Comments on: Star Wars and LEGO, two great tastes that go together!

Star Wars and LEGO, two great tastes that go together!

deborah — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 12:31:43 -0800

Flickr stream. "...[T]he 5′X10′ diorama is comprised of 60,000 Lego bricks. It cost creator Mark Borlase about $3,000 and four years of construction time to complete." Take note of his custom LEGO pieces. [via]

By: deborah

deborah — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 12:34:15 -0800

Ack! Screwed up the title. Halp?

By: studentbaker

studentbaker — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 12:42:54 -0800

In the event that studentbaker's head explodes, this automated message is to inform his friends and family that whatever the cause, it must have been freakin' awesome!

By: Hands of Manos

Hands of Manos — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 12:45:21 -0800

I was under the gun of a large project that was pretty much sapping the life out of me. My dear mother thought she'd bring some "childhood fun" back into my life and bought me a few sets of legos (on sale of course) and sent them to me as a birthday present. I was so elated to get them since I'd not played with legos in like 20 years or something. I remember getting halfway through building the creation and I was like "damn this is really involved and I even have instructions." I couldn't imagine building something from scratch or imagination. Hats off to this guy (but wow he had 3k to drop on Legos? Wow)

By: Damn That Television

Damn That Television — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 12:45:48 -0800

What would be creepy and a waste of energy in any other children's toy medium immediately becomes awesome and heart-warming because it is LEGO.

By: OmieWise

OmieWise — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 12:47:59 -0800

This is really cool. I wish the presentation were better. When you spend 3k on your Lego creation, you should spend a bit extra to get some decent hosting so looking at the thing isn't like searching for a two-top in a box full of four-tops.

By: djgh

djgh — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 12:49:48 -0800

I bet no one's allowed to play with it.

By: Hands of Manos

Hands of Manos — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 12:50:18 -0800

OmieWise, Maybe as a slideshow?

By: bondcliff

bondcliff — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 13:00:30 -0800

Not to be all Han-shot-Firsty but isn't using custom Lego pieces sort like using steroids in the Olympics? By that I mean, not in the spirit of the game and grounds for disqualification, no matter how awesome you are? Is there an official governing body I can ask about this?

By: jquinby

jquinby — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 13:01:35 -0800

My son is going to 100% wig out when I show him this.

By: flipyourwig

flipyourwig — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 13:03:42 -0800

I knew a guy who did a HUGE lego Samurai Jack. But this takes the cake.

By: boo_radley

boo_radley — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 13:08:59 -0800

the word is "GUARD" you clod!

By: boo_radley

boo_radley — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 13:09:15 -0800

oh, and nice lego thing.

By: filthy light thief

filthy light thief — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 13:27:18 -0800

bondcliff, I'd think it's more an issue of creative license vs. canonical accuracy. With minifigs, there's only so much you can do with the pieces provided. If there's no suitable headpiece, you do without or you make one. Making one takes the whole thing to the next level of dedication to the project. $3k for legos sounds like a lot, but how does $3k for a 5' x 10' miniature world, built from scratch and to scale, sound? Or $750 per year? This kit has 592 pieces and retails for $99.99. Does $3,000 seem that outlandish for 60,000 pieces? OK, it still sounds like a lot of money.

By: OmieWise

OmieWise — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 13:32:25 -0800

HoM, Yes, the slideshow is better, but I still think it fails to capture the grandeur of the whole undertaking. My criticism, you understand, is rooted in the awesomeness of the project. I was never hugely bowled over by Star Wars, but Empire was always my favorite because there was something about the whole Hoth scene, and the subsequent space flotilla, that really captured my imagination.

By: fixedgear

fixedgear — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 13:38:48 -0800

Think he gets laid a lot?

By: threeturtles

threeturtles — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 13:43:32 -0800

I'm torn between showing this to my husband because he'll freak out and think its awesome and not showing it to him because he'll freak out and then I'll have Lego pieces all over the floor for the next few months. We have a closet that mostly holds huge trunks of Legos. As a gas station attendant once said to me after my husband freaked out over the $1 Lego sets on sale: "Look, honey, it could be a lot worse. He could be addicted to cars, or women. Legos aren't the worst possibility."

