Happy 60th Birthday Lego!

https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/weird-news/happy-60th-birthday-lego-brilliant-11922056

The little building blocks first appeared 60 years ago. Since it was patented on January 28, 1958, fans young and old have been building Lego creations.

65 Comments

  1. Tomi Engdahl says:

    LEGO made James Bond’s Aston Martin, complete with working ejector seat
    https://techcrunch.com/2018/07/18/aston-martin-lego-ejector-seat/?utm_source=tcfbpage&sr_share=facebook

    There’s a new Aston Martin DB5 on the market and it’s everything you’d expect from the vehicle used by James Bond in the movie Goldfinger.

    The only drawback: It’s too small to drive.

    LEGO has created a replica of the Aston Martin DB5 used by super spy James Bond, but in miniature. The 1964 sports car, which measures in at 13 inches long, is loaded with features

    Reply
  2. Tomi Engdahl says:

    LEGO – 01 Basic Dimensions & Bricks Explained
    https://grabcad.com/tutorials/lego-01-basic-dimensions-bricks-explained

    Most “standard” parts can be created using only simple math. Standard parts consist of square, circular, and angled blocks – regular geometric blocks.

    Reply
  3. Tomi Engdahl says:

    HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MINIFIG! LEGO’S TINY PLASTIC PEOPLE TURN 40
    08.28.18
    https://www.wired.com/story/lego-minifig-40th-birthday/

    TODAY MARKS THE 40th birthday of the Lego minifigure. The little plastic people from Billund, Denmark first walked off the assembly line and onto the carpet under our bare feet in August of 1978.

    The Lego minifigure—colloquially known as the minifig—has enjoyed a long life so far. But it also endured its own years-long journey to retail shelves.

    Lego dabbled in humanoids of different designs before settling on the modern minifig. The first plastic people, now known to Lego fans as 1974′s “maxifigs,”

    The following year, Lego introduced new figures that were smaller than the maxifigs but stood at the same height as today’s minifigs. The 1975 versions had legs that didn’t move, heads with no features or facial expressions
    They didn’t last long. A big update in 1978 gave us the minifig design that still rules today: arms that move at the shoulder, capped with swiveling hands that can grasp accessories; a big silly grin beneath solid black eyes; legs that bend, though just at the waist, but that’s all you need to get them to sit—a design change that matched with Lego’s new vehicles and playsets introduced that year.

    Now there are thousands of minifigs, including specialty characters from licensed story brands like Star Wars, Batman, The Simpsons, Harry Potter, and Spider-Man. There are monsters like werewolves and zombies.

    Reply
  4. Tomi Engdahl says:

    How Much Abuse Can a Single Lego Brick Take?
    Forget iPads, if you want a long lasting toy stick with blocks

    Read more: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/how-much-abuse-can-a-single-lego-brick-take-343398/#MHq134PCgaoq7dO4.99

    Reply
  5. Tomi Engdahl says:

    LEGO launches eight AR-focused sets
    https://techcrunch.com/2019/02/14/lego-launches-eight-ar-focused-sets/?sr_share=facebook&utm_source=tcfbpage

    LEGO’s long been a leader among traditional toy companies when it comes to embracing tech trends, from mobile apps to robotics. The toy maker’s been talking up its plans to embrace augmented reality since a couple of WWDCs ago, and now it’s finally ready to go all-in with the launch of eight AR-focused sets.

    Reply
  6. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Lego takes on Samsung and Huawei with its own foldable
    Unlike Samsung, you can already buy Lego’s now
    https://www.theverge.com/tldr/2019/3/4/18250449/lego-fold-storybook-samsung-galaxy-parody

    Reply
  7. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Lego Struggles To Find a Plant-Based Plastic That Clicks
    https://entertainment.slashdot.org/story/19/06/12/226201/lego-struggles-to-find-a-plant-based-plastic-that-clicks

    Last year, it was reported that Lego was investing $120 million and hiring about 100 people to eliminate its dependence on petroleum-based plastics, and build its toys entirely from plant-based or recycled materials by 2030.

