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30 Years of the Lego Minifig
Posted by
CmdrTaco
on Mon Aug 25, 2008 10:01 AM
from the you-should-get-that-head-bump-looked-at dept.
from the you-should-get-that-head-bump-looked-at dept.
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.
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What about blasters? (Score:5, Funny)
They forgot "blown apart by blasters, whips, and batrangs".
Re: (Score:2, Funny)
They forgot "blown apart by blasters, whips, and batrangs".
And also BB guns, firecrackers, and gasoline.
Minifig = Lego People (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Minifig = Lego People (Score:5, Informative)
And the reason for the name is because Lego also introduced larger figures [lugnet.com] at the same time (1974). This is actually the 30 year anniversary of articulated minifigs, as the originals didn't have movable arms or legs.
Parent
Re:Minifig = Lego People (Score:4, Funny)
Oh, you mean the bigfigs...
(runs away)
Parent
Re:Minifig = Lego People (Score:4, Interesting)
My first minifigs were from the "Space" series in the mid-70s. Luckily, I didn't burn them in the back yard with kerosene or something, like I've seen other kids do. I've continued to buy a few sets a year since then. I'm not one of those guys who could build a piano out of his Lego and have enough left over for the stool, but I'm happy to hand down a nice collection to the next generation.
Lego Nation [deviantart.com]
Parent
Re:Minifig = Lego People (Score:5, Funny)
For those who are curios
I think the minifigs themselves would be more accurately labeled as curios, not the people wondering about them
Parent
Re:Character driven crap (Score:5, Insightful)
It's obvious that you haven't actually seen a child playing with modern Lego sets. My 11yo is in love with the Bionicle series. Since Bionicle was launched pretty much at the same time as he graduated from Duplo, Bionicle == Lego in his mind.
I'm 42, and I had the same worries you do. But you know what? My son's every bit as creative with his Bionicle as I was with the sets 30 years ago. He builds each new set according to the directions. Once. Then he rips it apart and combines it with pieces from all his other sets to make something new. Lather, rinse repeat. I still have all my old Lego bricks; they're in a big bin next to his Bionicle. He sometimes pulls pieces from there for his creations, but mostly sticks to Bionicle parts.
IMHO, when someone our age says that there's "zero creativity" in modern Lego, I think it's more a sign of how calcified we've become. The kids are doing just fine.
Parent
General purposeness of the elements (Score:3, Insightful)
Well what has degraded is the general purposiveness of the bricks.
Most of the "old-time" bricks where with a simple geometrical shape that could fit most of the function the kid playing with them could think of.
The problem with some of the recent series is that lots of them use very specific pieces (like a complete torso or whatever) which makes them very hard to use them for anything else. (But not impossible. Kids can be very creative anyway).
But in fact, it's more the older generation like us looking bac
Re:Character driven crap (Score:5, Insightful)
For a new father approaching 40, the new range of Lego is abysmal.
As a new father approaching 38, I'm kinda tired of this rant, considering last year I found it trivial to find large boxes of the plain bricks with the same pictures of generic houses, boats, trucks (with genetic wheels) as when I was a kid, in better boxes no less (hard plastic with good lids for permanence) and enough minor specialty parts (e.g axles, rotating blocks) to make things interesting.
The secret (other than online ordering) is to actually go to and support a decent non-chain toystore with good toys, rather than depending on your the Wallmart aisle with a couple boxes from the latest movie.
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
> For a new father approaching 40, the new range of
> Lego is abysmal. There's zero creativity in them.
Okay, I'm also a father approaching 40, too, and I've held a similar opinion of new-fangled specialized Lego sets for years. Sure, you could always buy the basic sets, but the space sets had these crazy single-tasking pieces.
My oldest son just turned six, and got a couple of the new Mars Missions space sets for his birthday. These sets are sweet. If you loved the Galaxy Explorer when you were ten,
so what we're really celebrating (Score:5, Funny)
lego: just because you didnt get candy at the supermarket,
doesnt mean you cant punish mom for her insolence.
Gaaah! (Score:5, Funny)
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.
Parent
Re:Gaaah! (Score:5, Funny)
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.)
Parent
Re:Gaaah! (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
Re:Gaaah! (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
Re:Gaaah! (Score:5, Funny)
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.
Parent
Re:Gaaah! (Score:4, Funny)
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
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.
Evil, Evil, Evil (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
Re:Gaaah! (Score:5, Funny)
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.
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Gaaah! (Score:5, Interesting)
Parent
Re:Gaaah! (Score:5, Funny)
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"
Parent
I live in fear (Score:3, Funny)
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 th
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
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! (Score:5, Insightful)
Just do what I do:
1) Grandparents give child noisy annoying toy.
2) Allow child to play with said toy until grandparents go home.
3) Take toy away from child and REMOVE BATTERIES.
4) Give toy back to child and watch him/her lose interest in toy very rapidly.
5) Put batteries back in toy and donate to Salvation Army (Alternately, if you have a gift receipt, just return it to the store.)
6) While out donating (or returning) annoying toy, buy child quiet, quality toy such as LEGOS, a ball, an "action figure", a dolly, a stuffed animal, ect.
