Beijing 2008 In Lego

jedie noted an impressive rendering of the Beijing Olympics in Lego. Featuring 300,000 bricks, and 4,500 Lego people, it was built by the Hong Kong Lego User Group. Yes that exists. Amazing. I'm pretty sure that the lighting inside the water cube was not made using stock legos. At least, none in my giant cardboard box.

Countdown

10 seconds until the IOC pulls this for copyright infringement. If you doubt this, then look up how they attacked free-Tibet protesters over using their symbol (in handcuffs).

Re:

Yeah, I'm sure that one had nothing to do with being politically charged...

Pee in the cup!

It is well known that many serious Lego enthusiasts will take various stimulants and body building supplements to give them that edge.

Re:Countdown

No, the IOC is going to keep quiet about this one. Given the recent revelations about CGI fireworks [telegraph.co.uk], fake sports fans [timesonline.co.uk], dubious pianos [epochtimes.com], and the substituted singer [guardian.co.uk], they're desperately hoping we won't find out that this is the ACTUAL stadium...

Where's the lego minitiature

of Tibetan monks being hauled away to prison?

Re:Where's the lego minitiature

You missed it.

It's right next to the Lego miniatures of politicians looking the other way.

Re:Where's the lego minitiature

> Go back to believing the garbage that your "Mainstream Media" spews about China and trying to defend American imperialism as they fuck up the
> world in the name of "freedom and democracy."

You mean I have to choose between American imperialism and repressive Chinese human rights abuses? Can't I say they're both wrong?

Re:Where's the lego minitiature

Ye gods. I don't know what's worse, that you capitalized "Freedom", or that you honestly believe that the US's aim in taking over countries is to "build up a functioning democracy".

that helping people remove vile and murderous dictatorships

Oh yeah, like in Chile! Wait, hang on, no, not like Chile at all. In fact, Chile was the original "9/11", the day President Salvador Allende was murdered and the democratically elected government that he led was brutally overthrown by an army coup sponsored by the United States of America. September 11 will remain for a long time in the minds of most Chileans as the day to remember their murdered daughters, sons, mother and fathers, who disappeared, and the families whose world was changed irreparably by Augusto Pinochet and his henchmen, the puppet government whose power was not based on democratic principles but the protection of the USA.

Or maybe you meant Grenada, a "flagrant violation of international law", according to 108 members of the United Nations?

Wait, I know, you're talking about Iraq! Except I'm not sure how anyone would actually call Iraq a democracy in anything but name only. The government is still a rubber stamp of the US military, over and above its constitutional representation of its people, including such 'freedom'-like joys as "preferred bidders" for oil contracts and all other manner of extracting money from the ruins of a country as being US companies. It's also rather difficult to have democracy in the 21st century when you're still wondering when they will turn your power back on, only 2,000 days after "Mission Accomplished!"

Or perhaps it was Haiti? You know, where it was decided that a "democracy" run by corruption so rife and endemic that elections were not recognized by the international community where apparently worthy of US intervention.

How about Nicaragua, where many amongst the populace were so sick of Somoza's brazen and open corruption, nepotism, and the fact that he was a dictator who had stolen land from hundreds of thousands of their country members, without any international interference, that they rose up and rebelled. Their heinous crime? Accepting help from - gasp - COMMIES! - in order to do so. What else was a good Freedom loving US president to do to "restore" "democracy", but to order one of his spy agencies to begin financing, arming and training rebels. Let's not overlook the fact that Nicaragua was in ruins, and the Sandanistas did a whole lot to try to rebuild their nation, but oh no, better dead than red, dontcha know?

Or maybe Panama - where Noriega, a nice, Freedom loving gun- and drug-running dictator, the kind we in the US try to install in countries - had many many meetings, and lots of involvement with the CIA, and ol' buddy of Ronald Reagan, Ollie North.

Actually, let's make the list shorter. Let's try to list places the US has invaded since World War II with the real and genuine aim, and perhaps even accomplishment, of helping a nation be a functioning, non-puppet, democracy.

...

It's a far shorter list, isn't it... ?

we are still the last, best hope for Freedom in the world

Let's not go blowing the "World Policeman" whistle too much. We've used it far too many times when we weren't being world policemen at all, we were acting in -our- interests, not those of that nation, nor the world. Acting in your own interest is not (inherently) a problem. Pretending you're the line between light and dark while milking your own interests, however, is.

Re:Where's the lego minitiature

Because, you know, we have SUCH a vested National Interest in beating up Tibetans and Han Chinese in the Himalayas

United States involvement in the 1959 Tibet uprising. [wikipedia.org]

an area of the world totally outside our influence

An area into the backyard of a competing superpower, and sandwiched between 3 known nuclear powers...and you're saying the U.S. has no interest in projecting a sphere of influence?

Logo Olympians

Hopefully it doesn't have a miniature BSOD during the opening Lego Olympics.

Next, Lego Will Make It a Creativity-Free Kit

Is it just me or does it seem that the Lego Corp has lost their way? When I was a kid, we used the generic Lego bricks to build a million different things--all based on our imaginations. Now the little brats do nothing but assemble kids with of all things directions. What happened to make up your own ideas? I've now seen so many kids who are unwilling to build anything that strays outside of the confines of "the kit". The creative building childhoods that had been the last remaining birthright of an American is now fading fast. Kids will not grow up creative in the states and we will drift along and invent nothing new.

Re:Next, Lego Will Make It a Creativity-Free Kit

There is still lots of creativity with Legos. Haven't you ever heard of factory.lego.com?

Re:Next, Lego Will Make It a Creativity-Free Kit

What?! TFA has a load of pictures of things which aren't from a guide.

"Kids aren't creative!"

"These kids are being creative right now."

