Lego: C/D, S&D

Destroy: 2x2 bases

Destroy: The distasteful attempts Lego's been making since the '80's at hypergenderizing what was once a fairly neutral toy. The parallel turn away from the simple lego brick, making most sets only good for creating the model on the box and not a hell of a lot more. The "Lego Maniac" commercials.

I used to be kind of mean to my sister. these days she is a good friend. and if i were to see the two lego towns side by side at this point in life, i'd realize that hers was actually cooler.

my little neices and nephews play legos sometimes. well, i'm mainly thinking of a family get together a few years ago where my niece was quietly playing with the legos in the corner. at some point we went over to see what she was doing, and she had collected all the little flower petal parts in a pile, and taken all the yellow smiley heads and put them in a big long chain. for some reason, i thought this was the greatest use of legos ever conceived. or at least the cutest use ever!

Looking through the lego.com website and through a selection of lego catalogs, it looks like they've phased out (at least in the USA) your regular ol' non-specialized building sets like the kind I grew up with.

Was in the lego club, have a Gold Master Builders Badge!

Lego Star Wars are cool...and the other day I saw SPIDER-MAN LEGO!.

I've seen horribble Lego-stuff lately, with silly fairy tale colours and totally prefabric ugly cute castles etc. it looked like my little pony. DESTROY!!!

the basic originals are CLASSIC. Why do they have to ruin everything and listen to some crap marketing sales manager that children want a nice cute Lego doll gggggrrrrrrr

Well I'm beginning to sound like some reactionary old teacher, who wants his pupils to watch Abstract Avantgarde Cartoons instead of Pokemon, who fumes about kids that can't use their imagination anymore blalablablah...oh hell!

SEARCH AS MUCH LEGO AS YOU CAN FIND, Lock yourself up in your room for a week and PLAY PLAY PLAY PLAY

"Click...click...click and your models are made. Cliki builds towns and villages with homes shops and garages. And their all so realistic, thanks to Cliki's special details.-baseplates that LOCK together cannot fall apart"

I remember the translucent stuff too, how did it ever infect the pure lego gene pool. (wistful rhetorical)

http://www3.sympatico.ca/mladenpejic/ Mladen, the god of LEGO mecha.

sacrelige! YOU CAN'T DO THAT!!!!

...oh dear, i fear the obsessive-compulsive tendencies started young with this here one.

My abiding memory of a family holiday to Belgium in 1979 was losing a piece of a space scooter; it was one of the 'special' pieces and I was never able to replace it, so the space scooter could never be finished again. It taught me the value of loss and it's role in the creation of desire, like any good Lacanian could tell you.

The lesson was reinforced when I lost one of the tiny cogs that made that car's differential gears work properly. I think my parents might have hoovered it up, as they had a bad carpet for lego, patterned as it was in such a way as to make small pieces invisible. Everyone I have spoken to who had that car lost one of those cogs. There should be a support group for us.

Does Duplo still exist?

Legos were the thing that united all of my toys as a child; thanks to legos, I managed to incorporate GI Joes, Transformers, hot wheels, Gobots, micromachines, etc, etc into one gigantic massive all-inclusive toystravaganza. My parents still have never forgiven me for that particular mess.

My dad's Lego art.

but is there even any question about Lego being Classic? PLZ!!

http://www.cca.org/dave/images/draper-dave.jpg

i was just in montreal last week, where lego was building the "world's largest millipede"...it was pretty awesome.

I've been trying to build Mies' Barcelona Pavillion but I'm stymied by the lack of decent windows in the default brick set.

was looking for a picture of the new Biggest Lego Pirate Mast In The World
but found a bunch of other stuff as well so:

Lego Pirate Ship Mast Thing
http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/where.s-jack-sparrow%3F/arrrrgh-pirate-ship-mast-worlds-tallest-lego-tower-265480.php

Lego Difference Engine
http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/gadgets/lego-difference-engine-153485.php

Lego Knitting Mahcine
http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/robots/lego-knitting-machines-whats-next-the-matrix-148215.php

Lego Escher
http://www.andrewlipson.com/escher/ascending.html

I just seen this at Metafilter but it's too cool not to repost here:

OMG YOU GUYS LEGO ESCHER

er... 8)

lol...i totally didn't see yr post yesterday. i swear it wasn't there. i'm sure i searched the whole thread.

i had a big hangover, aight?

No. No it's not alright. Poor Koogs having his thunder stolen. Shocking.

WAHT IS IT MADE?

Giant Lego man found in Dutch sea

Payback for the Vikings.

Lego man in water - A Pictorial

NO REAL THAN YOU ARE

so is this another Cloverfield thing?

no real than you are
this phrase will haunt my dreams tonight

His name appears to be Ego Leonard -- here's his homepage.

Giant lego men are scary.

50 years of Lego today!!! Happy birthday little plastic dudes!

http://✧✧✧.mocpa✧✧✧.com/user_thumbnails/jmbar✧✧✧@ya✧✧✧.c✧✧/www.brickshelf.com_gallery_jmbarnas_legocake04_cake_pic3a.jpg_SPLASH.jpg

you've helped me through some tough times and got me laid on more than one occasion. happy birthday lego, you rulez!

got me laid on more than one occasion

Legofleshlight.jpg

lololololol

bricklayer.jpg

YAY LEGO! MAYBE SOMEDAY YOU, TOO WILL PREFORM FAVORS FOR ME!

http://gizmodo.com/assets/images/gizmodo/2008/06/deathstardiorama.jpg

I agree with all the sentiments contained in the picture above.

Minifigs:

http://gizmodo.com/assets/images/gizmodo/2008/06/10188-0000-xx-33-3.jpg

More here.

I can't believe it. Nobody choked on a real block after this became available yet? You'd expect hundreds to be dead by now.

http://www2.kelloggs.com/Product/ProductDetail.aspx?product=8213

I had these in America and tried (unsuccessfully) to build things out of them.

http://www2.kelloggs.com/Product/ProductDetail.aspx?product=5470

Belgian waffles don't contain 98% of the chemical crap listed here, how come anyone's still alive in the USA?

Ingredients
ENRICHED FLOUR (WHEAT FLOUR, NIACIN, REDUCED IRON, THIAMIN MONONITRATE [VITAMIN B1], RIBOFLAVIN [VITAMIN B2], FOLIC ACID), WATER, VEGETABLE OIL (SOYBEAN OIL, PALM OIL AND PALM KERNEL OIL WITH TBHQ AND CITRIC ACID FOR FRESHNESS), EGGS, LEAVENING (BAKING SODA, SODIUM ALUMINUM PHOSPHATE, MONOCALCIUM PHOSPHATE), CONTAINS TWO PERCENT OR LESS OF EGG WHITES, SUGAR, SALT, CALCIUM CARBONATE, WHEY, SOY LECITHIN, VITAMIN A PALMITATE, NIACINAMIDE, REDUCED IRON, YELLOW #5, PYRIDOXINE HYDROCHLORIDE (VITAMIN B6), THIAMIN HYDROCHLORIDE (VITAMIN B1), RIBOFLAVIN (VITAMIN B2), YELLOW #6, VITAMIN B12.

yeah, they were pretty gross.

reposting for otm
http://cache.gizmodo.com/assets/images/gizmodo/2008/06/deathstardiorama.jpg

http://img258.imageshack.us/img258/2875/legogalcy8.jpg

People are strange...

finally a grand moff tarkin minifig

LEGO secret vault contains all sets in history

I couldn't actually read that, the writing is so awful

And then it hit me. Lift off. Godspeed. Boom.

