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.

Next, Lego Will Make It a Creativity-Free Kit

[curmudgeon99]

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:Where's the lego minitiature

[oldspewey]

Ummm ... I'm pretty sure it wasn't monks who were burning shops and killing people ... and there is even some debate as to whether it was everyday Tibetan householders targeting the Han Chinese, or whether it was the work of agents provocateurs sent in to create justification for the ensuing crackdown.

Re:Where's the lego minitiature

[d3ac0n]

Something as nonsensical as that could only be done by George W. Bush.

And here we have solid proof: The communist thug apologists (AKA: thugpologists) are taking their one-liners from the DailyKos and DU.

Hey Mr. Thugpologist:

Those lines only work on people stupid enough to buy into the DailyKos rhetoric. The rest of us see right through you.

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

[niceone]

Things have moved on. but the creativity is still there. You can still get buckets full of plain bricks, but you can also download lego digital designer [lego.com] - free CAD for lego! How cool is that? And you can order all the individual bits you need from the store. And it works in linux via WINE.

Re:Where's the lego minitiature

[Anonymous Coward]

Obviously, there are those that have bought into the DailyKos/DU/communist/thugs-R-us line that helping people remove vile and murderous dictatorships is somehow "imperialism". But those people are either apologists, like smitingpurpleemu, or useful idiots, like some we occasionally see here on Slashdot.

How about those people who removed the vile and murderous dictatorship known as the Batista regime in Cuba? The USA didn't help them, the USA opposed the removal of the Batista regime. The USA tried to kill the people who kicked out the dictator. Why? Because the USA had a lot of economic interests in Cuba, such as sugar plantations and distilleries. So you see, if you're trying to remove a dictator the USA currently doesn't like, for example Saddam Hussein in 2003, then the USA will help you. By sending in thousands of cruise missiles, tanks, bombs, etc.

But if you're trying to remove a dictator that the USA currently likes, for example Saddam Hussein in the 1980s, or Fulgencio Batista in Cuba, then the USA won't help you. They'll give the dictator weapons and money to try to stop you. The USA might even send people to try to kill you.

The actions of the USA aren't aimed towards Freedom For The World. They are designed to give the best economic and strategic advantages to the USA.

Re:Where's the lego minitiature

[Threni]

> Last time I checked, and "imperialist" government generally tended to take over smaller countries for the purpose of extracting wealth and resources. America does none
> of the above.

Check again. Look at US support for Saddam Hussein, when he was killing (his own) civilians with chemical weapons. They also encouraged the Kurds and others to rise up and fight the Iraqi army, only to stand back and watch them get slaughtered. Makes the line about "helping people remove vile and murderous dictatorships" ring a little hollow, doesn't it. This isn't propoganda - it's fact, admitted as such by some of the people responsible.

> In fact, when we take over a country, we tend to SEND and SPEND large amounts of our wealth, manpower, and lives to build that country up into a functioning democracy,
> leaving the people there better off than before. This is the exact OPPOSITE of imperialistic behavior.

Every single poll in Iraq since it was invaded and occupied by the US has shown that the people of Iraq are not thankful, and want them to leave immediately.

Re:Missing pieces...

[fahrbot-bot]

It's a political statement in that even though the Chinese say their female gymnasts are at least 16 years old, and their offical passports say they're at least 16 years old (or will be this year as per IOC rules), many of the gynmasts clearly are not that old - and this has been discussed in the press. It's also a joke in that the girls wouldn't be able to play with their own pieces....

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

[xaxa]

The real problem is if you go to these stores what happened to the real model kits. Where you get these plastic cut outs which you need to break off, chisels down, paint glue together (without melting the plastic from the highly toxic glue)....

One incarnation of this would be Warhammer (or some other toy soldiers), but it's very expensive. I had much more fun assembling and painting the models than I did playing the game; I was never very good at the tactics. I was good at painting though.

Another is the kits made for model railways (the buildings for age 12-ish, and the trucks a bit later on, since they need to be put together quite accurately). I lost interest in these after about a year, but sort-of went along with it for my dad for a while longer to keep him happy. There wasn't really much to do with the trains, once you'd got them set up and running round the track (and I wasn't allowed to do much of the setting up). I think it was more my dad's toy than mine. It's probably a decent hobby for someone who's retired, but there wasn't any way to involve my friends, which is why I preferred the Warhammer.
Take away the trains and you're left with a model town/village. I doubt many kids would be interested in that, train crashes were the best bit of the model railway :D (when dad's not looking, obviously).

Airfix still sell plastic kit models in the UK, you can get them in most independent toy shops -- I'm not sure about the big chain toy shops, I haven't been in one for years. I didn't like war though, so I never had any Airfix models (they all seem to be fighter planes and war ships).
Someone I know at university bought a manga robot city-stamping monster plastic kit from Japan, that would have been much cooler, but I don't know if they were available in England when I was 16.

I think everything else I did with toxic glue used balsa wood, card and anything else I could find.