legoloverman
November 14, 2008 6:15 AM Subscribe
Man, I'm either really behind with the trends in lego pieces, or this is amazing use of pieces I've overlooked. I recognize a grey person hand on the foot, which is most crafty.
posted by filthy light thief at 6:41 AM on November 14, 2008
posted by filthy light thief at 6:41 AM on November 14, 2008
Most of these are standard, but less common, pieces. The kind where, in order to get enough, you have to purchase them in bulk. For instance, the exosuit seems to be entirely standard Technic with the exception of the claws which I think are Bionicle. And maybe the accordion-like piece on the forearm.
posted by DU at 6:51 AM on November 14, 2008
posted by DU at 6:51 AM on November 14, 2008
Pyew! Pyew pyew!
posted by steef at 6:53 AM on November 14, 2008 [3 favorites]
posted by steef at 6:53 AM on November 14, 2008 [3 favorites]
Hasn't anyone told this guy that Legos have too many specialized pieces now and can only build the model on the box?
posted by Legomancer at 7:00 AM on November 14, 2008 [5 favorites]
posted by Legomancer at 7:00 AM on November 14, 2008 [5 favorites]
I love that the backdrop is lego too. That surprised me.
posted by device55 at 7:02 AM on November 14, 2008 [1 favorite]
posted by device55 at 7:02 AM on November 14, 2008 [1 favorite]
It's like looking into an alternate reality, where I have enough money to buy all the Legos I've ever wanted…
posted by paisley henosis at 7:58 AM on November 14, 2008 [1 favorite]
posted by paisley henosis at 7:58 AM on November 14, 2008 [1 favorite]
The man is a god. And real real cool in person. Here is a great video of Peter and Yvonne showing off their sweet lego room.
These are lego nerds at their finest.
posted by kumazemi at 8:08 AM on November 14, 2008
These are lego nerds at their finest.
posted by kumazemi at 8:08 AM on November 14, 2008
I'm an old curmudgeon now, I guess. It's not LEGO unless it's blocks. This is cool stuff, but it's not the same sort of thing as building from plain blocks.
Now, leave your fancy toys here and get off my lawn! No, you can't have them back ...
posted by krinklyfig at 8:26 AM on November 14, 2008
Now, leave your fancy toys here and get off my lawn! No, you can't have them back ...
posted by krinklyfig at 8:26 AM on November 14, 2008
I really, really dig that they use old-school space figurines.
(wouldn't mind having some of those clear visors...hell, I'd *really* love to get my hands on the four colored visors that came with the original, yellow Castle set. I lost all of mine.)
posted by notsnot at 8:32 AM on November 14, 2008
(wouldn't mind having some of those clear visors...hell, I'd *really* love to get my hands on the four colored visors that came with the original, yellow Castle set. I lost all of mine.)
posted by notsnot at 8:32 AM on November 14, 2008
I'm with krinklyfig - if they're not the plain blocks they're just not what I love about Lego art. Part of the coolness was making something amazing out of these seemingly plain blocks.
posted by Slack-a-gogo at 8:50 AM on November 14, 2008
posted by Slack-a-gogo at 8:50 AM on November 14, 2008
The "Lego is too specialized now" or "only the basic bricks are Legos" stance is waaaaay tired, and I'm not going to debate how silly and truly uninformed it is here and now, but I will say that:
A. The Lego company has created "specialized" parts since the 60's and
B. Since the mid 90's they have pulled away from parts and sets that were genuinely too specialized (or juniorized, as we lego nerds call it) and
C. Lego is basically 3D paint. The more options and variables the better. There are *thousands* of different elements in hundreds of different colors and the lion share of these parts can be used in dozens of unique and creative ways. The company spends a lot of time making sure new elements will work with the existing system on the fundamental level, but also many parts connect in extremely odd and useful ways. That's a big part of it, figuring out new uses for elements that are "supposed" to have a certain use.
posted by kumazemi at 9:02 AM on November 14, 2008 [3 favorites]
A. The Lego company has created "specialized" parts since the 60's and
B. Since the mid 90's they have pulled away from parts and sets that were genuinely too specialized (or juniorized, as we lego nerds call it) and
C. Lego is basically 3D paint. The more options and variables the better. There are *thousands* of different elements in hundreds of different colors and the lion share of these parts can be used in dozens of unique and creative ways. The company spends a lot of time making sure new elements will work with the existing system on the fundamental level, but also many parts connect in extremely odd and useful ways. That's a big part of it, figuring out new uses for elements that are "supposed" to have a certain use.
posted by kumazemi at 9:02 AM on November 14, 2008 [3 favorites]
On the contrary, I love Lego models like this because of the often brilliant use of pieces in unusual ways. I find the stuff that, say, Nathan Sawaya does to be boring because there's no reason for it to be Lego. It may as well be colored sugar cubes, cinder blocks, or matchboxes.