    Reply
  8. Tomi Engdahl says:

    25 Rarest Lego Sets (And What They’re Worth)
    https://www.thegamer.com/lego-sets-rare-worth/

    Reply
  9. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Lego, as part of its ongoing effort to become a greener toy company, is launching a pilot program to make it easier to donate unwanted Lego bricks.

    Lego’s Latest Green Initiative Wants To Put Old Bricks To New Use
    http://on.forbes.com/61871Edbc

    Lego today launched a pilot program, LEGO Replay, designed to make it easier to donate LEGO bricks for reuse by children’s charities.

    The toy maker today is unveiling Lego Replay, a program that will provides free shipping labels for donations. Lego will arrange for the bricks to be cleaned and sorted and delivered to classroom and after-school programs for needy kids.

    Lego is providing free shipping labels for anyone in the United States who wants to make a donation of Lego bricks.

    Lego has begun making some of its accessories from bio-based plastic made from sugar cane, but is still testing solutions for the classic building brick.

    Reply
  10. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Engineer Designs Flying Quadcopter Almost Entirely Out of LEGO
    This drone was made out of a LEGO frame, motors and propeller, plus non-LEGO parts, including the flight controller, receiver and battery.
    https://www.hackster.io/news/engineer-designs-flying-quadcopter-almost-entirely-out-of-lego-7bf8696a6b0f

    Reply
  11. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Nintendo and Lego team up for Lego Super Mario
    The brick smasher has become the brick
    https://www.polygon.com/2020/3/10/21173030/nintendo-lego-super-mario

    Reply
  12. Tomi Engdahl says:

    By scaling up a LEGO go-kart, Matt Denton was able to make it 3D-printable and even rideable.

    An Entirely 3D-Printed, Rideable Electric LEGO Go-Kart
    https://www.hackster.io/news/an-entirely-3d-printed-rideable-electric-lego-go-kart-2eb2b82ae695

    By scaling up a LEGO go-kart, Matt Denton was able to make it 3D-printable and even rideable

    The genius of LEGO is that you can use the bricks to build just about anything you can imagine. With the exception of special bricks, any type of brick can lock onto any other type of brick. In order for those bricks to lock together reliably and to still be easy to disassemble, they need to be manufactured to a very high tolerance — far higher than the vast majority of toys, especially when LEGO bricks were first introduced. Bricks are reportedly manufactured by machines with tolerances down to 10 micrometers, which most 3D printers aren’t capable of. By scaling up a LEGO go-kart, Matt Denton was able to make it 3D-printable and even rideable.

    https://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=youtu.be&v=lFav_MOkGp4

    Reply
  13. Tomi Engdahl says:

    It Took 7 Years, But Lego Finally Has a New Mindstorms Kit
    BY WILL GREENWALD 12 JUN 2020, 1 P.M.
    The new Lego Mindstorms Robot Inventor kit includes instructions for four robots, and supports both Scratch and Python programming.
    https://uk.pcmag.com/robotics/127362/it-took-7-years-but-lego-finally-has-a-new-mindstorms-kit

    https://www.lego.com/en-us/aboutus/news/2020/june/lego-mindstorms-robot-inventor/

    Reply
  14. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Someone’s taken apart Lego Mario and the results are terrifying
    https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2020-08-03-someones-taken-apart-lego-mario-and-the-results-are-terrifying

    The Lego Super Mario unit is, unsurprisingly, well built, as most Lego is, which means there comes a point in the video where Langston needs to start snapping bits off to get inside. As a fan of Lego and Mario, it’s upsetting, frankly.

    But it means we get this image, showing the unit with its various casings completely off. It turns out the unit has just one large LCD panel, whose display then pokes through the various parts of its plastic shell.

    Reply
  15. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Combining traditional LEGO bricks and Technic parts with Brown Dog Gadgets Maker Tape creates an extremely unusual switch.

    Pete Prodoehl and Brown Dog Gadgets Showcase a Maker Tape and LEGO Hand-Cranked Circuit
    https://www.hackster.io/news/pete-prodoehl-and-brown-dog-gadgets-showcase-a-maker-tape-and-lego-hand-cranked-circuit-aa080664aef0

    Combining traditional LEGO bricks and LEGO Technic parts with Maker Tape creates an extremely unusual switch.

