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Lego Addictions
randomErr writes "Canada.com has an article about Frank Robinson, an man who is into Lego WAY more than the average builder. Frank said "I still get Lego for my birthday and at Christmas, too. So do my kids." At last count the Robinson family's Lego inventory was nearing 100,000 pieces, a majority of which were tallied and itemized by type and colour on a computer spreadsheet." No Lego story would be complete without a link to something large and useless, say, a Lego harpsichord. Okay, it plays, so it's not actually useless. But the Lego Star Destroyer is.
Yeah, legos 0wn me. I mean, come on, I'm studying to be an engineer 'cause of the damn things. They rule.
w00t!
This is truely pathetic.
Some people need hobbies.
And some people with hobbies need to learn moderation.
And some of these obsessed people wonder why they don't get dates....
"An man"
On topic too.
Cunning linguists
Someone has waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too much time on their hands.
Wow, it sounds so pretty.
640 pieces should be enough for anyone...
Can I get that in terms a simple consumer like me can understand? How many Lego bricks would it take to build a Library of Congress?
1: Write free software.
2: ?
3: Build with lego all day.
4: Profit!
"I think all foreigners should stop interfering in the internal affairs of Iraq"
-- Paul Wolfowitz, 7/21/2003
It's not just a childs toy anymore. Check out this one guys Lego Computer Case. Looks pretty cool.
Spreadsheet? Bah!!!
-- Thou hast strayed far from the path of the Avatar.
Become a lego designer already? Unless you have to live in Denmark or something. Beats agriculture...
I can't wait for the Death Star...
Tor
Anyone think there's a market for DRM'ed Lego Harpsichord music?
All Your Memory Are Belong To Java
I identify with him when he laments about the lack of good pieces. There was a golden age, when space lego got .. lets see .. MTron (the magnets were ultra cool) and Dark Space (was that what it was called) when the right balance between specialized pieces and generic blocks (and suitable colors for cool models!) was found.
Since then, all their forays into branding, that evil of evils, have caused them to have to design all these specialized pre-made pieces. God damn it this world would be better off if it were illegal to position yourself horizontally in the market place.
"Old man yells at systemd"
is as sick as the psychopaths currently working
in:
that's right, your choice is correct:
The White House
Thanks and burn a joint for J. Ashcroft !!
his cue::cat to really do it geek justice.
Me and my friends used to have a blast with legos.
The fun for us was that you could ram lego planes,
trucks, boats, etc. into each other then put
them back together. You could also simulated
damage done by removing stuff hit by your imaginary
guns. Lots of arguments like, "HEY NOT FAIR I HIT
YOUR ROCKET BOOSTER AND YOUR MISSILE
LAUNCHER TAKE THEM OFF". The only thing we
hated was how big things would get if you tried to make
the curves look realistic. I ended up putting half a billion
legos into an 'AirWolf' helicopter to make it look
realistic and it was too heavy to play with. Another
thing was the wars that would break out
over "special pieces". Anything transparent, or
the antenaes, or the wheels, windshields, etc. We'd have
arguements and fights over what pieces belonged to
who. It killed a lot of time and probably allowed
the picture tube in the TV to last a few years
longer than it did
The most important thing any republican needs to know.
It's a shame the person who made it didn't post an mp3 of him playing on the hapsichord. I wonder what it sounds like...
Why on earth would anybody want to destroy a lego star?
A Hall-Of-Fame baseball player like Frank Robinson spending his Golden Years playing with Legos.
I wonder how he sunk to such levels of depravity.
D41D8CD98F00B204E9800998ECF8427E
Hope this helps.
Cunning linguists
Lego toilet paper ?!?!? That's gotta hurt ...
so THAT'S where you've been running off to on friday nights.
fairy.
Try here here. This guy does Lego construction for a living. A LIVING! I'd build Legos for a living to if it weren't for my lack of opposable thumbs...Oh, well, back to engineering.
Wow, that harpsichord is really impressive looking. However, listening to it, er, it kind of reminds me of a joke:
A man and his dog were sitting in the park in front of a chessboard. A stranger stopped by, wondering what was going on. The man made a move. The stranger was amazed when the dog reached out a paw and made another move!
