Lego: C/D, S&D

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)