Fifth place
Title:
Attack of the Second Amendment
Author:
Zach Macias

Fourth place
Title
The Archeologists
Author
Dobromil Nosek

Third place
Title:
The Creators
Author:
Jumpei Mitsui
Prize: A special set designed by Lego owner Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen.

Second place
Title:
Weltraffer
Authors:
Christian Denkhaus
Hendrik Denkhaus
Kilian Helmbrecht
Lukas Helmbrecht
Prize: Lego Yellow Castle

Winner
Title:
Train to Catch
Author:
David Boddy
Grand Prize: Lego Galaxy Explorer

Congratulations to the winner and the rest of the top five entries.

Special thanks to Julie Stern, the Lego company, and the judges—Lego movie directors Nathan Wells, David Pagano, Nate Burr, and Lego's director of Marketing Communications Keith Malone.

And to all who participated, thank you very much. The creativity and time you put into this was amazing. Stay tuned for another post with the rest of the entries, 33—and the five runner ups, who also get prizes. [All the posts related to the contest]

Videos

• Exclusive Video: How Lego Builds the Minifigs.
• Minifigs can also time your chicken pies.
• Instead of doing a Lego minifig of yourself, buy a $60,000 natural-sized replica.
• The secret imperial Lego Stormtroopers clone-making factory.
• Lego employees use custom Lego minifigs as business cards, as that's why we hate them.

Galleries and images

• Exclusive: The Lego Minifig Timeline.

• Why are minifigs yellow? Why there are no blonde minfigs? All you ever wanted to know about them is in our Lego Megaguide. And yes, that's me "minifiged" in the image.

• Steve Jobs minifig commanding a real Mac Pro Lego clone.

• He can also deliver Lego MacWorld keynotes.

• If you ever wanted to see how 35,310 Lego Clone Troopers look like together, click here.

• Lego is not limited to Star Wars: check this custom Cylon minifig with LED eye.

• Iron Man got the LED too for his arc reactor.

• Of course, the Lego clonetroopers also got the LED treatment.

• The Anatomy of a Lego Minifig: How a minifig really looks inside.

• Baseball to break minifig legs.

• Imperial Stormtrooper minifigs participate in the Beijing Olympics.

• The Beijing Olympics in minifig scale.

• 80,000-brick Lego Ferrari requires giant Schumacher minifig.

• Somebody once loved me even when I was a minifig obsessed noodle, and I still love her more than all the Lego bricks and minifigs in the world.

• Army of Lego transvestites celebrate the minifig anniversary.

• Lego men minifigs also go to the beach and wear thongs, to the horror of other minifigs.

• Lego minifig skull can hide your secrets.

• Lego minfigs can also be armed and go to war thanks to custom weapons

• In Lego land, there are also iPod ads with black silhouettes of minifigs dancing against primary colors.

[Lego Minifig Contest Rules]

We have worked with Lego to painstakingly collect and catalog almost every minifig ever produced into a photographic timeline. You will be able to see the evolution of the iconic figure, from the very first sets in the 70s that you saw in our exclusive tour of the secret historic Lego vault to the latest and greatest ones in 2008. Sensory overload ahead.

1978
Introduction of the first minifigs as part of the Town, Space and Castle sets. They are all plain. The first female minifig is introduced two months after the first male minifigs.

1989
First changes in faces introduced with the Lego Pirates. They maintain the basic expression but add extra features, like eye patches and beards.

1990
The first specialized minifig appears in Lego Castle: a ghost.

1993
Lego Island Adventure theme is introduced. That means minifigs wearing bikinis and thongs. Lego truckers also appear in Lego Town. Obviously, there's a connection between truckers and thongs.

1995
The Lego skeleton comes out of the closet, the second specialized minifig. Aquanauts line introduced.

1996
Lego Western appears, at last opening the possibility of forming the Village People with Lego minifigs: The sets include cowboys and, for the first time ever, a different Lego race: Native americans. By the way, this contradicts the answers about race that Lego gave us in our Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Lego Guide.

1998
Adventurer Johnny Thunder, an Indiana Jones wannabe, appears. This comes before Lego ever got into the whole licensing of movies intellectual property.

1999
The now famous Lego Star Wars appears, introducing the first ever licensed minifig: Luke Skywalker.

2000
Lego Soccer scores a few goals with spring-loaded tabletop game action. This is a very bad year for the history of the minifig, however: Jar-Jar Binks minifig appears, the first figure with a molded head ever. It should have never happened. The minifig. And the movie.