    Reply
  16. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Lego Mario Power-Up Hack/Cheat
    https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=PXX9z_5ZbFY

    Nicholas discovered a way to get power-ups without actually purchasing them for Lego Mario

    Reply
  17. Tomi Engdahl says:

    LEGO tease IKEA announcement
    26/08/2020 Rob
    The LEGO Group has teased an upcoming announcement regarding their collaboration with IKEA.
    https://www.brickfanatics.com/lego-tease-ikea-announcement/
    https://www.brickfanatics.com/lego-tease-ikea-announcement/

    Reply
  18. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Lego is launching an epic Mos Eisley Cantina set from “Star Wars: A New Hope” on Oct. 1, 2020

    https://www.space.com/lego-star-wars-mos-eisley-cantina-2020.html

    Reply
  19. Tomi Engdahl says:

    LEGO 10276 Colosseum announced as the largest ever LEGO set
    https://www.brickfanatics.com/lego-10276-colosseum-announced-as-the-largest-ever-lego-set/

    The LEGO Group has unveiled the new largest ever LEGO set, with 10276 Colosseum using over 9,000 pieces.

    Reply
  20. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Speed building the brand new, gigantic LEGO Colosseum set with 9,036 pieces!

    (by Jay’s Brick Blog https://bit.ly/3lEhujY)

    https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=VsGo_8JpcJ4

    Reply
  21. Tomi Engdahl says:

    A nice article about how Lego canceled their V-22 Osprey set and how other makers are producing compatible sets and models of modern war machines.

    LEGO won’t make modern war machines, but others are picking up the pieces
    https://edition.cnn.com/style/article/lego-military-sets-intl-hnk-dst/index.html

    manufacturers, a German peace group and renegades who make miniaturized weapons systems out of small shops.
    Not that those tiny weapons could actually hurt anyone. Well, not unless you stepped on one.
    The conglomerate is LEGO, with worldwide revenues of $6.2 billion in 2019 from its toys, retail stores, theme parks and even movie rights. Its toy sets — which are intended to “inspire the builders of tomorrow,” according to the company’s mission statement — run the gamut, from skyscrapers to boats, police stations to castles. There’s even a kit to make Rome’s famous Colosseum. Nothing from the real world, it seems, is off limits. That is, except for anything modeled on today’s military.

    “We have a long-standing policy of not creating sets which feature real military vehicles that are currently in use,” Ryan Greenwood, a spokesman for the company, said in an email to CNN.
    But during the summer, the Danish company released a set for the V-22 Osprey, a tiltrotor aircraft manufactured by Boeing and Bell Helicopter Textron that is only used by the American and Japanese militaries.

    The kit, set to launch under LEGO’s vehicle-focused Technic brand, depicted a search and rescue version of the Osprey. But it drew a quick, harsh protest from the German Peace Society — United War Resisters (DFG-VK in German), an almost 130-year-old anti-war group.
    The V-22 Osprey, the group said, has been involved in conflicts in Afghanistan, Iraq, Mali, Yemen and Syria. In a press release criticizing LEGO over the model, the DFG-VK then threw the toymaker’s own words from a decade earlier right back at it:

    Reply
  22. Tomi Engdahl says:

    ONLY LORD OF THE RINGS IS EPIC ENOUGH TO SET THE GUINNESS RECORD WITH A 150-MILLION-BLOCK LEGO BUILD
    https://www.syfy.com/syfywire/lord-of-the-rings-guinness-world-record-largest-lego-build

    Reply
  23. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Lego shut that down faster and more efficiently than the US government ever could have.

    Block 19 Makers Defend Selling Lego-Style Gun After Getting ‘Overwhelming Amount of Hate’
    https://www.newsweek.com/block-19-makers-defend-selling-lego-style-gun-after-getting-overwhelming-amount-hate-1609918

    The makers of a controversial Lego-inspired gun have defended their decision to custom design a handgun that was built using Lego blocks.

    Utah-based Culper Precision first shared pictures of the Block 19 handgun on its Instagram page on June 24, where the company said they designed it with Legos as they “wanted the second amendment to simply be too painful to tread on.”

