TGIF - Totally Great Indy Fest

...and to send us into this LONG weekend smiling and possibly in awww:

Thank you to Gizmodo's Jesus Diaz for making me aware of this amazing, Indiana, meets LARGE LEGO boulder, meets STEEP San Francisco street...and mini-van...VIDEO!

File this one under important documents...

Jesus Diaz's of Gizmodo is a LEGO Maniac. He is certainly on par with me and my crowd in regards to fan status. If you don't follow Gizmodo, you should. His wife recently posted an essay today entitled "How to Love a LEGO Maniac," which includes a 10 step program outlining exactly how to ensure a smooth relationship with a LEGO fanatic. This post is my effort to help in spreading her word and knowledge to significant others of LEGO maniacs worldwide.

Of course, each LEGO maniac situation will call for unique combination of guidelines to leading a healthy and balanced life, but I must say this article is a great jumping off point. I'll definitely keep this one filed under important documents.

As gracious as I am for this new resource as I look for my lifelong companion, I am, in fact, hosting major feelings of jealousy over here, in reference to Jesus' potential pilgrimage to the LEGO factory in Denmark this coming in June.

A new world record!

From DVICE on 5/6/08: If you’re looking for the tallest tower of LEGO in the world, here's a picture of it right here. This monster was built in the Legoland Windsor theme park in the U.K. of 500,000 LEGO bricks, and stands just shy of 100 feet high.

My commentary:
Now why would anyone ever build a LEGO tower reaching 100 feet tall? Can you imagine how many stairs a minifigure would have to climb to make it to the top? That evokes an extremely funny image in my mind. No but really, the minifig would have to crank his neck back so far to look at the top, his head would fall off! I should change my blogger alias from Gen X to Funny Guy. (sound effect: Badum-ching!)

Okay, maybe Funny Guy is a stretch, but how about Random Fact Finder.: In miniscale terms, building a 100ft tall tower would be comparable to building a 4,800ft (.9 miles) tall tower in normal person scale… which would be two times as tall as the current tallest man-made structure in existence (a skyscaper still under construction in Dubai, that reached 2,064 ft in height as of April 7, 2008).

Lego-Inspired iPod Speaker

Props to Parents Magazine's Goodyblog for a super great suggestion: Lego-Inspired iPod Speaker (see left)... check out the new iPod Retro Mini Speaker from delight.com, which is available in classic lego-inspired red, blue, green and yellow, and makes any iPod much, much more crazy cool.

Now I just need to pump my MCHammer tunes into my iPod through my USB... plug in my brick lookin' speaker, and I'll be 2Legit2Quit. Hey, Hey.

Take Me Out to The Ball Game...

... Take me out with the crowd... (of minifigures?!)

Many, many thumbs up to Tim Kaebisch who pieced together this LEGO replica of Milwaukee's Miller Park. Seven years and seven models later, it is ready just in time for opening day! I wish i had close up shots of the detail, but this video is a great too!

LEGO PC

This fully functional PC - complete with a VIA Epia PD Mobo 1Ghz, Nvidia 6200 PCI Graphics, Laptop 80 Gig 7200Rpm Hdd, Laptop DVD, 1 GB Geil DDR memory, 200 watt PS, side cooling intakes, ACB Exhaust fan, and wheels for mobility, is (best of all) cased in LEGO. If hindsight is 20/20 and the square of 493 is less than the sum of the whole, the train arrives at 4:02 pm with all the eggs in one basket, and this LEGO PC gets a perfect 10!

LEGO Batman "welcomes" Harley Quinn to Gotham City

I just heard the news, Harley Quinn makes her debut as a LEGO minifigure this June... I can hardly contain myself! Another villan addition to my LEGO Gotham City. I must admit I am 50/50 on my feelings about the upcoming Dark Knight, b/c at heart, I am a dieahard classic Batman fan. In fact, my comic books are still each individually wrapped and stored neatly in a plastic bin in the corner of my parents garage... (shhh they might toss them like they did my original LEGO bricks and Commodore 64!)

