Lego

'Wizard of Oz' Lego re-creation has rotating tornado

We've seen plenty of crazy Lego re-creations over the years, from landmark architecture to vintage computers, but we can't help but be impressed when an entire movie is redone in bricks.

That would be 1939 classic "The Wizard of Oz," which a team of 12 Lego builders has turned into a marvelous 3D plastic diorama that includes just about every scene in the film, including a rotating tornado.

The collaborators from VirtuaLUG recently showed off the result of their teamwork at Brickworld 2013 Chicago, a display of spectacular Lego builds. … Read more

Smash Lego atoms with a Large Hadron Collider model

Unfortunately, the Large Hadron Collider is too big to bring home and put on display in your living room. Scientist Sascha Mehlhase created a 4,500-piece Lego model of the collider back in 2011 at a cost of about $2,700. That was also too big for most people.

Now, he has created a smaller model of the ATLAS experiment, a particle physics experiment at the Large Hadron Collider, and put it up as a candidate for an official Lego kit.

The project is on Cuusoo, a site for Lego enthusiasts to share their models and attempt to gather 10,000 votes in order for Lego to consider making their creations as kits. Mehlhase's ATLAS currently has 5,756 supporters, so it has definitely caught the eyes of Lego builders.… Read more

Mars Curiosity Rover gets second life as Lego model

Here's another accomplishment that NASA's Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity Rover can add to its resume: the Mars-trotting robot will soon become an official Lego model.

Lego recently announced Curiosity's new gig after wrapping up its formal review process of creations that passed 10,000 votes on Lego's Kickstarter-esque Web site Cuusoo. Ironically, mechanical engineer Stephen Pakbaz, who worked on Curiosity for NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, created the design for the 1:20 scale Lego version of the rover. … Read more

Lego makes beautiful music with the Sydney Opera House

We've seen an official Lego Sydney Opera House set before as part of the toy company's Architecture range, but let's be honest: an awful lot of detail got lost in the model's tiny size.

Lego's about to do something about that, though. On September 1, Lego fanatics will be able to get their hands on an insanely detailed 2,989-piece model of the iconic building designed by Danish architect Jørn Utzon in the 1950s. And, at 11 inches by 25 inches by 15 inches, it's going to be huge.

The model is offering a few neat perks for Lego brick collectors: rare dark-tan Lego bricks, tiles, and sloped bricks, as well as the company's first-ever 48x48 stud baseplate in blue -- and the curved white pieces that form the Opera House's sails. … Read more

Lego faces are getting more pissed off, study says

The classic Lego person is a happy creature, sporting a smile on its barrel-shaped yellow face. These are the Lego people I grew up with. They all looked pretty thrilled to be little Lego beings. But times have changed. There are Lego battles to be fought and Lego foes to struggle against. It's starting to look more like "Game of Thrones" than "My Little Pony" in the Lego world these days.

Researchers from the University of Canterbury in New Zealand and the Industrial Research Institute for Automation and Measurements in Poland investigated the faces of Lego minifigs made between 1975 and 2010. First, the study notes a dramatic increase in the variety of facial expressions starting in 1989. "The two most frequent expressions are happiness and anger and the proportion of happy faces is decreasing over time," the study's abstract reads.… Read more

Lego brings real robotic bricks to life for PlayStation

There are already a few ways you can make Lego robotics, including Lego Mindstorms -- the latest iteration of which includes support for smartphone control -- and, more recently, a Kickstarter campaign to get Raspberry Pi in on the action. The toy company, however, seems to be seeking new ways to make Lego robotics accessible.

The latest is a collaboration with Sony to create a range of bricks called "Toy Alive" aimed at keeping kids interested in Legos in the age of video games. Unveiled at an open house at the Sony Computer Science Laboratories in Tokyo, the bricks are embedded with various electronics that can be controlled with a PlayStation controller, including motors for mobility, actuators that can destroy Lego creations, and tiny cameras that can broadcast to tablets and smartphones. … Read more

Meet the 23-ton X-Wing, the world's largest Lego model

There's big, then there's really big, and then there's colossal, which might be a good word to use when describing a near 46,000-pound Lego X-Wing that made a triumphant debut Thursday in New York's Times Square.

The full-size replica, about 42 times the size of the Lego "Star Wars" X-Wing (#9493) set available on store shelves, celebrates the debut of Cartoon Network's "The Yoda Chronicles," which premieres on May 29 at 8 p.m. … Read more

Electric guitar, dinosaur top new Lego Mindstorms EV3 models

SAN FRANCISCO--If you don't think a playable Lego electric guitar, complete with the ability to play different notes and adjust pitch, is possible, you don't have enough faith.

Later this year, Lego will launch the third generation of its popular Mindstorms programmable robotics platform. Known as EV3, the third-generation kit will come with plans for 17 different models. But 12 of those models were created by members of an elite, hand-picked, team of Lego community members.

Now, with the eighth-annual Maker Faire hitting the San Francisco Bay Area this weekend, Lego is unveiling three of the 12 community-created … Read more

Weekend fun: Lego Star Wars: The Yoda Chronicles is free for iOS

It was barely two weeks ago that Lego Batman: DC Super Heroes made a wonderful iOS debut, and suddenly there's another Lego-themed game in the App Store: Lego Star Wars: The Yoda Chronicles. Woot!

The bad news: This isn't a port of any of the classic Lego Star Wars games that have appeared on consoles over the years. Instead, it's something new and original, a real-time strategy/action blend set in the "Clone Wars" universe and aimed at younger players. (Arguably, all the Lego games have a similar audience, but most of them are fun … Read more