By: mrmojoflying

mrmojoflying — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 13:44:44 -0800

Think he gets laid a lot? I bet his weird, creative, eccentric talent gets laid all damned day.

By: fijiwriter

fijiwriter — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 13:53:00 -0800

Not to out-geek him, but 'cmon, it's the 501st Legion.

By: jamstigator

jamstigator — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 13:59:04 -0800

Of course he gets laid a lot -- he built a woman out of Legos long before he even began this Star Wars thing.

By: Avelwood

Avelwood — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 14:00:01 -0800

Think he gets laid a lot? While I do admire the effort and attention to detail, I also wonder what you tell people when undertaking a project like this. How do you explain to friends, parents, and potential love interests that you have a "pet project" that is taking up an entire room in your home and you spend a fair amount of time and money regularly working on your miniature Star Wars diorama? I'm not judging here, I just can't image trying to explain this to anyone. "Are you doing this for work?" "No." "Are you going to sell it?" "No." "Enter it into a competition or something?" "No. I just felt I needed to spend a lot of time and money on this for me." "Ah..."

By: fuzzypantalones

fuzzypantalones — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 14:14:09 -0800

i am more impressed by the idea of custom legos. how does one make their own legos? melt plastic down and form them in the oven? also, unless i missed it somewhere, i'd really like to see a picture of the whole room.

By: RikiTikiTavi

RikiTikiTavi — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 14:20:55 -0800

How do you explain to friends, parents, and potential love interests that you have a "pet project" that is taking up an entire room in your home Looks like he uses his garage. I've got woodworking equipment in much of my garage, so I can't really argue. tons of people have random junk in their garage; might as well have the space be used for something entertaining if not actually useful.

By: Lacking Subtlety

Lacking Subtlety — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 14:23:55 -0800

As much as I love legos... and as much as I love star wars... Even I'm going to buy the gun to help this guy end it all.

By: MiltonRandKalman

MiltonRandKalman — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 14:39:08 -0800

Is it custom?

By: DU

DU — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 14:47:14 -0800

Star Wars is overrated. LEGO is not. EOM

By: starman

starman — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 14:52:17 -0800

*Vader voice*: Impressive.

By: jadepearl

jadepearl — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 15:04:09 -0800

Err...well, let us say that someone, not me of course, was confronted by this hobby by a potential love interest. The question would be, "how truly dedicated is he to this?", could I, for experimental purposes only, be able to seduce him away from this? How is my power vs. the power of a lego diorama from the Empire Strikes Back? In essence, do I (not me of course, just the hypothetical person) have the WILL to WIN? Can superior yoga and 4th school Taoist techniques be strong enough? Oh yeah, he gets laid plenty.

By: mattoxic

mattoxic — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 15:07:29 -0800

This is better than the movie.

By: CynicalKnight

CynicalKnight — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 15:07:54 -0800

Impressive Self-serve Vader party!

By: PeterMcDermott

PeterMcDermott — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 16:07:25 -0800

I bet his weird, creative, eccentric talent gets laid all damned day. Yeah, by Rosie Palm and every single one of her five sisters.

By: Fleebnork

Fleebnork — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 16:18:02 -0800

While I do admire the effort and attention to detail, I also wonder what you tell people when undertaking a project like this. How do you explain to friends, parents, and potential love interests that you have a "pet project" that is taking up an entire room in your home and you spend a fair amount of time and money regularly working on your miniature Star Wars diorama? I'm not judging here, I just can't image trying to explain this to anyone. As someone with a decent amount of LEGO myself, I have no problem telling people about it or showing them my LEGO room. At risk of sounding like an afterschool special, don't apologize for who you are. This is my hobby. I enjoy it. I have made some good friends who also enjoy it. We have a great time together and when we set up a public display, seeing kids and adults alike go nuts over it is really rewarding and fun. I've even had the opportunity to participate in designing a couple of LEGO sets with the company. They have a very cool community program that most toy companies lack. Sure, there are always the snarks about living in your mom's basement or not getting laid. (Although most of the guys I know who are into it to this level are married with families) My favorite response is "This is what I do instead of sitting in front of the TV every night."