"Wow! That dog plays chess? That's some amazing dog you have there!
And the man replied, "Ah, he's not so amazing. I'm crappy at chess, and I still beat him 9 out of 10 games."
Sometimes it's best to just let stupid people be stupid.
Lego H&K MP5
These are really cool, with working slides, collaspable stock, and removable mags.
Not only does he wield a mean lego block, but he's also a man who can tell you exactly how the chicken crossed the road!
Hrmmm, but what exactly does one do in poultry production class? I hope you're not making any really weird home movies...
"They do not preach that their god will rouse them, a little before the Nuts work loose." Kipling, 'The Sons of Martha'
One word: Proxomitron.
Come on, michael - there is no such thing as useless Legos. They're fun, they pique the imagination, they provide an endless number of fun hours. I'm really glad my son is turning 5 soon, so I get to play with real Legos with him (IMHO, Duplos are not really funny for adults). If the cool Start Destroyer weren't so expensive, I'd get it for him (and me :-) right away.
I have so many fond memories of playing with Legos during my childhood, and no model was ever useless. They could all be combined in so many fun and surprising ways that even the hopelessly outdated models I inherited from my father were never useless. In fact, most of the Legos used by my son now is from MY childhood, and a (very small) part of those are from my fathers and uncles' childhood.
In some ways, this goes to show that a carefully designed interfacing system can survive many years and revisions. If only programming API's had the same level of longevity. The C standard libraries, perhaps?
Black holes are where God divided by zero
So a family named Robinson is really into a swiss toy, huh?
I guess it's pointless to ask him what he'd take with him to a desert island.
Genocide Man -- Life is funny. Death is funnier. Mass murder can be hilarious.
The link didn't work for some reason.
http://home.arcor.de/six/
maybe he can make some life-size lego friends for himself
Can I get that in terms a simple consumer like me can understand?
When I was a kid (yikes), lego sets usually cost about 10 cents per brick. Using that factor, 100,000 pieces is around $10,000 worth! That's not allowing for current prices, either, which are probably a lot higher.
"I have never let my schooling interfere with my education." - Mark Twain
that harpsicord sounds like an aphex twin album
.cig
They crack jokes now, on a 1 - 3 year old level?
This guy better hope The White Stripes are making a second video.
I can't believe he's made all those things. Usually when I made Lego stuff, an unrelated event would occur and I'd get super-pissed and as a way of relieving anger I'd smash my Lego constructions into pieces... Man I'd sure like to elbow drop onto that piano.. :D
I can't imagine having anywhere near the necessary time (and money!) to create anything lifesize, but come on people, Legos are wonderful. They shaped my childhood and sparked my interest in engineering.
My college even has a freshman engineering course that uses a slightly modified version of Lego Mindstorms to teach the design process, how to compensate for mechanical error, programming logic, etc. It was tons of fun.
Lego = Overpriced
uhm.... Money.... did you miss that memo?
www.oobersworld.com - For those that ride.
Wait for it.......
Lego Girlfriend.
Now THAT'S news for nerds.
There are 01 kinds of cars in the world. The General Lee, and everything else.
"Someone has waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too much time on their hands."
You're posting on slashdot.
Pot, meet kettle.
We all have our hobbies.
--
pants ahoy
Honestly, that f'ing thing would be a bitch to put in your house...
I can just see it now... "Honey, i'll built a plexiglass box for it so it can be a coffee table too!"
I was just wondering, with a LEGO story (ya know, one of those with the big red LEGO icon), is it possible to post something off topic? If so. have I just done it?
I wonder how many you need for the Death Star?
"Just because you're a genius doesn't make you a smart guy!" -- Narrator, Powerpuff Girls
In my opinion lego structures are really cool when they stay within the realm of the system. I think every non-Lego piece, substance, or tool you use detracts from the "coolness" value of the overall structure.
For example, first he starts with glue.. thats somewhat understandable, given the size of these projects. Next its unrolling cloth capes to use as dampers. Brass wires? Well, i suppose those were necessary.