A wave of emotions took control, hitting my head like a Lego Airbus 380. Dozens of images started to appear in my head, Polaroids of Xmas and birthdays that I thought were faded, completely fresh, color-corrected, and restored by the damn Lucasfilm for a Blu-ray re-release.

seriously what the fuck

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/blogs/niemann/posts/2009/02/17beer.jpg

I LEGO N.Y.

http://brickarms.com/

Brickfest is going on in Portland this weekend

asked this on the spaceship thread and thought I'd try again:

OK, need help. I used to have a couple lego style toys. I don't think the blocks etc were compatible. They were major ships (naval and civilian) that were in a smaller scale than most lego things. A destroyer was 6 to 8 inches long and it came with a small helicopter. Anybody know the brand? It seemed almost fancier than lego. Any ideas?

― Spencer Chow, Friday, December 21, 2007 3:55 PM (1 year ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Also, the "studs" had a recess unlike lego. The ship models were only four studs wide. The bows of the ships were fully formed with a bow "cap" that would have the name of the ship.

Anyone??

figured it out! TENTE.

how are they quality-wise? I can't believe none of the knockoffs are able to get close to lego-quality. it's just plastic right?

The bricks need to be made to an accuracy of three thousands of an inch.

http://www.cooltoyreview.com/story/front/D23_Expo_LEGO_To_Produce_Disney_Sets_126435.asp

Disney-licensed lego are coming.

stolen from stevem

http://www.barnabygunning.com/index.php?type=show&p_ID=37&i_ID=427

life size lego house

wow! dismantled yesterday :-(

LEGO ROCK BAND is coming

with LEGO BOWIE and LEGO IGGY

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/5/5b/Lego-david-bowie.jpg

lolz @ eyes

http://img146.imageshack.us/img146/6238/legoiggypop05xlarge.jpg

I don't know what else to say other than we live in a world where you can purchase official sets based on Frank Lloyd Wright creations:

http://www.yatzer.com/assets/Image/2009/may/frank_Lloyd_Wright_lego/frank_Lloyd_Wright_and_lego_yatzer_4.jpg

I don't understand why the batman kits are all, like, 3 times more expensive than any other kits of equivalent size.

nerd market

I kind of like the idea of the plodding, boring, barely rewarding labour of putting together a Frank Lloyd Wright Lego. It seems like it would be relaxing and kind of keep me busy for a while. I could have the TV on in the background... Put a pot of coffee on... I wonder how much it costs and how long it would take me to build?

whilst the story's real, that picture is a rendering, probably box art. the real version wouldn't have those lines between the cream bricks (which spoils it for me)

http://www.yatzer.com/1710_frank_lloyd_wright%27s_lego_architecture_sets

http://architecture.lego.com/en-US/Products/architect/Default.aspx

(there's a landmark series too - space needle, empire state...)

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2522/3690179500_b7894ef1bd.jpg

I don't understand why the batman kits are all, like, 3 times more expensive than any other kits of equivalent size.

yeah the same to be said about the star wars stuff, ridiculously priced.

Seriously, "3 times more expensive" was a huge understatement:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/LEGO-City-7235-Police-Motorcycle/dp/B0007LXVOO/ref=sr_1_12?ie=UTF8&s=toys&qid=1258706307&sr=8-12

VS

http://www.amazon.co.uk/LEGO-Batman-Mini-Figure-The-Joker/dp/B000U8452Q/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=toys&qid=1258706285&sr=8-1

Just insane!

I've been on a lego kick lately, and some of the custom builds are pretty fun:

http://www.classic-pirates.com/contests/ptvii/parrots-perch-pub-black-rabbit.html

http://www.classic-pirates.com/wordpress/images/2009/11/PTVII-Black-Rabbit1.jpg

that's not really a valid comparison though. like comparing eggs with faberge eggs (ok, not like that at all). the batman stuff's a lot rarer.

i have a lot of the star wars lego and it was never that much more than similar sized sets. but then it was available everywhere.

It's fake rarity though, right? That stuff's all still in production, they just don't produce much of it. S'just frustrating when you've got a lego-loving, batman-loving four year old.

> they just don't produce much of it.

if this is true then they are idiots - all that extra markup is going into middlemen's pockets, not theirs. but it's Lego that people are getting pissed off at.

Em refused to let me buy the new mini Lego Millennium Falcon in Tesco last week, even though it was only, like, £15 or something. Cow.

Buy it for her as a present.

Lego is (the best toy ever BUT) kind of disappointing in that new sub-£20 Lego kits seem to be like 4 standard bricks and a giant clip-on all-in-one bit of plastic for the overall shape, and I just want to pretend I am 7 and in front of a giant bucket of a lifetime's accumulated Lego again with daydreams of infinite possibilities.

Was this always the way? I like to imagine that in the 80s you could buy e.g. space kits with hundreds of parts without needing to remortgage, but maybe parents had to haemorrage money to get me and my friends the vast Lego selections we all had.

I think there was definitely more middle ground between a cheap 4-piece set and giant top-of-range space station/galleon Christmas lust object, whatever the prices, though, and less resorting to "here is the all-in-one piece which resembles the picture on the box; now you may open the bag of two tiny headlights, one plain grey brick and one antenna to clip on".

(tempted to buy Mr Spacecadet that mini Falcon for Christmas but he is a cynical bugger re cash-ins and not particularly nostalgic for Star Wars despite 80s childhood, so I guess not ;_; )

by hundreds of parts I probably mean 30, which IS hundreds when you are 7, as proven by all the times I told my mother "whoa there are hundreds of ___!" and she would say "well why don't you count them" - she is a maths teacher, after all - and the answer was always about 30

this means I am nearly hundreds of years old and still talking about Lego

http://www.brickset.com/search/?subtheme=Classic&theme=Town

yeah most of the smaller sets are now just a few pieces of lego with a couple of specially made parts. The link above is a site with all the old cool stuff.

i've been into the technic stuff again lately, luckily that hasn't changed too much.

Great link! I was all set to go through and go "oh, I had that one and that one and..." but instead I am going "oh, huh, is that where that one brick with the stripes came from? could be, who knows...", since everything was dismantled after a day or two and thrown into the giant collection. I just feel sorry for the kids today, whose collections will be smaller and full of pretty useless half-a-triceratops mouldings

the mid-range star wars models were ok. not too many custom pieces (which is the price you pay for wanting it to look like an x-wing and not just generic, blocky spaceship, say*) and would take a good hour or two to put together. but then they all went Episode 1 and i lost interest.

i think it's always been expensive, because it's well made. plus it's essentially petrochemical and this was the 70s.

* case in point, a police car
http://www.1000steine.com/brickset/images/0644-1.jpg
must be a volvo...

There's a couple of other sites with all the old catalogues, going as far back as the 60's too. i'll dig it out tonight, last time i checked though it was down - it always seems to suffer bad bandwidth anyway.

http://www.peeron.com/scans/?tid=12

^has instruction scans and catalogue scans, as well as pieces lists for products

http://www.bricklink.com/browse.asp

apparently where most of the lego faithful do their trading. Much better pricing than ebay scams.

I want this shirt.

http://images-3.redbubble.net/img/clothing/bodycolor:navy/product:tshirt/size:large/style:mens/view:preview/534765-12-space-lego.jpg

http://www.google.com/products?q=lego+space+tshirt

hell yes

Buyin' a classic red one.

Holy crap, I never knew this existed:

http://www.brickset.com/detail/?Set=10123-1

http://www.1000steine.com/brickset/images/10123-1.jpg

yeah most of the smaller sets are now just a few pieces of lego with a couple of specially made parts.

