Gizmodo: legoland

1979: The Golden Age of Lego

Jesus Diaz — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 23:30:00 EDT

1979 was the beginning of Lego as we know it today, the year when they took over the world, the year of the Galaxy Explorer. I photographed all the classic sets in my Lego trip. Here's the never-released gallery:

The Lego bricks were invented a lot earlier, but 1979 was the year of Legoland Space, Legoland Town, and Legoland Castle. Those three are the Lego universes that started it all. They were first introduced in 1978—except for the Galaxy Explorer—but it wasn't until 1979 and the few following years when they really took off. More importantly for me: It wasn't until 1979 when I actually build them.

During 1978, 1979, and the beginning of the 80s, Lego had its Golden Age. For sure, now they sell more than ever and they have a huge army of followers. But that was the true Golden Age, with the very best sets ever developed by the Danish company.

Many great ones came later, but I was lucky enough to play with all those original sets back in 1979, when I was a little kid.

Here you have my favorites, straight from the official show room on top of their secret vault, in the original Lego factory.

Man Proposes At Legoland

Andi Wang — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 20:50:13 EST

Another geeky man looking for a ball and chain, another mega geektastic proposal—not with iPhone apps, Zunes or video games—this time, it involved Lego.

It took Troy Cobb a month of planning and prepping to set up the perfect proposal for his girlfriend, Lacey Williams, who shared his love of Lego. With a custom-made Lego sign that read "Lacey, will you marry me?" and Lego bride and groom figures—(what, no Lego ring?)—Cobb had Legoland employees hang the display in front of the Eiffel Tower of the Miniland Las Vegas area of the theme park, where Cobb planned on getting down on one knee to pop the question.

However, Williams had walked passed by the display—twice—completely oblivious to the impending proposal, before she finally spotted it the third time around. Aww, with all these geeky proposals popping up all around, it makes me want to punch myself in the face for wanting my own geeky proposal. (By the way, she said YES!) [Coloroadan via Geekologie]

16-Foot Tall Lego Pharaoh Floats Down the River Thames

Sean Fallon — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 19:00:00 EST

Holy crippity crap! It's a giant Lego pharaoh floating down river Thames. Have mummies in the British museum come back as zombies to find that Legos are easier to build with than stone? Not quite.

Actually, the 16-foot Lego sculpture is on the final leg of a 1395 mile publicity tour down the river where it will eventually find a home in Windsor's Legoland Kingdom of the Pharaohs attraction, which is set to open March 21. Apparently, it is the biggest Lego structure ever created with 200,000 individual pieces and a weight of more than one ton. I guess record breaking towers don't count. [Nat Geo via Neatorama]

750,000-Brick Kennedy Space Center Is the Mother of All Lego Models

Jesus Diaz — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 22:00:00 EDT

Forget about the Lego Airbus A380 and the Lego Death Star, because this video will show you the mother of all Lego models: the 750,000-brick Kennedy Space Center. Using 1,506 square feet, it took 2,500 hours to build. It includes a 6.13ft-tall Space Shuttle on the launch pad, the space center with a 9ft-long Saturn 1B rocket, and the Vehicle Assembly Building—8ft long x 6ft high x 5ft wide—made out of 50,000 Lego bricks. I know. Mindblowing. This thing is so massive that it can probably affect Earth's orbit. Update: if Lego's Kennedy Space Center is the mother of all Lego models, Giz reader Florian Frischmuth has sent us his pictures of the father: the 1,300,000-brick Lego Allianz Arena stadium in Munich, Germany. This titan contains a mindblowing 30,000 mini-figs inside.

The Allianz Arena Lego model was built following the original plans from Swiss architects Herzog and de Meuron, using 4,209 hours of work and over a million pieces. It can glow red, blue, and white using interior LEDs, achieving the same lighting effects of the original stadium thanks to a special translucent brick specially manufactured for the project. [Giz's Lego Trip]

Lego Airbus A380 Is Biggest Lego Airplane in the World

Jesus Diaz — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 20:10:00 EDT

Behold the biggest Lego airplane in the world, made after the largest passenger airplane in the world, the Airbus A380. Made at a 1:25 scale-9.5-foot long, 10.5-foot wingspan, 3.2-foot tall—the Lego A380 uses 220 pounds (100kg) of bricks. That's a mindblowing 75,000 pieces in eight colours—15 Lego Millennium Falcons.

With that amount of bricks, and knowing how long my Falcon is taking, I'm not surprised that it took 600 hours for the entire team of professional Legoland model builders to assemble this beast. [Giz's Lego Trip]

Can Command + Legoland + 1 Brick Your Mac?

Jesus Diaz — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 06:32:00 EDT

This is the second thing I found in my trip to the center of the Lego universe. Road sign or secret tip? I tried the keyboard combo in my PowerBook and it didn't work, but given the origin of the command symbol—as commanded by Steve Jobs and executed by Susan Kare—I thought it was well worth a try.

Finally she [Susan Kare] came across a floral symbol that was used in Sweden to indicate an interesting feature or attraction in a campground. She rendered a 16 x 16 bitmap of the little symbol and showed it to the rest of the team, and everybody liked it. Twenty years later, even in OS X, the Macintosh still has a little bit of a Swedish campground in it.

It certainly marks the spot in this case.

I'm back from Lego's headquarters in Denmark, frantically writing features, editing video, and preparing images showing the amazing brick manufacturing process, the Lego cathedrals with billions of pieces in them and giant robots moving them around, the Lego secret vault with every single set ever produced, and many more awesome things. I've to say that I've been blown away and, trust me, it's not just fanboyism. [LEGO in Gizmodo]

In Denmark Even the Cops Are Made Out of LEGO

Jesus Diaz — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 12:46:00 EDT

I just arrived in Billund, Denmark, where every single LEGO piece in the world is produced. I got to the Zzzzleep Hotel just now and, to my surprise, I found this sign on the wall outside even while the hotel is not associated with LEGO in any way: "LEGO Security." I guess that in LEGO city even the cops are little LEGO minifigs. Just a sign of what will happen tomorrow:

On Tuesday I'm getting an exclusive tour through their factory, and will also visit their idea house—where apparently every LEGO in history is stored. I will also talk with LEGO designers from the Mindstorm, Creator and Star Wars lines.

Yes, I know, it's an absolute nerdgasm coming up. Hopefully I will recover soon to post videos, photos and impressions right here in Giz. For now, I'm off to LEGOLAND to do exactly that (and buy some sets).

World's Tallest LEGO Tower Rises Over Toronto

Charlie White — Thu, 23 Aug 2007 13:30:00 EDT

The title of world's tallest LEGO tower just shifted from California to Toronto, where energetic LEGO Master builders Erik Therkelsen (at left), Per Knudsen and 12,000 of their closest friends stacked up enough of the plastic bricks—more than 465,000 of them—to create a 96.1-footer.

According to the Guinness Book of World Records, it's now the world's largest LEGO tower, beating that 94.3-foot erection in LEGOLAND in Carlsbad, California. Dozens of plus-shaped modules were stacked up with a cherry picker to complete the huge structure. There's no word on how long that tower will stand. [Toronto 680 News, via Yahoo News]