Legos turns 50

[Queasy]

Link

Ever wondered what percentage of the Earth?s weight is made up of Legos? The iconic plastic building brick turned 50 this year, and the Lego company estimates that in the course of five decades it has sold some 400 billion Legos.

From the original rectangular brick, Lego now makes more than 2,400 shapes. The Lego universe has expanded to include online games, movies, books, amusement parks, even a line of kids? shoes.

Lego has even spawned its own language. ?Brickfilms? are films, usually in stop-motion, made by fans. A LUG is a Lego User Group, an online community for fans. MOC stands for My On Creation, fans? building projects ? usually posted on LUGs. AFOLs are Adult Fans of Lego.

The list of things re-created in Legos is mind-boggling. Aircraft carriers. Yankee Stadium. Nativity scenes. Wedding-cake toppers. Michael Jackson?s ?Thriller? video. The ?Mona Lisa?, the Parthenon. Portraits of Barack Obama.

Here?s a look at how it all started, in a small workshop in Denmark.

1932: A Danish carpenter named Ole Kirk Christiansen switches from crafting furniture to wooden toys. To name his toy company, he coins the word ?Lego,? from the Danish words ?leg? and ?godt,? meaning ?play well.?

1939: A British toymaker named Harry Fisher Page invents plastic blocks that lock together.

1947: Christiansen discovers the plastic blocks and begins to refine their design.

1958: Lego design evolves to the state we now know it, with the ?stud and tube coupling system? that makes for stable, strong, interlocking bricks. Bricks from this era still work with new ones.

1961: The Lego wheel is invented.

1966: The first Lego motorized train debuts.

Norman Mailer builds a utopian City of the Future in his living room, using 15,000 Legos. It?s featured on the cover of his book ?Cannibals and Christians?.

1967: Supersized Duplos, designed for small hands, are introduced.

1968: Legoland amusement park opens in Billund, Denmark. Attractions include a world of miniatures, life-size jungle animals and the Statue of Liberty, all made from Legos.

1975: The Expert Series is introduced, featuring complex sets for older builders, with working gears and cogs.

1978: The first minifigure arrives, with moveable arms and legs and a tiny smiling face. At last, people to populate Lego houses and cities.

1978: The last of Lego?s major patents expires. Hellooooo, Mega Bloks.

1979: Christiansen?s grandson, Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen, takes over the company and introduces play themes such as Lego Space.

1980: According to a survey, 70 percent of all Western European families with kids younger than 14 have Lego bricks in their homes. Most likely scattered all over the floor.

1989: Seymour Papert of MIT, a longtime proponent of kids? using computers to learn, is named Lego Professor of Learning Research. The Lego Mindstorms line of robotic toys is named after his book.

1996: The online world of www.lego.com is launched.

Legoland Windsor amusement park opens in England. It includes a model of St. Paul?s Cathedral made from Legos.

1999: The first ?Star Wars? Lego sets are released, ending the era of smelly model glue and changing Lego history. Character sets from ?Harry Potter? to ?Indiana Jones? to ?SpongeBob SquarePants? will follow.

Legoland California amusement park opens in Carlsbad, Calif. It includes a model of Mount Rushmore made from Legos.

2001: The Bionicles line of heavily armored, half-robotic warriors is released. They are made without a single traditional brick. Computer games, comic books and movies will follow.

The Harry Potter Hogwarts Castle becomes a huge bestseller, with more than 1 million sets sold.

Brendan Powell Smith launches The Brick Testament Web site, an illustrated Bible with more than 3,600 illustrations made from Legos. The project is ongoing, most recently updated with the Book of Job.

2002: The music video for the White Stripes hit ?Fell in Love with a Girl? re-creates the band as animated Legos.

Legoland Deutschland amusement park opens in Germany. It includes a model of the Reichstag building made from Legos.

2003: Minifigures change from yellow to realistic skin tones.

Shaquille O?Neal, Kobe Bryant, Kevin Garnett and 21 other NBA players become Lego minifigures.

The world?s biggest Lego Christmas trees ? 27 feet high, 250,000 Duplos ? are built in Germany and California. The star on top takes 12,000 yellow Legos.

2004: Photos of two astronaut minifigures land on Mars aboard the NASA rovers Spirit and Opportunity.

2007: The first Lego Education Center in the U.S. opens in Southlake, Texas, offering courses in building and robotics for ages 3 to 12.

2008: Google celebrates Lego?s 50th anniversary by illustrating its logo in Legos. (Google?s founders are huge Lego fans. Google?s New York office is filled with Legos as artwork and Legos for play.)

