Happy 50th to all things Lego.

Archeron

So Lego is 50 years old this year. Nice to see the basic toys are still being used. To celebrate, I reckon we as a nation should celebrate by building the single biggest piece of Lego sculpture the world has ever seen. Something like a full life sized Brontosaurus, and we should put it somwhere odd like balanced precariously on the big ball thing at that Motorway junction in Naas.

I really want to play with Lego now and build a robot or a space ship, but I'm in work, so I cant. Dammit.

Even Googles banner is lego based today.

http://www.breakingnews.ie/business/mheygbcwidcw/


"It has cemented its place in history as one of the world’s most popular toys and is now celebrating its half century.

Lego is 50 years old.

To celebrate, the toy’s manufacturers are planning a series of events, including a world record attempt to build the biggest Lego tower ever.

From Easter onwards, there will be a Lego Brick Road tour around the UK, and a special commemorative pack will be available for collectors.

The simple toy has allowed generations of children to construct everything from houses and castles to monsters and robots.

And it hasn’t just stopped there, adults too are getting in on the act, with many embarking on projects to create models out of the tiny bricks.

In 2005, artists Darren Neave and John Cake recreated pieces including Tracey Emin’s 'My Bed' and Damien Hirst’s shark out of Lego for an exhibition.

In 2006, a team at Legoland in Billund, Denmark created a model of the world’s largest passenger plane, the Airbus A380 superjumbo

Made of 75,000 Lego bricks in eight different colours, it was around 10ft long, and took its creators more than 600 hours to finish.

Last year, an avid Manchester City fan reconstructed the team’s former Maine Road stadium out of the little bricks.

Lego’s enduring appeal has even seen a whole land named after it – the Legoland theme park.
Such is the power of the brick that it has spawned a number of fan clubs.
In Britain, there is the Brickish Association for AFOL’s (Adult Fans of Lego).

Member Warren Elsemore, from Edinburgh, recently completed a scale model of the Forth Rail Bridge, a project that took 18 months to complete.

One couple are set to marry after bonding over Lego.

Pete Reid, 33, from England and Yvonne Doyle, also 33, from Dublin, met at a private gathering of Lego lovers three years ago.

Mr Reid said: “We met at a Lego meeting around someone’s house in Scotland. Our eyes met over a pile of bricks.

“We build together most weekends now. The biggest thing I’ve built by myself is a four-foot space ship. but we’ve made bigger things collaboratively and with others.”

He added: “I’ve never not been into Lego. It’s an all consuming thing for me.”

Lego was founded in Denmark in 1932 when carpenter Ole Kirk Christiansen began making wooden toys.

Two years later he stumbled on the Lego name by putting together the first two letters of the words Leg and Godt, which mean “play well.”

But it was not until 1947 that Mr Christiansen was introduced to plastic, which would form the basis of the toy we still see today.

Of Lego’s enduring popularity, Brickish chairman Simon Bennett said: “I think it is that it is still the same product it was in the 1950s. A brick bought now will connect to a brick bought back then. You can still build the same things that you’ve always done.”

“I don’t think there’s any reason why it should ever fall out of favour. It’s an excellent toy.”

Tragedy

We should build an outer ring road out of Lego, cant be worse than the m50!

Reku

Archeron wrote: »

Even Googles banner is lego based today.

Noticed that, figured it must be a lego anniversery....
Didn't think it'd be 50 years though as I didn't think it'd been around that long. Hopefully it continues to be used, a good wholesome, and harmless (unless you start throwing the bricks like we did with the duplo in my family:o) toy. The building aspect should also help mental development.

Dun laoire

Lego me hole. Give me a big fuk off ball of maula(sp?) anyday.

Archeron

Maula was good for throwing at people alright, but it didnt have the nice sharp corners that Lego has, so ultimately was safer, and therefore, not as good a toy.
Any good toy should be simple to use, fuel the imagination, and be easily turned into a weapon when nessecary.

When I was a child, I made a maula graveyard and my teacher got really spooked.

Reku

Archeron wrote: »

When I was a child, I made a maula graveyard and my teacher got really spooked.

Suppose it did tend to turn grey/brown when you'd mixed the colours a bit.:(

Sleepy

Yay for Lego. All mine is in the attic and will be bequeathed to my first born in a treasure trail once they're old enough not to swallow all the pieces.

Dord

Undoubtedly the greatest toy ever!

seraphimvc

i miss my castle and pirate ship!!and the marine ship!!ahhh,good times

H.O.T.A.S.

