lego have just released an app for the iphone, which turns any photo you take into a mosaic of lego bricks. i have just downloaded it, and not only is it great, it’s also free!
via designboom
Posts Tagged ‘lego’
lego iPhone app
Friday, January 1st, 2010muji lego hole punch
Sunday, November 22nd, 2009
now, this is one of the most exciting thigs i have seen for a while. a collaboration between muji and lego. a hole punch, that punches lego sized holes in paper and card, to help you create other things.
i know it was as recent as my last post that i was saying how rubbish fake and non-lego things were, but i don’t think this counts, as it is an official product. and how innnovative it is! the possibilites are as endless as you imagination.
recently lego has been spreading out into all kinds of areas. see recent posts on boardgames (creationary, which i have played, and is amazing), architecture and gadgets. it seems they have been picking their collaborations wisely, as few ventures seem to be bad, and it makes you wonder why they didn’t do it sooner!
[i love lego, and have done many posts on lego related things. type in 'lego' into the search bar to see other things i written about!]
via boingboing
puzzle calender
Friday, November 20th, 2009
i was on the v&a shop website, and came across this: the ‘lego inspired’ puzzle calender. I’m not sure if I like it or not. On the one hand, it looks like lego, but then that’s the point: it’s not. And I don’t quite understand why certain things are certain colours.
Either way, it’s one of the few items on the v&a website that actually sold out, so i’m guessing it’s quite popular. And maybe something that lego themselves could actually do, but better.
(£12, if it becomes available again)
link to v&a shop
lego house comes down
Friday, September 25th, 2009
remember the post i did on james may’s lego house? well, it seems that after an unsuccessful bid to buy it (and then rebuild it) by legoland, it is being demolished. im not sure if demolished is the right word. but what i like about the images of it being taken apart are the unconventional shapes of holes in walls that are created.
apparantly the 3 million bricks that were used are going to be donated to charity.
(below) james may in the house.
via designboom
lego tshirt
Friday, September 25th, 2009
this is a tshirt, with an actual lego base plate attached to the front! im not sure how practical this would actually be, but it’s a cool idea anyway.
via designboom
more lego things: 1 month to go
Saturday, September 19th, 2009
a few months ago i did a post called more lego things, about a range of official LEGO gadgets, and have found out they are set to be released in the next month!
via designboom
[note, the mp3 player pictured in the bottom left of the picture is unofficial]
james may’s lego house
Tuesday, September 1st, 2009
you may have heard about this last month, but james may (of top gear) is building a lego house. and from the look of these pictures, it’s nearing completion!
i remember he’d said he wanted to use lego for as much of the construction as possible, including stairs, toilet and shower, before living in the house for two days.
the LEGO house is the latest toy challenge that james may has undertook as part of his BBC series james may’s toy stories. other projects included the world’s first plasticine garden, which won the people’s choice award at the chelsea flower show, and the world’s largest model plane. the show also created a scalextric version of the brooklands 2.75-mile racetrack in weybridge.
link to designboom article
creationary
Wednesday, July 8th, 2009
when i thought lego couldn’t be any better, i was made aware of this. lego creationary is like pictionary, except instead of drawing the item on the card, you make it. OUT OF LEGO! if you have ever heard of the game rapidough, it is a bit similar to that (in that you actually make the items on the card, but out of playdough in that game).
i don’t think there’s much more i can say about this item without playing it, but needless to say i am very excited to. it sells for £24.95 (which is about right for any board game these days), and is available from amazon.
this is what LEGO say:
Introducing LEGO® Games, the world’s first collection of games that you build, play and change. With the unique buildable LEGO Dice and changeable rules, LEGO Games is a great way of having fun together with family and friends.