2001
Lego Studios appears, so people can film movies with minifigs as characters. You know what that means (see bottom of post).

2002
Shorter legs appear for the same time. Now you can have short characters like Yoda. Double-sided heads are added too, so you can change the expresion of the minifig on the go.

2003
Real races are introduced at last, as part of the licensing program. Lego Mars Mission is announced, marking the return of astronauts.

2005
First Lego minifig with an electrical part appears: A lightsaber.

2006
Manga comes into Lego minifigs with Exo-Force, introducing new wacky hairdos made of rubber.

2008
Today, there are 4 billion minifigs in the world, making it the largest population on planet Earth.

You know what this grand finale means: Remember that the Go Miniman Go video contest deadline is tomorrow. If you want to participate and win one of the priceless classic vintage sets we are giving away, you need to send your 520 pixel-wide video (encoded as H.264 in high quality, if possible) using yousendit.com to jesus@gizmodo.com. [Go Miniman Go video contest]

While this Lego Halloween Pumpkin is not as spooky and macabre as the sectioned Lego minifig showing his skeleton and inner guts, it is a complete must in any geekabolous nerdy Halloween decorations. In fact, I would be building a whole bunch of this following these very simple instructions:

Is you are wondering where to get all these bright orange bricks for this 3D Lego Halloween Pumpkin you will need two of these Lego packs. [Lego— Thanks LIndsay Joy]

Maybe Halloween or something horrific could be a good theme for your Go Miniman Go contest video. After all, there are minifig skeletons available. But whatever the video theme is, remember that it has to arrive precisely before the night of the living dead—which to me, it's almost every night, but to you is October 31st.

If you want to participate and win one of the priceless classic vintage sets we are giving away. You only need to send your entry to us as soon as possible because the end of the month deadline is quickly approaching. Entries keep pouring in, but it's never too late. You still have 15 days to go.

If you want to participate, check the contest rules here and send your video now

Those two are amazing too, but last time I checked we didn't have Go Gummybear Go or Go Balloon Animal Go contests. We do have a Go Miniman Go contest, however.

If you want to participate and win one of the priceless classic vintage sets we are giving away. You only need to send your entry to us as soon as possible because the end of the month deadline is quickly approaching. Entries keep pouring in, but it's never too late. You still have 15 days to go.

If you want to participate, check the contest rules here and send your video now. [Jason Freeny via Geekologie]

This is a 20-foot-long Lego model of the HMS Hood, a Royal Navy battlecruiser built in 1920 and sunk by the German Kriegsmarine Battleship Bismarck in 1941. This stunning piece of brick engineering, built to minifig scale, has a robotized mast and is actually bigger than the 16.4-foot-long Lego U.S.S. Harry S. Truman. Check the gallery to really get get the idea of how gigantic this thing is. Updated: Lego builer Ed Diment wrote to tell us the impressive technical specs of his HMS Hood:

Time taken to build - 7 months
Bricks - just under 100,000
Weight - approximately 90kg (200lbs)
Length - just over 5.8m (approx 20ft)
Turrets are motorosied with Lego power functions so that each rotates independently and elevates its guns.

Just imagine how cool would it be to actually build the Bismarck to the same scale and film a battle in stop-motion for the Go Miniman Go contest. Fortunately, you don't need to go that far to participate and win one of the priceless classic vintage sets we are giving away. You only need to send your entry to us as soon as possible because the end of the month deadline is quickly approaching. If you want to participate, check the contest rules here and send your video now. [Flickr via Brothers Brick — Thanks Lindsay Joy]

Lego Artist Nathan Sawaya—one of the only six certified Lego professionals in the world, three in the US—will do a full-size scale Lego replica of yourself for $60,000. You just have to order it from Neiman Marcus, send some photographs, and Nathan will build your natural-size 8-bit version. Given his rates, that amount is quite reasonable and, coincidentally, our remaining budget for the rest of the year. Now I just have to come with an excuse to order one of myself and get another $60,000 to buy one of Uma Thurman. Update: Nathan came to us with some specifics about this work.

Jesús Díaz: On average, how many pieces would it take to do one of these?
Nathan Sawaya: I don't keep track of how many pieces I use in a sculpture because it would get a bit tedious. But I am guessing around 15,000-25,000 individual bricks.