^^^yep, and this is superlame. I will not be be buying these for my daughter. she gets the old school generic shit

my nephews have all my old stuff from the late 70's plus all kinda newfangled things to paste on top, best of both worlds really. they recently went to a convention with lots of custom molded pieces, the younger boy bought 20 beautiful lego dogs.

For those of you who remember playing Tie Fighter back in the day, they're finally putting out a lego Tie Defender:

http://www.brickset.com/detail/?set=8087-1

http://www.1000steine.com/brickset/images/8087-1.jpg

304 pieces, 2 lego dudes, $50 american

Contrasted with:

http://www.1000steine.com/brickset/images/6754-1.jpg

No dudes, almost 1,000 pieces, about $50-60

Neat how you can pretty much game any video game ship you want, tho. Some of them even come as sets:

http://www.1000steine.com/brickset/images/5981-1.jpg

$13 american

MAKE any video game ship, i should say

e.g. Your Vic Viper:

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3295/2966843423_770faee041.jpg

http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/1103/JARE/Others/bicycle_in_antarctic.jpg

I know this is echoed many times above, but I went shopping for presents for my wife's nephews the other night and we were looking at Legos. Fuck they are expensive. And so g-d specialized, like you can make one thing and one thing only out the sets. The days of huge buckets full of generic pieces are pretty much gone, no?

Lego's been losing serious money over the past decade. methinks they will learn their lesson given this common complaint.

No, they're still there, just in blue/pink plastic tubs

This looks pretty much like the bucket of bricks I received for Christmas as a kid.

Lego still make the buckets, but they're rarely sold in stores any more.

http://shop.lego.com/ByTheme/Leaf.aspx?cn=306&d=362

^^^ some of this stuff is surprisingly old school.

http://creative.lego.com/en-us/products/portal.aspx

haha oops x-post

I was more referring to the buckets that build up in each house over time when all the sets get mixed together, was just bemoaning the loss of the relatively generic sets of the past.

but yeah this problem is more with retailers than with Lego per se. Stupid chain stores just stock the latest product tie-ins, probably because they're owned by the same company making the movies or whatever.

you'd be amazed at what fun things you can come up with using only a few pieces of lego, but i know what you mean. and really should come down in price for the smaller kits.

technic stuff is still great though, been buying some of the larger sets recently. tho on some they've resorted to these horrible fake pneumatics rather than the actual thing - meaning you need a motor.

i now have thousands of technic parts, and i'm itching to make a huge transformer..

I'll admit though, as a Star Wars geek I think some of those sets are pretty damn cool.

just wait until Lucas reissues the sets with extra crap that looks terrible and doesn't work

i want to rep for mega bloks a little. they feel terrible to work with, but they are lego-compatible and are half the price. perfect for making pencil holders, computer cases, anything that uses up lots of bricks. also they are weird and french-canadian.

http://www.boingboing.net/2009/12/04/tiny-lego-guitars.html

http://craphound.com/images/4112046166_8c53e330a9_o.jpg

Also, an easy way to pick up a shitloada lego is thru Craigslist, thru deals or yard sales that have them offered.

that lego space tshirt is sickkkkkk

Lego superhero mega-crossovers:

http://ulisesfarinas.com/

http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/8/2009/12/500x_4123618901_9be7ac66a5_b.jpg

http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/8/2009/12/500x_4060453332_80613c7fca_b.jpg

My husband LOVES Lego. I'm more a Playmobil fan.

http://demandware.edgesuite.net/aabe_prd/on/demandware.static/Sites-BE-Site/Sites-Catalog/fr_BE/v1260260776170/imagesOnline/products/5301.jpg

DROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL

Bought my oldest kid a "marriage house". I wanted her to have some sort of house and that was available. SO that's what I got her. :-)

Ha, my sister had that house! Still has, actually.

I collected a bunch of the arctic expedition sets when I was young.

Millsner, what's her address? Must have been expensive! Crap, I'm off to check the prices. Very tempted. Of course Ophelia will only be able to look at mommy playing with it. hahaha

Pretty sure it's sitting in my parents' basement now, along with five or six other big Rubbermaid bins of Lego and Playmobil.

I'm actually itching to break out the stuff when I spend a month or two at home this winter.

freaky:

http://markl.hyperrealm.com/lego/6949-large.jpg

Ah yeah, the Magne-something space sets. I had a few of those, but never that one. Magnetron?

Space Police (the original black & blue series) were pretty cool with the interchangeable components and lights, but I guess Blacktron started those and deserves more credit.

When cross-licensing goes bad:

http://yfrog.com/1xtoyfj

http://img69.yfrog.com/img69/4407/toyf.jpg

Thanks.

Building the Echo Base on Hoth to scale. Why the fuck not? The lighting and the rec room are a nice touch.

I thought this was updated because of last night programme by James May where he built a full size lego house.

http://www.betleywhitehorne.com/bwlog/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/James-May-Lego-House-11.jpg

http://news.bbc.co.uk/media/images/46422000/jpg/_46422467_legobed_paraw.jpg

I started watching that, but May was such a tosser (particularly when the 2000 volunteers were building the bricks) that I switched it off.

the interior designer didn't seem to understand joints. wha?

the outside just looks fucking boring

"boring plastic square in Surrey" sums up May rather well.

my son just blurted out two days ago that santa was bringing him legos. I didn't even know he was aware of what they were. Purchased, then. Spoiled, he is. where are those toy story legos from? are they still on the market?

they're being released in 2010.

Or possibly this week.

Also, photos of the new licensed Prince of Persia sets are out. So, for those of you who always wanted your very own Lego gylennhall, now's your chance.

i quite like the look of that toy story lego. or did before realising the redundancy involved - toys based on toys.

My two year old is WAY into Lego Duplo. Great toys. I highly recommend the series for toddlers. It's user friendly enough that he doesn't get frustrated, but complex enough that he gets really engrossed. Awesome toys.

http://www.thecoolhunter.net/article/detail/1628/lego-kitchen
http://www.thecoolhunter.net/images/legokitchen.jpg

They have the new Toy Story sets at Toys R Us for the usual inflated prices. Fifteen bucks for four army dudes and a jeep, for example. They also have the new Atlantis sets, which look cool.

I was able to get a small but still overpriced tub of Duplo for my nephew, tho, so hopefully the infection will spread to him.

Does anyone have a copy of that big-ass Lego Book? The one that has two books one one slipcase?

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2489/3748917284_34c4acc77e.jpg

I like that they brought back the mine-sweeper/metal detector. That was one of my favorite bits of gear for my space guys way back when.

http://www.bricklink.com/SL/8061-1.jpg?2

'Gateway of the Squid'

Went with wife to buy Duplo as wobs prez for 2-year old nephew. He likes CARS. So after some deliberation we decided we had to "compromise" between his wishes and our oldskool lego purism and bought overdesigned Duplo car thing PLUS a box of about 100 generic Duplo blocks. Kids today eh?

I remember even as a kid I admired that Duplo was pretty much back-compatible with Proper Lego, on a four-to-one-knob basis. (Or two-to-one in one dimension obv! Hence the name Duplo! I only right now figured this out!)

see also SuziLego Quatro
http://cache.lego.com/2057/images/shop/BBMF/BBMF_Image4_331x270.gif

I didn't realize Duplo was compatible with regular Lego! I was thinking our Duplo stock would become obsolete in a few years.

Lego is indeed ridiculously priced, but that's true of any quality toy nowadays. At least Lego is not likely to break and will hold kid's interest forever (see ilx Lego dorks for proof of Lego as an everlasting source of pleasure).

