Beijing 2008 In Lego 177
jedie noted an impressive rendering of the Beijing Olympics in Lego. Featuring 300,000 bricks, and 4,500 Lego people, it was built by the
Hong Kong Lego User Group. Yes that exists. Amazing. I'm pretty sure that the lighting inside the water cube was not made using stock legos. At least, none in my giant cardboard box.
Countdown (Score:5, Funny)
10 seconds until the IOC pulls this for copyright infringement. If you doubt this, then look up how they attacked free-Tibet protesters over using their symbol (in handcuffs).
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check techdirt for what else the IOC is covering up.
Pee in the cup! (Score:5, Funny)
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Fixed that for ya...
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Re:Countdown (Score:5, Funny)
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The opening ceremony was a show. Shows, by definition, are fake. They aren't real.
Here's an example. We put on South Pacific recently. There is a scene where all the ceebees watch a plane leaving.
We put two lights on either end of a piece of wood, hung it from a wire(sloping right to left) and one of the stage crew pulled a piece of cotton attached to the wood.
In rehearsals it looked appalling. However in the show the stage lights were out (it was supposed to be night anyway) and we added the sound e
Where's the lego minitiature (Score:4, Insightful)
of Tibetan monks being hauled away to prison?
Re:Where's the lego minitiature (Score:5, Funny)
You missed it.
It's right next to the Lego miniatures of politicians looking the other way.
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The monks were hauled away, disassembled and their bricks used in the construction of the water cube.
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> of Tibetan monks being hauled away to prison?
They've been photoshopped out, just like the little un-cute singer and the paralysed dancer. Ssshhh...our little secret.
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Tibetan monks have their own temple in Beijing - Yong He Gong (aka Lama Temple) - it's been there for a *long* time (1694) and has served as a administration for all things Lama (1722). It's not a prison either. Why you would think they would be hauled away, I don't know. Unless you think the few protesters in Beijing are Tibetan monks, which I somehow doubt (though I could be wrong) - it's certainly not my impression from the news I've seen (I'm not in China at the moment). I've seen plenty of people in Be
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And here we have solid proof: The communist thug apologists (AKA: thugpologists) are taking their one-liners from the DailyKos and DU.
Hey Mr. Thugpologist:
Those lines only work on people stupid enough to buy into the DailyKos rhetoric. The rest of us see right through you.
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Wow.
So now it's AMERICA that's sending people to burn Tibetan shops? It's not Agent Provocateurs sent by the Chinese Thugocracy in order to keep the Tibetan monks in line and quiet an embarrassing and troublesome region by deception and violence (like ALL Communist thugocracies do), it's America.
Because, you know, we have SUCH a vested National Interest in beating up Tibetans and Han Chinese in the Himalayas, an area of the world totally outside our influence. Yep, that's it, it MUST be the Eeeeeeeeeevil
Re:Where's the lego minitiature (Score:4, Informative)
United States involvement in the 1959 Tibet uprising. [wikipedia.org]
an area of the world totally outside our influence
An area into the backyard of a competing superpower, and sandwiched between 3 known nuclear powers...and you're saying the U.S. has no interest in projecting a sphere of influence?
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It would be much the same reaction for the USA as if Hawaii or Alaska had suddenly (unilaterally) declared independence and then the US Army went in an killed anyone in a supporting the independence, while the redneck American folk attacked anyone who spoke out with the idea that the people living there should be the only ones to decide whether or not they want to be a part of a larger country, with the USA government all the while feeding them stories that China was behind the uprising, and that the Hawaiians were "naughty people who deserved it"
fixed that for you. no, I cant relate to their feelings. I am not completely out of touch with reality, sorry.
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you sponsored terrorists to attack our land, burn our shops, and kill our people.
Dude ... put the kool-aid down and back away slowly. Re-read your posts in this thread. Take a few deep breaths. Ask yourself whether it's even just slightly possible that the state-run media has planted a few ... let's just call them exaggerations in your head?
Re:Where's the lego minitiature (Score:5, Insightful)
> Go back to believing the garbage that your "Mainstream Media" spews about China and trying to defend American imperialism as they fuck up the
> world in the name of "freedom and democracy."
You mean I have to choose between American imperialism and repressive Chinese human rights abuses? Can't I say they're both wrong?
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Or, you could tell the thugpologist to stuff it.
Last time I checked, and "imperialist" government generally tended to take over smaller countries for the purpose of extracting wealth and resources. America does none of the above.
In fact, when we take over a country, we tend to SEND and SPEND large amounts of our wealth, manpower, and lives to build that country up into a functioning democracy, leaving the people there better off than before. This is the exact OPPOSITE of imperialistic behavior.