Legoloverman does some amazing stuff, there's no doubt. If you like this, I suggest subscribing to the "Lego Pool" on Flickr...you'll see him and other folks being really creative and impressive with Legos.
posted by Legomancer at 9:05 AM on November 14, 2008
Legoloverman does some amazing stuff, there's no doubt. If you like this, I suggest subscribing to the "Lego Pool" on Flickr...you'll see him and other folks being really creative and impressive with Legos.
posted by Legomancer at 9:05 AM on November 14, 2008
DU - I like to forget about the Bionicle. But apparently they're a source of fantastic sci-fi elements.
re: specialized Legos - I'm more annoyed at the "huge segment" pieces that seem to be a more recent creation (circa mid 1990s?). I'm fine with the castle wall segments, but I think there are more complex pieces that could probably be made from more small pieces. Or maybe I'm just getting old and persnickety. I'd like to see a history of Lego pieces, marking when each was first introduced and which kit(s) first contained these pieces. If this doesn't already exist, I might try my hand at making this with the help of the amazing Brickfactory site. (They have Lego manuals scanned! And well organized!)
On a Lego news tangent, on Nov. 12, 2008, EU Refused Special Status for Lego Building Blocks (here's more in Dutch, and the Slashdot thread where I first heard about this). In short, a very high justice department in Europe ("Europese Hof") decided that the design of Lego is not protected by the European Market rights, and that there thus cannot be any case for exclusive ownership, allowing the Canadian Company MEGA Brands to continue to make their Micro size blocks (first introduced in 1991), which have the same bump pattern and block dimensions as Lego bricks. To MEGA Brand's credit, they provide their instruction booklets online in PDF form. I'm not sure how complete this is, but it's interesting to see how many models they have in a variety of themes.
posted by filthy light thief at 9:38 AM on November 14, 2008
re: specialized Legos - I'm more annoyed at the "huge segment" pieces that seem to be a more recent creation (circa mid 1990s?). I'm fine with the castle wall segments, but I think there are more complex pieces that could probably be made from more small pieces. Or maybe I'm just getting old and persnickety. I'd like to see a history of Lego pieces, marking when each was first introduced and which kit(s) first contained these pieces. If this doesn't already exist, I might try my hand at making this with the help of the amazing Brickfactory site. (They have Lego manuals scanned! And well organized!)
On a Lego news tangent, on Nov. 12, 2008, EU Refused Special Status for Lego Building Blocks (here's more in Dutch, and the Slashdot thread where I first heard about this). In short, a very high justice department in Europe ("Europese Hof") decided that the design of Lego is not protected by the European Market rights, and that there thus cannot be any case for exclusive ownership, allowing the Canadian Company MEGA Brands to continue to make their Micro size blocks (first introduced in 1991), which have the same bump pattern and block dimensions as Lego bricks. To MEGA Brand's credit, they provide their instruction booklets online in PDF form. I'm not sure how complete this is, but it's interesting to see how many models they have in a variety of themes.
posted by filthy light thief at 9:38 AM on November 14, 2008
What I really like - I don't think they ever came out in the UK - are the Lego figures in the shape of lions and other animals. They're like Duplo crossed with standard minifigs.
I never had the Technics lego as a kid - I got my sister and brother's plain Lego, but the Technics stayed in the loft, as my dad said I'd lose all the pieces. I only got to play with it once during wet playtime at primary school when I was seven, when we were given boxes of it to make odd little cars from. I built a working drill. It was very cool.
posted by mippy at 9:42 AM on November 14, 2008
I never had the Technics lego as a kid - I got my sister and brother's plain Lego, but the Technics stayed in the loft, as my dad said I'd lose all the pieces. I only got to play with it once during wet playtime at primary school when I was seven, when we were given boxes of it to make odd little cars from. I built a working drill. It was very cool.
posted by mippy at 9:42 AM on November 14, 2008
Warning: this is not about basketball.
posted by lostburner at 10:02 AM on November 14, 2008
posted by lostburner at 10:02 AM on November 14, 2008
Much more pleasant than a LEGO concentration camp.
posted by Astro Zombie at 10:31 AM on November 14, 2008
posted by Astro Zombie at 10:31 AM on November 14, 2008
Is this the right thread to mention that I tracked down every single cannon image of Lando's ship, and then made a fully articulated, to scale, digital Lego version of that ship?