I had a bag shaped like the duplo bunny when I was a little girl...I loved that thing so much. this thing...I'd forgotten about it until just now.

Anyone here old enough to remember handed-down lego from uncles etc from about the 50s/60s or something, which were crappy because only loose-fitting from above? Ie they didn't have the tight scaffolding inside on the belowside, just the outermost rectangle, so they fit on top of other things and vice versa, but came loose bcz not sufficiently precision engineered?

Lego memories pt 14: new at university, getting into discussion w/new classmates on random stuff, and bonding a bit with one on how great the small lego rubber tires felt to CHEW on whilst being an kid. Tactile+ memory, I can taste it as I write. Om nom etc.

totally chewed on the tires.

yeah, i even swallowed a few. good memories.

here are all the Toy Story sets so far.

and if you ever wanted your own jake gyllenhaal in plastic, here ya go:

http://www.accesshollywood.com/content/images/103/415x0/103635_a-lego-prince-dastan-and-jake-gyllenhaal-in-prince-of-persia-the-sands-of-time.jpg

looks just like him

My favorite Lego series was probably the Forestmen, although I have a lot of love for classic Space / Futuron

http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/lego/images/d/d5/Fmen1.jpg

The Toy Story lego figures are some kind of heathen bullshit imo.

any character that don't start from this essential template:
http://www.seanmichaelragan.com/img/LEGO_figure_4_heads_tall.jpg

(but in yellow, obv) don't qualify as lego.

in agreement. i think the lego ewoks break this crucial rule too.

i understand the purist position, but what can be done about ewoks? They ought to be smaller, right?

Also, they're adding multiple races to the Castles line, so you know how lego dwarves:

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2267/2236691612_101ea68ce2.jpg?v=0

but what can be done about ewoks?

let's not go there

If you guys haven't heard, they just demo'd the new Lego Universe MMO game at CES:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pPpm9H0wTzY

Actual gameplay vids are online, too: http://www.gametrailers.com/video/ces-10-lego-universe/60652

Comes out later this year, allegedly.

Also, posting this here b/c it was one of the greatest sets of all time:

http://markl.hyperrealm.com/lego/6950-large.jpg

Pretty damn sure I had that.

Could never decide which way the thing the yellow dude on the left is holding should face, or what it was; bazooka, or telescope-thing?

video camera?

That game does look pretty cool, but does everything have to get a "dark" reboot these days?

It's not a dark reboot; apparently those are the monsters you have to gang up & fight

have you heard of LDraw, the virtual lego? you can build models and get them raytraced. here's a flickr pool:
http://www.flickr.com/groups/ldraw/pool/

more raytraced lego
http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=lego%20povray&w=all&s=int

and here's a Virtual Fallingwater
http://www.flickr.com/photos/safepit/3788339025/

have they improved the interface yet? i remember it being horrific.

i have similar memories. haven't used it in years.

there appear to be other front-ends for it now
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LDraw

LeoCAD rings a bell but the three i looked at are all 'last updated 2005'. (actually, BrickSmith looks ok, but Mac only)

(the one lego biplane i rendered i did directly with povray, modelling all the pieces myself)

http://mostlybricks.com/2010/01/15/summary-of-lego-atlantis-the-movie/

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4029/4277507203_7468d429d5.jpg

One of the new sets this summer is Lego 8089 - Wampa Cave Attack

Box art mock-ups have leaked out:

http://5.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_kuniyghPNT1qziwdgo1_500.jpg

They already have lego tauntauns, so why not lego wampas?

some nice street and hospital(?) models here
http://www.flickr.com/photos/lgorlando/

rats, those are all MOCs, I thought it was going to be some new sets. Still, neat designs.

Jesus Christ: http://www.flickr.com/photos/40182896@N00/sets/72157607412386119/

lego starwars and steampunk, together at last

http://www.flickr.com/photos/28192677@N06/sets/72157605933386036/

Scored a huge storage tub on wednesday from some lady offa CL, filled about 1/2 full with lego and half with other toys. There's like 20lbs of stuff in here, all for $35. I'm _still_ sorting thru it.

Remember those little $2 minifigs that they're coming out with this summer?

They're already previewing round 2:

http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=38485

previews of other stuff this year:

http://krisabel.ctv.ca/post/A-Preview-Of-LEGOs-New-Sets-For-2010-From-Board-Games-To-Prince-Of-Persia.aspx

ha some of those duplo cars look great!

no great new technic releases it seems, and they're still persisting with that horrible fake mechanical pneumatic system.

http://universe.lego.com/en-us/beta/Default.aspx

Beta sign-up for the Lego Universe MMO is open. This could be entertaining.

Also:

http://hphotos-snc3.fbcdn.net/hs126.snc3/17376_296518096595_681036595_4041377_7291736_n.jpg

Another busy week, and Farmer John begins his Monday by mowing the keyboard. "It's gotten pretty thick lately," he thinks. He's thirsty now, perhaps he'll get an iced tea on his next pass.

in today's insane collection news, local dude is selling his 30-year collection for http://portland.craigslist.org/wsc/tag/1593649940.html5,000

Check the pictures, at least. He doesn't mention if the cat shown comes in the deal or not.

Odd formatting, that

Signed up for the beta so I hope I get in. This looks perfect for my first MMO experience.

i guess this needs some pretty decent graf card, which counts me out. let us know how you get on

I never get in on these things, but if I somehow do I'll share.

I'm signed up even tho my current gaming pc is offline.

Also, for those who wish Lego got more rural:

http://www.1000steine.com/brickset/images/7684-1.jpg

pigs!

finally, better photos:

http://www.1000steine.com/brickset/images/8089-1.jpg

not sure what this is

http://legoclick.com/

Some sorta Lego Twitter client?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ef70O0a3Yyo

i installed the all the virtual lego tools the other night and got it raytracing output, which looks great. haven't rendered anything interesting yet, just the usual demos. the main linux designer thing, leocad, is a usability nightmare though. and i had to read the source to find out that i'll save in different formats depending on which extension you give the output filename - it defaults to adding .lcd, its own binary format, and doesn't mention the other choices at all.

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4022/4347304920_67f4cd989d_m.jpg

So after grousing that new Lego kits don't contain very many universally useful bricks for making other stuff with, I see there's already a range of kits seemingly aimed at just that concern, the Creator series. Mostly trucks and helicopters and such from what I've seen, so not super flashy - I'd have been pleased with them as a kid, but I'd have preferred a space kit. They don't seem too expensive in the scheme of Lego pricing given that you get more bricks, though.

Be interested to see if they sell, or if my idea of what Lego should be like is totally removed from what the kids want. I suspect the latter, to be honest.

> but I'd have preferred a space kit.

i had one, and this was in the 70s so it was all chunky bricks and those quarter circular ones for the main rocket. will see if i can find it...

um, this looks right, but there's a lot about it that i don't remember (the astronauts, the lumpy baseplate)

http://guide.lugnet.com/set/920_2

(helps if i paste the link...)

Be interested to see if they sell, or if my idea of what Lego should be like is totally removed from what the kids want. I suspect the latter, to be honest.

It's more like "what do stores want to put on their shelves?" - a trad Lego set nets less profit for the store than a Star Wars set in the same sized box.

(xpost) That's definitely a 70's set. I didn't have one of those, but it was in the big diorama picture on the back of the instructions for another set, so I was able to piece together something similar. I don't think that the quarter circle pieces were used for a rocket until much later - by which time I'd grown out of Lego.

it was this one from '73 and did use the quarter circle (or HALF_PI) bricks. it's a 'building' and not 'space' apparently, i was looking in the wrong section.

http://guide.lugnet.com/set/358

those bright yellow circular 1x1s were so shocking at the time 8)

Dammit. I'm supposed to get two used sets offa guy on CL but he hasn't contacted me back since Tuesday.

