30 Years of the Lego Minifig

clikit writes "Today, the Lego Minifig turns 30 years old. Gizmodo is running a video contest with Lego, giving away Galaxy Explorer or the Yellow Castle sets and other unopened vintage sets. They also have an exclusive video from the factory, showing how the minifig is built. Check it out ... finding out how the little guys are made will make you smile." Scientists estimate that 98% of the minifigs created in the last three decades have lost a hand in a tragic vacuum accident, been melted by a magnifying glass, or been eaten by your dog.

Comments

What about blasters?

[AKAImBatman]

Scientists estimate that 98% of the minifigs created in the last 3 decades have lost a hand in a tragic vacuum accident, been melted by a magnifying glass, or eaten by your dog.

They forgot "blown apart by blasters, whips, and batrangs".

Re:What about blasters?

[Anonymous Coward]

They forgot "blown apart by blasters, whips, and batrangs".

And also BB guns, firecrackers, and gasoline.

so what we're really celebrating

[nimbius]

is 30 years of 2 am blood-curdling screams and blasphemous curses against our lord jesus when a parent happened to step on one of these things barefoot.

lego: just because you didnt get candy at the supermarket,
doesnt mean you cant punish mom for her insolence.

Re:so what we're really celebrating

[CogDissident]

I still remember being like 6 years old, and looking all over for a 6inch by 6inch (rather big, for legos) space ship i built out of legos. I looked for like 2 hours, until I had an idea. I asked my friend's (exceedingly obese) mother to stand up, and she stalwartly refused and told me to go run along and play. So I sulked for an hour, and eventually found a way to make her get up (don't remember, it was a LONG time ago).

Turns out, she just thought our couch was really uncomfortable. And, gave me a good reason to watch my weight all these years. Because, really, who wants to loose an entire spaceship in your gigantic ass?

Re:so what we're really celebrating

[Anonymous Coward]

"Did you know I built a spaceship out of Legos that visited Uranus?"

Re:so what we're really celebrating

[R2.0]

"Because, really, who wants to loose an entire spaceship in your gigantic ass?"

I believe you know the real reason she didn't want to move, but just don't want to admit it to yourself.

Re:so what we're really celebrating

[CogDissident]

Two possible meanings:
1: She was embarrassed that she sat on it, and didn't want anyone to know.
2: She liked it.

Please, for the love of all things in my childhood, don't let it be #2!

Re:so what we're really celebrating

[jimicus]

Oh I so wish I had moderator points for your wit.

I do.

Oh damn.

dude, you cut off my hand!

[jollyreaper]

Scientists estimate that 98% of the minifigs created in the last 3 decades have lost a hand in a tragic vacuum accident, been melted by a magnifying glass, or eaten by your dog.

Or how about a kid using a lighter to heat up a paperclip cherry-red so that he could reenact the ventilation shaft scene from Empire Strikes Back with his lego dudes?

Re:dude, you cut off my hand!

[need4mospd]

Luke: OWW! Why'd you slice off my hand

Vader: Its imperative you understand

Obi Wan would never bother

Telling you about your father

Luke: He told me enough - he told me you killed him

Vader: Then there's something I must reveal him

I'm your father

I'm your father

I'm your father

I'm your father

I'm your father

I'm your father

I'm your father

I'm your father

Genocide?

[Anonymous Coward]

Scientists estimate that 98% of the minifigs created in the last 3 decades have lost a hand in a tragic vacuum accident, been melted by a magnifying glass, or eaten by your dog.

Does this mean my dog is guilty of crimes against lego-humanity?

Lego Beer Song

[gasmonso]

I'd love to see someone top the infamous Lego Beer Song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ATBl4qH9I54

Re:Lego Beer Song

[meringuoid]

I'd love to see someone top the infamous Lego Beer Song:

Done! Now in exchange I demand you bring me a shrubbery!

Gaaah!

