Do the studs on old style wheels have uses?

[Xfing]

Talking about thiss wheel family:


These wheel rims were quite popular in mid to late 20th century, and the newest variant displayed above endured until 2006, as it featured a modern Technic pin connection, making it easy to integrate with modern builds. But still, can't help but wonder, what uses would these studs have? Everything I can personally think of is putting something like this on the wheels:

and then connecting them with a Technic brick or beam to produce a "wheels hidden inside the body" effect - possibly quite interesting. But nothing more. These wheels have now been retired for close to 20 years so maybe TLG didn't see much sense in continuing to make them either. But what do you guys think, do you have any practical uses for these studs? Mind showing me some models or MOCs that utilize them? 

[MAB]

Windmills, and any build where you want something to spin or swing.

[Murdoch17]

@Xfing I've turned them sideways and used them for part of steam / sand domes on steam locomotive boilers, like those seen up until the early 1900s.

Example: My MOC of the 2-4-4  'Fred Gurley' (Disneyland RR No. 3) I built for my father has these style of domes on it.

[Toastie]

2x2 round flat tile, 2x2 round tile with pin and go from there with, e.g., a 1x1 round tile as wheel cap/cover.

Best
Thorsten

[Xfing]

15 hours ago, Murdoch17 said:

@Xfing I've turned them sideways and used them for part of steam / sand domes on steam locomotive boilers, like those seen up until the early 1900s.

Example: My MOC of the 2-4-4  'Fred Gurley' (Disneyland RR No. 3) I built for my father has these style of domes on it.

lovely! just what I was curious about, definitely a sweet and creative use of the part

10 hours ago, Toastie said:

2x2 round flat tile, 2x2 round tile with pin and go from there with, e.g., a 1x1 round tile as wheel cap/cover.

Best
Thorsten

damn you're right, it's still easily possible to emulate this by adding on the round tile or brick with axle hole in the middle.. how could I have forgotten haha 

overall the more you think about it, the more you realize that you can replicate all the functions that phased out parts offered by just using modern parts. That is one thing that TLG have figured out quite well

[ShaydDeGrai]

I think part of that design is a throwback to a much earlier part (before there was technic) that had a metal pin embedded in it (Reference photo)  It plugged into a special 2x4 brick with connection ports on all four sidewalls.  The original design had to serve a number of purposes because it there weren't a lot of other options.    That original part was used not just for wheels, but pretty much any turning/spinning linkage (windmills, props for planes, hands for a clock tower, hip and shoulder joints for robots, etc) and needed multiple studs for stability (the other wheel in this "family" was a larger spoked wagon/model T wheel that only had a single stud at the center and wasn't that great a connection point for attaching anything with any real weight/angular momentum behind it).

I've always assumed that when the part evolved into the "Expert Builder"/Technic ecosystem, they just retained most of its older form/connectivity for the sake of continuity and familiarity even as peices diversified and more options to achieve the same end became available.

[Johnny1360]

Those studs on the tire rim were integral to me building snot helicopters way back in the 70's, when I was first discovering LEGO. Without it the props wouldn't spin, can't have that.

Edit: Also remember putting gears on them as well. Back then all I had was basic blocks and slopes, with a few windows, doors, wheels and gears.

Edited December 28, 2025 by Johnny1360

[Xfing]

On 12/23/2025 at 7:32 PM, ShaydDeGrai said:

I think part of that design is a throwback to a much earlier part (before there was technic) that had a metal pin embedded in it (Reference photo)  It plugged into a special 2x4 brick with connection ports on all four sidewalls.  The original design had to serve a number of purposes because it there weren't a lot of other options.    That original part was used not just for wheels, but pretty much any turning/spinning linkage (windmills, props for planes, hands for a clock tower, hip and shoulder joints for robots, etc) and needed multiple studs for stability (the other wheel in this "family" was a larger spoked wagon/model T wheel that only had a single stud at the center and wasn't that great a connection point for attaching anything with any real weight/angular momentum behind it).

I've always assumed that when the part evolved into the "Expert Builder"/Technic ecosystem, they just retained most of its older form/connectivity for the sake of continuity and familiarity even as peices diversified and more options to achieve the same end became available.

Yeah, I did notice that the long history of this part included those metal pins, I just posted the one with a technic pin hole for reference, as that's the most modern iteration of the element. But yes, it does kinda make sense it'd be used for windmills, helicopter blades and other stuff like that, crude as that sounds.

[JesseNight]

That's what I remember them from too: windmills and larger scale helicopter blades (probably Ideas Books content). Weren't they like belt driven in windmill builds?
[Edit] Yeah they were with the universal 4.5V kit, that contained the belt as well as those wheels with the metal pin in them. That pin was to plug it directly into the motor unit:

 

While we're going about studs on wheels... I've been wondering the same thing since childhood about this one:

These classic Town (early 80s) minifig car wheels were stuck on a metal axis as far as I could tell, giving them hardly any other possible purpose. And they got this 1 stud right in the middle.

Edited December 28, 2025 by JesseNight
Adding some stuff

[Toastie]

1 hour ago, JesseNight said:

That pin was to plug it directly into the motor unit:

And into appropriately designed 2x4 bricks as well, as on my beloved 323 from 1964.

Best
Thorsten

[MAB]

On 12/28/2025 at 10:09 PM, JesseNight said:

 

 

While we're going about studs on wheels... I've been wondering the same thing since childhood about this one:

These classic Town (early 80s) minifig car wheels were stuck on a metal axis as far as I could tell, giving them hardly any other possible purpose. And they got this 1 stud right in the middle.

Presumably they wanted the logo on the wheel hub and as there is space for a stud, why not use it and keep the uniform design of a stud with logo. Plus keeping the compatibility means those wheels can now be enhanced with a stud with a hole with a knife stuck in it if you want to make post-apolcalyse type vehicles, even if not at the time.

[Stereo]

I suppose you could look at real world examples too - late 30s up until the mid 60s, almost all cars used stamped steel wheels with round hubcaps.  Then fancier/sportier cars had 4-10 spoke designs, while cheap ones retained the steel wheels, so hubcaps started imitating spoked designs by the 80s.  So Lego switched from a stud in the middle to the 4-spoke small wheel design in the mid 80s just reflects real world cars.  I guess Lego still uses that 4-spoke option essentially (though usually the next size up cause cars are bigger) but then Speed Champions get even more realistic wheels.

Edited December 30, 2025 by Stereo

[JesseNight]

Good points.
The mid 80s wheel change was also about getting rid of the fixed metal axle and switching to those plastic clipped on wheels, in combination with a lot of Town vehicle maintenance/repair releases following (garages, roadside assistance vehicles).
(I can imagine this also taking care of possible rust problems when parts would get wet from playing outdoors)

Edited December 30, 2025 by JesseNight