Utensil Posing Stand" by BrickLink, minifigures can strike a suitably super stance by connecting it to the bottom or the back of their legs. Regardless of which DC character you get, you get one posing stand and often even an extra one spare.
Handle No.1 (6285587 | 65578)
For now, the posing stand only comes in Transparent/ Trans-Clear. It has a number of different connection points.
On one side is a short 3.18mm bar, which fits in a hollow stud or can be clipped, then the piece makes a perfect 135° angle (i.e. 45° less than 180°) and ends in a stud. It’s a hollow stud so another 3.18mm bar can fit in there.
Exploring the Minifigure Posing Stand
Minifigure poseability is the obvious function of this part, but let’s see what else it is capable of.
Roof Slope
For this roof I explored how the 45° angle of the piece could be used to connect Tiles within a very small space.
The length of the bar is just right, so it almost feels like it was chosen by element designer Jaime Sanchez with this particular technique in mind.
Futuristic Energy Module
When sticking two of the elements into each other, thus equalising the 45° angle, I found myself wondering if the stud is back in the System grid again. It is slightly out as you can see above. It needs a 1x1 Round Plate With Open Stud (Pl.Round 1X1 W. Throughg. Hole – 85861) to extend the middle section a bit and bring it back in System.
The combination of the two transparent colours looked very Space-build-worthy, so I included the idea in this futuristic energy module.
LEGO octagon
The first thing you will do when you get eight of the action elements is building an octagon, I guarantee it. It just feels so satisfying.
It looks pretty similar to the very common Plate, Modified 2 x 2 with Bar Frame Octagonal (Parabolic Ring – 75937) but the assembly is slightly smaller and the 3.18mm bar connections are shorter, and a bit off-centre.
Here I made a quick tablescrap combining the octagonal shape with eight Plate 1x2 Rounded (35480).
It somehow reminded me of Iron Man’s arc reactor (the glowing thing on his chest), so I built this small replica, which makes good use of the transparent colour. Also I benefitted from the hole in the middle, which I filled with a 2x2 dish.
Small LEGO glass table
When I lay my hands on new small pieces I usually try to integrate them in a piece of furniture first. That also worked with this element, even though another colour variation would have been great.
My small glass table makes use of four of the posing stands, with two other kinds of transparent piece.
Large, modern LEGO table with glass legs
For this 4x6 table, I used two posing stands for each leg making a total of eight.
LEGO lamps
When playing around with the posing stand I had memories of my very first article here on New Elementary in 2016, which was all about some new Black and Transparent elements.
Back then I built a selection of lamps, which now get the company of a new design using posing stands.
The new piece allows the rods to be set at a 45° angle, while the bulb is still facing upwards. For the decoration I also made use of the bat-shaped collar in Black (6258501 | 41617) worn by the Jack Skellington minifigure, from the second Disney CMF Series.
Conclusion
After my first trials I have to say that this new little element seems very useful. As always I immediately felt the urge to get it in other, opaque colours as well. Unfortunately that opportunity is not in sight yet.I imagine that it will help a lot when used as a detail or unseen in the inside of a build to get a 45° angle in a very small space.
Help New Elementary keep publishing articles like this. Become a Patron!
Thanks to our 'Vibrant Coral' patrons: Iain Adams, Ryan Welles, Chris Cook, London AFOLs, Gerald Lasser, Big B Bricks, Dave Schefcik, David and Breda Fennell, Huw Millington, Neil Crosby, Antonio Serra, Beyond the Brick, Sue Ann Barber & Trevor Clark, and Kevin Gascoigne. You're all awesome!
As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases. Amazon USA: Amazon.com Canada: Amazon.ca UK: Amazon.co.uk Deutschland: Amazon.de
Thanks to our 'Vibrant Coral' patrons: Iain Adams, Ryan Welles, Chris Cook, London AFOLs, Gerald Lasser, Big B Bricks, Dave Schefcik, David and Breda Fennell, Huw Millington, Neil Crosby, Antonio Serra, Beyond the Brick, Sue Ann Barber & Trevor Clark, and Kevin Gascoigne. You're all awesome!
As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases. Amazon USA: Amazon.com Canada: Amazon.ca UK: Amazon.co.uk Deutschland: Amazon.de
All content represents the opinions of New Elementary authors and not the LEGO Group. All text and images are © New Elementary unless otherwise attributed.
Neat explorations! Out of curiosity, do the legs of the 4x6 table align with a grid of studs? In other words, could you secure them in place on a baseplate with four hollow 1x1 round plates?
ReplyDeleteI suppose even if not, you could achieve that with just two hollow 1x1 round plates, since along the longer edge they're the same distance apart at the top and bottom. But this definitely seems like a really nifty exploration.
For the furniture explorations, I also think it'd be neat to see how they look with a minifig beside them, since that would impact how viable they are for furnishing minifig-scale spaces like the modular buildings!
Of course, even ones that don't scale to minifigs quite right could still be a great fit for dioramas/vignettes/still lifes at other scales.
Honestly, as far as furniture goes, one thing I often find myself challenged with is coming up with minifig-scale chairs, since the chunky legs of minifigures can make it tricky to make detailed chairs that feel proportionate to a desk, dining table, etc. If you make the legs of the chair too tall, the height ends up feeling less like a conventional chair and more like a barstool.
Building a chair that believably resembles a swivel-type office chair is also particularly challenging. I guess this is all kind of tangential since this particular part wouldn't be ideal for that purpose, but this post is a nice reminder of how many new parts have come out that I haven't yet thought about in a furniture/interior design context!
About your first question: The legs of the table are not in system, as you can read at the section about the "energy module" in the beginning. And as you also suggested a 1x1 stud with hole can bring it back in system.
DeleteThe bigger table is probably a bit too tall when directly compared with a Minifigure.
And I can only agree, making furniture that fits to the minifigure scale and also can be used by them (eg sitting on a chair) is very challenging. In the past I built quite a few different chairs, some of them look very good, but don't fit a minifigure that well and others are built in a way they only hold with the minifigure legs connecting the parts.
Actually...the first thing I did with these was use one for Green Lantern and two for Aquaman to mount them to two of the arms on my new brick-built Starro the Conqueror MOC. Funny thing is, I've been wanting to make him for a few years now and finally came up with an idea for how to build the hub. It was only when I was placing the orders for parts that I realized exactly when Starro (and the Justice League) debuted. Both made their first appearances in issue #28 of The Brave and The Bold, with a release date of Feb/Mar 1960. Yup, they just turned 60 years old this month.
ReplyDeleteAnyways, so I was able to sneak some unobtrusive clips into two of the arms, which gave me a way to connect the bars on these, and the studs could then connect to the minifigs. With the angled connection you can rotate this piece, and change the angle of the connecting leg to get a wide variety of poses.
"quick tablescrap combining the octagonal shape with eight Plate 1x2 Rounded" makes a great fleshy sphincter.
ReplyDeleteThe red one is obviously an arc reactor and I love it.
DeleteI hope they come out with one of these parts in dark gray, black, and or light bluish gray. Would be fantastic...
ReplyDeleteif these were in black or brown etc they could be used for metal or wooden legs for a table - and in green they can be an alternative flower stem - hope they do come out eventually in lots of colours!!
ReplyDeleteThis is awesome, thanks for the ideas for custom builds!
ReplyDelete