The world?s tallest Lego tower is built in England, 96 feet high, 500,000 pieces.

A model of the Taj Mahal, with 5,922 pieces, becomes the biggest Lego set ever sold, surpassing the Star Wars Millennium Falcon, the previous record holder, with 5,195 pieces.

Sources: Lego, ?The New York Times,? the NBA, thebricktestament.com

A brick in every stocking: a Legos gift guide

For the ?Star Wars? fan (ages 12 and under): Very popular the new ?Clone Wars? models are, based on ships and characters from the new animated movie and TV series. In high demand are the MagnaGuard Starfighter (431 pieces, $44.99) and the Republic Attack Gunship (1,034 pieces, $119.99).

For girly girls: Yes, they make Legos for girly girls. The new Belville line is awash in pink, princesses and puppies. Try the horse-jumping set (ages 5-10, 54 pieces, $19.99).

For girls too cool for dollhouses: Lego?s modular houses let you build floor by floor, then swap out or connect to other sets. The line includes Market Street (ages 10 and up, 1,248 pieces, $89.99), Green Grocer (16 and up, 2,352 pieces, $149.99) and Cafe Corner (16 and up, 2,056 pieces, $139.99).

For the nostalgic builder: With the Golden Anniversary Set, you can relive the days when there were no fancy, specialized Lego pieces, when you had to make apple trees and people out of nothing but bricks (ages 4 and up, 700 pieces, $39.99).

For those who don?t mind a steady stream of Legos in the house: A membership in the BrickMaster club gets you six issues of a Lego magazine and six exclusive Lego sets over the course of a year. (Ages 7 and up, annual subscription $39.99, lego.com).

For the budding designer: With Lego Factory, you download software to design your own model, then order all the pieces you need to build it. The free software is available at factory.lego.com.

 

[Crono]

Argh, this reminds me I need to get a mini ITX mobo (prob Intel Atom 330) so I can finally build my lego PC. I think I'm going to come in first or second in my fantasy football league, so I have some spare money. Hooray!

I'll probably end up giving it away to a kid who actually needs a computer, though. I just need an excuse to play with legos Freestyle legos are the best!

 

[DisgruntledVirus]

I should build my HTPC case out of lego's

That would be fun

 

[Homerboy]

Thanks for the link Queasy
Ill be going through it with the kiddos tonight.
7 days until the mas construction begins!!!

 

[sdifox]

Originally posted by: DisgruntledVirus
I should build my HTPC case out of lego's

That would be fun

and utterly useless. One of the important function of the case is a faraday cage.

 

[Homerboy]

Originally posted by: sdifox

Originally posted by: DisgruntledVirus
I should build my HTPC case out of lego's

That would be fun

and utterly useless. One of the important function of the case is a faraday cage.

Ummm yeah. People have (successfully) built cases out of just about anything and everything. From legos, to wood, to plastic to glass. No major explosions have been reported.

 

[Oceandevi]

I had a ton of legos as a kid, but my mum warned me to keep them off the floor. She kept stepping on them at night. I never cleaned them up.

She threw them all away. lol

 

[Crono]

Originally posted by: sdifox

Originally posted by: DisgruntledVirus
I should build my HTPC case out of lego's

That would be fun

and utterly useless. One of the important function of the case is a faraday cage.

You can construct a metal frame within the lego case. Obviously that negates the point of using legos as a contruction material for the case, aside from the fact that lego pcs look cool.

 

[Crono]

Originally posted by: Oceandevi
I had a ton of legos as a kid, but my mum warned me to keep them off the floor. She kept stepping on them at night. I never cleaned them up.

She threw them all away. lol

My parents did the same. I think I could make a pool out of all the legos my parents threw out over the years.

 

[sdifox]

Originally posted by: Crono

Originally posted by: sdifox

Originally posted by: DisgruntledVirus
I should build my HTPC case out of lego's

That would be fun

and utterly useless. One of the important function of the case is a faraday cage.

You can construct a metal frame within the lego case. Obviously that negates the point of using legos as a contruction material for the case, aside from the fact that lego pcs look cool.

That would not be "build my htpc case out of legos"

 

[RagingBITCH]

Originally posted by: sdifox

Originally posted by: Crono

Originally posted by: sdifox

Originally posted by: DisgruntledVirus
I should build my HTPC case out of lego's

That would be fun

and utterly useless. One of the important function of the case is a faraday cage.

