lego

New York graphic designer Mike Doyle is best known in Lego MOC circles for his crumbling Victorian houses, but the city of K'al Yne on the alien world of Odan might just be his most ambitious project yet.

Crafted out of more than 200,000 Lego pieces and taking over 600 hours to build, the sculpture, designed entirely by Doyle, depicts a wondrous alien civilization. There's something Gothic about his soaring spires, bridges, buttresses, and villages clustered about the city's base. … Read more

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Backyard tinkerer Grant Thompson teaches us how to build a solar-powered death ray. A man gets a Netflix tattoo for life and only gets a measly one-year subscription for it. Plus, we meet Mr. Stubbs the alligator, the first reptile (that we know of, at least) to receive a prosthetic tail. Donation came from the Phoenix Herpetological Society and the Core Institute. … Read more

We've seen all manner of jaw-dropping Lego creations, but some of the best are creations that create. This machine fashioned from the fantastic plastic creates and launches paper airplanes.

Created by Mindstorms user hknssn13, this mini factory was made from 6,000-7,000 Lego bricks and measures 59 inches long by 15 inches wide. Not exactly portable, but it works. … Read more

One lane of Interstate 79 in West Virginia was closed down on Sunday for a tragic spill of Lego bricks. The bricks scattered across the highway, no doubt giving drivers traumatic flashbacks to the last time they stepped on a Lego brick in bare feet.

As hazardous as Legos are to unshod humans, they also pose a potential risk to vehicles. They may not be able to puncture a tire, but I imagine Legos could be pretty slippery, especially in the damp, cold conditions at the time. The only thing worse than a bunch of loose Legos on an interstate would be a bunch of wet, half-frozen loose Legos.… Read more

Minecraft is to my 25-year-old self as Legos were to my 5-year-old self: a time-sucking, mind-bending, and sleep-depriving experience in the simplest of activities. It hits the right tune on the subject of creation: it really does provide building blocks for your imagination.

Minecraft has no real direction, anchoring plot, or specific guidelines. Players are dropped into a world with only the ability to carve out resources from the surrounding land; you're a miner (duh!).

The game's graphics won't impress, but leaves you with one direction and focus: to build. Soon you'll find out that as … Read more

The only thing that can top building something incredible with Legos is taking a good photo of it. Chris McVeigh does both.

The graphic and Web designer is a wizard with bricks and a lens. His latest creation marks the recent 29th anniversary of Steve Jobs' release of the original Apple Macintosh in January 1984. It's just too cute for school.

Based in Halifax, Canada, McVeigh has designed custom builds and images for Gizmodo, Esquire Malaysia, and Toronto magazine Spacing. When he first gets an idea for the classic Mac or, as seen in the gallery below, a vintage camera, he uses Lego's modeling app for designers, Lego Digital Designer.

'The advantage of starting off a project digitally is that I can play around with thousands of bricks without actually having them sitting out in front of me, which can be a problem when you have as many bricks as I do," says McVeigh, who gets his bricks from stores or online retailers. "But that said, I always seem to need bricks that I don't have with each new build." … Read more

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This week on Crave, we're back from CES with a look at some of the wackier stuff we spotted at the show. Then, Canadian astronaut Christopher Hadfield gives us a highly important grooming lesson on the safest way to clip our nails in outer space, and the Hal 9000 computer replica from ThinkGeek refuses to cooperate. … Read more

If you're a regular reader of my Crave stories, you'll know I have a certain adoration (or perhaps borderline obsession) for Lego. As much as it pains me to admit it, the expensive building toy -- despite its many themes and innovative designs -- could use a little more flexibility. Sugru might just be the ticket to reach that architectural nirvana.

A silicone rubber that molds like Play-Doh and bonds to nearly anything, Sugru could greatly change the way people use Lego bricks, in my opinion. Why? Sugru lets you place Lego bricks nearly anywhere, acting as a kind of beacon of freedom for the Lego brick. … Read more

LAS VEGAS--Lego! iPhone! The two were made for each other.

iPhone cases are like snowflakes in Aspen at CES 2013, but Belkin's tucked-away iPhone 5 Lego cases found a way to catch my eye. Maybe because they're cute and colorful...and maybe because I have a 4-year-old who likes to make Lego dioramas when we're out at dinner.

I can't help but imagine setting up my face-down iPhone at a table and setting up a Star Wars action scene on it...or building an awkward tower. Or, using bricks to design your own 3D makeshift look. … Read more