01 July 2013

You got the cutest little baby bow

Posted by Admin
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.




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15 comments:

  1. Great selection of uses you have found already, I can't wait to get my hands on a few!

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  2. Wow! It's incredibly simple yet ingenious. Got to get some!

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  3. What a cool piece. Like your test builds too. Keep up the good work

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  4. Another use for bows of that size that you have omitted is that they fit perfectly in the arch of 92950 (the new style of 1x6 arch brick) as well as 62361 (the 1x6 wheel arch). I'm not sure whether this new piece opens up many possibilities with these parts that weren't already filled by the other parts you mentioned (unless you to fill one of these with two colors, or halfway), but it's worth noting nonetheless.

    It also matches both the front and top edges of the rarer 93604 (Cars hood piece).

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    1. Ah great Andrew, thanks! Will give that a whirl, the arch especially. Post links to pics here if you use it? Would love to see.

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    2. And they'd fit perfectly into the underside of the 62361 fender from the Speed Racer cars, which is also a perfect match for the new 1x6x1 arch bottom.

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  5. Definitely going on the wanted list. Loving the blog by the way, keep it up :)

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  6. Great blog you have here, I'll be checking it more often.

    I too cannot wait to get my grubby mitts on these half-bows. Thus far I've been simply taking 1x4 bows and cutting them in half. Sacrilege, I know, but the cut half-bows are better IMO because they leave two little slots along the cut edge. This is a great air intake effect, I've used it often on my 4-wide cars.

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    1. That's a cool idea Raphy, would be great if you can post a link.
      Yeah, it's sacrilege to many, who enjoy the constraint of only using available parts. But who wants to be like the many? Be an innovator! And I think your actions have been partly justified by the fact LEGO have now released the half telephone!

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  7. Hay, goldninja101 here. Could someone tell me if the 1X2X2/3 appears at pick-a-brick? Like I said in my other post, (I didn't call myself goldninja101 yet.) "It's like my favorite new piece (Maybe favorite piece alltogether)" Thanks guys! Oh, and caperberry, YOU ROCK MAN!

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    1. Well thanks! I doubt it's there yet, goldninja101. I'm not very up to speed with PAB online but I don't think it gets updated terribly often and certainly not with every element. You can easily search it though; copy and paste the DESIGN ID from my post into PAB's search box.

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  8. The Baby bow is now on Lego Digital Designer!!!! -goldninja101

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  9. There are white ones in 10234 Sidney Opera House as well.

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  10. The black baby bow is now listed in 8 sets at Brickset, 3x Ninjago, 2x Star Wars, 2x Creator and 1 Lego Movie...

    http://www.brickset.com/search/?part=6047276

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