Obviously,
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> Last time I checked, and "imperialist" government generally tended to take over smaller countries for the purpose of extracting wealth and resources. America does none
> of the above.
Check again. Look at US support for Saddam Hussein, when he was killing (his own) civilians with chemical weapons. They also encouraged the Kurds and others to rise up and fight the Iraqi army, only to stand back and watch them get slaughtered. Makes the line about "helping people remove vile and murderous dictatorshi
Re:Where's the lego minitiature (Score:5, Insightful)
Oh yeah, like in Chile! Wait, hang on, no, not like Chile at all. In fact, Chile was the original "9/11", the day President Salvador Allende was murdered and the democratically elected government that he led was brutally overthrown by an army coup sponsored by the United States of America. September 11 will remain for a long time in the minds of most Chileans as the day to remember their murdered daughters, sons, mother and fathers, who disappeared, and the families whose world was changed irreparably by Augusto Pinochet and his henchmen, the puppet government whose power was not based on democratic principles but the protection of the USA.
Or maybe you meant Grenada, a "flagrant violation of international law", according to 108 members of the United Nations?
Wait, I know, you're talking about Iraq! Except I'm not sure how anyone would actually call Iraq a democracy in anything but name only. The government is still a rubber stamp of the US military, over and above its constitutional representation of its people, including such 'freedom'-like joys as "preferred bidders" for oil contracts and all other manner of extracting money from the ruins of a country as being US companies. It's also rather difficult to have democracy in the 21st century when you're still wondering when they will turn your power back on, only 2,000 days after "Mission Accomplished!"
Or perhaps it was Haiti? You know, where it was decided that a "democracy" run by corruption so rife and endemic that elections were not recognized by the international community where apparently worthy of US intervention.
How about Nicaragua, where many amongst the populace were so sick of Somoza's brazen and open corruption, nepotism, and the fact that he was a dictator who had stolen land from hundreds of thousands of their country members, without any international interference, that they rose up and rebelled. Their heinous crime? Accepting help from - gasp - COMMIES! - in order to do so. What else was a good Freedom loving US president to do to "restore" "democracy", but to order one of his spy agencies to begin financing, arming and training rebels. Let's not overlook the fact that Nicaragua was in ruins, and the Sandanistas did a whole lot to try to rebuild their nation, but oh no, better dead than red, dontcha know?
Or maybe Panama - where Noriega, a nice, Freedom loving gun- and drug-running dictator, the kind we in the US try to install in countries - had many many meetings, and lots of involvement with the CIA, and ol' buddy of Ronald Reagan, Ollie North.
Actually, let's make the list shorter. Let's try to list places the US has invaded since World War II with the real and genuine aim, and perhaps even accomplishment, of helping a nation be a functioning, non-puppet, democracy.
It's a far shorter list, isn't it... ?
Let's not go blowing the "World Policeman" whistle too much. We've used it far too many times when we weren't being world policemen at all, we were acting in -our- interests, not those of that nation, nor the world. Acting in your own interest is not (inherently) a problem. Pretending you're the line between light and dark while milking your own interests, however, is.
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Let's list the "puppet" governments, shall we?
1 - Germany
2 - Japan
3 - Italy
4 - Poland
5 - France
6 - Austria
7 - Hungary
8 - Spain
9 - Belgium
10 - Greece
11 - Portugal
12 - Egypt
13 - Indonesia
14 - India
15 - CHINA (who were then re-oppressed by the communist chinese. But we DID free them from IMPERIAL Japan first)
Please add any other nations oppressed by the Axis powers during WW2 and freed by American "Impe
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Yeah, from where I'm sitting you're both over-nationalistic douchebags.
The whole "Your government does bad things so you have no right to criticize my government," has never held ground here. We're individuals, not our government. Both the Chinese government and the American government does fucked up things. Its a colossal waste of time to cry about who is worse when the more important thing is working to improve things.
But then again, I find crybaby nationalists who can't stand a little criticism of the
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Iraq and Afghanistan are not works in progress, they are epic failures, puppet governments whose legitimacy are not recognized by their own people.
Now, while Iraq may not be a complete success, it certainly isn't as much of a failure as it was in, say, 2006. Things are improving, and violence is decreasing. While the war isn't won, it no longer looking unwinnable.
You didn't liberate China, WE liberated China. You had very little to do with the Sino-Japanese war, there were maybe a few thousand American pilots fighting in China. That's IT. WE held off the Japanese long enough so you could finish them off.
