Lego Bricks Require More Polygons Than World of Warcraft Avatars

"It's more complicated to model a simple Lego brick than a Druid, according to Lego Universe developer NetDevil."

In an interview with Gamasutra, creative director forLego Universe Ryan Seabury revealed that due to the Lego Group's "uncompromising" standards for the appearance of any Lego product, there is more to a Lego brick than an entire World of Warcraft character. The building blocks in the Lego MMO that players can use to create anything (but ideally not phalli) might look simple, but they're not."


For the full article, see: 
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/103848-Lego-Bricks-Require-More-Polygons-Than-World-of-Warcraft-Avatars

Series 3 Collectible Minifigs - ideas? sneak peek?

via Tazbrick (Tasmanian AFOLs)
ref: http://tazbrick.maxforum.org/2010/09/27/series-3-minifigures/

10% off LEGO at Target - Series 2 minifigs are only $3.38 !

10% off LEGO at Target.

That also means Series 2 collectible minifigs are only $3.38 each!

The Replica of Las Vegas Made From 24 Million of LEGO Bricks

Las Vegas is one of the world’s most famous and in same most controversial cities. It is known by the gathering points for gamblers and rich people who do not know what to do with their money.


More pics at http://planetoddity.com/category/people-oddity/ and scroll down to the LEGO story.
 

The Fastest and Funniest LEGO Star Wars story ever told

In case you haven't seen it yet, go to YouTube and check out dzine123's  fast and furious LEGO Star Wars trilogy.


Yes, the Star Wars trilogy, told in 2 minutes and 13 seconds!
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z0z_TU4Gw5o

LEGO special at Costco

Blacks Bricks LEGO Pricewatch continues!


This year's lego set at Costco is the Fire Helicopter set (7206).
They are selling it for $42.99.


(Check with Costco if it is in stock now, or coming for Christmas:
    http://www.costco.com.au/Common/ContactUs.shtml






(Full retail on this set is $59.99


LEGO online (Shop at Home)

   http://search2.lego.com/exec/?q=7206&pt=&lang=2057&cc=AU.)

Fly to the scene of any emergency!

There’s a wildfire outside LEGO® City! Quick – launch the Fire Helicopter into the air! Spin the propeller while you hook up the giant bucket, then fly off to scoop up some water at the nearest lake. Meanwhile, the speedy fire truck races to the scene to help keep the blaze under control! Includes 2 minifigures with fire-fighting gear.

• Includes Fire Helicopter and fire truck
• Includes 2 firefighter minifigures in full gear
• Helicopter has a powerful spinning propeller
• Measures over 12" (30cm) and over 4" (10cm) long

LEGO PriceWatch

Hyperspeed Pursuit

Item #: 5973

Ages: 7-14

Pieces: 456

Price

normally
AUD $79.99 

$47.99 at Toys 'R Us (40% off)

till 26 Sept 10

normal price,

current at shop.lego.com

• 
  

LEGO PriceWatch: Cheaper LEGO sets - Toys R Us

LEGO PriceWatch:

Toys R Us (AU) - sale Starts 15 Sep - Ends 26 Sep

    e.g. Lego City Garage - $83.99 (save 40%) was $139.99

Top Gear team made in LEGO

I missed this when published a year ago (27th of August 2009), but I saw it tonight and I like the Top Gear team. All four are there.

I do have an affinity for LEGO minifigs. Scenes like this, made of LEGO, are great too. There is a story to it, and you can see more details - especially about the car - are on the autoevolution web site at http://www.autoevolution.com/news/top-gear-team-made-of-lego-10291.html.

LEGO loses legal battle

LEGO has lost its legal battle to register its red eight stud brick as a trademark.

LEGO’s red eight-stud brick cannot be used as a trademark
(Photo: LEGO)

The European Court of Justice in Luxembourg turned down the toy marker’s appeal to overturn a decision made in 2004 to cancel the trademark. The court said the functional shape of a brick could not be registered as a trademark.