Holy LEGO Bricks!!!

This builder looked to the heavens for his inspiration…



It took a year and a half of planning, building and photographing, includes more than 75,000 LEGO bricks and pieces, 3,976 LEGO windows, and is about 7ft x 5.5ft x 30in. Apparently there is even a coat room, restrooms and mosaics placed throughout. Check out the elaborate pipe organ in the back! ….WOW!

This is awesome...

I sure hope minifig Mario saves minifig Princess! (Though if it were me, I would have taken warp zone and gone to level 4)



oh and btw, happy birthday lego brick!

5/22=RAD

May 22. It must be my lucky day. Not only did Lucas release Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith on May 22, 2005 (in all seriousness, one of the best days of my life!), but now, I hear they plan on releasing Indiana Jones 4: Indiana Jones and Kingdom of the Crystal Skull on May 22, 2008! Even more, Gizmodo broke the news yesterday with official high resolution shots, prices and descriptions of the four new LEGO diorama sets based on Indiana Jones and Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, also launching in May. Pretty RAD.

My hero...

Peanut butter and jelly. Cookies and milk. Cheese and crackers. Bread and butter. Lego bricks and Guitar Hero. A match made in heaven.
David McNeel is my hero for recently creating a fully functional Guitar Hero controller out of LEGO bricks… WOW. See more pics here…

Breaker! Breaker! Austin Maker Faire!

I so wish I could have been in Austin this weekend for the Annual Maker Faire! Props to Chris Huybregt for the Darth Vader LEGO mosaic he created and for helping makers of all ages create mosaics of nearly anything they could imagine!

Don’t Flush This Idea!

Now, I remember the toilet scrubbing robot someone invented back when LEGO MINDSTORMS was first introduced in 1998 – but this takes it to a whole new level. Click here to see the photos and learn more about programming your very own automatic flusher. And, don’t worry you can watch the following video no problem at the office!

Countdown to Halo 3

The folks over at MTV’s Multiplayer have commissioned the busy Nathan Sawaya to recreate Halo’s Master Chief brick by brick. Click here to check out the stop animation build.

Get Jeff Lewis Some Legos!

Apparently the uber high-strung Jeff Lewis, star of this summer’s “Flipping Out,” loved playing with Legos as a kid. Me thinks he needs a grown-up zen moment with Lego bricks STAT! Dude, calm down and stop firing folks.

Who will be next to be cast in LEGO sculpture?

Our friends over at boingboing have uncovered a very intricate sculpture of Stephen Hawking from the pages of Brickshelf. Check it out here!

Everything’s Relative!

It’s a LEGO-version of an Escher picture (Relativity, 1953. Lithograph) that shows off fancy SNOT building—that’s “studs not on top” for you non-avid LEGO builders out there. Click here to see the behind-the-scenes work on this build and photo session. To be inspired by some more of Andrew Lipson’s building prowess check this out!

A smokin’ hot, fire-breathin model!

With nearly one million (you know you want to say that in the voice of Austen Powers) LEGO bricks, check out this amazing dragon that Katie Aldred spent 2,200 hours building for LEGOLAND Windsor.

LEGO Madness!

You’ve probably been reading the press about the new book for boys The Dangerous Book -- a guide book for dads as well as their sons, to recover some of the lost arts of things to do like knot-tying and making paper airplanes. When you’re done with that you can check out another “dangerous” book for grown up boys “Forbidden LEGO” I can’t wait to try out some of the projects that my mom would never have let me build when I was young.

What will the readers of Gizmodo think of next?

A LEGO ipod? Yes—someone in the community has finally celebrated one design icon using bricks. While there is some friendly debate about the design quality—we still think it ‘rocks!’ Between this and the recent Guitar Hero controller, these posts are making me want to get musical!