Roll the LEGO® Dice to select one of four exciting building categories: vehicles, buildings, nature or things. With three levels of difficulty you can show off your building skills, while the others guess what you are creating. A great game for family and friends to test your imagination, creativity, building and guessing skills to the max. An interactive game for 3 – 8 players. Game play approximately 30-60 minutes.
all of the new LEGO games come with this amazing customizable, buildable die (below).
there are some other great looking games that they have recently released, but this one looks the best. check out the LEGO site for the others though, and hopefully i can get hold of this and give an update on it!
thanks tom!
link to LEGO
more lego things
Thursday, June 11th, 2009
another thing i saw a while ago, but this time again on boingboing gadgets. apparantly lego are to release a new product line, which will include a stop animation video camera, mp3 player, still camera, alarm clock, walkie talkies and boombox.
i can’t imaging them being the best quality ever, but for most of those products, does it really matter?
link to bbg article
2 cool lego related things
Monday, June 8th, 2009
jan vormann repairs walls using lego bricks. i saw something about this a while ago, and have just spotted it again on designboom. from that article:
in his ongoing project ‘dispatchwork‘ artist jan vormann uses LEGO bricks to repair damaged walls. he started by patching-up surfaces in bocchignano, italy and has since employed the technique on walls in tel aviv and berlin. vormann currently has a solo exhibition running at jarmuschek + partner in berlin-mitte, which ends june 13th.
there are a lot of photos to see, and i think they are awesome! the one above/right looks especially cool.
another thing i found today when looking for something for a project was a site where they have scanned in every lego instruction manual ever! amazing if you have lost one, or want to build something new with the bits you have, or even just for nostalgia. i can assure you, they are amazing.
link to designboom article
link to jan voorman
link to lego instructions
frank lloyd wright lego architecture
Friday, May 22nd, 2009
i saw this today on designboom, and it definitely caught my eye. from the original article:
the frank lloyd wright foundation together with lego have just released the
frank lloyd wright collection of lego architecture building sets, coinciding with his
exhibition ‘from within outward’ at the guggenheim museum. the line currently
consists of six buildings, including two of his most famous and recognizable
buildings, the solomon r. guggenheim museum and ‘fallingwater’.
the look like they’re probably going to be quite expensive, but very cool. on the more affordable end of the scale would be the landmark series (below), which includes the empire state building, the sears tower, the space needle and the john hancock center.
link to original article
lego rings on etsy
Monday, January 26th, 2009
etsy is an online marketplace where designers can sell hand made items such as jewellery. you set up your own shop, and away you go! one designer, thelovelyteaspoon, sells a few different lego inspired silver rings, which look really cool! above is the ‘primary combo lego ring’, and below is the ‘lego ring’ with different combinations.
seeing these has made me want to a) start up a shop on etsy and b) make my own lego ring!
thanks tom!
link to thelovelyteaspoon on etsy
be@rbricks (bear bricks)
Monday, October 27th, 2008
on the subject of lego, and toys in general, my brother has informed me (via pitchforkmedia) that daft punk are to be made in to be@rbricks! if you dont know what be@rbricks are, then here is a little (big) explanation from wikipedia:
Be@rbrick is a collectible toy designed and produced by MediCom Toy Incorporated. The name is derived from the fact that the figure is a cartoon-style representation of a bear, and that it is a variation of MediCom’s Kubrick design.
The first figure was released 27 May 2001 as a free gift to visitors of the World Character Convention 12. Since then Be@rbricks have been released in several different sizes using a variety of materials, including wood, felt, and glow-in-the-dark plastic.
The standard size is seven centimeters high, and these figures are referred to as 100% Be@rbricks. Other Be@rbricks are named for their size relative to the standard: 50% are four centimeters high, 70% are five centimeters high, 400% are 28 centimeters high, and 1000% are 70 centimeters high.
Be@rbricks differ from their predecessor Kubricks, in that each series includes 18 figures in 10 different themes, which are constant from series to series.