Or should I save that for a Star Wars thread?
posted by paisley henosis at 10:34 AM on November 14, 2008
Or should I save that for a Star Wars thread?
posted by paisley henosis at 10:34 AM on November 14, 2008
Is this the right thread to mention that I tracked down every single cannon image of Lando's ship, and then made a fully articulated, to scale, digital Lego version of that ship?
Yes, this a time when it is a good thing to mention that.
posted by marxchivist at 10:48 AM on November 14, 2008
Yes, this a time when it is a good thing to mention that.
posted by marxchivist at 10:48 AM on November 14, 2008
Cool stuff (I love my old Space Lego). One of my favourite Lego projects must be the Lego aircraft carrier.
posted by KokuRyu at 11:20 AM on November 14, 2008
posted by KokuRyu at 11:20 AM on November 14, 2008
kumazemi writes "Lego is basically 3D paint."
Modeling clay is basically 3D paint.
I always enjoyed the challenge of taking simple shapes, like Lego blocks, and creating complexity, sort of like building 8-bit graphical sprites. If the complexity is built in, sorta not as fun anymore.
posted by krinklyfig at 11:41 AM on November 14, 2008
Modeling clay is basically 3D paint.
I always enjoyed the challenge of taking simple shapes, like Lego blocks, and creating complexity, sort of like building 8-bit graphical sprites. If the complexity is built in, sorta not as fun anymore.
posted by krinklyfig at 11:41 AM on November 14, 2008
Lego spaceships! This guy build amazing stuff, too. If you look at his favorites, you can find a ton more rad lego spaceships. Some of them are just astounding.
posted by Stonestock Relentless at 12:10 PM on November 14, 2008
posted by Stonestock Relentless at 12:10 PM on November 14, 2008
I'll be commenting here when I have recovered from my slack-jawed amazement.
posted by dirtynumbangelboy at 12:38 PM on November 14, 2008
posted by dirtynumbangelboy at 12:38 PM on November 14, 2008
The summer between fourth and fifth grade, my family was in the middle of a big move to a new house. We were renting a house until our new house was finished. I couldn't unpack too many things that summer because we'd just have to repack it anyways.
So, about the only thing I did unpack was my legos.
My brother and I used to love building vehicles that could survive high impact. High impact, in this case, being defined as the highest speed we could push it across the smooth cement basement floor. We quickly learned that intricate designs and small pieces were not useful. We needed longer pieces and we needed to make sure they were solidly connected so when they slammed into a wall (or each other) as few pieces as possible would go flying off.
Some things that anyone whose ever been interested in lego related mayhem probably already know.
1) The best use of the small and specialized pieces is to attach them loosely all over your vehicle so that when it crash, they will go flying about everywhere, many never to be seen again except, perhaps, when the furnace it replaced.
2) While it is fun to roll the vehicles at the wall, it is even more fun to roll them at each other and see which one has more pieces left at the end.
3) Creating a battering ram from the front of your vehicle using two 1x8 pieces is a good way to pick your opponents vehicle apart. Triangle shaped pieces might look useful for this endeavor, but they can't be embedded securely enough in the vehicle to prevent them from becoming a liability.
4) When possible, it is better to use the 4x4 wheel units with a small wheel on both sides. Your wheels are your weakest link as they need to be free enough to spin and this generally prevent decent reinforcement.
5) You and your opponent should construct your vehicles from different color pieces so you can more accurately count the debris. You can sometimes game your opponent by picking a lame color (i.e., white) that has better pieces. The aesthetics don't matter so much as the sturdiness.
My brother and I would occasionally be given a new set of legos - like the firehouse or police station. We'd probably build it once, crash our unstoppable lego death machines into it and then cannibalize the parts for our mad cars.
The closest we ever came to this kind of lego art was when he and I decided to build a life-size lego robot. Three or for tries in, we barely broke three feet before running out of legos and, inevitably, ended up having to use a lego person head instead of making a cool robot head.
I imagine if my brother and I had seen this kind of lego art when we were kids, we would have launched into a lengthy discussion about how none of this stuff would ever survive even a mild impact unless glue was employed - something that, frankly, smacks of heresy.
