The Unofficial LEGO Builder's Guide

Precision, Geometry, and Color

Now that you have a handle on basic LEGO-related terminology and some sense of how parts can be categorized, let’s look at a few other areas of the LEGO system.

Why Precision Manufacturing Matters

It doesn’t take very long to realize something very important about LEGO pieces. Every element is manufactured to a very high degree of precision, not unlike the accuracy seen in the manufacture of aircraft parts. Because this precision applies to such a small scale, this tight control of plastic molding may not be evident immediately. If you snap a few bricks together and they are off by a hair’s width, it probably won’t bother you too much. But what if you begin to stack up more and more bricks? How long will it take before ...