7) Tell grandparents (later) the toy broke on the first day, and that next time they should get child something more durable and less gimmicky.
I did this for the first 5 years of each child. Eventually, the GP's got the message. Now my kids get fun and educational toys, or sports/activity related toys. For my son's 6th birthday just last month my parents gave him a 16 foot Trampoline with safety net. Both kids (6 and 7) love it and play on it every day. No annoying noisy crap toys sit around the house, and people know not to bother wasting money buying those toys for our kids.
Of course, they all think my kids are incredibly rough with their toys, but if it keeps the crap out of my home, it's worth a little bending of the truth. (actually, the gimmicky toys wouldn't last much more than a month anyway. I just shortcut the breakage process by ensuring they "break" on the first day.)
Parent
Re:Gaaah! (Score:4, Funny)
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.
Parent
Re:so what we're really celebrating (Score:5, Funny)
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?
Parent
Re:so what we're really celebrating (Score:5, Funny)
"Did you know I built a spaceship out of Legos that visited Uranus?"
Parent
Re:so what we're really celebrating (Score:5, Funny)
Oh I so wish I had moderator points for your wit.
I do.
Oh damn.
Parent
Re:so what we're really celebrating (Score:5, Funny)
"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.
Parent
Re:so what we're really celebrating (Score:5, Funny)
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!
Parent
But I haven't got a dog... (Score:2)
dude, you cut off my hand! (Score:5, Funny)
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: (Score:3, Funny)
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
Lego Bulletin Board? (Score:5, Interesting)
Am I the only one who saw those Lego heads on that big board and thought "It'd be cool to have a Lego bulletin board in my office"? Put some big Lego sheets on the wall and then have special Lego bricks with clips to hold papers that connect to the wall sheets. Perhaps some Lego bricks with magnets embedded in them so you could stick magnetic items to part of the wall.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Looking on Lego's website, it actually looks like it would be easy to build. First I'd buy a Large Green Baseplate (10"x10") for $4.99 ( http://shop.lego.com/ByCategory/Product.aspx?p=626&cn=146&d=203 [lego.com] ). Then I would buy 2x2 flat tiles in various colors for $0.08 each and possibly some round 2x2 flat tiles for $0.11 each. (Sorry, no direct link. But you can search for "Flat Tile 2x2" on http://shop.lego.com/Product/Factory/PickABrick/PickABrick.aspx?cn=26 [lego.com] ) Assuming I buy 20 square flat tiles a
Lego Beer Song (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Lego Beer Song (Score:5, Funny)
Done! [youtube.com] Now in exchange I demand you bring me a shrubbery!
Parent
Lego People? (Score:5, Funny)
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: (Score:3, Interesting)
Thee days, kids don't have to imagine anything!!!
I beg to differ. I grew up with these lego sets and to me, the coolest thing was not just assembling the set the way it was meant to be, but disassembling it and finding out how to create something completely unorthodox by mixing two, or three, or my entire collection of lego's.
I definately remember using my imagination when I built a fleet of small 4 pc. ships and one large, and elegant ship and battled them in a epic space battle all over the house against my brothers team:P
Aah... the fun!
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
You know, most of the grognards who cry about how lego "used to be" haven't played with some of the more recent kits. There's some seriously clever design in some of them, and I find it inspiring to see how other people do things to incorporate them into my own design.
I think that cleverness acts as a force multiplier for the big tub o' bricks.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Or, maybe, your son is different from you.
Seems to me that the instructions in the mindstorms kits are just like the instructions in the regular kits: Good places to start.
Good ideas create other good ideas. Creativity doesn't happen in a vacuum, and other peoples' cleverness can be a good catalyst for one's own.
Re:Lego People? (Score:5, Funny)
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.
Parent
Holy Crap, do I need more coffee (Score:5, Funny)
I read the title as 30 Years of the Lego Milfing
Boy was I surprised!
The faces... (Score:5, Insightful)
Backinmyday, which was the Galaxy Explorer era, all the little figures had the same face. It was a 1970s-era smiley face. The only thing that changed was the headwear: space helmet, fireman hat, girl-hair.
Now, my son has space lego sets. The guys in the Mars Mission sets have decidedly bad-ass faces. Bad-ass facial hair with the bad-ass grimace of a real bad-ass.
Make no mistake about this: my 1970s astronauts did not lead pleasant lives. They fought brave battles, lost limbs, sometimes cracked (literally) under the pressure. Sometimes they even had that stupid smile wiped off their faces (again, literally).
Why do today's miniature astronauts wear their emotions on their sleeves? What happened to the steel resolve of yesteryear? Why not, when under alien attack, smile?
Kids these days.
30 years? Time to kick back (Score:3, Funny)
, relax, and twist up a fatty:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E66lier98PI [youtube.com]
30 years of Lego Mining (Score:5, Funny)
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: (Score:3, Interesting)
Not my first (that one goes to the Coast Guard Station one), but pretty darn close. Man that thing was cool!
The one thing that bothered me with the space minifigs is you could see their smiling faces with the helmets. But I knew (as only an elementary schooler can) that you couldn't see the astronauts faces through the visors. So I would turn their heads around so all you could see was the yellow through the helmet.