Secret Lego III: The wine-glass brick

Welcome to Secret Lego, where we show you the stuff Jørgen doesn't want you to see!

For this, third episode of Secret Lego, we're gonna return to the brilliant multi-purpose wine-glass brick:

There it is. These come in many different colours, but the main ones are clear (as above) and black. It's used often as any sort of liquid-holding vessel (glass, cup, tankard), and also sometimes for spaceship greeblies due to their bumpy nature.

But what is so special about this brick? Well none other than the 'uniring', a little ledge on the inside of the brick used to wedge other bricks in, such as...

• The 1x1 circular plate: this has the all-important 'wedge', the circular protrusion that must be a certain diameter.
• The frying-pan brick: quite a useful brick for tennis rackets, but quite useless if you try and use it in this context.
• 2x2 parabolic dish: looks great as a lamp with a lampshade.
• Ice-cream brick: Well, duh! But why would anyone want an ice-cream in a glass??
• Large, tubed pole: A great way of mounting this pole is using it on top of a wine-glass brick. Looks great as a pillar / stand for something.
• 2x2 disc plate: these can be found almost anywhere, from clock faces to pizzas. Mmm, pizza.

...and many more besides! So go on, have fun with that brilliant brick, and remember:

Sshhh! It's a secret!

Secret Lego II: Hinge and Flame

Hello and welcome to the second in the Secret Lego series!!

For this tutorial about the ways in which Lego pieces fit together that Jørgen doesn't want you to know about, we're gonna focus on an easy way of mounting the flame brick:

Here it is. Pretty cool. Some of you may know that it can create pretty cool rings of fire, but, if you don't, then I'll leave that one 'till later.

Now then, you'll need one of these beauties: the top part of a hinge brick. These come in 1x2 and 2x2 versions, but I think I'll just use this one. Note that you don't need the bottom part of the hinge at any point in this tutorial. Now let's connect the two...

Like so! See how the stem of the flame piece fits perfectly into the cut-out section of the hinge part. It stays there pretty firmly, too.

You can also affix the flame part to the hinge piece by means of the flame's upper stem as well, creating a lovely jaunty angle.

Now we can use the clever combination to give our abstract wood pile a bit of flare - literally! Using this technique, you can easily solve any flame problems you have. Apart from a real fire, of course! You'd need the fire department for that, not me!!

Thanks for reading, and remember:

Sssh! It's a secret!™

Secret Lego I: The Ice-Cream Brick

Hey there, and welcome to the first of our new series of posts: Secret Lego! Secret Lego is a series of Tips+Tricks posts where we show you ways in which Lego parts can fit together, that the big Jørgen doesn't want you to know! This time, we're gonna show you the secrets of the ice cream brick...

This is a conventional Ice Cream Brick. Not very common, but not very rare either. It should be quite easy to get your hands on a few. There were two, just like this, included in last year's Advent Calendar. They are very simple: the usual tube connection on the bottom, with a special ridge, and a pile of four spheres on top. Hence an ice cream.

So then, here is the first trick you can do with the Ice Cream Brick. Plonking one on top of the other will create a handy universal (ball and socket) joint, which you can use to make decorative bobbly things.

Of course, as some of you may know, the Ice Cream Brick can fit snugly into the old wine glass accessory piece, which also sports a little ridge. So you can have an ice cream in a cup. Nothing close to an ice cream cone, but we're nearly there.

Let's apply these methods in an everyday examples. Here is a cannon I am building. Its barrell is actually a cup, hollow part facing out. And I want to make the cannonball look as if it is flying out. Now, as some of you may know by searching around MOCpages, Ice Cream Bricks are very useful to emulate smoke, because of their bobbly texture and stackability. So, let's get connecting...

Ta-dah! Connecting two ice cream bricks between the cannonball and the wine glass brick, we have created a perfect explosion smoke-trail effect. Check out the next installment of Secret Lego, coming your way soon on Brickspace! And remember:

Sssshh! It's a secret!