Watch this hunk of junk do the Legoland Run in under 12 parsecs. Well under. Plus first looks at the Miniland-scale X-Wing, AT-AT, and more. We definitely need to have a Gizmodo party at Legoland. More »
1979 was the beginning of Lego as we know it today, the year when they took over the world, the year of the Galaxy Explorer. I photographed all the classic models in my Lego trip. Here’s the never-released gallery. More »
newVideoPlayer("/legovault_gizmodo.flv", 520, 410,""); I have to confess that life hasn’t been very good lately. Work around the clock, not enough free time, trying to have kids and crashing badly… all while moving to a country I don’t particularly like, away from my best friends and family. Maybe that’s why visiting Lego’s Memory Lane–the secret vault guarding almost every Lego set ever manufactured–touched me in a way I didn’t expect. This wasn’t amazement or simple awe. I was already astonished to no end by the tour of the Lego factory. No, this was something else, something bigger than the impressive view of the 4,720 Lego sets inside this lair. These weren’t just simple boxes full of bricks. These were tickets to ride a time portal to emotions and simpler days long forgotten.
newVideoPlayer("/legospacecenter_gizmodo.flv", 520, 410,""); Forget about the Lego Airbus A380 and the Lego Death Star, because this video will show you the mother of all Lego models: the 750,000-brick Kennedy Space Centre. Using 1,506 square feet, it took 2,500 hours to build. It includes a 1.87 metre tall Space Shuttle on the launch pad, the space centre with a 2.7 metre long Saturn 1B rocket, and the Vehicle Assembly Building—2.4m long x 1.8m high x 1.5m wide—made out of 50,000 Lego bricks. I know. Mindblowing. This thing is so massive that it can probably affect Earth’s orbit. Update: if Lego’s Kennedy Space Centre is the mother of all Lego models, Giz reader Florian Frischmuth has sent us his pictures of the father: the 1,300,000-brick Lego Allianz Arena stadium in Munich, Germany. This titan contains a mindblowing 30,000 mini-figs inside.
newVideoPlayer("legoa380_gizmodo.flv", 520, 410,""); Behold the biggest Lego aeroplane in the world, made after the largest passenger aeroplane in the world, the Airbus A380. Made at a 1:25 scale-2.9 metres long, 3.2-metre wingspan98 cms tall—the Lego A380 uses 220 pounds (100kg) of bricks. That’s a mindblowing 75,000 pieces in eight colours—15 Lego Millennium Falcons. With that amount of bricks, and knowing how long my Falcon is taking, I’m not surprised that it took 600 hours for the entire team of professional Legoland model builders to assemble this beast. [Giz's Lego Trip]
This is the second thing I found in my trip to the centre of the Lego universe. Road sign or secret tip? I tried the keyboard combo in my PowerBook and it didn’t work, but given the origin of the command symbol–as commanded by Steve Jobs and executed by Susan Kare–I thought it was well worth a try.
As you know, I’m in Billund, Denmark, right now. Tomorrow I’ll be talking with the guys who make LEGO, the ultimate geek toy, and I would be able to ask them anything I want. So what would you like to know? What would you like to see? Tell me in the comments or write to my mail directly. [LEGO]
I just arrived in Billund, Denmark, where every single LEGO piece in the world is produced. I got to the Zzzzleep Hotel just now and, to my surprise, I found this sign on the wall outside even while the hotel is not associated with LEGO in any way: “LEGO Security.” I guess that in LEGO city even the cops are little LEGO minifigs. Just a sign of what will happen tomorrow:
Once again, the record for the world’s largest Lego tower has fallen. Last year, the Lego bricks towered 29.2 metres over Toronto. This year, in celebration of Lego’s 50th anniversary, participants at Legoland in Windsor, UK built a tower resembling a Viking longboat mast that managed to hit the 30 metre mark using 500,000 bricks. Hitting the 100 foot mark is definitely a fitting way to celebrate the 50th anniversary—but I can’t help but wonder how high they can go next year. [Metro and Daily Mail]