You can construct a metal frame within the lego case. Obviously that negates the point of using legos as a contruction material for the case, aside from the fact that lego pcs look cool.

That would not be "build my htpc case out of legos"

You're missing the point of having a lego case. It's just for looks on the outside.

 

[sdifox]

Originally posted by: RagingBITCH

Originally posted by: sdifox

Originally posted by: Crono

Originally posted by: sdifox

Originally posted by: DisgruntledVirus
I should build my HTPC case out of lego's

That would be fun

and utterly useless. One of the important function of the case is a faraday cage.

You can construct a metal frame within the lego case. Obviously that negates the point of using legos as a contruction material for the case, aside from the fact that lego pcs look cool.

That would not be "build my htpc case out of legos"

You're missing the point of having a lego case. It's just for looks on the outside.

That would be "Decorate my HTPC with Lego"

English for the win.

 

[Crono]

Originally posted by: sdifox

Originally posted by: RagingBITCH

Originally posted by: sdifox

Originally posted by: Crono

Originally posted by: sdifox

Originally posted by: DisgruntledVirus
I should build my HTPC case out of lego's

That would be fun

and utterly useless. One of the important function of the case is a faraday cage.

You can construct a metal frame within the lego case. Obviously that negates the point of using legos as a contruction material for the case, aside from the fact that lego pcs look cool.

That would not be "build my htpc case out of legos"

You're missing the point of having a lego case. It's just for looks on the outside.

That would be "Decorate my HTPC with Lego"

English for the win.

Cases can be made of multiple materials, metal and plastic. Plastic (in this case legos) for exterior, metal for interior.
Technology for the win?

 

[sdifox]

Originally posted by: Crono

Originally posted by: sdifox

Originally posted by: RagingBITCH

Originally posted by: sdifox

Originally posted by: Crono

Originally posted by: sdifox

Originally posted by: DisgruntledVirus
I should build my HTPC case out of lego's

That would be fun

and utterly useless. One of the important function of the case is a faraday cage.

You can construct a metal frame within the lego case. Obviously that negates the point of using legos as a contruction material for the case, aside from the fact that lego pcs look cool.

That would not be "build my htpc case out of legos"

You're missing the point of having a lego case. It's just for looks on the outside.

That would be "Decorate my HTPC with Lego"

English for the win.

Cases can be made of multiple materials, metal and plastic. Plastic (in this case legos) for exterior, metal for interior.
Technology for the win?

Key words are "Build" and "out of"

 

[RagingBITCH]

Originally posted by: sdifox

Originally posted by: Crono

Originally posted by: sdifox

Originally posted by: RagingBITCH

Originally posted by: sdifox

Originally posted by: Crono

Originally posted by: sdifox

Originally posted by: DisgruntledVirus
I should build my HTPC case out of lego's

That would be fun

and utterly useless. One of the important function of the case is a faraday cage.

You can construct a metal frame within the lego case. Obviously that negates the point of using legos as a contruction material for the case, aside from the fact that lego pcs look cool.

That would not be "build my htpc case out of legos"

You're missing the point of having a lego case. It's just for looks on the outside.

That would be "Decorate my HTPC with Lego"

English for the win.

Cases can be made of multiple materials, metal and plastic. Plastic (in this case legos) for exterior, metal for interior.
Technology for the win?

Key words are "Build" and "out of"

And you can still build a case out of legos.

 

[Crono]

Originally posted by: sdifox

Originally posted by: Crono

Originally posted by: sdifox

Originally posted by: RagingBITCH

Originally posted by: sdifox

Originally posted by: Crono

Originally posted by: sdifox

Originally posted by: DisgruntledVirus
I should build my HTPC case out of lego's

That would be fun

and utterly useless. One of the important function of the case is a faraday cage.

You can construct a metal frame within the lego case. Obviously that negates the point of using legos as a contruction material for the case, aside from the fact that lego pcs look cool.

That would not be "build my htpc case out of legos"

You're missing the point of having a lego case. It's just for looks on the outside.

That would be "Decorate my HTPC with Lego"

English for the win.

Cases can be made of multiple materials, metal and plastic. Plastic (in this case legos) for exterior, metal for interior.
Technology for the win?

Key words are "Build" and "out of"

You would need the word "wholly" or an equivalent word sandwiched in between. Even a lego case would ideally have other non-lego components, like power LED, switch, case fans, etc. A pure lego case wouldn't be very practical.

If you want legos only for the structure or skeleton of the case, then yes, it can be done.