Some Assembly Required is a pattern that will enable you to make an adorable toy that can be taken apart and put together again. The head, torso, and legs are independent pieces, so you could make multiple pieces in different colors and they would be interchangeable.

I've included a tutorial on boxes and edges so you can make nice crisp corners. The tutorial isn't necessary to make the toy, but it may be helpful.

OK, people from Etsy, I'm too lazy. Go knit! [Fight Knitting Club—thanks Kimberly]

Let's hope it doesn't put a buzz kill on my childhood memories the way GI Joe and Transformers have.

Dan Lin, who is shepherding Warner Bros.' "Sherlock Holmes" and exec produced the studio's upcoming family film "Shorts," will produce the movie through his Lin Pictures, which is also behind a "Tom and Jerry" film that will put the feuding animated characters in a live-action setting.

[Variety via Sci Fi Wire]

The Yamato—along with her sister ship Musashi—was the largest battleship ever constructed: 862 feet and 10 inches long and 121 feet long at its widest point. Made by Jumpei Mitsui, the Lego version was constructed at minifig scale (1/40), which is an amazing task that resulted in these specs:

• 22 feet long.
• 3 feet wide.
• 330 pounds.
• More than 200,000 Lego pieces.

And of course, it looks amazing:

The real Yamato was sunk trying to reach Okinawa in a suicide mission. The plan—under Operation Ten-Go—was to beach her near Okinawa in order to use its nine 18.1-inch 40 cm/45 Type 94 naval guns—the largest ever in any warship—as unsinkable artillery against American ground forces. Fortunately for Allied forces, it failed: Two US submarines spotted it and it was destroyed by 320 aircraft in two waves from Task Force 58, resulting in an explosion that was seen from 100 miles away.

Maybe the USS Harry S Truman—made by Malle Hawking—could destroy this one, but I doubt it. I would love to put on a Godzilla costume and attack it, though. [Jumpei's page]

Update: Jumpei Mitsui answered a couple of my questions about his stunning model:

Jesus Diaz: What was the most difficult part?

Jumpei Mitsui: It's a very hard work to express the curves of the bow. Yamato has a distinct curve at the bow, which I repeated four times to could get the perfect curve. That means I completely destroyed and made it four times.

It also took more than three years to get the idea about how to make The Chrysanthemum—the symbol of Japanese emperor—correctly. I think that what I got was the best way to express it with Lego without using glue or a rubber band.

JD: And besides the time spent in the project, how much do all the pieces cost?
JM: It's very diffcult to say how much because almost all of the Yamato (99.99%) is made of old grey bricks. But I'm sure that it would costs millions of yen if I got all the pieces new.

That's Short Round there on the right in the top photo, next to the beefy Egyptian Luftwaffe Nazi that gets diced up by the propellers at the end of Raiders.

And here's Connery, in the back of the biplane, before haplessly shredding the rudder with his machine gun. Oh Dad.

You can recreate all of those scenes, along with the heart-removal from Temple of Doom (KALI-MA), the Venice Canal chase with the fez-wearing Brotherhood of Grail protectors, and the old-timey Shanghai car chase from the beginning of Temple of Doom, where you can find the aforementioned Short Round (note the half-length legs).

All of them are being released in August, and they are 100% cooler than Lego Star Wars. [Toy Fair 2009]

This shirt, Identity Crisis, is available in its first printing for $16. It's not officially licensed or anything, but I'm gonna go out on a limb here and assume that much of Giz's readership has already donated their fair share to the fine folks at the LEGO Group. [Fuzzy Ink via Geekologie]

Gizmodo reader Andrew sent us pictures of his Lego brewery in the middle of a river. It's quite nice on its own, but really, after coming from a long nightout in Madrid with one too many whiskeys, what makes this a winner is the naughty naughty motorized minifig pole dancer. Time to get the Mindstorm NXT special set out. [Classic Castle]

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]

This picture is what.

If we had one complaint, it'd be that Rudolph's tumorous nose is not filled with a startlingly bright red LED. Because if it were, when minifig Prancer decided to be a jerk during reindeer games, minifig Rudolph could blind him with crimson before slicing his Achilles tendon. Looks like there's spot open in reindeer four square after all, Prancer. [Flickr via technabob]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

The printing of these mini-figs is one of the most expensive and delicate processes at the Lego factory. The rubber stamping has to be done in a very precise way—printing feature by feature in layers—until it's done. [Giz's Lego Trip]