Next he crosses the line... using a surgical scalpal to cut and shave down LEGO pieces? Doesn't that defeat the purpose?? I mean, at that point I might as well melt down 100,000 of my own legos, pour them into a harpsichord shaped mold, and say I built an instrument out of legos too! I mean, technically it would be correct.
Perhaps thats an exageration, but I just don't enjoy these models as much when there is so much, well, cheating going on behind the scenes. I suppose those are tradeoffs you have to make to actually make something that isn't just a statue.
Yeah, the Star Destroyer is more than $250.00! I almost choked.
give a whole new meaning to "The Sims", and peoples apparet addiction to it.
It is one thing to let a computer simulation run, but actually building a guy to use your bathroom that you built, with toilet paper (dispenser) that you built. That borders on insane, way past geek.
Now, put some mindstorm guts in the guy, hook it up to "The Sims Online", and interact with someone elses world.
You'd have to make the Technics so you could move 'em around and stuff....
Some interesting LEGO links:
The LEGO User's Group Network - started as an offshoot of the rec.toys.lego newsgroup, now the definitive source for info and discussion.
The Brickshelf has a gallery of all sorts of stuff people have done, as well as scans of old catalogs and building instructions (you threw those away, didn't you).
I sorta miss my LEGO sometimes, until I see new LEGO in the store - yech. For the most part, they've really gone downhill (the Sante Fe train engine excepted). Plus, I've got other expensive hobbies - 1/32 slot cars, bicycles, 'puters....
That harpsicord is pretty wack, tho.
Later,
DoC
If I read this right, he's pretty much built a model slaughterhouse out of legos. Wow. Lego blood, lego headless chickens, lego butchers. What set does all that come with?
"The tenants arrive here, are carried along a conveyor belt in extreme comfort past murals depicting mediterranean scenes towards the rotating knives. The blood pours into these chutes here, and the mangled flesh slurps into these large.."
"Excuse me, did you say knives?"
"Rotating knives, yes."
"Well, we're not proposing to slaughter our tenants..."
"Does that not fit in with your plans?"
"No, no. It most certainly does not."
"Oh."
"Look, Smithers! I'm Davy Crockett!"
I'll give you $5 if you can melt 'em into a soup that doesn't blacken or flat out ignite... Not that I've tried or anything.
Sheesh, the guy totally gave himself away. Any self-respecting geek would be storing that all in a relational-database.
....
The redundancies of a spreadsheet, aieee
... but any one who says the Lego Star Destroyer is useless is already dead inside...
So did anyone have any luck find the link to where you can purchase the Star Destroyer at Legoshop?
We should make all of them, then arrange them to make a totally 1337 album cover, a lá Sgt. Pepper's!
You mean:
1) Find out where you live
2) Drive there
3) Bludgeon to death with Red Hat CD
4) ?
5) Profit!
Has anyone ever built or tried to build a house out of legos? If so how thick does one need to make the walls (for insulation purposes)?
Ave Molech Setting
You mean this business-model:
1: Write free software.
2: ?
3: Bludgeon poster to death with Red Hat CD.
4: Profit!
?
According to Eric...
I have at least 500,000 in stock and have used at least 250,000 in models that I have sold over the past few years. and there are (a few) people with more than I.
"Politicians are interested in people. Not that this is always a virtue. Fleas are interested in dogs." P.J. O'Rourke
...he's very very good. Feeble excuse!
does anyone know of any place where i could still buy the lego collectors edition x wing, i've got the interceptor, naboo fighter and tantive IV, the x-wing and the star destroyer are the only two i don't have
"Sic Semper Tyrannosaurus Rex."
If you check out this link and scroll down a little bit you will see that the model used roughly 100,000 pieces.
Scott.
It must be. It says he's had kids. Via what method? Sperm donation? Come on! They guy's house is FULL of Legos! It's not crack guys, its A TOY! (to paraphrase Woody from Toy Story).
I can imagine the scene where he procreated his kids...
"Come on babe, let's shag! Lay here next to Lego Larry!"
"Why is the bed so hard and rough?"
"it's made of legos! Just like these restraints!"