I do have his number, however...

Clicking around thru some of the Harry Potter sets, I found out that they included a minifig for Jon Pertwee in the 'Chamber of Secrets' set:

http://www.bricklink.com/ml/hp029.jpg

http://toyfair2010.figures.com/showgallery.php/cat/534

Lego 2010 stuff from Toy Fair. Lotsa new stuff, including all the new Harry Potter sets coming out

Oh wow thanks koogs for finding that (I tried looking around myself once, but couldn't find it) -- I really loved the 358! :-D

I've actually forgotten all about the vehicle and the antennas, to little me it was all about 1) the white/black pattern of the rocket quarter-circles; 2) the red/white pole on the house with LAMP on top; and of course 3) memorizing where the first level of blue bricks should be on the base for the thing to match up properly...

The TV style antennas later appeared on this bad boy - possibly their last use?
http://guide.lugnet.com/set/493_1
I remember that they weren't made out of the same solid plastic as the other aerials. They didn't have as much grip and kept falling off, so I removed them. In fact they were so bendy that after a couple of years knocking around inside the Lego box they were really mashed out of shape.
And that big dish may look cool, but can you move it without part of it falling off? No.

those ariels look very much like standard (english) tv aerials and i think i had a bunch in house sets. but that may've been before '78.

have been playing with leocad recently, getting to grips with the brick library. nice to see where the panel with the picture of an astronaut comes from. and that the build instructions are available.

second attempt at building something. couldn't line up the wings or the canopy (but the file format is ascii-based and simple enough so i'll see if i can fix it up in post). it also needed two pieces not in the parts library.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2759/4354873690_3d5673523b_m.jpg

Not my photo, but I saw some of the new Toy Story Lego earlier and it looked awesome.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2535/3748189903_0e2f52cb94.jpg

You can get the remote control car from the film and it really works.

They're coming out with a revamped Slave 1, but it'll will have 4 minifigs and probably be around a hunnerd bucks.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQ3nN09yczY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q7P7GfKFw90

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eaRcWB3jwMo

that last run for the cubestormer is a bit bogus, you can tell just by looking at the initial state that it's only a few moves from completion so it's no wonder that it only takes 4 seconds. it also looks inefficient, with lots of re-orientations of the entire cube. actual mechanics are impressive though.

Full-length Lego commercial is coming out next week on DVD.

Has some awesome designed bits in it, tho. I really like this sausage stand:

http://www.legoclutchpowers.com/images/gallery/img6.jpg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7sLZP7h9gs0

http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/mullsports/zombies/rescene2.jpg

(renders i did on ldraw some many years ago)

http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/mullsports/zombies/rescene3.jpg

http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/mullsports/zombies/rescene6.jpg

http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/mullsports/robotwars/arena.jpg

http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/mullsports/zombies/rescene7.jpg

HA. awesome.

am kinda shocked at the low polygon count in the heads of those minifigs. other round items look fine so why the flat shading on the heads?

i'm not sure, think it might have been an old model part i used. it was a really old version of ldraw that was really un user friendly and a lot of models were broken

someone just posted a pic of the space set, and a couple of others of the same vintage, in the lego flickr group
http://www.flickr.com/photos/22193256@N04/4369140612

oh, i had that helicopter. and that shell garage. the 70s were so boxy.

http://i.imgur.com/6coPa.jpg

Also, apparently the Daily Mirror is setting up another free Lego kit giveaway, so maybe we need to set up some sorta exchange program with those of us in NA...

LOL at that strip

glad to see that PBF has inspired good comics

http://www.flickr.com/photos/29844928@N07/sets/72157623336807855/

(I know the mention of "steampunk" in the description will make ILXors itchy, but hey, I thought these were pretty neat)

I keep forgetting there are blogs covering other flavors of Lego:

http://www.classic-town.net/?p=5535

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2735/4373620486_532702378d.jpg

oh i like that

Brickston! 8)

have been hacking leocad to, amongst other things, fix the colours and make the text boxes big enough for the text. there are whole chunks of functionality missing in the linux version. (apparently it works ok under wine)

have been having trouble with missing pieces - things that are available to leocad but not available to ldview. i keep getting holes when rendering pieces. think it's sorted but still can't find the 6 spoked wheels that, say 6743 uses.

Just found this. Neat little 30 min docu on lego fans. Worth your time.

http://vimeo.com/9581676

AFOL: A Blocumentary

Passion combines with creativity in this documentary that features a selection of AFOLs (Adult Fans Of LEGO) from the Pacific NorthWest.

Directed by Jess Gibson

See, this is one of the things that I like, and that i've tried myself:

http://www.classic-town.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/programming.jpg

I like how you can recreate both the quotidian and the fantastic from day-to-day life into minifig scale

After looking around for a while, I finally have a classic blue space dude again. This time, with a couple upgrades.

http://img341.imageshack.us/img341/9654/blueclassicspace.jpg

Hooray for finally winning one of the Shopgoodwill.com auctions.

http://photos-g.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash1/hs473.ash1/25931_333515791595_681036595_4166522_4852536_n.jpg

Last night's creation: a Lego sofa, seen being enjoyed here by Spiderman and Lieutenant Chumsley

beware: the natives have evolved:

http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/Hippotam/Evolution-Revolution/01.jpg

http://mashable.com/2010/03/02/geeky-lego-creations/

10 Incredible Geeky LEGO Creations [PICS]

#7 Young Woz and Jobs Playset

PodBrix’s Apple-themed scene is set back in ‘72 and shows the two young Steves in minifig form – Steve J already dreaming of the iPhone and Woz, wrench in hand fiddling with a circuit board.

http://cdn.mashable.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/woz.jpg

lol calender

100 (small) models in 100 days

http://digyourfins.wordpress.com/

part of the 100 days project that people are doing (today is day 97)

http://en.wordpress.com/tag/one-hundred-days-to-make-me-a-better-person/

germans are fucking weird, part 234:

http://gizmodo.com/5490536/girl-recognizes-lego-star-wars-minifigs-by-sucking-on-them

http://www.toysrus.com/family/index.jsp?categoryId=3927121

Prince of Persia sets are available.

Also, the Daily/Sunday Mirror is having their free Lego promotion again, this time with Racers sets.

http://www.kimag.es/share/3782055.jpg

http://shop.lego.com/ByTheme/Leaf.aspx?cn=632&d=70

prince of persia sets finally available

which i already posted about. Of course. Hmm.

man, some awesome stuff. wish they had this out when i was still buying a lot of LEGO

so expensive though

http://www.flickr.com/photos/repoort/4521391058/sizes/o/in/pool-44124304756@N01/

someone flickred a spreadsheet he'd put together of recent sets along with their price per piece calculations. (am guessing us dollars given the bloke lives in sacremento). all the cheap sets have a low value, the best value being the $250 (sale price!) taj mahal model with its 5900 pieces (4c a piece, average seems to be about 12c)

http://minifigures.lego.com/en-US/Default.aspx

New site for the custom minifigs is live. The fun bit? They wrote bios for each dude:

http://cache.lego.com/upload/contentTemplating/MinifiguresBios/images/picD26539A58BF06D64DFCF57B1E26E051A.jpg http://cache.lego.com/upload/contentTemplating/MinifiguresBios/images/picEAB701EBF72D9F4D62D84E59EE1C079C.jpg http://cache.lego.com/upload/contentTemplating/MinifiguresBios/images/pic11F9C2AE0B5949358B817C2861E0EECD.jpg

Where in manhattan can I buy some Lego?

there's a big fao schwartz on 59th. this is probably the NYC equivalent of hamleys though.

and apparently there's a big Toys R Us in times square.