JD: As you are an sculptor, you work straight from reality, no digitizing process needed. How many photos do you need to do your work?
NS: Ideally, I would like 16 photos: Eight full body photos from 360 degrees, and eight of the face and head from 360 degrees.

JD: Have you done one of these already? Any famous people?
NS: I did myself, does that count? Seriously, the only other full body adult that I have done so far happens to be Stephen Colbert.

Acclaimed artist Nathan Sawaya is obsessed with LEGO® bricks. Uh, trust us, he is. He fills his New York studio with more than 1.5 million of the interlocking toy building blocks, and he can sculpt anything out of them — a full-size Tyrannosaurus Rex skeleton or a 7-foot-long scale replica of the Brooklyn Bridge, for example. Given the skill and depth of his devotion to his art, it makes perfect sense to immortalize your own magnificent self with our 2008 His & Hers gifts. Send in detailed photos and measurements, then Nathan gets to snapping and BOOM! One-of-a-kind, life-size sculptures of yourselves in LEGO bricks. We priced our exclusive gift individually, so Nathan can "brickalize" you and the S.O., the kids, Granny and/or anyone else you obsess about. (Just make sure you have the rights to their likenesses; we're not here to judge.)

And by the way, if you don't have $60,000, then you should consider entering our Go Miniman Go Lego contest. The vintage shrink-wrapped Lego sets will get you a nice chunk of that money in eBay. But hurry up because the end of the month deadline is quickly approaching. If you want to participate, check the contest rules here and send your video now. [Neiman Marcus]

Maybe this baseball bat is what you needed to complete your video entry for the Go Miniman Go contest? Then get one as soon as possible because the end of the month deadline is quickly approaching. If you want to participate, check the contest rules here and send your video now. [Brothers Brick via Brickarms]

I'm tempted to donate all my Lego to Tim to see if he can build a complete Death Star trench scene at this scale, with a couple hundred fighters and towers.

The only bad thing about this scale, however, is the lack of minifigs, which are my personal obsession. And yes, you know exactly what I'm going to say now: Go Miniman Go! contest! The end of October is the deadline and we have priceless vintage sets that run for thousands of dollars in eBay, waiting for the winners. So get out your minifigs and shot your video using any technique you want.

Check the contest and the rules here.

[Brothers Brick]

At first sight, this looked like a perfect working reproduction of a Mac Pro made of Lego, so I was ready to call it the best Lego computer in the history of best Lego computers. Then, when I learnt that it houses one full PC running Mac OS X and a Mac Mini, I felt something happening, this tingling sensation, this turgidity that made me feel a bit dizzy. And when I finally saw the Steve Jobs minifig standing there and took a closer look at it, nerdgasm finally ensued:

Made out of 2,588 Lego bricks, the Mac Pro was designed in Lego Digital Designer 2.0 for the MacMod Challenge 2008. The Hackintosh is a plain PC with a Core 2 Quad Q6600 2.4Ghz CPU running Mac OS X, while the Mac Mini is a Core Duo 1.66Ghz. And the Steve Jobs minifig doesn't have any CPU, because he runs on mercurial power, tofu, and puppies' blood, like the real one.

And talking about the Steve Jobs minifig, remember we are still running our Go Miniman Go video contest, with the chance of winning priceless vintage Lego sets, shrink-wrapped, still in their boxes (if a new Lego Windmill can go for $1,700, imagine how many thousands a Galaxy Explorer or the original Yellow Castle will cost).

If you want to participate, check the contest rules here.

And talking about minifigs, in case you missed it, Gizmodo and Lego are celebrating the Go Miniman Go Challenge video contest to mark the 30th anniversary of the Lego minifig. By sending your short video centered around Lego's most famous icon you will be able to win a lot of prizes, including two priceless Lego vintage sets. And if you are into photography, remember that Brothers Brick is running a photography contest too.

Talking about which, we got our second video entry two days ago. You can see a frame above. It is a hilarious 25-second short called titled Attack of the Second Amendment, which demonstrates that you can also do an amazing job in just a few seconds.

If you want to participate, check the contest rules here. [The Bloggess—Thanks Daisy]

The gigantic model won the Best Mecha award at last weekend BrickFair. And talking about minifigs, did I mention we have a video contest going? Yeah, that's what I thought. Carry on.

