From Lego with Love

It all started in 1949 in Billund, Denmark: a carpenter named Ole Kirk Christiansen began the legacy of wooden and then plastic building blocks which came to be known as LEGO today. From Wikipedia, the name Lego was coined by Christiansen from the Danish phrase leg godt, which means 'play well'. The name could also be interpreted as 'I put together' or 'I assemble' in Latin.

However, tt was not until Christiansen's son Godtfred Kirk Christiansen, in his conversation with an overseas buyer that struck the idea of a toy system, truly began the line of connecting blocks toy. And on January 28th 1958, the modern Lego brick was patented.

I can't really remember who first bought me the Lego when I was young. I am not sure it was given by my relatives or bought by my parents. Over the course of about 10 years from when I was still in kindergarten (~5-6 years old), I have been collecting Lego bricks in whichever container I could get my hands on, and years of collecting has paid off with a large variety of Lego I have in possession now. From normal bricks to specialized Technic sets, and almost more than 20 Lego figurines, I can just about build anything from scratch.

Well, not exactly ALL these. My figurines are quite old.

One good thing about Lego is that using only square or rectangle shaped blocks, one can build almost anything. And by anything, I really mean ANYTHING.

A 1:1 scale model of Volvo XC90, build entirely using Lego.

While Lego used to mean basic square/rectangle shaped building blocks with round studs, they do produce some specialized Lego sets, starting from the good ol' Lego Technic.

Technic basically consists of big wheels, axles, pneumatics, gears, motors, etc.

Of course, Technic sets technically cost more than normal Lego blocks, aptly named Lego Creator. I remember the first Technic set I managed to "persuade" my dad to buy for me cost more than RM100, but that was almost 10 years ago. Nowadays it costs a bit lesser.

Then during secondary to high school, for a long period of time, about 5 years or more, I had not touched any new Lego sets anymore. I have lost contact with Lego, never even heard of any news about new products. The last sets I had heard of was the Technic, back when they were still very new. Now, there is a LINE of Lego products: Lego Bionicles, Lego Racers, Lego Star Wars, Lego Atlantis, and more recently, Lego Heroes Factory. I am not even sure what these are all about.

Lego Racers : Well, they are what they are. Race cars.

Lego Bionicle are a line of 'tribal' robots, which features a completely different blocks.

Then I stumbled upon something very, very interesting, which has sparked my dormant love for Lego.

Behold, the most advanced Lego set to date: The Lego Mindstorms

Apparently, Lego Mindstorms have been on the market for quite a long time already. Because Lego is not very popular in Malaysia, we seldom see new lines of Lego in regular store or shopping mall, except Toys 'R Us or some specialized Lego store. Lego Mindstorms redefine the universe of Lego. Its most prominent feature is the box that resemble a Gameboy in the picture shown above. That is the controller for the robot. Yes, robot.

Lego Mindstorms are all about robotics and programming. The box is a programmable 'brain' for the robot. You can program it to do just about anything, from going around home to shooting balls. They work by using a variety of sensors: infrared sensors, colour sensors, proximity sensors, and a lot of technical jargon, which in this case is programming language. I have yet to get my hands on these stuff, except that I have seen it first hand at a local store here. With a price tag of RM1499, this toy have to wait. For a very long time, I presume.

And recently, I could not hold back anymore, and on 30th November 2010, after a pretty smooth-going mathematics test, I went to Tropicana City Mall and pay a visit to one of my favourite stores: Brickboy Brothers. They are one of the local Lego dealers, which are pretty hard to find. And there, I bought myself an early Christmas present...

Christmas comes early for Duno: Lego Creator 3 in 1 set model 6745

This is the cheapest mid-sized Lego I could find. You can get one for less than RM30, but it would be the size of your palm. At RM119.90, my wallet was bombed by a force equivalent to an atomic bomb. But it was a well-worth purchase. I could not stand the boredom in my room anymore, and I need something to fiddle with. This set can last me until next year, hopefully, until I ran out of ideas and materials.

I never regret it though. :)
And my motto for Lego?

"You don't buy Lego for what it is. You buy Lego for what it is NOT."

This is my first custom made model using the materials given from the original set. :)
More to come, for sure. ;)

First custom model: The Devil, based very loosely on F-22 Raptor.

P.S. : For you curious cats out there, the "something I stumbled upon" is the video link below. It is sort of offensive. :)
http://failblog.org/2010/10/02/epic-fail-video-toy-fail-6/