Long awaited update -- and LEGO

Ok, so it's been over a year since I've blogged... no apologies here.

I'm in my 2nd year of MDiv studies, so life is busy. Add in the fact that I got married less than 2 months ago, and you can understand that I've had different priorities.http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif

I'd love to pick this blog back up sometime in the future, but this is not that time. However, I can let you in on a new endeavor I'm taking.

I've posted on here before about my love for LEGO. Well, I'm taking the leap and posting my new creations on flickr.

You can follow my photostream here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/hapax_legomenon/

Ok, that's my only shameless promotion. I don't know how often I'll get to update... like I said, life is busy. But, I've got about 6 creations backlogged that I need to get photographed and edited. Hopefully that will keep you busy for a while.

LEGO philosophy

This reminds me of a conversation I had with Brian Moncey in Kirkwood Park one night...

LEGO What?!?!?!

Re-blogged from one of my favorites...

Variety recently reported that Warner Brothers has brokered a deal with LEGO. They are making a movie. Did you see this coming? I sure didn’t.

Here’s what Variety has to say:

WB is toying with plans to develop a movie around Lego and its popular building blocks.

Scribes Dan and Kevin Hageman are penning the script for the family comedy that will mix live action and animation. Warners is keeping the plot tightly under wraps, but it’s described as an action adventure set in a Lego world.

Apparently, LEGO has been approached about making a movie before, but has always turned the idea down. This time, things seem to be different.

Directors and producers in town have attempted to make a Lego movie for years, approaching the Danish toymaker with various ideas, but Lego turned down most of them because it’s highly protective of its brand.

But the company sparked to Lin and the Hageman brothers’ embrace of core values Lego wanted to include in a film, especially “a fun factor, creativity and that imagination has no boundaries,” Lin told Daily Variety. The film’s been in development for more than a year, with the scribes and producers making several trips to Denmark to work with Lego’s execs on the concept.

Also helping is the long relationship Warner Bros. has had with Lego over the years. Warner has licensed characters like Batman, Harry Potter and Speed Racer to Lego to integrate into playsets, and through TT Games, the videogame publisher that WB bought in 2007, has produced the popular “Lego Star Wars,” “Lego Indiana Jones,” “Lego Batman” and, soon, “Lego Rock Band” titles.

What I did last night...

My first spaceship

You can click the pictures to get a larger view.

Left view:



Front view:



Isometric view:

LEGO Re-awakening

Ah yes, LEGOs... the object of countless hours of satisfaction, frustration, creation, destruction, and just plain awesomeness. I recently found this great blog which is devoted to the creative community surrounding LEGOs and their creations like the one on the left.

"How," you might ask, "can these people be so creative and precise?" Well, that is a wonderful question. LEGO has developed a free LEGO Digital Designer (LDD) program that is basically a virtual playground with LEGOs. You can select from hundreds (if not thousands) of pieces to snap together on your computer.

The cool thing is that when you make a model you really like, you can send it off to LEGO themselves and they will (for the applicable price) send you back the kit of LEGO pieces and even instructions to make the model!






"But Tim, I've noticed not all pieces are in the LDD program! Where is --insert random obscure LEGO piece that you really need--?" I'm glad you asked! For those more technical people out there, there is an open source version called LDraw that has a lot less rules to play by. In fact, I've heard that if a piece you want doesn't exist, you can fashion it yourself!






So far, the only problem I've ran into with this whole thing is that now I want to spend hundreds of hours and dollars on LEGOs. What a problem to have!

What kind of model should I make? After I decide on something semi-basic yet really cool, I'll post my progress as I go.