First, the Japanese really weren't all that interested in the core of China, since there weren't very many resources there. They were mainly interested in the wealth of Manchuria and Southeast Asia (aka IndoChina). Second, while the Chinese may have "held off" the Japanese army, you certa
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Do you consider Hitler's Germany equal to Saddam's Iraq or Afghanistan? Germany was a serious threat to global freedom, and after Europe and Russia had been conquered, it was America that would have been the next target of the German boot. On the other hand, Saddam was much less powerful than Hitler, and Iraq could not invade and conquer any other country except its most weak neighbors.
The reasons Iraq was invaded are totally different from the reasons Germany was invaded. Back in World War II, America was
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Plain and simple: ideology. American capitalism is as much an ideology as Chinese Maoism (or radical Islam). To keep an ideology alive, you need people to believe in it. To make people believe in it, you need to demonise the other side. That's how all ideologies work: capitalism, Stalinism, Maoism, Marxism, Nazism, etc. It's no use trying to pretend otherwise.
Logo Olympians (Score:5, Funny)
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Next, Lego Will Make It a Creativity-Free Kit (Score:3, Interesting)
Comment removed (Score:5, Informative)
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Sadly, I haven't heard of it. Does it work under Wine?
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Re:Next, Lego Will Make It a Creativity-Free Kit (Score:5, Insightful)
What?! TFA has a load of pictures of things which aren't from a guide.
"Kids aren't creative!"
"These kids are being creative right now."
"Don't use facts to ruin my rant, you brat!"
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Nowdays, kids don't play with toys -- their toys play them.
Re:Next, Lego Will Make It a Creativity-Free Kit (Score:5, Funny)
But only in Soviet Russia.
Re:Next, Lego Will Make It a Creativity-Free Kit (Score:5, Insightful)
Also, there are a lot more kids on my lawn these days, and they won't get off.
Seriously, have you ever actually seen kids playing with toys? The imagination is definitely there, and they do freely mix and match toys to fit whatever game they're playing, which is often something they're making up on the spot.
I have a 9 year old and a 6 year old, and they're constantly engaged in some form of imaginative play. Just because the play sets these days tend to be trying to encourage playing to a specific story line, kids rarely do that.
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When I was your age we had to use DUPLO! Our father would wake us up 5 hours before we went to bed so that we could walk to work 100km in the snow, uphill, both ways, work 30 hours a day, and we lived in a shoebox in the middle of the road!
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... and get off of my lawn!
P.S. Having to wait 5 minutes between posts is a bit excessive...
Re:Next, Lego Will Make It a Creativity-Free Kit (Score:5, Informative)
That's what I thought until I started to buy kits for my son. He did build according to the instructions. Then he proceeded to do what I had done, and what you are waxing nostalgic about, 20 years before. He built whatever he pleased. He built, destroyed, rebuilt, on and on. He would spend entire days surrounded by his Lego.
I think the blocks are all good. Old and new. He seems to have outgrown them now. He's 14 and he started with Lego when he was two or three. The thousands of dollars worth of newer generation blocks (and all of the instructions) are boxed away with the older generation blocks (with no instructions -- they got lost somewhere along the way) for future rediscovery.
I think that Lego blocks are _still_ the world's greatest toy.
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My son does the same thing, not just with standard LEGO, but with his Bionicle models as well. I didn't think there was as much room for creativity with such sculpted parts, but it's am
Old instruction booklets (Score:2)
I've wget-ed the site for my own purposes so I don't hit them too often because the site serves up a lot of large images (jpeg scans of the booklets) and dropped them a thank you.
I've been able to rebuild a lot of my old sets thanks to them, and my son is happily playing with the results.
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Re:Next, Lego Will Make It a Creativity-Free Kit (Score:5, Informative)
Hey that is a little harsh.
The Bionicles series is definiately a lot like that, and it is not defensible. But that is far from the only series.
The boxes of assorted bricks with no real directions still exist, but have been largely downplayed since around the time that Samsonite stopped distributing the Lego.
Then we have the standard themed sets (the Castle series, Star wars series, Harry potter series, etc). These contain bricks that are mostly like the classics, with some specialized pieces occasionally. Obviously the mini-figs are quite dominant in this set, but they are quite justified in that otherwise to have a village with people would require a much much greater scale.
That said, nothing can justify the BURPs [http://www.peeron.com/inv/parts/6082 and http://www.peeron.com/inv/parts/6083%5D [peeron.com].
One of the downsides of this level is the limited ability to build interactive models. There are openable doors, and working wheels turntable, and pivoting connectors, but all are fairly limited.
