Review: 41921 Extra Dots - Series 3

Goat!

I think Huw has inspired a new Ideas submission...

Ah Huw, continuing to tease us with your many goats :)

@Slobrojoe said:
"“Multicombination” is not a well thought out name. Multi means more than one or many and combination means a joining of different components (implying more than one). Isn’t that like someone saying “I’m not never doing that”, meaning you will do it?"

Not really. What you're describing is a double negative—where two negative modifiers cancel out. Multicombination may be slightly redundant but doesn't negate itself in the same way.

In Lego, "multicombination" parts include any part made of two or more materials. That includes "blended" parts (where two plastic types are injected into a mold simultaneously) and overmolded parts (where one plastic type is used for the first stage of a mold and another plastic type is injected on top of that, resulting in a crisper, more defined seam between the two colors). It also doesn't always mean a part is made of two different colors—some "multicombination" parts use the same color in both sections but use different plastic types (such as solid ABS and a more rubberized plastic for a spike).

These new Dots parts are clearly overmolded, given the lack of blending between the solid and transparent sections. And the effect is quite impressive! I especially like how the transparent sections extend all the way to the underside of the part, giving these parts the potential to be lit from behind in interesting ways using official or third-party electronic lighting.

The assortment of printed tiles in this series is nice as well, with a pastel aesthetic and a theme that revolves around secrecy and magic (complementing the secret boxes and locking containers introduced alongside this series). If anyone wants a good look at all the designs for this or any other series, one of the main graphic designers for the Dots theme, Diego Sancho, shares most of them on his instagram: https://www.instagram.com/diegoisadesigner/

Apart from those new dual molded and printed parts, I like the color scheme of the more basic parts in this series as well. Before I got this set I didn't really have many of the quarter circle tiles in dark azure or medium lilac.

I am so mad that other people have goats and I do not. >=(

The Goats :D

Oh those diamonds are cool

Someone should do an article about all the different Lego animals...

This is my (5 year old) daughter's idea, but they should have dot tiles with letters on them. Not only would it open up creative expression, but they would also be super useful for MOCs.

@rslotb said:
"Wait, the official spelling is Dark Azur? no e? Or is this another Americanism? "

Not an Americanism, no. I suspect it's probably a fluke of translation from Danish, like some of the unusual official names assigned to part designs like 2397 / 49134 "Thill for Gig". That may be an accurate name for that part in English, but a bizarrely abstruse one — a translation into plainer, more everyday English would be "Shaft for Carriage".

Similarly, "azur" is a legitimate alternate spelling of azure in English, but an archaic one borrowed from French, which is very rarely used outside the context of heraldry. That said, "azur" or "azure" in heraldry refers to a deeper blue (not a "sky blue" color like LEGO's two azur colors), which lends further credence to the idea that it's just a slightly clumsy translation which failed to recognize that one spelling of the word tends to be used in a more specific contexts than the other.

Notably, the Danish term for sky blue is "azurblå" (literally, azure blue), so the spelling without a silent e at the end would probably be more familiar to a native Danish speaker.

There are several other LEGO color names that make more sense when understood as rough translations from Danish which settle on the nearest English cognate. For example, the LEGO color "Medium Lilac" is a much darker color than would ordinarily be described as "lilac" in English — however, in Danish, "lilla" (a cognate of the English word "lilac") is used as a more general word for purple colors, not just light or pale ones.

And few English speakers would describe the LEGO colors "Light Purple" or "Bright Purple" as shades of purple at all — but in Danish, "purpur" (a cognate of the English word "purple") refers to a much wider range of reddish-violet colors, including bright or pale ones that an English speaker would be more likely to describe as pink.