    But, soon afterward, the Danish toy giant contacted Culper Precision to take the product down, which they later did.

    Reply
  24. Tomi Engdahl says:

    LEGO Developer Octodesk Summit 2021 Edition (94107) Discovered!
    http://www.brickfinder.net/2021/07/19/lego-developer-octodesk-summit-2021-94107/

    GitHub’s developer conference just concluded and they just raised their corporate swag game with the LEGO Developer Octodesk Summit 2021 Edition (94107)!

    The set features a BrickHeadz inspired version of their black cat logo, coding in front of the computer

    Reply
  25. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Meanwhile, Lego has released a report about gender bias and how to remove it from their toys

    Lego to remove gender bias from its toys after findings of child survey
    https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2021/oct/11/lego-to-remove-gender-bias-after-survey-shows-impact-on-children-stereotypes

    Lego has announced it will work to remove gender stereotypes from its toys after a global survey the company commissioned found attitudes to play and future careers remain unequal and restrictive.

    Researchers found that while girls were becoming more confident and keen to engage in a wide range of activities, the same was not true of boys.

    Seventy-one per cent of boys surveyed feared they would be made fun of if they played with what they described as “girls’ toys” – a fear shared by their parents. “Parents are more worried that their sons will be teased than their daughters for playing with toys associated with the other gender,” said Madeline Di Nonno, the chief executive of the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media, who conducted the research.

    “But it’s also that behaviours associated with men are valued more highly in society,” said Di Nonno. “Until societies recognise that behaviours and activities typically associated with women are as valuable or important, parents and children will be tentative to embrace them.”

    Exclusive: research reveals harmful stereotypes still hindering girls, boys and their parents

    Reply
  26. Tomi Engdahl says:

    PRODUCT IDEA | May 23, 2012
    LADYADA’S WORKSHOP!
    https://ideas.lego.com/projects/0d27953d-cf26-4a73-8ac4-93a9f2ca2201

    Ladyada’s workshop is a place where you explore all the cool things you build and use when you’re an engineer! Computers, pick-and-place machine, laser cutter, soldering station and more! In Ladyada’s workshop you can run your own open-source hardware electronics company, complete with Mosfet the cat.

    Reply
  27. Tomi Engdahl says:

    New Part Day: Raspberry Pi LEGO HAT
    https://hackaday.com/2021/10/21/new-part-day-raspberry-pi-lego-hat/

    The Raspberry Pi Foundation have been busy little bees for the last couple of years producing their own silicon, new boards and now in collaboration with the LEGO Education team a new HAT to connect to the LEGO SPIKE education platform. This new HAT board will work with every Raspberry Pi board with a 40-pin GPIO header.

    Based on the RPI2040 microcontroller, it makes an interesting detour away from dumb slave boards, although it looks like the firmware is closed (for now) so you’ll have to make do with the pre-baked capabilities and talk to it with the supplied python library.

    According to the documentation, the communication between the Pi and the RPI2040 nestled beneath the HAT PCB is plaintext-over-serial, freeing up the majority of the GPIO pins for other uses.

    Meet the Raspberry Pi Build HAT: create with Raspberry Pi and LEGO® Education
    https://www.raspberrypi.com/news/raspberry-pi-build-hat-lego-education/

    Reply
  28. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Lego built an $170 Transformers Optimus Prime that actually transforms
    19 points of articulation, coming June 1st
    https://www.theverge.com/2022/5/12/23068250/lego-transformers-optimus-prime

    Reply
  29. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Legoa juhlittiin satoja kiloja painavalla palikka­kakulla
    https://www.is.fi/ulkomaat/art-2000008998778.html

    Lego juhlisti tällä viikolla 90-vuotista taipalettaan. Juhlan kunniaksi yrityksen työntekijät väsäsivät upean jättikakun – mistäs muustakaan kuin legopalikoista.

    Reply
  30. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Lego is discontinuing its Mindstorms robotics kits by the end of the year
    A combination of learning and capable robotics, Mindstorms have been around since 1998.
    https://www.engadget.com/lego-discontinue-mindstorms-robotics-kits-by-end-of-year-081535123.html

    Reply

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