Citations › Citation ID: 155

C155. BOOK: Daniel Konstanski, The Secret Life of LEGO Bricks: The Inside Story of a Design Icon (Unbound, 2022), p. 293-294.

As an element’s moulds near the end of their useful lives, an internal operation called the reordering process kicks into gear. ... if a component is to stay in production, it goes through an evaluation to see if changes should be made to improve the part that would require modifying its mould. Input comes from across the company and changes may be suggested for a host of reasons, ranging from part usability to more efficient manufacturing. While often subtle, these minor alterations are sometimes significant enough to be noticeable, as was the case with jumper plates.

Jumper plates had been around since the 1970s and were designed from inception to fulfill a very specific purpose. They were a 1x2 plate with a single stud in the centre that allowed for moving construction over half a module instead of a full module. Underneath, they were just
like any other 1x2 plate with a centre rod for creating clutch power – and that was the problem. For years, model designers were frustrated by that rod, as it precluded having another brick’s stud attach directly to a jumper plate’s centre from beneath. If that type of connection were
possible, it would open up many new building opportunities. While making such a change may seem straightforward, it wasn’t – and evaluating all the pros and cons in a situation like this is part of the rationale for having a thorough re-ordering process.

In the case of jumper plates, nothing was cut and dried. LEGO elements are primarily intended for children and a key part of their design is not only ensuring that children can use them correctly but also to make sure, as much as possible, that they can’t use them incorrectly either. More often than not, if there are two ways a brick could be designed, simplicity wins out, even if that means less versatility. It is better for an element to work only one way so that children can’t go wrong, fail in building and get frustrated. This argument prevailed with the jumper plate over multiple reorderings, as different designers argued for eliminating the rod – each time their request was denied. Ultimately, it was the LEGO Creator team that finally prevailed, convincing everyone that, with the advanced building techniques they were employing on ever-more complicated models, greater functionality was needed.

Redesigning the underside of the 1x2 Jumper Plate to allow a stud to be attached at the midpoint took many years of advocacy from multiple set designers.