Of the themed sets, any vechile sets are terrible in the use of special peices. Like the recent Jet set. The whole hull of the plane consists of special non-generic pieces. However, there are still quite a few sets in production with no pieces that are not reasonably generic.
Next up we have the ever-popular lego model railroad. This does have quite a few specialized pieces, but justifiably so. Special track pieces are essential to be able to have powered rail cars. The power regulator, and locomotive chassis bricks are also critical. Then we have the genral rail car chasis. The powered headlight bricks are probably not essential, but add character. There are a few other specialized bricks to support building reasonable train cars. However, the sets still invariably include a significant number of classic bricks and plates. The whole Lego railroad line is intended to be used in conjunction with appropriate themed sets. The level of creativity possible with the train system sets is very high. A smidgen less creativity in environment and track shapes is possible compared to standard model railroading, but standard model railroading definitely does not make designing a new railroad car nearly as easy as the Lego train system does.
Then we have Lego Technic. This has many specialized pieces, but virtually all of them are generic, and can be used in a virtually unlimited number of potential designs. The ability to build interactive systems, and even motor powered systems is the best part of this series.
There was the classic Technic that used 1xn beams with holes as a major framework construction component. Beams were sometimes pinned together as part of the framework, but many models did not use this technique. Like with modern Technic, axles are an important component, and were occasionally essential to the model's framework. (not just the models functionality). The studless beams found in modern Technic made the occasional appearance, but were not that common.
Modern Technic is primarily based on the studless components, although some of the new models have re-introduced some studded bricks.
The original Mindstorms were for all intents and purposes part of the classic technic Series, but were of course programable to a much grater degree than any standard Technic set. (A few classic Technic sets had some very limited programability).
Mindstorms NXT is to Modern Technic as the Orginal Mindstorms was to Classic Technic.
Hmm... I think some of that ending was getting offtopic, but oh well.
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I went through a Lego kick last year, and their current Creator series [lego.com] is a bit of a mix between the old Technic and the model sets. Not nearly as many moving parts as old Technic (so sad...), but the primary models are definitely quality constructs good for building and leaving on display. But for the most part, they're all built out of a large set of stock pieces with boundless opportunity.
I'm definitely going to keep collecting them, and save them for when I have a kid.
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There are still a lot of generic Lego's around. You just need to look at the toy stores at kids eye level to find them. The ones at adult level are for "bigger kids/adults" who want to make something impressive looking. The real problem is if you go to these stores what happened to the real model kits. Where you get these plastic cut outs which you need to break off, chisels down, paint glue together (without melting the plastic from the highly toxic glue). Let dry wash down and add decals. And you better
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The real problem is if you go to these stores what happened to the real model kits. Where you get these plastic cut outs which you need to break off, chisels down, paint glue together (without melting the plastic from the highly toxic glue)....
One incarnation of this would be Warhammer (or some other toy soldiers), but it's very expensive. I had much more fun assembling and painting the models than I did playing the game; I was never very good at the tactics. I was good at painting though.
Another is the kits made for model railways (the buildings for age 12-ish, and the trucks a bit later on, since they need to be put together quite accurately). I lost interest in these after about a year, but sort-of went along with it for my dad for a while lon
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Is it just me or does it seem that the Lego Corp has lost their way? When I was a kid, we used the generic Lego bricks to build a million different things--all based on our imaginations.
Now the little brats do nothing but assemble kids with of all things directions. What happened to make up your own ideas? I've now seen so many kids who are unwilling to build anything that strays outside of the confines of "the kit".
The creative building childhoods that had been the last remaining birthright of an American is now fading fast. Kids will not grow up creative in the states and we will drift along and invent nothing new.
...and get off my lawn!
(There, fixed that for you)
Lawn? (Score:2, Funny)
... and get off my big green Lego baseplate!
(There, fixed that for you.)
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In this interview [monocle.com] with the CEO of Lego he talks about going back to more normal pieces.
Link stolen from Dan's Data [blogsome.com].
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From looking at the boxes, only a handful of parts in most kits have such a limited use that you suggest. I don't know if newer instructions are like the old ones, but Lego was pretty consistently good at showing many different projects that can be built from the same kit without showing how to make them all. I think the box images still show that same sort of thing.
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Here are more random Lego creations [brickshelf.com] made without the aid of kit instructions.
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I always thought Legos were boring. Plastic models of stuff that don't do anything. I just never understood the appeal.
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As a child, I created hotels, 747 jetliners, bridges and a million other projects.
You created models of those things. I just never found plastic toys that did nothing appealing.
If you found them boring, were you creative in other ways?