NYC has Targets, don't they? Hit up a Target, and you won't have to pay TRU's inflated prices.

and you might want to avoid times square...

I left my hire car there; anyone seen it?

We popped in FAO Schwarz yesterday lunchtime; surprisingly little Lego compared to the amount of massive $1000 cuddly polar bears. Saw a Falling Water Lego set in Barnes & Noble but $90 was a bit much.

Pre-order for Lego Universe is active. $40 american and you get a free little orange astronaut minifig

http://gizmodo.com/5541702/lego-arcade-machine-overloads-my-nerd-senses

the new 2nd series of custom minifigs is coming:

http://toysnbricks.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=722

http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/grogall/Minifigur-Collection/8684_b3.jpg

Lego Harry Potter is out.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-MgmSjXgoII

Not as amusingly Cockney as one would like, but there you go.

Odd how Lego is a countable noun in American English and uncountable in British English.

http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=44459

The 2nd line of Collectable minifigs is starting to show up in stores:

I want this guy, and will give him the two pistolas from the cowboy so he can be a proper bandito:

http://public.bay.livefilestore.com/y1pFPywHYdRrgQmW1HDwg5Tu-gqcg349CNeUfPZFkYm22G13voRHxvMJN7R218pPVgNie5WvjtMOk20nGco1_yKvw/Mexico.JPG

last week i found three places still selling series 1 minifigs, weeks after i thought they'd all gone.

This is available in American stores this week:

http://www.brickset.com/detail/?Set=8089-1

http://www.1000steine.com/brickset/images/8089-1.jpg

forty bucks

Lego series 3 is coming this January!

http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc4/hs718.snc4/63876_434585446595_681036595_5788610_7530548_n.jpg

Huh, I've still been buying series 1 from the local Tesco whenever I go in there and I might have had a few drinks (ahem). Haven't seen 2 in any shops.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/blue-moose/5041398151

st pancras station. was there only yesterday.

local whsmith now has series 2. they aren't as good.

http://lh5.ggpht.com/_hVOW2U7K4-M/TK-XivbL-LI/AAAAAAABXcU/60WvoRNEGuU/s800/tyjjyjy.jpg

http://mikedoylesnap.blogspot.com/2010/09/making-of.html

London Bridge
http://shop.lego.com/product/?p=10214&icmp=SHHomeT1_10214
£205. limit 5 per customer...

New lego minifig series is out, and somebody already cracked the code to figure out which one is which:

http://www.fbtb.net/2010/11/18/series-3-blind-pack-code-cracked/

I want the fisherman:

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4144/5189765329_fb4113d6a0_z.jpg

http://www.blameitonthevoices.com/2010/10/lego-doing-it-wrong-ads.html

want!
http://cache.lego.com/images/shop/prod/3844-0000-xx-12-1.jpg

http://www.brothers-brick.com/2010/12/06/collectible-minifigs-series-4-have-been-announced-news/

LEGO FLYING V GUITARS

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5004/5237923283_1117ba817c_b.jpg

oh man

I saw a different picture of these, and thought the werewolf was meant to be James Brown

what, this one?

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5126/5238519236_af4c8ff542_b.jpg

home for christmas, lego down from the attic, putting it together using instruction booklet scans from peeron. mostly 1972 vintage sets where all the cars look like volvos:

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5125/5292627863_1a5c0696ed.jpg

lol i have virtually the exact same car model built at the moment, slightly different colours

Ha. I picked up a couple of the minifigs for Xmas, and turns out my mom found most of a battledroid tank set at a garage sale for $5 for me this summer.

http://shop.lego.com/Product/?p=10193

O_O

so cool

http://www.fbtb.net/2011/02/09/new-lego-star-wars-advent-calendar/

http://idlehands1.blogspot.com/2011/02/pre-toy-fair-2011-lego-pirates-of.html

previews of upcoming Pirates fun

o man! cool!

surprised to see series 4 in the supermarket this morning. and they are actually better than the last set

gnome, geisha, bucaneer, punk, frankenstein monster, ice hockey player, viking, footballer, artist, jane torvill!, mad scientist and, rather presciently, a worried looking bloke in a radiation suit.

Hup, I'd better get on and find the last few from #3 that we want then.

(We have way too many of these for a couple of grown adults. Suggestions on displaying them? They just stand around and get knocked down the back of the desk every time we reach for the phone at the moment. Should probably just get a big-assed piece of flat lego and stick them all on.)

(i've been buying them and giving the ones i don't like (and some i do) and duplicates to friends' kids)

what are you missing from series 3?

Well, we're probably missing most of them, but the other half would quite like an alien, and I'd quite like a fisherman.

There are still plenty we don't have and (last seen) plenty left in the Toys R Us I go past every day, it's just we have an unfortunate tendency to end up with repeats of the zombie. Should look into those dot patterns I'm told you can "cheat" with. Or just buy a bunch, since I'm at least vaguely interested in most of the ones we don't have.

the new ones, i noticed, have a number crimped into the bottom seal as well as the dots. 550B was the sailor...

i have both those btw, but only one of each. my bete noir was the crash test dummy.

yeah. skateboarder (looks like bob burnquist!) and the nuclear accident guy.

oh wow i only just noticed that snow house up thread, awesome

Tell me more about these dots and code numbers? We just got our third Ice Hockey player, I'm ready to start cheating.

(oh, free kits with The Sun/NOTW starts tomorrow)

Ah, found 'em.

http://cf.minifigcollector.com/images/bumpcodes-series4-mini.png

Usually feeling them out will help. There's always one distinctive bit, even in those that lack it.

i can't correlate those bump codes with the two packets i have here. are they american ones? i know the american barcodes were different but that may've been due to them using a different barcode standard.

> We just got our third Ice Hockey player,

glass half empty thinking there. you've nearly got a whole team!

811 virtual pieces later

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5075/5905774551_c82ec79fda.jpg
(Virtual) Lego Falling Water (21005)

Free lego in The Sun again every day this week (starting today, but I only just found out about it, bah).

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/free-lego-toys-offer-is-back-2011-10-06

lego shop on thursday had the new volkswagen camper van (10220), which looks nice. and the enormo super star destroyer (10221) in the window.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BFjREmhAAOQ

series 7 in the shops today.

female swimmer, inca?, rabbit, bride, Poseidon, scotsman, skydiver, future soldier, tennis, tarzan, hippy, computer spod, valkyrie, black knight, rock chick, female hobbit?

(noticed today, might've been there for a while)

Never got the Roman soldier from the last run. Got everything else so quickly I got bored of looking.

Waiting for the Monster Fighter sets

i just seemed to get female astronauts and aliens in the last lot. and a minotaur with only one horn 8(

future soldier looks a lot like a reaction to the halo minifigs that you can also find places.

Yeah, he's full-on space marine. Combine some of him with lady astronauts and you'll have a full platoon of mixed-gender squaddies.

