In praise of Legos

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

“You opened them, didn’t you.”

" … "

My girlfriend has dropped by and, while checking under my feeble excuse of a christmas tree, has noticed that two small boxes are missing.

“Your hopeless, you know that.”

She’s right. Once again I have grabbed and opened two boxes of Legos originally intended as presents for children.

“Look, a man works a nine hour day --commutes another two or more hours, he gets home and he just wants to play with his Legos. Is that so wrong? Besides, I needed the wheels.”

This all started about two months ago. The nurse with whom I share my duplex sometimes gets stuck working very late and I’m wrangled into babysitting duty. These kids (a boy nine, a girl eight) absolutely shame me at videogames (save “Worms: Armageddon” which, of course, they refuse to play). In an attempt to preserve my dignity I bought a pail of Legos to keep they busy. Jump to today, where I find myself running out of the table space for my interlocking multicolored empire and cannibalizing kid’s presents. Like any other addiction it started out small. A race car here, a castle there. Pretty soon you find yourself standing in Toys-R-Us isle staring glassy-eyed at a display for an $80 Lego Millennium Falcon. What am I supposed to do?

Mind you, these aren’t the Legos you grew up with as a kid, these aren’t with little generic smiley Lego people. The villains wield little Lego revolvers and swords and have little Lego hook-hands and scarred, snarling Lego faces. The little Lego Star Wars characters are particularly detailed and beautiful! Darth Vaders mask can be removed revealing a pea-sized messed-up Anikin Skywalker face! I mean, really, how cool is that?

And they make Lego Ninjas!! For christ sake, I’m only human!!

Yes, I know it’s childish (no smart-alek remarks Alias) but I don’t do drugs, don’t drink excessively. Is there something wrong this?

2

Dammit! Hit “submit” instead of “prevue”.

Screw it…

3

You’ll think there’s something wrong with this when you walk barefoot in the dark and step on one of the Lego pieces. Hurts, doesn’t it?
Robin

4

Your not kidding!

What’s worse is searching around madly looking for a particular odd piece only to discover that it’s stuck to your flesh because you’ve been resting your arm on it.

5

I never had Legos of my own growing up. Oh, my younger brother had bazillions, but my parents never thought about getting me any, even though I was a tomboy. My brother sometimes let me play with his, but he didn’t like that I rarely used the directions.

About 4-5 years ago, around the end of high school, my brother got another small set of really cool Legos “for old times’ sake.” I squawked and said something along the lines of “What! How come you got him Legos and not me? I ALWAYS wanted my own set and I never got them!” My parents just looked at me. I don’t think I’ve ever seen their faces that blank. They were so stunned. Apparently, I hadn’t actually asked for Legos at the appropriate times when I was a kid or something, so they never knew how much I longed for a set of my own.

Now, my parents get me, my brother, and the neighbor boy I grew up with a neat set of Legos every year – different sets from the same series, so we can compete with them. AND – this is really cool – my mom found LEGO ADVENT CALENDARS!!! You put a little set together every day! Granted, the sets themselves are kinda cheesy, but the whole concept just rocks!

My fiance loves Legos, too, and has more than my brother ever did. One of our early “dates” was going up to his parents’ house and getting out his old Legos and playing with them.

Our kids are gonna be set. :smiley:

6

I loved Legos when I was a kid too. Whenever I find myself anywhere near a toy department, I do that “glassy eyed stare” number too. I haven’t indulged myself as an adult. Yet. I figure I got video games to make me immature I don’t really need another toy. [sub]Oh, but I do, I really want them[/sub]
In fact in a recent conversation about this with my wife, she told me she’s going to get me Legos for Christmas. I can’t wait.

All that being said, there is this great Lego Design DOS freeware available on the web called Ldraw. And there’s a Window’s version called MLCAD. They are pretty inutitive, but the part’s lists can be difficult to navigate because they are so huge. But you don’t ever lose pieces, or run out. When you’re finished with your model you can ray-trace it to make it look photo-realistic. If you like Legos and you like computers you ought to check it out.

7

I do like Legos, but I’m rather partial to the big ones that they make for really little kids. If you step on one of those, it’s at least big enough to where you can feel it before it starts to hurt. :slight_smile:

8

Dude, I am so envious of you. May the Gods see it fit for me to recieve some Legos this year.

9

… Besides, I needed the wheels.

ROTFLMAO!!! Where have I heard that before?

When I see those kids out there with their peirced faces and navels and stuff, I feel like I can relate- I’ve got three blue “wuners” permantently embedded in my left heal and a red “twosie” in my right.

10

You guys have got to check out Lego World at Mall of America in Minnesota. They’ve got a lot of sets, and there’s a Lego planet, and a Lego plane and a Lego Pepsi cup and a Lego God knows what suspended overhead. Lots of fun stuff.

MrRobyn and I priced some of the sets, and they are expensive!

Robin

11

Duplos (sp?) is the brand name I believe.

Has anyone here ever tried the Flexiblocks I’ve seen advertised on tv (and now new Glo in the Dark Flexiblocks!!). I can’t imagine that they don’t suck.

As for me, give me the classic two color red/blue Master set any day. Didn’t really come with any instructions, and it damn sure didn’t have any pirates!

12

Say, Inky-, MsRobyn and I are going to the Mall of America this weekend - wanna come with? They have this nifty little thing called Legoland…

One of the attractions is an 8 foot motorized dynosaur :smiley:

13

Odd that this thread should appear now. Earlier today i happened upon a toy store pullout ad from the newspaper. One of the things pictured was this huge Lego set. Underneath the description it said,
[sub]some assembly required[/sub]
:rolleyes:

14

Can I say one thing here?

Legos rule.

That’s all I have to say.

15

I need the advent calendar - anyone else seen it anywhere?

-amarinth

16

I just bought myself a mindstorms set (any waffle cracks, and I will snap), I absolutely fsking love this thing! They’re programable! It’s like they said, “Hey, that Mike really likes our legos. Hmm… but he likes programming and robots more–let’s make him the greatest damn toy he’ll ever see!”
I’m going to buy another set so I can have little “robot wars” style battles.

17

Boo, hiss. But a pale shadow of the One True Legoland, or even its disciples in Windsor and Carlsbad, I’m sure. The One True Legoland has but one problem. The children’s meals in the cafeteria come with Lego-shaped french fries. The adult meals have the boring old shoestring type. Other than that, though, it is wonderful, and a suitable goal for a pilgrimage by any true Lego fan. I’ve been there three times :smiley:

18

Interestingly enough, when I envisioned the Lego employee saying that, he was plastic, yellow, and had a cylindrical head.

19
  • and eggo, you need help.

I so want a Mindstorms set (with the digital camera, of course), but my street cred is low enough as it is. And I’ve drooled over the Millenium Falcon, too.

Ah well, Christmas eve is near and at least I’ll have a chance to “help” the kiddies with their new Lego sets.

BTW - I’ve programmed logistics systems for Lego, how about that ?

S. Norman

20

I’d love to! Sadly two decades of California’s temperate climate has weakened my tolerance, and a cold Minesota December would make me sieze up like an old pinto. But, like any good Muslem, I plan to make a pilgrimage to the Lego Mecca sometime in my life.