I preferred playing competitive games. Creativity for me was problem solving.
Funny (Score:2)
I zoomed in on one of the pictures, and see a guy holding what appears to be a "Free Tibet" sign.
well done (Score:2)
I always love these lego creations. The swimming cube and bird's nest were a feat.
I was looking for this as well [wikipedia.org].
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Oh... 4500 lego PEOPLE (Score:4, Informative)
I was wondering WTF was the difference between a brick and a lego.
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Thanks for clearing up that detail.... I was wondering why there was only 4500 Lego blocks and 300 000 non-Lego blocks in the whole thing.
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Who Knew? (Score:5, Funny)
I didn't realize that Lego had a "smog" building block.
Don't act so suprised (Score:5, Insightful)
Featuring 300,000 bricks, and 4,500 Lego, it was built by the Hong Kong Lego User Group. Yes that exists.
Why not? It's not like The West has a patent on geekitude. If anything, the geek mindset is even more prevalent in Chinese-speaking countries than here. They didn't become so dominant in electronic products by growing rice.
Re:Don't act so suprised (Score:4, Insightful)
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YMBNAH. Slashdot has a Lego story pretty much every week.
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That's all true, but only part of the story. I work in the U.S., but half the people I work with were born on the other side of the International Date Line. Which means that these countries not only have enough geeks to power their own exploding economies, that have a huge surplus that they export. The U.S. is falling behind in the Geek Race!
all I see is a big grey cloud (Score:4, Funny)
Missing pieces... (Score:5, Funny)
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Or possibly because they don't have Lego diapers.
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Lego building should be an Olympic comptetion (Score:2)
that way, someone could win the lego gold, by building a replica of them winning the lego gold for building a replica of them winning the lego gold.
Of course, if recursiveness could be a competition then perhaps they win the gold by building a lego replica of them winning the gold in recursiveness for building a lego replica of them winning the gold in lego building for building a replica of them wining the gold in recursiveness.
wouldn't that be neat!
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No, that would be painful. Don't forget these are the people who brought you your name and horoscope written on a grain of rice.
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No, that would be painful. Don't forget these are the people who brought you your name and horoscope written on a grain of rice.
VERY good point!
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Oh, another good point! oh why did I start this thread - my brain's gone all hurty!
forgotten venue (Score:2, Redundant)
More photos (lots more)... (Score:3, Informative)
HKLUG's photo album [brickshelf.com]
Holy smokes, guys! (Score:2)
I was tempted to comment on all the ridiculous political hate-speech in evidence in the posts below and implore everybody to chill the hell out. It's Lego after all! We can get back to obsessing over WWIII after the closing ceremonies.
Then I noticed something about the models. . .
As cute as they all are, it struck me that the Chinese geeks show their deference to authority patterns in how they use the little bricks. I've seriously never seen fan-made Lego creations which obey the rules of scale as sugges
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Mod parent funny, not informative (Score:3, Insightful)
I'll bet a few Slashdotters even played sports when they were younger. Hell, I might even say that there are some who still play, if not watch, sports -- even if a few NFL games are more important than the entire olympics to them.
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Shhh, they're not supposed to know that I used to avidly play soccer as a child, as well watch and enjoy the NFL.
Dude, it's made from leggos, it is nerd news (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Dude, it's made from leggos, it is nerd news (Score:5, Funny)
On a side note, I have my doubts about a Hong Kong team building it. If the Chinese really built it, they would have conscripted their entire population to build a lego model up to scale :).
Well if it makes you feel better about the story's credibility, the members of the HK Lego User's Group were taken from their parents at the age of 3 to undergo years of rigorous Lego construction training.
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What are you talking about? According to our esteemed editor, no one here is even watching these "'sports'". [slashdot.org] That or he was attempting humor. I'm not sure anymore.
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Indeed, they are, but the poster/editor was referring to the image after that, the outside shot... which to me looks like a bunch of those little "lights" single round see-through pieces, or possibly one of the antenna pieces from technics, but the point was the actual lighting I think, which if you look at the far side, looks like some sort of lego-fungus, or coral infront of a light projecting the shadows/light inside the cube, but given how many various sets of lego there are now, it might be from some s
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Ok scratch that, looking at the picture before, its actually just normal technics lego, a bunch of single-width hinges, and strips... (thought that was something else first time I looked at it)...
But some of the advanced technics sets come with lights, and plenty of power-packs...need a close-up to really tell.
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Ah, so Lucas got his hands on these before they were published, eh?
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gah, Spielberg
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nah i had to take down my entire slums of beijing kit to build this new one. Good thing lego people don't get compensation