[Mr. Underbridge]

is 30 years of 2 am blood-curdling screams and blasphemous curses against our lord jesus when a parent happened to step on one of these things barefoot.

You just gave me a 'Nam style flashback to pretty much every night this past week, and it wasn't fun. Good God, kid toys are awful. Stepping on Legos is bad - movement-sensitive toys that start a 15-minute sequence of annoying jabber because I walk within 5 feet of it when I get up to piss at night is the worst.

I swear to God, the next one of my in-laws that buys our kid one of those demonic talking toys, I'm buying their kids a drum set or electric guitar. This shit is war.

Re:Gaaah!

[Jason Levine]

When my son was little, his uncle bought him the Sesame Street Atom. It was the atom shaped device that rested on a stand. The child would spin it to hear music, sounds, and the voices of various Sesame Street characters. So far, so good. It was actually kind of cool. But when our son was tucked in his crib and we were in bed, we would hear the Atom starting the music/sound/voice sequence from the other room. Apparently, it would rock with the slightest movement and set off the routine. And THERE WAS NO OFF BUTTON! We finally figured out that removing it from the stand at night stopped the noise. (Thankfully, it wasn't connected to the stand in any fashion.) Now that uncle has a little girl of his own. Revenge shall be ours! (Once we find a suitably annoying toy.)

Re:Gaaah!

[JeanCroix]

All noisy battery-powered toys have off buttons - some of them just require hammers to find.

Re:Gaaah!

[EvanED]

My aunt got one of my cousins a toy that had a steering wheel and such, and a button that when you pressed it would say, in an Elmo voice, "Me drive car!"

A couple weeks later she comes home to an answering message that said "me drive car!" over and over again then my uncle saying "just wanted to know what we've been listening to for the last two weeks"

Re:Gaaah!

[R2.0]

Someone gave my daughter a light sensitive doll that made noise when the lights were turned on and off. Problem was that I think someone slipped the soundtrack from "The Exorcist" into the sampling lab - it was the creepiest doll laugh ever heard. One too many incidents where I turned on the light and immediately started looking for Chuckie and I pulled that bitch's batteries for good.

Re:Gaaah!

[oldspewey]

When your only tool is a hammer, every problem looks like an annoying piece of loud plastic shit.

Re:Gaaah!

[Anonymous Coward]

I swear to God, the next one of my in-laws that buys our kid one of those demonic talking toys, I'm buying their kids a drum set or electric guitar. This shit is war.

One of my old coworkers used to say, "If you buy my child something that makes noise, I will buy your child something that is ALIVE!"

I think the threat of ending up with pets you don't want is a pretty good deterrent to buying a noise-making toy.

Re:Gaaah!

[Lumpy]

Best toy revenge.

Being an EE I took apart some toys we bought for my brothers kids... I added an extra amplifier and upgraded the speaker to make it loud as hell.

I also disabled the on/off switch and added a tiny ballbearing/contact switch to make it trigger on movement.

Nothing like a furby that screams... MEE EEK OOKA LIKE YOU.... FURBY WANT BRAINS... and is triggered incredibly easy.

Bonus points if you install lithium longest life batteries and superglue the battery door shut.

Re:Gaaah!

[Lisandro]

You have an eye patch and a white, fluffy, menacing cat, do you?

Re:Gaaah!

[Mr. Underbridge]

Best toy revenge. Being an EE I took apart some toys we bought for my brothers kids... I added an extra amplifier and upgraded the speaker to make it loud as hell. I also disabled the on/off switch and added a tiny ballbearing/contact switch to make it trigger on movement. Nothing like a furby that screams... MEE EEK OOKA LIKE YOU.... FURBY WANT BRAINS... and is triggered incredibly easy. Bonus points if you install lithium longest life batteries and superglue the battery door shut.

Oh holy shit, that's going nuclear. What the hell did your brother DO to you?

All I can say is if anyone in the family did that to me...well, as a chemist, I'd make sure their holiday experience was not an enjoyable one, and involved many, many trips to the bathroom.