By: device55

device55 — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 16:26:23 -0800

People have had rooms full of model trains, musical instruments, movie posters, old toys, beanie babies or what the hell ever for years. It's a hobby. something to do. How is this any worse than some lard-ass who sits in front of a football game on the weekends? At least it's fun and creative. If he has, or plans to have, kids they will *love* it. Think he gets laid a lot? I'm sure he gets laid enough. There are plenty of women who are happy to tolerate or even, *gasp*, indulge the oddball hobbies that a man might have. Women, this may surprise you, often have diverse interests and hobbies themselves. I'd bet a lot of women would see this and think "I bet he'd be great with kids". I'd bet a few more would see this and say "Can I help?"* *The right answer is "yes"

By: filthy light thief

filthy light thief — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 16:27:33 -0800

Why does sex have to come into discussions of geeky collections? Does woodworking get anyone laid? How about putting boats into bottles? Or is that to high-brow? How about ice sculpting or chainsaw art? Are those different because you can get paid for that work? Can't anything be for fun? And can't that fun be just because the person who is making it thinks it's fun? For whatever record there is, my wife is the more avid Lego collector of the two of us. She still gets Legos for presents, and she's in her late 20s. This was never a turn-on, just a shared interest that was another fun shared hobby (along with collecting glass heads, but that's another story for another time).

By: filthy light thief

filthy light thief — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 16:31:12 -0800

And on posting, it seems other lego maniacs came out to defend geeky fun all at once. So, ditto Fleebnork and device55.

By: Bort

Bort — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 16:33:26 -0800

I wish the presentation were better. Using the Cooliris addon with firefox is awesome for viewing sites like flickr with images and sub-optimal layout/navigation.

By: Blazecock Pileon

Blazecock Pileon — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 16:47:26 -0800

How about putting boats into bottles? How about ice sculpting or chainsaw art? I can say that without reservation that putting boats into bottles will not get you laid. You might get to second base with chainsaw art.

By: mandal

mandal — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 17:06:03 -0800

Before I quit a while back, I probably spent more than that on cigarettes. My lungs or his awesome lego model? Hmm, tough question, huh? The money shouldn't really be an issue should it? I probably spend $750 a year on newspapers and magazines, or sandwiches, or any amount of other stupid crap. I won't even start on dumb obsessions that I can fritter my time away on.

By: nanojath

nanojath — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 17:31:42 -0800

What would be creepy and a waste of energy in any other children's toy medium immediately becomes awesome and heart-warming because it is LEGO. Yeah, everyone's still giving me shit about that Play-Doh woman I made.

By: wastelands

wastelands — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 17:58:59 -0800

Cool. I love people like this who are utterly obsessed with a hobby; it's inspiring. Now I bet it's only a matter of time before there's a stop motion film made from these sets.

By: lyam

lyam — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 18:42:26 -0800

he has a 12 year old son.

By: lyam

lyam — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 18:43:09 -0800

<>_>

By: lyam

lyam — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 18:44:11 -0800

(so I guess he got laid once)

By: slogger

slogger — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 20:38:40 -0800

I've easily spent more than $3K on my homebrewing ~~habit~~ hobby, except the only thing I have to show for it is ~~an alcohol problem~~ a keggerator in my dining room.

By: Vindaloo

Vindaloo — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 05:33:11 -0800

I look at this and think: "oh man, that's so awesome, I should do something like that!" Then I look at it again and think: "...maybe not."

By: FormlessOne

FormlessOne — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 12:33:49 -0800

DSC_0083: Custom ATAT attacking w/ wench... If only.

By: Avelwood

Avelwood — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 16:20:04 -0800

People have had rooms full of model trains, musical instruments, movie posters, old toys, beanie babies or what the hell ever for years. It's a hobby. something to do. How is this any worse than some lard-ass who sits in front of a football game on the weekends? At least it's fun and creative. If he has, or plans to have, kids they will *love* it. Sheesh! I really wasn't knocking him. More power to him. I only ask because I generally have to end up explaining my weird hobbies away when I'm confronted with people who don't quite "get it." My odd projects tend to be realtively small, never on the same scale as this guy's, and I'll claim they are a school project or the result of some strange bet with a friend. I have to say I like Fleebsnork's line about not sitting in front of the TV.