Now if you want to talk about a Real Man's collection, come on by my place and let me show you my collection of SPAWN(R) action figures...
did you know that if you rotate 50937 it says legos?
"There is no teacher but the enemy."-Mazer Rackham
After reading the Slashdot writeup, clicking over to the story and reading the article, and studying the user comments, I shall now launch into a six-paragraph attack accusing this gentleman of having too much time on his hands.
When there was a life size Natalie Portman Lego Sculpture?
No mention of what color or shape blocks he used for the grits though.
Flash required? What the hell kind of geek are you!? How can the blind read your plans??
Switch 'Red Hat CD' with 'OSDN Banner Ads' and I think you have VA's model.
Using that factor, 100,000 pieces is around $10,000 worth!
:)
Bah! This is the yearly Lego budget for some families. Yep, when you get to this level, Lego has it's own line on your family budget.
10 cents a piece is a pretty good price point for sets but not for bulk parts like bricks. A lot of the new stuff is more expensive than this, but there are a great number of collectors that won't pay more than $0.10/part and still buy a lot of sets.
Okay, it plays, so it's not actually useless. But the Lego Star Destroyer is.
...
THAT is frickin COOL! I'm gonna pre-order mine today! And only $270?! Awesome! Just make me a bunch of little tie fighters and x-wings and
Hey! If you work it right, adulthood can be a hundred times more fun than childhood. Screw the neighbors! I'm going to put a bigass Lego Death Star in the front yard and stage a battle... Let's see that little punk Jedi wannabe down the block top THAT! I'll teach him for kicking my ass at Pokemon!
Feel the vengeance of a Sith sysadmin, you little turd...
Kinda nuts, but whatever. Still, I have no room to talk, my fathers first words when he heard that my mom was pregnant were "Does this mean I have to share my Legos?"
When life gives you crap, Make Crapade.
Sluggy Freelance.
Actually, one of the AFOLs on Lugnet calculated the average price per part of the Star Destroyer to be only 8.7 cents. Considering the average price-per-part in the Lego aftermarket, www.bricklink.com , is usually hovering in the lower $.20 range, that's a dang good price, especially for the incredible amount of gray pieces in that set.
I'm suprised and disappointed to note that the subject of this article apparantly does not belong to www.lugnet.com , nor is an active part of the Lego community. It's unfortunate that many AFOLs, former AFOLs, and potential AFOLs fail to learn about the active and growing community. Come on over to Lugnet, and browse the posts. Then go visit www.brickshelf.com , the primary site for hosting MOCs (My Own Creation). Adult Fans Of Lego aren't freaks or outcasts (although many would probably call themselves geeks, just as most on this site would call themselves the same), just regular people who have a particular hobby.
Well if you drop by any local Walmart, Target, K-Mary (or hell, any toy store) they all sell (well most) these tubs of 500 pieces for around $10, so at that rate his collection is only worth $2000.
Beautiful, how someone felt the need to Moderate this. I thought moderation was supposed to be used for good, and not evil?
$0.20 isn't a good price for an average brick. Go to any local walmart/kmart and buy a tub of 500 pieces for $10, thats $0.02 a piece!
Here are instructions on how to build a robot out of Legos that can solve all of those stupid Rubik's Cubes you have laying around your house. Fighting toys with toys: now that's elegant.
--- Wherever you go, everyone is always connected...
How do you decide you want to be that when you grow up?
Trying is the first step towards failure.
I've noticed alot of posts assuming his collection is Massive, but in reality its not THAT big. I recently added to my own collection and went to the local Walmart/KMart and bought a few tubs of 500 pieces for only $10. Now doing the math His 100K collection is only worth $2000, of which I bet a good portion /. users has spent more on their computers and accessories.
Theres collectors who go FAR beyond this and make legos a significant factor in their household budget and have well surpassed 100k pieces...
See: This And this.
I used to have these when I was a kid (c. 1974). They were just like the standard 2x4 bricks except they were much bigger than even Duplo size. Each brick was about 2 inches wide by 4 inches long and if you had enough of them you could build a structure big enough for a small kid to sit in.