That all said, I still love legos. My brother and I have spent hours watching his 4 and 6 year old sons (the same age difference as between he and I) teach themselves how to make indestructible lego robots. Apparently, its even more fun to try and destroy your opponents' lego creation if you slam the creations directly into each other without letting go.
posted by Joey Michaels at 12:50 PM on November 14, 2008
So, about the only thing I did unpack was my legos.
My brother and I used to love building vehicles that could survive high impact. High impact, in this case, being defined as the highest speed we could push it across the smooth cement basement floor. We quickly learned that intricate designs and small pieces were not useful. We needed longer pieces and we needed to make sure they were solidly connected so when they slammed into a wall (or each other) as few pieces as possible would go flying off.
Some things that anyone whose ever been interested in lego related mayhem probably already know.
1) The best use of the small and specialized pieces is to attach them loosely all over your vehicle so that when it crash, they will go flying about everywhere, many never to be seen again except, perhaps, when the furnace it replaced.
2) While it is fun to roll the vehicles at the wall, it is even more fun to roll them at each other and see which one has more pieces left at the end.
3) Creating a battering ram from the front of your vehicle using two 1x8 pieces is a good way to pick your opponents vehicle apart. Triangle shaped pieces might look useful for this endeavor, but they can't be embedded securely enough in the vehicle to prevent them from becoming a liability.
4) When possible, it is better to use the 4x4 wheel units with a small wheel on both sides. Your wheels are your weakest link as they need to be free enough to spin and this generally prevent decent reinforcement.
5) You and your opponent should construct your vehicles from different color pieces so you can more accurately count the debris. You can sometimes game your opponent by picking a lame color (i.e., white) that has better pieces. The aesthetics don't matter so much as the sturdiness.
My brother and I would occasionally be given a new set of legos - like the firehouse or police station. We'd probably build it once, crash our unstoppable lego death machines into it and then cannibalize the parts for our mad cars.
The closest we ever came to this kind of lego art was when he and I decided to build a life-size lego robot. Three or for tries in, we barely broke three feet before running out of legos and, inevitably, ended up having to use a lego person head instead of making a cool robot head.
I imagine if my brother and I had seen this kind of lego art when we were kids, we would have launched into a lengthy discussion about how none of this stuff would ever survive even a mild impact unless glue was employed - something that, frankly, smacks of heresy.
That all said, I still love legos. My brother and I have spent hours watching his 4 and 6 year old sons (the same age difference as between he and I) teach themselves how to make indestructible lego robots. Apparently, its even more fun to try and destroy your opponents' lego creation if you slam the creations directly into each other without letting go.
posted by Joey Michaels at 12:50 PM on November 14, 2008
Also.
Ahem.
One lego. Two lego.
LEGOS IS NOT A WORD GOD YOU PEOPLE
posted by dirtynumbangelboy at 1:16 PM on November 14, 2008 [1 favorite]
Ahem.
One lego. Two lego.
LEGOS IS NOT A WORD GOD YOU PEOPLE
posted by dirtynumbangelboy at 1:16 PM on November 14, 2008 [1 favorite]
I've been calling them "Legos" since I was 9 and I'm not stopping just because the Lego Company and pedantic nerds would prefer I didn't call them that.
posted by Legomancer at 1:19 PM on November 14, 2008
posted by Legomancer at 1:19 PM on November 14, 2008
Logo - a graphical element
Logos - rational principle that governs and develops the universe.
Lego - a single interconnectable element
Legos - rational principle that governs and develops legoland.
posted by Joey Michaels at 1:34 PM on November 14, 2008
Logos - rational principle that governs and develops the universe.
Lego - a single interconnectable element
Legos - rational principle that governs and develops legoland.
posted by Joey Michaels at 1:34 PM on November 14, 2008
LEGOS IS NOT A WORD
IN CANADIAN ENGLISH. AS IT HAPPENS HOWEVER PEOPLE IN THE US DO NOT SPEAK CANADIAN ENGLISH, BUT RATHER AMERICAN ENGLISH, IN WHICH "TWO LEGOS" IS A PERFECTLY NORMAL CONSTRUCTION.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 1:49 PM on November 14, 2008
IN CANADIAN ENGLISH. AS IT HAPPENS HOWEVER PEOPLE IN THE US DO NOT SPEAK CANADIAN ENGLISH, BUT RATHER AMERICAN ENGLISH, IN WHICH "TWO LEGOS" IS A PERFECTLY NORMAL CONSTRUCTION.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 1:49 PM on November 14, 2008
Legoses?
