11 September 2018

(CW:HP) LEGO® Harry Potter and the Enlightening Elements

Posted by Admin
Following on from our in depth look at the Wanderful Wand and Spurious Sprue, Elspeth De Montes takes a look at three enlightening new elements that appear in the recent LEGO® Harry Potter Wizarding World releases. Editorial note: Although views expressed by Harry Potter's creator do not align with that of New Elementary, we continue to cover HP sets. Read about our stance here.

Appearing for the first time is Lamp, No. 1 “lantern” in Titanium Metallic [TLG] / Pearl Dark Grey [BL] (Element ID 6234116 | Design ID 37776). This was actually introduced in three Elves sets released this summer: 41157 Rapunzel's Travelling Caravan, 41195 Emily & Noctura's Showdown and 41196 The Elvenstar Tree Bat Attack which all contain one Black lantern element and it also appears in the new 40312 Xtra Streetlamps polybag released this month.





In terms of attachments, the handle of the lantern is 3.18mm, obviously designed to be held by a minifigure hand or clip. Internally there is a stud recess to allow a Round Brick 1x1 (Design ID 35390) to be inserted as the light. At the top of the lantern, underneath the handle, it looks as though there is a ‘stud’ but I think this is actually a pseudo-stud as it doesn’t have LEGO printed on it and there is not enough space to attach anything to the stud (I even tried some minifigure tools).





The other two new elements are new moulds making their debut in this theme. Both appear in the same three sets: 75953 Hogwarts Whomping Willow, 75954 Hogwarts Great Hall and 75950 Aragog's Lair.


Candle No.1 in White (Element ID 6234807 | Design ID 37762) is made up of two sections; a narrower 3.18mm bar that is 3mm long and a wider 5.8mm hollow portion that accepts 3.18 bar connections in its base.

Compare these stacks of four 1x1 plates, the Candle element, a Round Brick 1x1 with a ‘nipple’ Plate 1x1 w/ 3.2 Shaft and 1.5 Hole on top, and finally a stack of three 1x1 plates with a nipple on top.



The candle element stacks very neatly together thanks to the ‘male and female’ ends to give a strongly connected 5.8mm round column, offering an intermediate width for columns in between a 3.18 bar and a stack of 1x1 Round bricks.



The retired LEGO Architecture set 21014 Villa Savoye uses 3.18mm bars for the ground level pilotis; perhaps using the thicker Candle element would give a more accurate scale.


Flame No. 1 in Transparent Bright Orange [TLG] / Trans-Orange [BL] (Element ID 6236437 | Design ID 37775) is a single flame that has a 1.5mm attachment extending from a 3.18mm base to allow either connection to be utilised.


As expected, the candle and flame elements pair together in the sets to give a burning candle. Your minifigure can hold the burning candle by the shaft or, for those more Health & Safety aware, via a protective dish to catch candle wax.



I had a little play with the candles to make a rather Gothic candelabra. At first I started small...


...but my aspirations for a grandiose second attempt were thwarted when I sadly ran out of candles!



With the Lantern element I also wanted to try building something other than a lit lantern. Wandering slightly out of my comfort zone, I headed into mech territory. With a ball hip joint and hinge joints for the knee and ankle, there’s anatomical accuracy to a human and, as such, it is very stable. Does anyone want to complete my robot please, as I ran out of time?



All three of the elements discussed are available in the following sets;
  • 75950 Aragog's Lair
  • 75953 Hogwarts Whomping Willow
  • 75954 Hogwarts Great Hall




Products mentioned in this post were kindly supplied by the LEGO Group. All content represents the opinions of New Elementary authors and not the LEGO Group. All text and images are © New Elementary unless otherwise attributed.

7 comments:

  1. The nipple over the lantern is definitely smaller than a stud anyway. It doesn't seem to have any common LEGO metric, so it's just decoration, lanterns have that bump.

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    1. Yes, I'm sure you are correct but it's always interesting to try and make connections :-)

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  2. So is the candle the same diameter as a stud? Can you use it to attach two bricks back-to-back like this https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQI44p04Li7rMRKjkFM9O2G95WEqseeVLvEkDSCRVFkDaqeMPtaOw

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    1. Hi Ben,
      No the narrow end of the candle is 3.18mm (ie like any LEGO bar element) and the wider end is the same diameter as the tubes on the underside of the 3001 brick in your example. So the narrow end would fit into the tubes on the underside of the 2x4 brick but the other end would not.

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    2. Apologies - the wider end has a diameter that is approximately 2mm smaller that the tubes. The slight difference is actually significant as Are Heiseldal and I were discussing and he asked if the candle has clutch between four studs on the studded surface - I checked and it is smaller and does not :-(

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  3. I can't stop thinking I'm holding a playmobil piece everytime I pick up the lantern. The Mech leg is therefore very welcome

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  4. I was incredibly excited when I realised that the candles are stackable, from all the images I was worried that the orange flame was moulded into the candle. As soon as I had some Harry Potter sets in hand I dug the candles out to check.

    I suspect we'll see them cast in black and grey before too long.

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