Lego will be unable to appeal against the decision.Peter Kjær, Lego’s head of intellectual property, said: “This was the court of final instance, and we have no option but to note the court’s ruling. The ruling has been given on the question of whether the brick is functional or not – and the court has concluded that it is functional. We have always disputed this – and continue to do so. In other court actions we have shown that bricks with virtually the same function can have other appearances."

The ruling means that Lego is not permitted to claim exclusive right to the use of an eight-stud brick as a trademark. Canadian rival Mega Brands (www.megabrands.com) had challenged Lego’s trademark application. Kjær said Lego was concerned that the use of the brick by others could dilute the trademark and that consumers could be misled into believing that they were buying a Lego toy when they were purchasing a different product.

Published on 21.09.2010 - Plasteurope.com

(Plasteurope.com is a business information platform for the European plastics industry.)

Collectible Minifigs - Series 2 - LOTS available at Camberwell Target

The blue bags are in. They arrived late last week at Camberwell Target.
The good news is - there are still HEAPS there, including lots of the more popular ones.
Get your barcode cheat sheet (see the link in my earlier blog), or see me at the market on Sunday and borrow one for Target, when it opens after 10am.

New minifig arrivals for next Sunday at Camberwell

4 Darth Maul
4 Darth Vader (White Pupils)
4 Princess Leia (Jabba Slave, Light Flesh)
4 Chewbacca (Reddish Brown)
Lightsaber blades (new)
- trans-purple
- trans-neon green

LEGO PriceWatch at Blacks Bricks (blxbrx)

Cheapest LEGO sets on sale - where?

I will post regular price information for your retail and internet set purchases.

Many readers already know that I sell LEGO minifigs at Camberwell Sunday Market.
I don't sell current new retail LEGO sets there. It is against the market's rules.

With this blog I can regularly share with you where you can buy best new set prices, updated regularly.

Please help me! Email me at blxbrx@gmail.com (or posting comments on here) with any sales, specials or regular cheap price vendors. I will then check, then make that information known for everyone.

Check Blacks Bricks Blog (blxbrx) before buying. I will tell you where and when to find LEGO bargains when you need to buy sets.

Behavioural Science & LEGO

How much do you have to pay people to build with LEGO?

Sisyphus by Titian, 1549

Persephone Supervising Sisyphus, amphora, about 530 BC

"We become very dedicated to things it would be hard to be dedicated to if we were perfectly rational," says behavioral scientist Dan Ariely, author of "The Upside of Irrationality," published in June. "It turns out you can give people lots of meaning in lots of ways, even small ones."

In a study published in 2008, Ariely and two collaborators found that people form attachments to their work with great ease. For the experiment, research subjects were paid $2 to build a 40-piece Lego model. When they finished, they were offered a bit less money to build another. This sequence continued until the subject felt the work was no longer worth the reward.

For some subjects, the completed Lego models accrued on the desk in front of them. For others, the finished models were disassembled before their eyes — part of an attempt to reduce the work's meaning. These subjects were known as the Sisyphus group, named for the mythical king sentenced to eternally push a boulder up a mountain only to have it slip back down just before reaching the top.

In the end, those in the Sisyphus group built significantly fewer models. They also stopped working when compensation reached $1.40, while the other group continued to work until payment neared $1. Economically speaking, those who found their task meaningless demanded about 40% higher wages than those who witnessed the fruits of their labor.


(except) By Eric Jaffe, Special to the Los Angeles Times
source: http://www.latimes.com/health/la-he-work-motivation-20100920,0,6511051.story

Images from Wikipedia:
Myth of Sisyphus, novel by Albert Camus - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Myth_of_Sisyphus
Sisyphus - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sisyphus

James May's book - LEGO House

A whole house, out built out of Legos!!

A talented design & build team, 1,100 volunteers from the British public, and 3.3 million Lego bricks later, and voila! A Lego abode emerged from a vineyard. It holds the Guinness World Record for the largest Lego structure.

Fulfilling a boyhood fantasy, James May and his team built the Lego house for an episode of Toy Stories–his popular BBC TV series–where he shares extraordinary things people can do, with ordinary toys.

Just out is the colorful book where James chronicles the experience.