You get one of those Halo minifig baggies? They're some chintzy-ass construction

no. did pick up a couple of the playmobil packs for a friend's kids. they are same price despite containing about twice the plastic (and are split between male and female, ninjas in the one, princesses in the other) (ok, not that simple, the female ones contain vampires and lara croft etc)

https://fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-prn1/531442_10150656316256596_681036595_9913572_620379943_n.jpg

finally got some today, incl a Roman Soldier(thus completing my Series 6)

oh dude that soldier is cool

he's the rare(st?) one from that run

Wow, they wrote bios for every one:

http://minifigures.lego.com/en-us/Bios/Default.aspx

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g5Lgcen-PGI

lego GAMEBOY transformer. including cute lego Duracell batteries!

http://www.geekologie.com/2012/03/impressive-lego-game-boy-transformer-plu.php

(and check out the abandoned victorian house further down, I had to look closer at the tree. wow)

http://www.thisiscolossal.com/2012/05/british-birds-made-of-lego/

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10151171726438403.449607.6665038402&type=1

https://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/480048_10151171729263403_485158458_n.jpg

Lego Hobbit sets are out, meaning that for the first time ever, you can have Sylvester McCoy in Lego form(eventually)

what the eff

http://theloneranger.lego.com/

http://brick.jamescook.nu/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/lego_disney_the_lone_ranger_2013.jpg

http://brick.jamescook.nu/?p=2038

LEGO The Lone Ranger 79106 – Cavalry Builder Set
LEGO The Lone Ranger 79107 – Comanche Camp
LEGO The Lone Ranger 79108 – Stagecoach Escape
LEGO The Lone Ranger 79109 – Colby City Showdown
LEGO The Lone Ranger 79110 – Silver Mine Shootout
LEGO The Lone Ranger 79111 – Constitution Train Chase

Yeah that's pretty surreal, can't honestly imagine anyone giving a shit.

This though: http://m.io9.com/5966902/serenity-lego-set-is-now-a-reality

I kind of think the opposite - it'd be a stick-on for a video game, and the actual lego falls back out of that.

https://fbcdn-sphotos-c-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/945122_10151409736334013_454273758_n.png

(tonearms are wrong, i guess the picture has been flipped)

series 10 of the minifigs are out btw.

is this the thread where we anticipate the lego movie y/n

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lPnY2NjSjrg

Sure, why not.

I like the deliberate stop-motion look to the animation.

Free mini kits in the fucking Daily Mail every day this week starting today. If you can bring yourself to do that.

That actually doesn't look too bad. I'm surprised.

lego ent!

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8543/8683938080_8c1e73ae0b_n.jpg

part of enormo tower of orthanc set

http://shop.lego.com/en-GB/The-Tower-of-Orthanc-10237

http://shop.lego.com/en-US/The-DeLorean-time-machine-21103

http://cdn-static.cnet.co.uk/i/c/blg/cat/mobiles/lego-delorean-jul13-m.jpg

http://architecture.lego.com/en-us/architecture-studio/architectural-studio-product-info/

http://marvelsuperheroes.lego.com/en-us/videogame/default.aspx

Demo for the new Lego Marvel Superheroes game is out.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b03vkt8l

Culture Show: Lego - The Building Block of Architecture

The Lego Movie (released 14 February) is the latest big-budget incarnation of one of the world's most popular toys. Yet Lego is more than a global brand. Tom Dyckhoff explores its fascinating relationship with architecture, and argues that it has changed the way we think about buildings.

(tonight at 22:00 bbc2)

They're coming out with an Arctic line. Now you too can re-enact John Carpenter's The Thing only with minifigs.

https://scontent-b-sea.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-prn2/t1/1798362_10151906095196596_308755562_n.jpg

Lego huskies and polar bear look cool, tho.

That prog was ok, apart from Alain de whatever talking about how most toys are about destruction. No they are not.

Anyone watching the awful looking movie?

most toys are about abstraction

Anyone watching the awful looking movie?

actually, yeah, and we quite enjoyed it

THE LEGO MOVIE

FYI: the Lego Marvel Superheroes game is $10 downloadable on Amazon right now. GET THIS.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00FZ03PYS?pf_rd_p=1731075902

http://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/s--kdkmcSJQ--/t_ku-xlarge2/xufxnl5k4hlemi9fenio.jpg

They upped the price on minifigs; now $4 per, for this series at least.

the lego movie minifigs were £2.50, up from £2 (olympics were £2.50 also). i didn't bother with either. might pick up these though.

We never got the Olympics ones over here. The movie figs stayed the same price.

actually, thinking about it, they were Team GB minifigs.

http://lego.wikia.com/wiki/8909_Team_GB_Minifigures

http://ideas.lego.com/projects/50814

https://dp1eoqdp1qht7.cloudfront.net/community/migrated/47b/826/437646/image

https://fbcdn-sphotos-a-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xfa1/v/t1.0-9/10702030_10152685556093069_3869330207700998298_n.jpg?oh=d7aee80f686fe88232454b56a1b22844&oe=548D512E&__gda__=1422771139_5ad0c9427584057b367b73fcb7ef784b

http://c4.staticflickr.com/4/3875/15002143780_30d39bf857_b.jpg

Duder, if you get the chance, pick up the new Lego Batman game.

I am on a big Lego tip at the moment.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/13803131@N00/sets/72157651384781745/

The local Lego convention happened today, so I took the good camera and snapped photos

https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8655/16640472108_ffbecded87_s.jpg

https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8752/16620729297_0199af900e_s.jpg

https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8600/16208115623_c97d2c3294_s.jpg

oops:

https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8655/16640472108_ffbecded87_b.jpg

https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8752/16620729297_0199af900e_b.jpg

https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8600/16208115623_c97d2c3294_b.jpg

And for some reason, there was a dude there in a full Steadicam rig filming it all:

https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7612/16826828842_1a07ebec34_b.jpg

Lol at M.A.S.K. vs Galactus

http://www.exquisitetweets.com/tweets?eids=SOlZp2L8I8.SOl4CsO6YC.SOmhNAiuES.SOmlJ2T2Gq.SOmpjeGn1w.SOmwta15gX.SOmB4207kO.SOmJPgkOFU.SOmOl1j08a.SOmW0jPTRA.SOm72fKFfE.SOncwNl2SP.SOnlkgH05k.SOntnuAhGw.SOqg0uZR8K.SOqkXGJtbU.SOqrXBJruS

make them only visible from one angle

I'm imagining people building stuff so that it appears like Jareth's face in Labyrinth.
http://labyrinthfilm.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/labyrinth-jareth-stone-face-2.jpg

"WE GOT ONE!"

http://shop.lego.com/en-US/Firehouse-Headquarters-75827

Bought myself the Lego Millennium Falcon over Xmas. It is perhaps the best thing I own. I have ordered some more specific parts from the Lego website to make it EVEN BETTER.

Coming in May:

http://www.bricktoynews.com/lego-disney-minifigures-series-1-figures-hi-res-photos/

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CeuH_XhWAAAiHKt.jpg

Interesting design contrast with the human characters' eyes. Minifig black dots vs Disney large pupil.

I think maybe yoda/jarjar were the ones that started this, but custom moulded heads for minifigs feel like a big design failure to me. At that point you're just making generic little action figures, it's only the claw hands that make them look anything like lego, and so selling them as minifigs starts to feel like a con.

(Actually I guess it was probably fabuland's fault, way before lego star wars was a thing).

I wish Fabuland was still a thing, my daughter would love it

I loved Fabuland.

Me too! I loved Fabuland and then I loved the space sets and the knights and pirates and basically anything Lego and now I am one of those sad adults that still owns Lego.

So whenever people say that Lego Friends is bad because it's pink and girls like it, well... those Fabuland animals were a pretty great gateway drug, and who am I to deny the new generation that?

I've got such a strong tactile memory of the smoothness of the inside of the ear of my fabuland mouse.

I was one of the people who moaned about the introduction of Lego Friends because LEGO IS GENDER NEUTRAL ANYWAY GODDAMNIT but I read the other day that TLG say pre-friends, the lego customer base was 90% male, since friends it's switched to 70/30. So...shrug.

