LEGO Terminology

Like most any hobby that has a devoted following, LEGO fans have a lot of terms that might seem like a foreign language to outsiders. Here’s a glossary of the more common ones.

A

ABS - acrylonitrile butadiene styrene, the type of plastic most Lego bricks are made of

AFOL - Adult Fan of Lego (pronounced ay-foal)

B

BAP - Bricks and Pieces, a section of the Lego website that lets you order individual bricks

Big Cheese - see Double Cheese

Blay (or Bley) - Bluish Gray (Grey). Lego colour also called ‘Stone Grey’

Brick - a Lego piece of any size or shape

Brick Built - an object built with Lego bricks, as opposed to an object that exists as a single specialized piece

BURP - Big Ugly Rock Piece, Lego part #6082

C

Cheese - a 1x1 sloped brick, Lego part #54200

Cheese Grater - Lego part #61409

CMF - Collectible Minifig. A Lego ‘person’ sold individually intended as a collectible item, as opposed to minifigs that are included with sets

D

Dark Ages - a period of time when a person stops doing Lego

Double Cheese - a 1x2 sloped brick, Lego part #85984

DSS - Dreaded Sticker Sheet, a sheet of stickers meant to be applied to Lego bricks to decorate certain parts of sets. Generally despised by AFOLs.

Duplo - Lego’s offshoot brand of extra-large bricks intended for small children

E

F

Friends - a series of sets meant to appeal to girls, featuring minidolls instead of minifigs and featuring traditionally feminine colour palettes

G

Greebles - detail added to the surface of a Lego model to give it texture or interest

Greebling - the act of adding Greebles to a Lego surface

H

Headlight - Lego part #4070

I

Ideas - a series of Lego sets that originated as a fan’s design. Lego allows fans to submit designs for consideration, then other fans vote to approve them, where they go into a review phase and may or may not then become an official set for sale in stores.

Illegal - a way of connecting Lego bricks that technically works, but isn’t recognized by Lego, usually due to stress placed on bricks assembled that way

J

Jumper - a Lego plate that allows building with a half-stud offset

K

Kragle - Krazy Glue or any glue used to cement bricks together

L

LDD - Lego Digital Designer. Lego’s app that lets you build models digitally.

LDRAW - a fan-created app for designing Lego models digitally

LEGO - Danish brand of building bricks whose name is a shortened form of “Leg Godt” (play well)

LEGO - the plural of “Lego”. Can also use “Lego bricks” as a plural.

Legos - NOT the plural of “Lego” and can get you some dirty looks at a fan gathering or online group

LUG - Lego Users Group. A club of Lego users with meetings and activities.

M

Microfig - very small ‘people’ half the size of regular minifigs. They have no moveable parts

Micro Scale - a Lego model built to match the scale proportions of nanofigs or even smaller. Many architecture sets are in this scale.

Minidoll - thin, curvy Lego ‘people’ introduced in the Friends series

Minifig - Lego ‘people’ with moveable arms and legs, usually built with legs, torso, and head pieces

Minifig Scale - a Lego model built to match the scale proportions of minifigs. Roughly the same scale as “O” model trains.

MOC - My Own Creation, a Lego model built by a user from imagination rather than instructions. (pronounced ‘mock’)

Modular - A series of sets aimed at adults that are usually built on a 32x32 baseplate and designed to snap together side-by-side with other modular sets to create a whole city