Topic: Lego

[Ziltoid]

Had a look at the past posts and realised there's not a thread dedicated to probably the most versatile "toy" out there.  Having seen this on the BBC website I thought it was probably the right time to open a thread for all things Lego

retro Lego; new Lego models from Star Wars to Lord of the Rings;  Lego gaming for all consoles; any special offers on the usual sites plus ebay sales.  It's a rip off I know but what the hell...!

It's Christmas soon and there's nothing more therapeutic than doing a Lego model on Christmas day whilst the TV is on and the kids are running riot.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-20578627

[wampa1]

I've got tons of LEGO.  Really got back into a few years ago.  There's a cool bit of software you can download which allows you to design your models on the computer and then get all the bits sent to you.  Designed a fairly detailed Ecto-1 and got all the parts for about £15

If you have a B&M near you they're selling the collectable minifigs for a £1 each.  Decent stocking filler if you're stuck for Christmas gifts.

[JerseyKloppite]

http://consumerist.com/2012/12/03/lego-finds-spare-discontinued-set-so-boy-who-saved-up-for-2-years-wouldnt-be-disappointed/

Lovely story!

[Beav]

I was thinking just the other day about starting a Lego thread.

I have a decent collection of the minifigs, which is expanding all the time. Not sure where the nearest B&M is to me but I'll try and check it out, always after a bargain.

Will try and post up a few pics of them, most are from Star Wars sets, there's dozens of great sets out there.

Looking at getting a few of the Superheros collection, and the Hobbit sets look really good.

[Ziltoid]

I've got tons of LEGO.  Really got back into a few years ago.  There's a cool bit of software you can download which allows you to design your models on the computer and then get all the bits sent to you.  Designed a fairly detailed Ecto-1 and got all the parts for about £15

If you have a B&M near you they're selling the collectable minifigs for a £1 each.  Decent stocking filler if you're stuck for Christmas gifts.

that software sounds interesting, more for my dad then me.  he's retired and sat at home doing nothing (apart from babysitting the youngest etc) plus he spent 40 years as a technical/CAD drawer so i think this would be right up his street.

The kids have got just about all the Harry Potter Lego - I did the Diagon Alley last christmas for them.  Let's hope they get something decent this Christmas!

Thinking of getting both the Wii LOTR Lego and Batman 2

[LukeD]

http://consumerist.com/2012/12/03/lego-finds-spare-discontinued-set-so-boy-who-saved-up-for-2-years-wouldnt-be-disappointed/

Lovely story!

It really is, what a top company.  Mind you, he should keep that boxed because it sounds like it'll be worth a fortune soon enough!

[Crimson_Tank]

I am quite the lego enthusiast, and it is just my luck the my son has just now started getting the lego bug before the holidays.

[Big Red Richie]

Lego. - Causing parental foot lameness since 1947.   

[Cre_mCr_cker]

It really is, what a top company.  Mind you, he should keep that boxed because it sounds like it'll be worth a fortune soon enough!

And the box sets it's a 14+. Better wait four more years.

[JerseyKloppite]

Just downloaded the software - it's absolutely brilliant on first inspection. Like a watered-down CAD software, but it seems to contain almost every LEGO piece ever made, having just had a gaze at the myriad drop down menus. Brilliantly, you can change the background environment and there's different noises to accompany each scene and you can explode your design when you've finished - like a bomb going off. Great fun.

Just read that Lego is the world's biggest tyre producer

Can you pop a link into your post?

[Big Red Richie]

Just read that Lego is the world's biggest tyre producer

I know, it's shocking the amount of kids sitting indoors gathering spare tyres in childhood obesity, insted of playing outside and being healthy. 

