Details: This might seem a little quick and simple, but I like it. These use the older minifig-holding magnets (from when LEGO sold minifigure magnet sets where the minifigure was not glued to the magnet), and use tiles and minifigures to indicate different locations - specifically, places that Bret might be when he's not at his desk. It's a good excuse to bring some LEGO into a decidedly non-LEGO environment, and we never have enough good reasons to do that. It's different. It's clever. It's practical. It's functional. It's something I wish I had thought of first.
Details: Here's one for the "there's nothing else like this out there" category - using a system of gears, motors, knob wheels, and a compass sensor, NeXTSTORM has created this utterly bizarre contraption. It looks like something you'd see under a microscope, with swirling patterns of different colors. It can be "lured" into travelling in different directions by a pad of magnets (detected by the compass sensor). While this is a definite departure from the animated minifig contraptions we've seen NeXTSTORM build in recent months, I think it's safe to say that this is another masterpiece. This may also be the best use we ever see for the "knob wheel" element - so far it's been largely ignored in favor of traditional gears, but the set designers keep including them in more and more kits, so we will have to come up with more clever uses for them.
LEGO has released a variety of new magnet sets recently. They've done some neat magnet sets in the past, but these new minifig-based ones are particularly cool - for around $15 US per set, you get 3 minifigs (usually fairly hard-to-find ones, often ones only otherwise available in fairly expensive sets) and 3 magnet pieces. The minifigs are completely removable from the special magnet brick (which is larger than older magnet bricks and includes a "stand" of sorts for the minifig). Take the set pictured here, for example - you get three hard-to-find minifigs from some of the most expensive sets (based on price-per-piece ratios) that LEGO makes right now. The magnet bricks (which I'm sure people will build some great things with before long) are almost like a freebie once you factor in what people pay for some of these individual minifigs on BrickLink. These are a great way to start building in new directions (right on the fridge!) and to build up an exciting minifigure collection quickly.
There are some other new things showing up on LEGO Shop-at-Home lately as well - more of the Farm sets in particular, but sets in a variety of other themes too. You never know what you'll find on there - for example, I just found out that the Troll Battle Wheel set is on sale at a great price. I suspect we'll be seeing quite a few good sets and good prices come and go in the months to come - LEGO is phasing out the 2008 items fairly quickly now (my guess is that they sold more of them during 2008 than they expected to, and now have decided to focus on newer items) in favor of the sets released recently and the sets introduced at Toy Fair.
Details: This is one of those things that I've been meaning to plug for a while. I also wanted to recommend it as an excellent idea we could all try - but LEGO, in one of the stranger decisions I've seen them make, has pulled the refrigerator magnets and made it very expensive to try doing anything like this now. Although the magnets are hard to come by now, most of the other parts are still available. These three buildings are microscale versions of the popular Town Plan set from earlier this year - a special 50th anniversary edition of one of the first sets made with the current LEGO bricks 50 years ago. Enough trivia, though - look at these details! They're amazing! Lots of studs-not-on-top work was involved here to get the details correct and make these work as magnets. Don't miss the lamp-post or clock on the city hall, the signs and ticket booth on the cinema, or the flag or actual vintage door on the gas station.
This is Saturday's model of the day - and with any luck, we're back on a daily schedule now.
Details: Going back to yesterday's rant, magnets and the "M:Tron - The Power of Magnets" space line are awesome. You know what else is pretty awesome, though? Other official Space lines. I mentioned my love of the "Ice Planet 2002" sets yesterday, but actually, most adult LEGO® fans are a bit older than me, and as such remember how great the "Futuron", "Blacktron", and classic Space sets were. Of course, there were also a few more great lines out when I was little, too - the second generation of Blacktron and the second generation of Space Police (the first Space Police line came out in 1989 and was promptly forgotten). Ever wonder what would happen, though, if the Mega Core Magnetizer was made in all of these popular lines? Well, you'd end up with a set of vehicles like this (not to mention more magnets than an entire train layout). All six of the original color combinations look great, and of course, we already knew that the set proper was amazing. Personally, I had no clue the that large translucent panel was made in so many colors. All of these color schemes came out well, and there are even a few nice surprises in there where other parts from the various Space lines were worked in.
There is no model of the day today - I didn't pick one out beforehand and I'm in no mood to look through models after the insulting announcement from this morning.
The LEGO company is discontinuing the standard magnets that they've been making since 1980, and they've announced it in a disturbing and unreasonable way.
