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12/16/09
12/16/09
Of course, Artoo has been known to be wrong...
From time to time...
But not on LEGO...
He's infallible on that...
Because...
This is full of WIN.
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Little too much on either side and it would just tip right over.
I'd think even the snowballs that way would be a pain. It would be like those water coin spiny things they have at fast food places. It would take forever to get it to fall in the right spot.
Edit: There you go, right from the flickr page:
"Thanks exobrick, the snowball is glued on a 1mm thick transparent acrylic rod and positioned as needed. I was hoping the snowy mess would render the rod invisible, it almost did, but a little photoshopping was needed nevertheless. Bummer!"
12/16/09
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12/16/09
Gizmodo's already established itself pretty firmly as an avid proponent of LEGO. The Gizmodo Gallery had a wall dedicated to LEGO. Many posts throughout the past months(and year) have had some kind of involvement with LEGO. The author of this post is an avid LEGO fan. LEGO LEGO LEGO until you see all the colors of the bin's rainbow.
12/16/09
BTW. For future reference "what is ____ doing on here" is never a comment that needs posted. Posting it about legos on a site with a definite lego fetish is just going to be salt in the wound.
12/16/09
12/16/09
Lego on a blog.
LEGO ON A BLOG.
BLOG.
B-L-O-G.
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12/15/09
1. The LEGO Company didn't technically invent the LEGO brick. The original LEGO Automatic Binding Brick was the result of receiving sample molds with their first injection molding machine, but it was invented in Great Britain. The tubes inside of the bricks were, however, added by The LEGO Company. The original patents were also purchased by The LEGO Company in the 80's.
2. The first LEGO sets sold in the US were not produced by The LEGO Company. The Samsonite company licensed the design from The LEGO Company, but did such a bad job with it that they've never licensed out the design again.
3. Most LEGO bricks are made from ABS plastic, but this was not always the case. The original Automatic Binding Brick was molded in cellulose acetate. Other parts are produced in at least five other materials (clear parts, rubber parts, lighter-density plastic like swords, extruded tubes, and the occassional metal parts are each made with different materials). MegaBloks are made from styrene, which is commonly used for hobby model kits.
4. The most complicated single-shot part produced is the minifig chain. All 29 interlocked links are formed at the same time, with no need for a post-forming assembly processes.
5. Whenever they produce a chromed part, they have to run the pre-chromed blanks on a different set of molds, as the blanks have to be slightly undersized to accomodate the thickness of the chrome and sealer layers on the finished piece.
6. The first parts that were molded in two blended colors were the Bohrok faceplates in 2002.
7. In 2004, they changed the colors of all parts molded in brown and the three shades of grey, but did not address this issue with the fan community until the color change was noticed in the wild. They have since promised to never permanently change the shade of an official color without first communicating with the fan community.
12/15/09
Is that why they suck so much?
12/15/09
Yup. Pretty much. Well, that and the fact that the part tolerance is pretty massive.
ABS has rubberizers mixed in with styrene, so it tends to hold its shape even after being deformed in some manner. Styrene tends to permanently change shape when deformed. The result is that if you leave a model assembled for a long time, the parts tend to loosen their grip on each other, regardless of which brand you used to build it, but the LEGO parts will return to their original shape after disassembly, where the Megabloks will be permanently deformed.
And as for the part tolerance, I've heard stories of how people could stack two MB bricks, pick up the top brick, and have the bottom brick not even budge because the fit was so loose, while others have complained that they almost needed a mallet to build the model because the fit was so tight (and then a month later it fell apart like a stack of wooden letter blocks).
12/14/09
12/15/09
The number varies consderably unless you specify which LEGO part(s) you should use, and what orientation they should have. LEGO sticker sheets stacked flat will take a considerably larger amount to reach the moon than 48x48 basepates arranged diagonally, corner-to-corner (I know there are other LEGO items that have longer dimensions, like the ill-fated furniture line, but I think that's the longest dimension in anything that would meet the loosest definition of a "LEGO brick/part").
12/14/09
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12/14/09
<-- is a Dane.
12/14/09
12/15/09
No, "lego" means "I play" in Latin. "Leg godt" means "play well" in Danish, and the combination of those two words (not the Latin one) is where the company name came from. It also had absolutely nothing to do with LEGO bricks, as The LEGO Company didn't start producing plastic toys for at least a decade. Before then, and for several years after introducing the Automatic Binding Brick (what they called the original version of the LEGO brick), they produced a lot of wooden toys, like building blocks and such (I hear you can still buy them in one of the stores at LEGOLAND Billund).
12/14/09
After that I always cleaned up before bedtime and to this day, my place is always clean.
12/14/09
I envy you =)
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12/15/09
12/14/09
Every 10 seconds a parent steps on a lego piece and screams in agony
12/15/09
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12/15/09
Barnes & Noble has/had it available in stores for $90, plus if you have a B&N card you can knock 10% off the price. Also, it's the only one of the Architecture series that's really worth the price, in terms of price/piece ratio. The other five are only really worth it if you're buying them for the books that come with them.
12/15/09
There are six official sets, all of which are designed by one of the guys who runs the BrickWorld event in Chicago. The first two should be pretty easy to replicate from the cover art alone, the Seattle Space Needle is the only one of the four smaller sets that I think actually looks interesting (seriously, the Sears Tower done 8" tall is pretty much just a stack of black bricks with a pair of antennae on top). The Gugenheim isn't bad, but this is definitely the most interesting model in the series.
There was also at least one unofficial model in the series, which was the Westin Hotel where BrickWorld has been held every year so far. That set was the BrickWorld exclusive set this past summer. Didn't make it the previous two years, so I have no idea what custom sets were available to attendees those years.
12/15/09
That's as big as it's every going to get as an official set. Adam also designed a larger model for his own collection (which was displayed in a WIP form at BrickWorld this year), but considering the size, and the licensing/royalties involved, you'd probably be looking at upwards of $500 for MSRP.
12/14/09
How do you entertain +100 people at a gadget gallery?
Answer: You mount legos on the wall!
Well gizmodo, I just found your inspiration for that "wall of legos"
I'm on to you!
12/15/09
We did that for the episode we got snubbed for with Extreme Makeover Home Edition. Believe me when I tell you it's not a fun process. It's even less fun when a designer who barely spends any time on-site during the week of construction takes all the credit, and none of you get any real screen-time (I appeared once, from behind, doing pretend-work in the next bedroom, and other than that you have to slo-mo the time-lapse footage to see any other footage of MichLUG's participating members).