However, the first one looks a lot bigger and definitely better. [Flickr via Brothers Brick]

But more importantly, Alan's skills and imagination show one of the countless possible themes for our Go Miniman Go Challenge video contest.

In case you missed it, Gizmodo and Lego are celebrating the Go Miniman Go Challenge video contest to mark the 30th anniversary of the Lego minifig. By sending your short video centered around Lego's most famous icon you will be able to win a lot of prizes, including two priceless Lego vintage sets. And if you are into photography, remember that Brothers Brick is running a photography contest too.

Talking about which, we have got our first entry in the mail yesterday, so hurry up with yours. You can read the rules here. [Go Miniman Go]

Talking about Lego, remember our Giz's Lego Go Miniman Go video contest with thousands of dollars in prizes, celebrating the 30th anniversary of the Lego minifig. Brothers Brick is also running the Go Miniman Go Photo Contest, so remember to visit them and participate. [Simon via BrothersBrick]

And if those prizes weren't enough to run to get your camera out, we have asked the best Lego movie directors—Nathan Wells, David Pagano, and Nate Burr—to create three exclusive movies to inspire you. Even if you are not participating, you really have to watch these.

30 Years of Music, by Nathan Wells

Go Miniman Go, by David Pagano

Living in Meatspace, by Nate Burr

Nate, David, and Nathan will be the three judges in this contest along with Lego's director of Marketing Communications Keith Malone, and myself. Here are the rules for the contest:

Theme
The videos don't have to be about the 30th anniversary itself, like the two great odes to the minifig that David and Nathan have created. They just have to use the Lego minifig. Nate's, for example, is a good example of an alternative theme: just one funny skit, like the famous Death Star canteen short that uses Eddie Izzard's monologue.

One good line of work could be a 30-second fun short on any moment of technology history. Like Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak making the original Apple in the garage, the first astronauts arriving to the moon, Bill Gates retiring, a scene from a tech movie like Tron or War Games, or some famous advertising.

But don't be constrained by that. The bottom line is that, as long as it is original, creative, and revolves around the Lego minifig, you are in.

Technique
Remember that your videos don't have to use stop-motion techniques—although obviously these give the best results to tell a story—and we all are partial to stop-motion because it's just cool. However, keep your mind open and explore other possibilities.

Duration
A 20- to 30-second short—the duration of a typical TV ad—will be the minimum to enter the contest.

Due date
October 31 will be the limit.

Format
No need to go High Definition. A 520-pixel-wide video in crystal-clear MPEG-4 format will be enough.

How to send it
To send your video, we recommend you to use the free delivery service YouSendIt.com. Address it to jesus at gizmodo.com

Prizes
• First and second place: Galaxy Explorer or the Yellow Castle. Whoever wins first place picks the set he or she wants. The remaining set will go to the second place winner.
• Third price: A special set designed by Lego owner Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen.
• Runners-up: a ton of smaller vintage space and town sets, new vintage minifigure series, and newer sets.

Do you have any questions? Write them in the comments and we will answer them. Standard Gawker contest rules apply. [Go Miniman Go]

You already saw part of the process in the article about the Lego Storm Troopers cloning facility, but here's the whole process:

• First, the raw plastic material is put into the molds to create all the parts: the head, the torso, the minuscule hands, the hips, and the left and right arms and legs, plus any minifig complements, like helmets or tools.

• The head and torsos are always decorated. This is a complicated process that makes the minifig the most expensive part of any Lego set. This is why sets like the Death Star diorama are among the most expensive. The stamping of the colors is usually made in several passes. In older times, the faces always had the same designs. Today, however, they have different features that require different layers (personally, I like the classic ones more than the ones with different faces).

• Once they are decorated, the torsos are put into the body assembly machine, where the left and right arms are put into them mechanically. The same machine then places the hands inside the arms with absolute precision at lightning speed.

• The torsos are then taken to the packaging production line, where they are put together in the bags along with the head, hair/helmet/hat, and legs with hips. Before, the machines also connected the heads and legs, so the Lego aficionado would find the minifig complete inside the box. Now, however, this is left for the player except for the vintage minifig set, which comes with the minifigs completely built.

Stay tuned for tomorrow's special features on the 30th Anniversary of the Lego minifig. We have some amazing surprises coming, including an exclusive Gizmodo contest that will let you win some of the most famous Lego sets in history. [Go Miniman Go]