"Don't use facts to ruin my rant, you brat!"

Re:Next, Lego Will Make It a Creativity-Free Kit

That's what I thought until I started to buy kits for my son. He did build according to the instructions. Then he proceeded to do what I had done, and what you are waxing nostalgic about, 20 years before. He built whatever he pleased. He built, destroyed, rebuilt, on and on. He would spend entire days surrounded by his Lego.

I think the blocks are all good. Old and new. He seems to have outgrown them now. He's 14 and he started with Lego when he was two or three. The thousands of dollars worth of newer generation blocks (and all of the instructions) are boxed away with the older generation blocks (with no instructions -- they got lost somewhere along the way) for future rediscovery.

I think that Lego blocks are _still_ the world's greatest toy.

Re:Next, Lego Will Make It a Creativity-Free Kit

Nowdays, kids don't play with toys -- their toys play them.

But only in Soviet Russia.

Re:Next, Lego Will Make It a Creativity-Free Kit

Also, there are a lot more kids on my lawn these days, and they won't get off.

Seriously, have you ever actually seen kids playing with toys? The imagination is definitely there, and they do freely mix and match toys to fit whatever game they're playing, which is often something they're making up on the spot.

I have a 9 year old and a 6 year old, and they're constantly engaged in some form of imaginative play. Just because the play sets these days tend to be trying to encourage playing to a specific story line, kids rarely do that.

Re:Next, Lego Will Make It a Creativity-Free Kit

Hey that is a little harsh.

The Bionicles series is definiately a lot like that, and it is not defensible. But that is far from the only series.

The boxes of assorted bricks with no real directions still exist, but have been largely downplayed since around the time that Samsonite stopped distributing the Lego.

Then we have the standard themed sets (the Castle series, Star wars series, Harry potter series, etc). These contain bricks that are mostly like the classics, with some specialized pieces occasionally. Obviously the mini-figs are quite dominant in this set, but they are quite justified in that otherwise to have a village with people would require a much much greater scale.
That said, nothing can justify the BURPs [http://www.peeron.com/inv/parts/6082 and http://www.peeron.com/inv/parts/6083%5D [peeron.com].
One of the downsides of this level is the limited ability to build interactive models. There are openable doors, and working wheels turntable, and pivoting connectors, but all are fairly limited.

Of the themed sets, any vechile sets are terrible in the use of special peices. Like the recent Jet set. The whole hull of the plane consists of special non-generic pieces. However, there are still quite a few sets in production with no pieces that are not reasonably generic.

Next up we have the ever-popular lego model railroad. This does have quite a few specialized pieces, but justifiably so. Special track pieces are essential to be able to have powered rail cars. The power regulator, and locomotive chassis bricks are also critical. Then we have the genral rail car chasis. The powered headlight bricks are probably not essential, but add character. There are a few other specialized bricks to support building reasonable train cars. However, the sets still invariably include a significant number of classic bricks and plates. The whole Lego railroad line is intended to be used in conjunction with appropriate themed sets. The level of creativity possible with the train system sets is very high. A smidgen less creativity in environment and track shapes is possible compared to standard model railroading, but standard model railroading definitely does not make designing a new railroad car nearly as easy as the Lego train system does.

Then we have Lego Technic. This has many specialized pieces, but virtually all of them are generic, and can be used in a virtually unlimited number of potential designs. The ability to build interactive systems, and even motor powered systems is the best part of this series.

There was the classic Technic that used 1xn beams with holes as a major framework construction component. Beams were sometimes pinned together as part of the framework, but many models did not use this technique. Like with modern Technic, axles are an important component, and were occasionally essential to the model's framework. (not just the models functionality). The studless beams found in modern Technic made the occasional appearance, but were not that common.

Modern Technic is primarily based on the studless components, although some of the new models have re-introduced some studded bricks.

The original Mindstorms were for all intents and purposes part of the classic technic Series, but were of course programable to a much grater degree than any standard Technic set. (A few classic Technic sets had some very limited programability).

Mindstorms NXT is to Modern Technic as the Orginal Mindstorms was to Classic Technic.

Hmm... I think some of that ending was getting offtopic, but oh well.

Oh... 4500 lego PEOPLE

I was wondering WTF was the difference between a brick and a lego.

Who Knew?

I didn't realize that Lego had a "smog" building block.

Don't act so suprised

Featuring 300,000 bricks, and 4,500 Lego, it was built by the Hong Kong Lego User Group. Yes that exists.

Why not? It's not like The West has a patent on geekitude. If anything, the geek mindset is even more prevalent in Chinese-speaking countries than here. They didn't become so dominant in electronic products by growing rice.

Re:Don't act so suprised

Er... I think it's more surprise that that a Lego User Group exists, rather than surprise that people in Hong Kong have heard of Lego.

all I see is a big grey cloud

My browser must be broken :-)

Missing pieces...

I thought they erred in not recreating the female Chinese gymnastic team, but I saw that the box was labeled "Ages 16 and up."

Dude, it's made from leggos, it is nerd news

The Olympics may be for jocks but building anything in an extensive manner using legos is still awesome. What matters is not the context of the subject but rather the engineering creativity behind it, and I'd have to say, the love and detail in this project is impressive. On a side note, I have my doubts about a Hong Kong team building it. If the Chinese really built it, they would have conscripted their entire population to build a lego model up to scale :).

Re:Dude, it's made from leggos, it is nerd news

On a side note, I have my doubts about a Hong Kong team building it. If the Chinese really built it, they would have conscripted their entire population to build a lego model up to scale :).

Well if it makes you feel better about the story's credibility, the members of the HK Lego User's Group were taken from their parents at the age of 3 to undergo years of rigorous Lego construction training.