Borders online has it available for $25.95. http://www.borders.com.au/book/james-mays-lego-house/8499762/

It may also be in their shops, and other book shops.

What I remember most about LEGOs, by "The Oatmeal"

Build Anything. (Ah, to live in a world made from LEGO)

LEGO objects in a real world setting. Nothing extra special, but a fun short video. It was an advert for LEGO, made by Temujin Doran   http://vimeo.com/12513670

LEGO Collectible Minifigs Series 2 - now at Target Camberwell

Lots of boxes there last night. They looked fresh - not too picked over. If you need a barcode sheet, come and see me at Camberwell Market on Sunday before you go up to Target, or print one off yourself.

Barcodes are available for download on Brickset to help you check the minifigs series 1 (The page is in German, but the links are clear):   http://bricks.inof.de/docs/minifig-barcodes/
Click here to view the barcodes and detailed pics for series 2.

An app is also available for iPhones that can do barcode recognition for you if you have one of those phones.

Or, use your Android phone to scan the barcodes at Mobile Brickset.

I am told that The Minifigures Series 3 will be released in January 2011.^[1] This series and any series released after this one (if there are to be others) will not have barcodes on the packets that can be used to identify which minifigure is inside the packet, unlike series 1 and 2. (ref: http://lego.wikia.com/wiki/Minifigures_Series_3)

Bionicle Cobra

What do you do when you have a whole lot of Bionicles, and you no longer want to make the original sets and models? Have a look at these from LEGO builder and Star Wars fan Brandon Griffith (monsterbrick).

Another picture, a bit bigger and .....

Have a look at the full series on Flickr at http://www.flickr.com/photos/monsterbrick/sets/72157621273816619/


He also made a great Star Wars chess set based from Empire Strikes Back LEGO pieces.

See more of Brandon's creations (including a lot of other "sculptures" made from Bionicles parts) at his photostream at http://www.flickr.com/photos/monsterbrick/

Kmart catalog - LEGO backpacks $19 - see page 21

More for less this Spring

From 16th September 2010 to 22nd September 2010

Catalogue link: http://www.kmart.com.au/catalogue/catalogue.aspx?CatalogueID=315&PageNo=20&ImageSize=0

40% off some LEGO at Toys R Us

Toys R Us Catalogue - Sale: Ends 26 September 2010

Toys R Us catalog link - click here

More Dalek photos - from Worldcon Melbourne 2010

Check out more pics at LostCarPark's Flickr photostream at: 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/lostcarpark/with/4976205533/

3 new unofficial LEGO Technic books - all by Isogawa Yoshihito

This is the same author who I told you allows you to download his 200 page building PDF book free, teaching building basics. If you like it you can send him $10.


Now he has published 3 Unofficial LEGO TECHNIC Idea Books in print, for anyone who wants to create a moving masterpiece, as well as those who want to make original robots with MINDSTORMS.


LEGO TECHNIC is designed to allow builders to create more advanced models with moving parts, like those built with LEGO MINDSTORMS.

The Unofficial LEGO TECHNIC Idea Book: Vehicles offers hundreds of ideas and examples for building mechanisms with TECHNIC. This volume focuses on vehicles that can drive, turn, move things, and go backwards. The book is color throughout, with little to no text accompanying its diagrams; rather than tell you what to think, you are encouraged to use your own imagination. The book's illustrations demonstrate various ways to build TECHNIC vehicles, which you can use as starting points for your own creations. Vehicles begins by teaching readers about tires, rotation speed, and how to build a simple car with a motor, then demonstrates more complex actions, like how to use differential gears; make a car turn or move items; add car suspension with rubber bands or springs; and go backwards and forwards and switch rotational directions.

The Unofficial LEGO TECHNIC Idea Book: Gears offers hundreds of ideas and examples for building mechanisms with TECHNIC. This volume focuses on gears and power transmission. The book is color throughout, with little to no text accompanying its diagrams; rather than tell you what to think, you are encouraged to use your imagination. The book's illustrations demonstrate various ways to combine TECHNIC gears, which you can use as starting points for your own creations. Gears begins with the basics of gears, shafts, connectors, and gear combinations, then demonstrates more complex actions, like how to build winches, cranes, and chains; change rotational motion to linear motion; launch projectiles with rubber bands; change speed and direction; and even create musical instruments.