Ahhh Lego one of the greatest toys every. You can also make weapons from it Linky

watna

God I miss lego. I wonder where mine all went? Me and my bro had boxes and boxes of the stuff. Every Christmas we got more. Actually, there's an idea for mext Christmas. Yay! It's only January and I already know what I'm getting everyone.

chopperbyrne

Lego is easily the best toy ever and hopefully it will last another 50 years.

I know if I ever have kids, they'll be playing with Lego on many a Christmas and birthday.

GhostInTheRuins

Lego was great, mine's all up in the attic.

The newer lego is crappy though. I remember when my younger bother got into lego it became useless. The main parts were already formed, so to make the base of a pirate ship, all he had to do was put two big parts together, same with a castle he had, most of the castle was already made. That's most of the fun taken out of it.

Wacker

D.T. Jesus wrote: »

Lego was great, mine's all up in the attic.

The newer lego is crappy though. I remember when my younger bother got into lego it became useless. The main parts were already formed, so to make the base of a pirate ship, all he had to do was put two big parts together, same with a castle he had, most of the castle was already made. That's most of the fun taken out of it.

Yep, I have noticed that myself. They're giving you no choice but to follow the instructions. It was way more fun to build your own castles or whatever from multiple different sets.

I spent most of my formative years building stuff out of Lego. I would have massive dioramas set up where an armada of ships (well, 2 really) attack multiple castles. Yes, I had Robin Hood and the like defending against pirates. It could have happened, dammit!

Gordon

Lego club FTW! Happy Birthday

Sherifu

I love it when a plan comes together.

Dudess

My brother had a Lego fire station, it was fuppin' awesome!

Archeron

rkm wrote: »

I love it when a plan comes together.

I really want one of them sets!!

azezil

Love lego!
Best present EVER, had quite a bit to! *temptation to go out and buy more rising....*

Mr. CooL ICE

I was more of a Lego Technic man myself. Used to always get a set for my birthdays and christmases. And I still have it all in the attic at home!

I made some crazy crap with it though. Apart from making the drawing machine and JCB, which were pre-designed, I made a semi-automatic gun that fired miniature bricks about 2 metres using the power of elastic, among other stupid crap.



AAAAAAAAAGGGHHH!!! I'm travelling home to get my lego now. *considers going to adverts.ie to buy working motors and battery packs*

Sabre0001

Lego was great - you could build anything you wanted...Now where did I put all those bricks?

g5hn710m4xpdwy

There is a Lego forum ye all know?
http://boards.ie/vbulletin/forumdisplay.php?f=668

GhostInTheRuins

LordChessington wrote: »

I was more of a Lego Technic man myself. Used to always get a set for my birthdays and christmases. And I still have it all in the attic at home!

I made some crazy crap with it though. Apart from making the drawing machine and JCB, which were pre-designed, I made a semi-automatic gun that fired miniature bricks about 2 metres using the power of elastic, among other stupid crap.



AAAAAAAAAGGGHHH!!! I'm travelling home to get my lego now. *considers going to adverts.ie to buy working motors and battery packs*

I completely forgot about that stuff. I had a few sets of technic too. I made all sorts of weird things with it, most of them never worked as I hoped though haha. It was so simple but genius at the same time. Air powered lego ftw!

leninbenjamin

I used to spend hours playing with Lego, had **** loads of it too i inherited off cousins. Had enough to be able to make massive cities that would fill an entire room. I still have some on display in me room. 'tis a shame they had to dumb it down so much though.

Capt'n Midnight

www.thebricktestament.com some of the wonderful things you can do with lego

great discovery learning toy

Overheal

I was out xmas shopping and was half tempted to splurge myself with some legos in the end I bestowed them to my kid 2nd cousin - like a lil nephew he is - the legacy lives on.

Easilly the best toy ever made in the history of man. Even the ball has to bow down.

Still when they started coming out with all this bionicle crap thats when the concept died for me. They dont even do technic anymore. Its a shame. Bring back technic!

Can't flame the star wars range though: all the pieces in there are useful and innovative.

EDIT: speaking of which - check out the penultimate lego set perhaps, of the last 50 years?

http://shop.lego.com/Product/?p=10179

Capt'n Midnight

Overheal wrote:

EDIT: speaking of which - check out the penultimate lego set perhaps, of the last 50 years?

http://shop.lego.com/Product/?p=10179

that would be a nice way to kill some time indeed.

tricky D

Yup, what a toy. My stuff is still up in the attic, 'do not touch', after over 25 years of non-use waiting for the next home. Lego spaceships FTW.