Second is a delightful little feature of the round 1x1 plates (dots) which give them texture. In the old days, these parts would have had a straight side all the way down. But in order to help young fingers separate the pieces from each other (and save on the volume of plastic), they have a relief lip in the bottom. If you were to place several of these in a line next to each other you'd have lots of gaps like a methheads dental pattern. But what great gaps!
Once the lever stems are firmly seated you can either continue with or without the bases. Without the bases just leaves you with some spiky texture but the bases allow you to do some really funky SNOT. I'm not sure what sort of sorcery the LEGO Part Design Team uses but it's downright scary.
Unfortunately, some sort of gremlin slipped into the design process as the stems are JUUUST not quite long enough to fit between two consecutive dots. It works but it puts some stress on the dots nearest the lever base. With just a bit of force put on them they're liable to pop off.
I was originally inspired to find this technique by trying to create a microscale version of Bob's Kebab Stand.
Sweet. Or is that savory?