There's a revenge heirarchy in the academic world, you know. Chemists don't screw with Biologists unless they want an exotic disease. Engineers don't mess with Chemists unless they want to be poisoned. Engineers don't screw with physicists unless they want to their house booby-trapped. Mathematicians don't screw with engineers unless they want...well, what you did to your brother.

Poor mathematicians get no respect, only thing they have to threaten with is doing proofs during dinner.

Re:Gaaah!

[Lumpy]

No I gave up the evil part.. One toy before that I gave it an internal battery supply and made it randomly trigger from a PIC inside waiting from 10 minutes to 10 hours to trigger the music start.

My joy of knowing they took the batteries out of the thing and it was STILL PLAYING THE MUSIC.

That one was completely over the top evil. I got hell one easter Sunday about the possessed musical ball that would play music after the batteries were removed.

Re:Gaaah!

[svank]

So pretty much, the better your revenge-making capacities are, the less pure you are? Makes sense.

Lego People?

[mlwmohawk]

My generation didn't have any lego people, hell we only had rectangles. No curves. I remember "clear" legos being introduced and wanting them.

These days, the lego's are barely what I remember. Specially shaped parts, windshields, wheels!

We had to PRETEND our model cars with square wheels could role. Thee days, kids don't have to imagine anything!!!

Re:Lego People?

[extirpater]

My generation didn't have any lego people, hell we only had rectangles. No curves. I remember "clear" legos being introduced and wanting them.

These days, the lego's are barely what I remember. Specially shaped parts, windshields, wheels!

We had to PRETEND our model cars with square wheels could role. Thee days, kids don't have to imagine anything!!!

http://www.plaidstallions.com/legoman.jpg i can imagine you

Re:Lego People?

[Anonymous Coward]

Ah, your generation had it easy.

In mine, we only got the plastic beads. We had to melt them using the frictions of our hands and sculpt them using only a fork and spoon.

Then we had to run outside finding roots, flowers and berries, to masticate and make colors so we could paint them.

Holy Crap, do I need more coffee

[Scott Lockwood]

I read the title as 30 Years of the Lego Milfing

Boy was I surprised!

Re:Minifig = Lego People

[jacquesm]

aka as the beginning of the end of real lego.

I live in fear

[blueZ3]

When my wife and I were first married (and childless) I used to give these kinds of gifts to my nieces and nephews.

My favorite was "DJ Johnny Bot" and extremely annoying remote controlled robot/music player that was about 18" tall. It had this feature where if you played with it and then let it sit for a few minutes, it would "say" something to get your attention again (The best of all was this annoying robotic voice saying "I put the FUN in Funky!")

Now that I have a two-year-old daughter, and another on the way, each birthday/Christmas I look at the wrapped gifts with trepidation, wondering which is loaded with some terrible revenge :-)

Re:Minifig = Lego People

[eln]

For those who are curios

I think the minifigs themselves would be more accurately labeled as curios, not the people wondering about them

Tangeant comes to a close...

[Tetsujin]

While out donating (or returning) annoying toy, buy child quiet, quality toy such as LEGOS

...And with that, our lovely off-topic thread arcs back toward the original subject... Legos...

30 years? Time to kick back

[Ellis D. Tripp]

, relax, and twist up a fatty:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E66lier98PI

Re:Minifig = Lego People

[Fred_A]

Oh, you mean the bigfigs...

(runs away)

Evil, Evil, Evil

[Zordak]

Didn't you have the first year EE seminar where they made you swear a solemn oath to only use your powers for good?

30 years of Lego Mining

[Digital_Quartz]

I misread this as "30 years of Lego Mining". Brings to mind visions of people hard at work, in secret underground Danish mines, toiling to harvest bricks for the children of the world.

Re:Minifig = Lego People

[PawNtheSandman]

Lego brand building blocks, not "legos"

K, thanks
Lego Legal