[Ziltoid]

http://www.freshnessmag.com/2012/03/21/lego-back-to-the-future-ii-delorean-by-orion-pax/

Delorean

Will be downloading that software later

[Barneylfc∗]

Lego is amazing. Expensive as fuck but amazing. So far we have got our kid Lego Ninjago sets, Batman sets, Star Wars sets, and Spongebob sets. Must have spent the best part of £300 on Lego alone for Christmas this year. He is obsessed with the stuff. Even the video games. Lego Batman, Star Wars, Harry Potter, Pirates of the Carribean. Cant get enough of it.

[smithy]

Allez, le link:

http://ldd.lego.com/

Spotted this a few months back. Was a bit annoyed that they've stopped shipping them.

Also saw this today... How tall can a lego tower get?

[Slick_Beef]

Lego is brilliant. My favourite is the lego castle stuff, I used to spend hours playing with that. Great for the imagination.

I thought James May's lego house a few years ago was brilliant too.

[Billy1561]

Not the same as when i was a child. All we had in the box was bricks windows and wheels..... Mechano was something else though.

[exiledintheUSA]

Get yourself to Billund if you like Lego*.




*Nothing to do there other than look at Lego but still fun.

[Seebab]

I didn't even need a specialised set with instructions. I would spend hours just building multicoloured rectangular houses from any piece of lego I could find-for my guys to sleep in. What a childhood I had.

[Big Red Richie]

As a kid, I had tons of Lego.   Mostly with teeth marks in the sides, because you couldn't get the bricks to come apart. 

[J-Mc-]

Not going to lie, I asked my gf to get me lego for my birthday back in August, 22 and I still want lego.

It's boss.

[Big Red Richie]

Not going to lie, I asked my gf to get me lego for my birthday back in August, 22 and I still want lego.

It's boss.

You're a grown man FFS!

It had better be the 50 shades of grey, lego, or you're letting the side down son. 

http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?q=lego+50+shades+of+gray&num=10&hl=en&safe=off&tbo=d&biw=1366&bih=576&tbm=isch&tbnid=kaziqV148bXeyM:&imgrefurl=http://www.funnyjunk.com/funny_pictures/4052571/50%2Bshades%2Bof%2Blego/&docid=CoTWbelFmm-uwM&imgurl=http://static.fjcdn.com/pictures/50%252Bshades%252Bof%252Blego.%252BNo%252Bnudism%252Bin%252Bhere%252Bbut%252Bif_8803cb_4052127.jpg&w=501&h=359&ei=2Vi-UPDGKsPJ0AWQ74DoBQ&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=330&vpy=127&dur=2077&hovh=190&hovw=265&tx=184&ty=134&sig=118280701092903789960&page=1&tbnh=139&tbnw=178&start=0&ndsp=23&ved=1t:429,r:2,s:0,i:90

[meady1981]

I have no qualms admitting i used to be a member of the lego club. They used to send me birthday cards up until I was 18. I also remember my next door neighbours had a 2-year old who was getting constant ear and nose infections for a month or so. Gallons of mucus was pouring out of her. After several trips to the bemused doctor they found two Lego man heads. One lodged in her ear and one up her nose. Standing barefoot on a Lego brick is the most painful thing known to man.

These are my stories about Lego. Thanks for listening.

[Big Red Richie]

I have no qualms admitting i used to be a member of the lego club. They used to send me birthday cards up until I was 18. I also remember my next door neighbours had a 2-year old who was getting constant ear and nose infections for a month or so. Gallons of mucus was pouring out of her. After several trips to the bemused doctor they found two Lego man heads. One lodged in her ear and one up her nose. Standing barefoot on a Lego brick is the most painful thing known to man.

These are my stories about Lego. Thanks for listening.

Lego. - Causing parental foot lameness since 1947.   

[rob1966]

My lad is 4 and he loves the stuff, been into it for about 2 years, its brilliant for getting his mind working. All he wants for Christmas is Lego Star Wars stuff. Only thing that pisses me off is you'll buy something like a lego boat or a dumper truck, it'll get made once then it will turn into parts of a house or a car or something. No way will I spend £70-80 on something that will end up never being built to what its supposed to be again.