I know they were Lego--I remember the logo on the bricks. I haven't seen them since my childhood. I've looked on Lego.com and a few other sites but haven't found them.
Has anyone seen them recently?
Long childhood hours on the carpet with my Legos taught me that Mech. Engineering could be satisfying in models, but probably too frustrating in real life.
Technic sets, on the other hand, helped me acknowledge that electric power is where it's at, and highly frustrating at all levels.
Irony: I'm now 3 months from my electrical engineering degree. I love agony that is this glamorous. Praise for the toy that both artist and budding scientist could enjoy in tandem.
hi, I like pancakes -.-- -.-- --..
What's going on with Slashdot and posting frickin' articles that feature the number 100,000?
What? Is it as high as anyone can count?
As for the Star Wars Destoyer, that's pretty cheap for a coffee table.. (just flip it upside down) (:
Ladies, form queue here -->
Some smartass always posts a correction like this when Lego is brought up as a topic.
It's called 'Lego', as the bricks are called 'Lego bricks'.
mogorific carpentry experiments
There are 250, 350 and 600K piece collections that are really impressive.
Calum
Except that bulk buckets are pretty much the absolute cheapest parts EVER come, and most likely a vast percentage of his collection is valued higher. Using Brickshelf .22 PPP, I calculate his collection to be worth 22 grand. Likely more, actually.
We used to fire ball bearings out of slingshots at each other's lego space ships. No need to 'simulate' damage there! Around the 4th of July, we would get very creative, often requiring significant reinvestment in legos to replace all the melted bricks.
- None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
Anyone remember this series? It was never very popular in the US, but Fantaland was kind of a midway point between Duplo and Lego. Anyway, I think it was one of the earliest Lego lines to predominantly use specialized pieces in its sets-- and this was waaay back in the 70s and early 80s. I noticed a few years ago that the newer Duplo sets were starting to look like the old Fantaland sets, in their lack of actual regular bricks...
Well according to the link above, the Lego Star Destroyer (which is over a meter long) is built with just over 3000 pieces. So he has roughly enough to build 33 of those Star Destroyers (or enough to put the Emperor to shame).
Although I'm still not impressed. Maybe if he had enough to build 33 Death Stars with 33 Calmari cruisers with 33 lil' Admiral Akbars all yelling in unison "It's a Trap!"
What is music when you despise all sound?
Don't make fun of poultry production. No poultry production experts, no food for geeks...
Freedom: "I won't!"
Seriously, this is one of my biggest pet peeves - fucking idiots! Be back in a moment - gotta count my sheeps!
I ask dad: "Do you know this guy?" Dad replies: "Yes I know Frank. He is an awesome poultry researcher. As you will note some of his publications are with my second cousin from Rocky Mtn House. Did not know Frank was a lego nut." Just goes to show you what you can hide from your collegues.
The numbers I'm familiar with are the old, small, mould ID numbers....the consistent part number business is too newfangled for me. (Call my Lego interest "Classic", I guess.)
Now, here's the difference between Lego and Meccano -- with Lego, the part number is learned by inference, if at all. One cannot place an order with a Lego distributor for "100 pcs of #3754 in blue, please".
With Meccano, the company has been using pretty much the same part numbering scheme since the dawn of time (i.e. sometime in 1901). Indeed, for a full century, part #1 has always referred to a metal strip, 12.5" long, with 25 holes. And yes, one can order "100 pcs. of #1 in zincplate finish, please" from a spare parts supplier (if one can be found, that is -- there remain only a few per continent these days).
~a
Except that they're mostly useless for anything other than sculptures or large buildings. If you want to build a castle, or a spaceship, or a train, you WILL need to buy more specialized parts (those brick tubs don't really include plates either), which can run as much as a dollar or two per part (The most I've *ever* seen for a single Lego was $25 for a "special" Castle maiden from the 80s).
Eh, that's it, I guess. No 300 million dollar unveiling event for this
kernel, I'm afraid, but you're still supposed to think of this as the
"happening of the century" (at least until the next kernel comes along).
-- Linus, in the announcement for 1.3.27
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