Why is this piece called a "cheese slope"? "Slope" I get; but "cheese"?
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Aside from the shape, it is also true that the cheese slope is the same color as cheddar cheese.– user7871Oct 30, 2016 at 13:50
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3Sadly it comes in a number of different colours, not all of which could be considered cheese. On top of that, the slope in the question is more of a Red Leicester, rather than a Cheddar.– Zhaph - Ben Duguid ♦Oct 31, 2016 at 13:19
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custom names bother me sometimes, as not only do some of them only make sense in certain situations, like this one, but also it can make it hard to look for pieces on say, brick link. cause more often then not the name is NOTHING like the official name of the brick. the id for this piece is 54200 btw for anyone wondering.– Box NbloxMay 21, 2020 at 0:42
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@BoxNblox Welcome to Bricks.SE! Other sites may do a little better on search terms than Bricklink. For example, Rebrickable returns appropriate elements for search terms like "cheese", "erling", and "travis".– jncraton ♦May 21, 2020 at 1:17
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3 Answers
A cheese slope resembles a chunk of cheese from a cheese wheel. They happen to also be the perfect size for minifigures to interact with:
‘Lego Cheese Farm’ by AIatariel, http://www.flickr.com/photos/alatariel1181/10582728886/
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Although "cheese slope" seems to be the more common term now, they are also sometimes called "cheese wedge slopes," which refers more clearly to the origin of the name.– 62BricksDec 8, 2013 at 2:10
According to BrickLink, the cheese slope, part number 54200, first appeared in a handful of sets in 2004.
In the mid-1990s, the AFOL community hung out on the Usenet newsgroup rec.toys.lego and its predecessor, alt.toys.lego. A Google Groups search of the archives of these newsgroups finds no references to the cheese slope.
At some point in the late 1990s, the AFOLs gradually migrated to LUGNET, which had a member area, a forum, a set reference, a part reference, and other features. A search of the LUGNET forum finds a message from 13 June 2006 referring to "cheese wedge slopes." The message author seems to assume that readers are familiar with the term, so the cheese term was probably in common use before this message. Other LUGNET messages from ~2008 also refer to "cheese wedge slopes" rather than the current term "cheese slope."
In the early 2000s, the AFOLs started buying and selling, and later conversing, on Dan Jezek's BrickLink, which he called BrickBay for the first two years of its existence. The early BrickLink used to delete forum messages after 6 months, so the messages from the 2004-2006 period no longer exist.
Based on the part information on BrickLink and the message on LUGNET, it seems that the term "cheese slope" AKA "cheese wedge slope" came into being sometime between the introduction of the part in 2004 and mid-2006.
As was mentioned in another answer, the cheese slope looks like a slice of cheese at around minifigure scale. This part has also actually been used as cheese in official sets, including Medieval Market Village:
answered Dec 2, 2013 at 19:47