But my guess is that the different types of Lego have more a clearly defined gender split. Ninjago, Bionicals & Nexo Knights are clearly for boys and certainly my son and his pals all connect with the elements of those sets that are traditionally signifiers of boy toys - the weapons, baroque fighting details, booby traps, havoc-wreaking robot dragons and that kind of thing. Much more so than the old pirate sets, Lego City etc, which were essentially gender neutral.

Molded heads on minifigs work for me when the characters aren't humanoid

The minifig series from last autumn was great, it was all Halloween monsters:

http://triangularroom.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/MinifigureSeries14.jpg

http://on.io9.com/BEicw9E

Lego Beatles, anyone?

My daughter has been watching LEGO Elves webisodes on loop while recovering from a bad cough. The merchandising is strong, but the theme song is really catchy.

Oh man, we went to the mall today and had a total meltdown in the Elves section of the Lego store. She wanted the $79 super dragon castle or whatever and that just wasn't on the itinerary. Negotiations went south pretty quickly. Next time if she's good it's hers, though, because it looks awesome tbf.

This is a pretty good article http://nymag.com/scienceofus/2016/12/lego-is-the-perfect-toy.html

but most importantly:

Lego argues that the instructions serve as a way to teach children how the toys work. “If we gave you a piano, there’d be very few people who could immediately play something that is, like, fantastic and creative,” said Lego press officer Rude Roar Trangbaek. “You need to learn the notes to play the piano.”

also my kid was totally crushing following the instructions in an ages 6-12 set all by herself this weekend. I'm out of yet another dad job! I'm basically here to help open bags and offer occasional course corrections.

I am excited about this upcoming city modular set, looks amazing:

https://shop.lego.com/en-US/Assembly-Square-10255

I swear, Lego is the only actual toy my kids will even play with anymore. Though I am intrigued by snap circuits.

Apparently 99c stores in the US are selling off tons of Lego Dimensions inventory, people are picking up complete year one collections etc. Kinda frustrating given that here in the UK you're doing well to find anything sub £7 but still, those of you who can should have a look. And if anyone feels like grabbing a load for me and shipping them over, even better!

oh god

https://arstechnica.com/science/2017/04/the-lego-has-landed-new-set-allows-you-to-build-the-moon-rocket/

Works for me!

https://brickset.com/article/45035/collectable-minifigures-series-19-revealed!

https://www.the-modernist.org/shop/trellick-tower-lego-instructions-digital-download

How plausible/expensive do you reckon it would be to order the pieces for this?

white pieces (the most common brick color) should be pretty cheap and easy to obtain on the secondhand lego market. the instructions probably have an inventory which you could use to make an order on bricklink.

Thanks f.hazel.

also, your first stop should be Lego's pick a brick site, might be able to get everything you need from them directly:

https://www.lego.com/en-us/page/static/pick-a-brick

I can't see how they've done the hidden bit holding the vertical tile part but I calculated all the other bits I could see using pick-a-brick and got just under a tenner (£)

https://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem.page?P=87087&name=Brick,%20Modified%201%20x%201%20with%20Stud%20on%201%20Side&category=%5BBrick,%20Modified%5D#T=C

one of these probably (or 4 given 2 ends of two long tiles).

i might try knocking this up in leocad.

good idea, might have to try that myself. Had a quick go at it in Brick Rigs but only issue with that is it removes all the sight of all the connecting edge gaps and for me that takes away the charm of builds.

Oh, thanks Ste. I was kind of being a tight-wad in not just downloading the instructions and calculating the cost ... but "about a tenner" sounds do-able.

Here's a parts list that should work (unless there's more detail on the back side of the building not visible):
16 1x1 plate
8x 1x2 plate
1x 1x3 plate
6x 2x2 plate corner (part #2420)
6x 2x4 plate
6x 2x6 plate
1x 4x10 plate
7x 1x1 brick
1x 1x1 brick w/headlight
4x 1x1 brick w/1 knob
4x 1x1 flat tile
11x 1x2 flat tile
44x 1x2 radiator grille
5x 1x4 flat tile
1x 1x6 flat tile
2x 1x8 flat tile

that right hand side is a bit raggety, looks like there are floating bricks. this is what i have, the rest i'm going to have to guess.

http://www.koogy.clara.co.uk/trellick.png

for the 2x2 square at the end on the right-hand side I did the following to avoid floating pieces:

top-down view of the 2x2 area, layers 1 to 3 from bottom to top:

layer 1: 1 = 1x2 grille piece, 2 = 1x1 plate, 3 = 1x1 brick with knob
|1|2|
|1|3|
layer 2: 1 = 2x2x1 plate corner (right-angle piece), 3 = already placed 1x1 brick with knob
|1|1|
|1|3|
layer 3: 1 = 1x2 grille piece, 2 = 1x1 plate, 3 = 1x1 brick with knob
|1|2|
|1|3|

i just don't understand why he has runs of 5 edges all lined up like that. given that the gap is 5 plates high he could have a brick taking up 3 of those and then have a 2x6 all the way over.

maybe it's a pieces thing. i'm guessing this was done with the architectural lego box in mind and i don't know the the distribution in those boxes (although they were huge and expensive so you've think they'd run to more than five 2x6 plates)

(twelve)

https://brickset.com/sets/21050-1/Architecture-Studio

oh. the studs-on-sides collide with the nipples inside the vertical tiles, which complicates things a bit and might explain things - the brick is in the middle of the 5 plate gap with a tile 1x2 above and below it

yeah to place four of the stud-on-sides pieces to provide a good anchor for those two side-mounted flat pieces you need to stagger the vertical pattern a little

like this?

https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-VLXgDqKqRCw/XwTv4TvoVfI/AAAAAAAAA18/oV_a5fichkU_fa9lovJpK3iYPfRU6bp4ACLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/2020-07-07.png

oh i forgot about the structure on the left, doh

lol i got too focused on how to avoid that floating grid piece

Ok so I forked out the £2, seems only one side has that vertical tile structure - which I didn't figure on at all. Makes things a lot easier.

(although looking at the top, I really should have got that)

I shouldn't try lego before bed

Wow. I think this is the most engaged anyone has ever been with a question I've asked on ILE/ILM!

I also stumped up the £2 and ordered most of the pieces for around £9.50 - there were a few pieces that didn't appear on the Lego website but its a present for someone with a child who has Lego so I am hoping that they have some pieces they can improvise with.

Again, thanks.

Cool, and somehow I got the price right even though I couldn't even build the flaming thing myself!

At least I know what I'll be attempting to build in Minecraft this weekend.

you may think I'm getting too obsessed with this cool building, I'll only start worrying if I attempt to build the thing out of my mashed potatoes and garden fencing.

here's how I did it:

http://fac123.net/pix/trellick_design.gif

Yep.

I used a 2x2 corner tile around the base of the laundry tower, rather than a 1x2 and a 1x1. Saved me about 10p. 8)

Where's good in the UK for buying Lego?

Wanted to buy this as a present but Lego aren't shipping to the UK at the moment, and it is double everywhere I have looked so far.

https://www.lego.com/en-gb/product/batman-40386

i'd offer to pop to westfield's lego shop for you and have a look (given it's about 10 minutes away) but i guess they're non-essential and closed.

Ha!

Yes, non-essential in the scheme of things.

🔊💩🔊 pic.twitter.com/OBrrzIezku

— Louie Mantia, Jr. (@Mantia) October 16, 2022

Neat camera idea: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=olgAcvamS80

very nice! not cheap I guess