The Unofficial LEGO TECHNIC Idea Book: Walkers offers hundreds of ideas for combining LEGO TECHNIC propellers, motors, weights, magnets, and other parts to make creations that walk. The book is color throughout, with little to no text accompanying its diagrams; rather than tell you what to think, you are encouraged to use your own imagination. Walkers begins with basic four-legged walkers, including an ant, a spider, and a dog. It then shows how to do more complex things with LEGO TECHNIC, like how to use propellers, wind, weights, and vibration to make creations move; utilize springs to make a rocket launcher and a tennis ball pitching machine; employ pumps, cylinders, and the air to make creations move; and more.


All three are available from Borders Online. For more information and reader reviews, go to:
   http://www.borders.com.au/by/isogawa-yoshihito/2906195/

Brickvention 2010 Melbourne - LEGO convention earlier this year - video

If you are not aware of it, have a look at some local LEGO designers' work, showcased earlier in the year at Melbourne Uni.

More images:
   http://www.google.com.au/images?hl=en&q=Brickvention%202010&um=1&ie=UTF-8&source=og&sa=N&tab=wi&biw=1280&bih=890
Video:
   http://www.youtube.com/jawapro#p/u/1/nlBX5HVJE50
Maybe your creations will be there next year?

ATLANTIS byMe! & results of ATLANTIS contest.

Wow! Great idea on the ATLANTIS theme from LEGO HQ.

Choose a basic model,
customize it with other LEGO parts on your computer with Digital Designer - (download for free), then
design your own box. Buy it, and it gets sent to you.

 Step 1: Choose a cool Starter model!

Step 2: Add more elements to make the model your own.

 Step 3: Design your Box and Buy!

For more details from LEGO, and links for the free download, go to:
http://designbyme.lego.com/en-US/Features/default.aspx?iCMP=COHomeCenterStageUS2010Sept7DbM

The Design byME Contest

LEGO had an ATLANTIS "Design byME" contest. There were 1,397 entries, and it was won by arnebremer (Tristan). His model is below:

Tristan' description: Hi, I'm Tristan and you can see me inside my favorite Submarine. It is a scientific research vessel and it's design is based on the very maneuverable hammerhead shark.


Click on the link below for details of how to compete in the upcoming "Design byME" Halloween contest (starting Monday the 27th of September).

http://designbyme.lego.com/en-US/competition/default.aspx

More Sariel

I love this! And it tilts with linear actuators.

See more photos at http://www.mocpages.com/moc.php/190737

I have added his main web page to the Fantastic Builders at the top right of my blog page, but make sure you go to his web page - http://sariel.pl/
He is very generous with his explanations and demonstrations of how to create detailed mechanical LEGO creations especially.

LEGO Gear ratio calculator

Polish AFOL Paul "Sariel" Kmiec (who built this neat robot arm) (http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2010/03/pneumatic_lego_robotic_arm.html  with facebook video) has created a Lego gear ratio calculator that lets you create complicated sets of gears and gives you speed, torque and ratios. I will also add the link at the top right of my blog page for future reference if you need to find it again another day.

Another tool lets you position two axles, then tells you what gears will work with that configuration. Lastly, you can choose which motor you're using and it will compute output speed and torque for that gearset.




Sariel is also an inspirational and innovative designer. A recent Sariel inspiration from his facebook wall. He is very good at explaining and showing how his designs work, eg tracked Leopard Tank problems and solutions. He has also been going through recording his preparation for LEGO Truck Trials. More about them in a future blog. Meanwhile look at this Tracked Land Rover inspired by the Inception movie.

He is a brilliant LEGO builder who I have followed over many years. Time to draw him to others attention if you don't already know of him.

(via Makezine & The NXTStep]

More Dr Who LEGO - the Tardis this time

New Tardis made from LEGO on Flickr.

More photos and other creations in JustJon's photostream at http://www.flickr.com/photos/justjon/with/4973552245/