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 2:16 PM on November 14, 2008
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 2:16 PM on November 14, 2008
Normal =/= correct. :P
posted by dirtynumbangelboy at 2:21 PM on November 14, 2008
posted by dirtynumbangelboy at 2:21 PM on November 14, 2008
LEGOS IS NOT A WORD
It begs the question "Why not?"
Yes, I did that on purpose. Let the fur begin flying!
posted by Daddy-O at 3:42 PM on November 14, 2008
It begs the question "Why not?"
Yes, I did that on purpose. Let the fur begin flying!
posted by Daddy-O at 3:42 PM on November 14, 2008
LEGOS IS NOT A WORD GOD YOU PEOPLE
BUT LOGOS COULD KIND OF BE A WORD GOD IF YOU THINK ABOUT IT.
posted by Jofus at 3:57 PM on November 14, 2008
BUT LOGOS COULD KIND OF BE A WORD GOD IF YOU THINK ABOUT IT.
posted by Jofus at 3:57 PM on November 14, 2008
I always enjoyed the challenge of taking simple shapes, like Lego blocks, and creating complexity, sort of like building 8-bit graphical sprites.
And if you do that, people will appreciate your work and creativity. Or if instead you decide to use a full range of pieces, they will also appreciate your work and creativity. It's not like there are so many specialized Lego pieces that you don't have to think about how to create anything. "I'll just take a flux capacitor piece and plug it into my protonic reversal piece and voila..." If you've ever tried to build anything yourself, you know how hard this is.
posted by DU at 4:53 PM on November 14, 2008 [1 favorite]
And if you do that, people will appreciate your work and creativity. Or if instead you decide to use a full range of pieces, they will also appreciate your work and creativity. It's not like there are so many specialized Lego pieces that you don't have to think about how to create anything. "I'll just take a flux capacitor piece and plug it into my protonic reversal piece and voila..." If you've ever tried to build anything yourself, you know how hard this is.
posted by DU at 4:53 PM on November 14, 2008 [1 favorite]
In different contexts, I use both "lego" and "legos", depending on whether I mean to sound cute.
"I made that out of lego."
"I'm playin' with my legos, dude."
Can't we all just get along?
posted by rokusan at 5:53 PM on November 14, 2008
"I made that out of lego."
"I'm playin' with my legos, dude."
Can't we all just get along?
posted by rokusan at 5:53 PM on November 14, 2008
Kids who do nothing but put Star Wars and other themed Lego sets together ought to have a look at this guy's stuff.
This guy may be my seven-year-old son's future self. He loves the Lego Star Wars and Mars Mission sets, and always builds them according to the instructions. And then he takes them apart and builds fantastic things out of them--sometimes from his own imagination, sometimes creating his own accurate reproductions of space ships from movies. He made a really splendid and accurate little Wall-E the other day. I always laugh when people say that the building kits stifle kids' creativity--if a kid has that kind of mind, they're just a starting point.
Thanks for the tip about the LEGO pool at Flickr. My sons will love it.
posted by not that girl at 6:01 PM on November 14, 2008
This guy may be my seven-year-old son's future self. He loves the Lego Star Wars and Mars Mission sets, and always builds them according to the instructions. And then he takes them apart and builds fantastic things out of them--sometimes from his own imagination, sometimes creating his own accurate reproductions of space ships from movies. He made a really splendid and accurate little Wall-E the other day. I always laugh when people say that the building kits stifle kids' creativity--if a kid has that kind of mind, they're just a starting point.
Thanks for the tip about the LEGO pool at Flickr. My sons will love it.
posted by not that girl at 6:01 PM on November 14, 2008
Re: what you call it: "LEGO", "LEGOS". Neither is actually correct, according to the company. They want you to use the word before another noun like "lego brick" or "lego toy"..etc. The snobby euro way is LEGO and the common USA way is LEGOS. Who cares.
It's all bullshit, call it whatever you want.
posted by kumazemi at 9:34 PM on November 14, 2008
It's all bullshit, call it whatever you want.
posted by kumazemi at 9:34 PM on November 14, 2008
I have infinite admiration for his re-creation of the LL-497 set in updated lego bricks.
Even the computers have been upgraded!
posted by asok at 6:19 AM on November 15, 2008
Even the computers have been upgraded!
posted by asok at 6:19 AM on November 15, 2008
So damn cute, you'll grow permanent dimples.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 11:39 AM on November 15, 2008
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 11:39 AM on November 15, 2008
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posted by nickyskye at 6:24 AM on November 14, 2008