How to make a Lego handbell

 Combining two passions into one

• by Jim Winslett

I’ll bet you had Lego when you were a kid.
Lego has been around for a long time and it’s one of those things that’s easy to take for granted, just a thing that’s been there for as long as you can remember and will likely still be there long after you’re gone.
What you might not know, however, is the biggest market for Lego today is adults. These aren’t people who build crude little houses and cars out of brightly coloured bricks (although they probably started out that way), these are adults who plop down serious money on stuff that qualifies as art. While Lego still produce sets aimed at kids, they now produce just as many sets aimed squarely at the adult market, with themes such as architecture, botanicals, and retro nostalgia.
When the Covid-19 pandemic shut everything down and in-person handbell rehearsals and performances were canceled, I had a serious handbell-shaped hole in my life that needed filling. And because I was spending much of my time at home due to the lockdowns, I rekindled my interest in Lego as a means of entertainment. That led to the inevitable combining of handbells and Lego. It first began as a little “handbell rehearsal” model, approximating as best I could the members of Bow River Bells with the BRHMS logo in the back.

If you want to build your own group, the trickiest part is figuring out which of the literally millions of combinations of minifig (Lego people) parts will best approximate people you know. The director’s baton is a ‘magic wand’ piece that comes in nearly every Harry Potter-themed Lego set.
The handbells themselves are easy, too. The smaller bells are simply the “ice cream cone” piece in tan.

I’ve included the part number because it makes it easier to search for and find that piece on the various websites where you can buy individual parts. There’s a link to a few of those sites all the way down at the bottom of this article.
The larger bells require a bit of modification. They began as the goblet piece in pearl gold colour, then I used a sharp cutter to remove the base.

I wanted to do more, though, and as my collection of bricks grew, I started tinkering with how to make a life-sized handbell out of Lego. That led to an early model, which looked fine, but was very delicate. You couldn’t pick it up by the handle without breaking it and I was constantly having to repair it whenever it got moved around. It also involved the use of a few Lego pieces that were no longer in production, making it very difficult to source the parts to build - and very expensive if you could find those parts! Eventually, my building skills improved and I was able to not only solve the fragility issues, but also find workarounds for the discontinued parts. So now we have the Lego Handbell version 2.0

While the weight of the bell still prevents you from swinging it around by the handle as if you were playing it, it is sturdy enough to pick it up by the handle and pass it around to your friends to look at without worrying about repairing it every time it’s moved. Yay! The inside of the bell even has a swinging clapper.

Enough with the background, let’s build this thing!

You’re going to need 52 different kinds of Lego pieces with a total of 341 total bricks.

Rather than trying to count and identify all of that stuff, here’s a handy list of everything you’ll need, along with the part numbers.

As we go, I should remind you that you can click any of the images to make them larger, in case you need more detail.
Also, if you want to download that parts list to have it handy when you are searching for parts, you can do that here.
You’ll notice that I’ve listed the colours as Tan, Grey, Black, and Any. These are the colours used in the model that will be shown in the images that follow. Feel free to change any of those to your own liking! For reference, the Tan pieces make the bell casting, the Black pieces form the handle, the Grey pieces are the clapper, and pieces labeled “Any” aren’t visible in the finished model, so use any colour you like.
Also: there are two Grey parts - the #89523 10x10 octagon plate and the #30000 2x2 brick with 2 pins - that would be better if they were black, as they’re both used in the handle. However, as of this writing, neither of those pieces are available in black, so grey was the best solution until Lego decide to bring out those parts in black.

Where to get parts

Lego can be purchased by the brick in new or used condition.
Buying used bricks can save you a lot of money!
Using the part numbers listed above, you can make a “wanted list” on BrickLink and it will find the individuals who have the parts you need.

If you already know how BrickLink works, you can create a new WantList and click “upload” then select the “BricklinkXML” tab. Then just download this file, open it in a text app or word processor, then copy/paste the text into the upload area on your WantList.
You can also search BrickOwl and Lego’s own Pick a Brick site for your items. (The pick-a-brick link goes to the Lego Canada site. Select “change region” in the upper-left corner of the Lego site if you need to switch to the version for your country.) Of the three options, I find that Bricklink is the most likely to have all the parts you need, BrickOwl the next-likeliest, and Lego’s own Pick-a-Brick site the least likely. That said, Lego owns Bricklink, so maybe that’s why they don’t keep as many on hand on their own site.

Now, Let’s Start Building!