[redforlife]

I saw the thread and thought of this

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7sESR8j6oVY

[choi]

Ryan Babel is that you? #legooo

[scoresagain]

I'm 23 and getting lego for Christmas, it'll be like Christmas' of old, sitting cross legged building them Only these days I'll get a dead leg in 20 mins and have to stop, such a brilliant toy. Amazing how the sets can hold their value, even without instructions or boxes.

[Dr. Beaker]

Went to Legoland with me son, me missus, and me 80 year old ma and had a great day. Don't know why it's called Legoland though, couldn't get a bevvy anywhere.

[Beav]

I'm 23 and getting lego for Christmas, it'll be like Christmas' of old, sitting cross legged building them Only these days I'll get a dead leg in 20 mins and have to stop, such a brilliant toy. Amazing how the sets can hold their value, even without instructions or boxes.

Not just the sets, but the minifigs go for ridiculous prices if they are out of a rare set.

A mint Cloud City Boba Fett goes for £200+ on ebay. Two. Hundred. Pounds. For one lego figure.

What's great about lego is that as a kid you get the fun of building whatever your mind can come up with, then as you get a bit older you make more complex things, then you enjoy making the standard sets and not dismantling them into scrap, then you get into collecting them, then you have kids and the cycle starts again. It's magnificent.

[meady1981]

Want one for christmas.

[Ycuzz]

There's a cool bit of software you can download which allows you to design your models on the computer and then get all the bits sent to you

Hello!

The kids are getting pine cones and newspaper for Christmas. Daddy will lock himself in the basement.

[Ycuzz]

Get yourself to Billund if you like Lego*.




*Nothing to do there other than look at Lego but still fun.

Except Legoland?





Which is hell on earth by the way. A million people and kids going completely nuts. The in-laws have a summer house not too far away so it's something we 'have to do' every year.

A fresh hell each year..

[UntouchableLuis]

My little brother loves the stuff - dread to think what my dad has spent on getting him about 100 different sets but have to admit some of it looks quality. He's got a lot of Star Wars and Lord of the Rings sets. Most notable is the Death Star which was £100 I think.

[Kez]

Read this at lunchtime and thought of this thread!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-20578627

It's not just children who like to build towers with Lego - the internet is alive with discussion on how many Lego bricks, stacked one on top of the other, it would take to destroy the bottom brick. So what's the answer?

There has been a burning debate on the social news website Reddit.

It's a trivial question you might think, but one the Open University's engineering department has - at the request of the BBC's More or Less programme - fired up its labs to try to answer.

"It's an exciting thing to do because it's an entirely new question and new questions are always interesting," says Dr Ian Johnston, an applied mathematician and lecturer in engineering.

Looking on the internet, he expected to find the answer, but was surprised to find only a lot of speculation.

Perhaps that's because not everyone who has pondered the question has ready access to a hydraulic testing machine.

The 2x2 Lego brick looks vulnerable, placed on top of a metal plate, which a hydraulic ram is pushing upwards. On top of the brick is a second plate, with a load cell on top of it, measuring the force being exerted.

Safety glasses on, the engineers begin to nervously edge towards the door.

"We're setting it up automatically, so that we can all back out of the room, so none of us is in range when the thing goes bang," Johnston explains - positioned, I notice, slightly behind me.

And the load on top of the brick gets larger and larger. We reach 3,500 newtons (N) of force - the equivalent of having 350kg (770lbs) sitting on top of the brick - more than a third of a tonne.

The force climbs on, above 4,000N. And then...

Nothing.

Well, not much. There is no big bang. The brick just kind of melts.

It looks like a small square of warm camembert.

This, Ian Johnston explains - noting that the computer also shows the load is no longer increasing - is a "material failure".