Let me start at the beginning - a certain awful off-brand that makes a knock-off of LEGO bricks decided to go after another brand a few years ago. The MEGABLOKS equivalent of the magnetic toy line they were knocking off is called "Magnetix". Magnetix is a toy system that features a variety of magnetic rods and shapes made with very strong magnets, and those magnets can be connected to each other directly or through little metal balls. The toy system is surpisingly robust considering MEGABRANDS' history of making lousy products - the magnets are extremely strong and the pieces are fairly sturdy. This past weekend, while out in search of used LEGO sets at yard sales, I came across a Magnetix collection, and not realizing that it was manufactured by The Evil One, I decided to buy it. I was disappointed that the polarities weren't marked, but I was impressed by the sheer strength of the magnets - when positioned the wrong way, they would repel so strongly as to fling parts off of the table. I always look up my purchases online to look for interesting ways to use things I'm not familiar with - and not surprisingly, thereare a few sites discussing things patient adults can make with Magnetix toys. Since the MEGABLOX MAGNETIX magnets are super strong and the toy is recommended for three-year-olds, it's little wonder that the things were recalled last year. Sure, occasionally very young children will choke on or swallow things that they shouldn't put in their mouths - but with such strong connections between parts, it's also possible that many older children will try to disconnect the parts with their teeth and wind up in an awful situation. With Magnetix parts being as strong as they are, you could probably rip out your insides just standing in the same room as another Magnetix part after swallowing one.
Toy recalls inevitably lead to paranoia among parents, and that leads to stronger child-safety laws in toys. The EU is famously overzealous with their CE laws, and the US (particularly the state of California) is actively working to be just as over-the-top in banning toys and plastics.
The LEGO company is generally a pretty smart company. Their lawyers know a thing or two about staying ahead of child safety laws, and it's perfectly understandable that they would react to the Magnetix toy recall the way that they did.
This is 2008, though. The LEGO company has spent most of the last 10 years trying to prove that they are an enlightened company that appeals to educators, adults, and hobbyists. There's been tons of buzz in the LEGO adult fan community recently about Jake McKee's presentation about LEGO changing, and BrickJournal magazine going into print, and the new phase of the LEGO Ambassador program. Apparently none of that matters, because they're not going to use these new channels of communication anyway.
There is of course, no need to discontue the old parts - they are perfectly safe, and the company is clearly just preparing itself to better survive the onslaught of paranoia on both sides of the Atlantic. The magnets LEGO makes have never been particularly strong, they've always been easy to seperate, and they've been used for nearly 30 years without any publicized complaints. They've added immense play value and hobby value in a large variety of sets. I can't vouch for the refridgerator magnets (they sold out before I could buy some), but there is no reason to worry about the magnets sold in M:Tron, Trains, Spyrius, Exploriens, Star Wars, UFO, Insectoids, Aquaraiders, Aquasharks, Hydronauts, Stingrays, Ice Planet 2002, Aquanauts, etc. sets.
I really thought that the company had learned after bungling the new colors in 2003 - that they would notify people in advance of these things. In 2003, we were at least able to purchase extra gray pieces and build a stockpile while the new sets with the new bluish-gray pieces were phased in at stores. We don't have that luxury now, because the first sign that something might be changing was the sudden removal of the older parts. Rather than be proactive and explain the situation, the company kept ambassadors in the dark as fans complained. Now that the LEGO company has finally come clean about the changes happening, they've published an announcement that is insulting to those of us who have been active fans of magnet-based Space and Aquazone lines.
They're mixing the remaining magnets in with sets being packaged through August. It apparently hadn't occured to them that those sets could end up in stores after a law was passed, or that those magnets might be in demand by fans. They've announced a new solution for the train fans, but for those of us who like other magnet-heavy themes, there's nothing.
I was born in 1987. When I was little, stores were full of M:Tron and Train sets. Most kids my age and younger love the magnet components. As someone who shops at yard sales frequently, I've noticed that M:Tron are disproportionately likely to show up the toy boxes of younger kids - little kids can't resist the opportunity to play with their older relatives awesome space-and-magnets kits. I've grown up seeing these magnets used in a variety of exciting ways.
The magnets have been appearing in trainsets since 1980. They were largely used for trains until 1990 (and it wasn't until the early 90's that the higher-end train sets started appearing in stores anyway). There havealso been a number of magnetaccessory packs over theyears.
Post-9V train sets use magnets too, and all supplemental train car sets have used the magnets as a universal way of connecting to larger train sets.
Today marks the end of an era, and it's a shame that the last accessory pack to feature magnets is already sold out. The younger adult LEGO fans of today are very much the kids of the past few decades, and you can bet many of us would love to introduce these sets to our kids if we were able to make sure extra parts would be available if a magnet got lost. The company owes it to the fans to warn us of these sorts of changes and to allow us to purchase extra parts to go with our existing sets while the parts are still around. At least, that's what all of their "communication" efforts of the past few years seemed to be promising.
This might seem a little quick and simple, but I like it. These use the older minifig-holding magnets (from when LEGO sold minifigure magnet sets where the minifigure was not glued to the magnet), and use tiles and minifigures to indicate different locations - specifically, places that Bret might be when he's not at his desk. It's a good excuse to bring some LEGO into a decidedly non-LEGO environment, and we never have enough good reasons to do that. It's different. It's clever. It's practical. It's functional. It's something I wish I had thought of first.