Be@rbricks are most often sold individually in “blind box” assortments, in which figures are packed in small boxes, and the only way to know which particular figure is inside a particular box is to purchase and open the box. The box states the frequency of each figure in percentages. While many retailers sell Be@rbricks in blind boxes, each for the same price, other retailers calculate the frequency of the figures, and sell them at prices that vary accordingly; in this instance, the Basic figure would be the least expensive, as it occurs most often in a case, and the second of the two Artist figures would be the most expensive, as it occurs least often in a case. The figures most valued by collectors are “chase” figures, which are unannounced and not shown in advertisements or on the box alongside other figures in the series.
Within these pre-determined ratios, Be@rbricks are produced in limited numbers, and not re-released. They are highly collectible, and predominantly collected by adults. Their packaging states that the figures are adult collectibles, not toys, and recommends them to collectors 15 years or older.
as it says, they differ from kubricks, and are very collectable. kubricks have a very interesting history too (if you want to follow the link at the bottom of this post). i bought my brother a metal gear solid figure (below) for his birthday last year, which was very cool!
link to be@rbrick site
link to wikipedia for be@bricks
link to wikipedia for kubricks
link to pitchforkmedia article
lego minifig turns 30!
Tuesday, October 7th, 2008
via designboom via icon eye (icon design magazine online) i have discovered the lego minifig has turned 30! from iconeye:
“It has been 30 years since Lego launched its much-loved minifigure, designed by Jens Nygaard Knudsen. The familiar little yellow men and women with funny hair and bemused expressions were the culmination of years of work. Knudsen filed and sawed Lego bricks, even experimenting with tin prototypes, to create the stocky flexible design icon we see today – since 1978 the design has only been modified by a matter of millimetres. Each body is three bricks high and comprises eight parts. It’s designed to hold a Lego brick in its hand, and to plug stand or sitting on top of other Lego elements. The figures were totally asexual until the first female figure, a nurse, arrived in 1980. Since then the population has exploded and all sort of personalities from Harry Potter to Steven Spielberg and Spiderman can now be seen to be climbing all over Lego creations all over the world. Here’s a gallery of the best and most creative over the years.”
link to designboom article
link to iconeye article
link to lego website
lego factory
Wednesday, March 12th, 2008
i’ve written more than a few posts about LEGO recently, but it’s only because it is so good.
not only does LEGO digital designer let you build models from scratch, using any brick shape size and colour, but it then lets you check how much it would cost to buy, and you can submit it to the website to sell!
they have some ’starter models’; half built models for you to edit and/or finish. then you can just build whatever you can imagine! it’s like having the best collection of LEGO ever to build with. I just hope it’s not too much choice…
i think i know what i’m going to be doing this easter break…
download it here!
watches
Wednesday, February 20th, 2008
cre.ations.net sells kits to build this binary/POV custom LED wristwatch. I think if it looked a bit nicer, i’d get one.
i’ve been thinking a lot about watches recently. i’m currently doing a project on the brand swatch, so have looked at pretty much their whole range and now want to buy one as ‘research’.
some other watches i’ve seen and want include michael young’s watch, which one of my tutors has, and a LEGO watch, which my friend sam dransfield has. below are pictures, but both are slightly different to the ones owned by the two sams.
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diy led watch from cre.ations.net
michael young watch from twentytwentyone
sam/ham, owner of the lego watch
Bjarne P. Tveskov interview
Wednesday, February 13th, 2008
i’m probably getting a bit obsessed with posting stuff about LEGO recently, but this guy designed some of the best stuff i remember.
AND he got the job when he was 17! from an advert in the newspaper! how crazy is that?!?!
click here for a link to the interview on boing boing.
I would LOVE to work for LEGO….
six ugliest LEGO space sets
Wednesday, January 30th, 2008
after saying that LEGO is my favourite thing ever, i’ve read this article which is very funny.
it’s true, however many amazing sets there have been, some of these are terrible. and i did actually have 6949….
LEGO half century
Monday, January 28th, 2008
needless to say, LEGO is (in my opinion) not only the greatest toy of all time, but the greatest product of all time.
today is (apparantly) it’s 50th anniversary.
click here for a timeline of LEGO. and maybe go buy some!