"The material is just flowing out of the way now and it's not able to take any more. We're getting a plastic failure. It means the brick keeps on deforming, without the load increasing. Metals can be plastic, and this plastic is being plastic," he says.

So - how many Lego bricks, stacked one on top of the other, would it take to destroy the bottom brick?

Ian Johnston and the team do two more tests to be sure we hadn't just happened upon the strongest Lego brick in existence. And in fact they were impressed at the consistency of Lego manufacture.

The average maximum force the bricks can stand is 4,240N. That's equivalent to a mass of 432kg (950lbs). If you divide that by the mass of a single brick, which is 1.152g, then you get the grand total of bricks a single piece of Lego could support: 375,000.

So, 375,000 bricks towering 3.5km (2.17 miles) high is what it would take to break a Lego brick.

"That's taller than the highest mountain in Spain. It's significantly higher than Mount Olympus [tallest mountain in Greece], and it's the typical height at which people ski in the Alps," Ian Johnston says (though many skiers also ski at lower altitudes).

"So if the Greek gods wanted to build a new temple on Mount Olympus, and Mount Olympus wasn't available, they could just - but no more - do it with Lego bricks. As long as they don't jump up and down too much."

A 2x4 brick would fail sooner, Ian Johnston reckons, while a 1x2 brick would likely be able to withstand more.

But could a 3.5km Lego tower really be built?

"There isn't a chance you could do it in reality," Johnston says. "Long before the brick fails, the tower would fail as a structure itself, by buckling. The other thing you have to remember is that we were very careful to load this equally down the middle, so that all four walls were loaded."

A 3.5km tower would have to be built so straight that it was no more than 2mm off centre at the midway point, he says.

"And I'd be delighted to meet a Lego builder who could make a 3.5km tower so accurately."

Cue Duncan Titmarsh, the UK's only certified Lego builder - and one of only 13 worldwide - and Ed Diment, his partner at company Bright Bricks.

They built the 12.2m (40ft) Lego Christmas tree that stood in London's St Pancras station last Christmas, and the 5m x 3m advent calendar standing in Covent Garden.

Do they think they could take up the challenge? No.

"If you try stacking 2x2 bricks as soon as you get beyond 3 or 4m tall there's almost no way you can take out all of the kinks," Ed Diment says.

"So it would be totally structurally impossible to do it, whilst it's an interesting theory."

Real life can be so disappointing sometimes.

[scoresagain]

My little brother loves the stuff - dread to think what my dad has spent on getting him about 100 different sets but have to admit some of it looks quality. He's got a lot of Star Wars and Lord of the Rings sets. Most notable is the Death Star which was £100 I think.

How big is it? If it's the big one its £275!

[scoresagain]

As a kid, I had tons of Lego.   Mostly with teeth marks in the sides, because you couldn't get the bricks to come apart. 

They provide a brick separator with the sets these days, probably due to the amount of kids losing teeth trying to bite them!

[Gifted Right Foot]

it's great when you can use your nieces and nephews as an excuse to play with lego

[BarryCrocker]

Remember seeing an art show by Olufur Elliasson at the MCA in Sydney back in 2009. He had a white room filled with just white lego pieces. Left it up to the public to build whatever they wanted. Wasted half a day in there.

[Beav]

My little brother loves the stuff - dread to think what my dad has spent on getting him about 100 different sets but have to admit some of it looks quality. He's got a lot of Star Wars and Lord of the Rings sets. Most notable is the Death Star which was £100 I think.

This one?



http://shop.lego.com/en-GB/Death-Star-10188?CMP=KAC-SAHCSEU8&HQS=10188

Beast! Id kill for this set, but £275 is a bit much for one lego set right now haha.

[Ziltoid]

http://www.amazon.co.uk/LEGO-10179-ULTIMATE-COLLECTORS-MILLENNIUM/dp/B0017V21EY/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1354788842&sr=8-5

This is the one i'd love to try; however at £3,000 it's a tad out of my price range