Rich Trenholm
Rich Trenholm writes about digital cameras and other technology, except when he's writing about films, music and comics. He does not drink tea and never has.
Tuesday 1 April 2008, 12:48pm
Bricking it: How stud subculture reminded me of the awesomeness of Lego
When I was a kid, I loved Lego. As the youngest of three brothers, I amassed a pretty tidy collection of 70s Lego (and yes, the plural of Lego is Lego, not Legos, no matter what anybody says). As a geek in training, my favourites were the Space sets, so I loved these reinventions of classic Space models. And when I wasn't, like most schoolboys, making handguns, I made a TARDIS and a very, very crude Starship Enterprise.
In a surefire sign that I'm getting old, I dimly thought today's Lego wasn't as good. The introduction of weird franchises (Bionicles, anyone?), the relaxing of the 'no guns' policy, and the preponderance of set-specific pieces put me off. But what the brick do I know? Googling the new Indiana Jones sets -- meh -- and the Batman sets -- holy studs! -- revealed the world of the Lego modder. The ingenuity and creativity on show in some of these intricately detailed models is incredible.
I love that I've stumbled into a fully formed subculture, with its own heroes, language ('bley'), tropes and stories. Blogs such as Brothers Brick pick the highlights from the hundreds of creations on sites including Mocpages, Flickr and Brickshelf. Tropes include the post-apocalypse and fantasy castles, often combined with other genres, such as the recent strand of filtering Star Wars through steampunk, or even the Bible! And then there's the ingenious meme of taking dementedly detailed giant models and reproducing them in microscale.
If, like me, your Lego collection is now just a memory, virtual building is possible with the Lego Digital Designer. But seeing as the true resplendence of Lego is in bricks and (no) mortar, I'm off to hunt around in the attic.
Articles by Rich Trenholm
Lady GaGa Monster Heartbeats: They're plastic but they still have fun
Crave Lady GaGa has lent her considerable artistic weight to the Monster Heartbeats. Guess how much they cost. No, go on, guess. Oh, you
Google Voice heading for Europe?
Crave Google Voice may be on its way to Europe. Google has revealed international deals have already been signed for the 'one phone number for life' service
Twitter retweets rolled out to beta tweeters
Crave Twitter has begun rolling out new-look retweets, with a counter, to selected users. Not before time, we say
Crumbs! Large Hadron Collider suffers snack-related bird mishap
Crave A bird has bombed a bit of baguette into the Large Hadron Collider, causing the giant particle accelerator to overheat. If a marmoset drops in some Marmite, we've got ourselves breakfast
Beatles on a stick: Crave alternative headline competition results!
Crave The news that every Beatles album will be sold on a USB stick launched a thousand puns. It's our first Crave alternative headline competition!
Ordnance Survey and GeoVation map the future with mashup competition
Crave Ordnance Survey is backing GeoVation, a competition to win cash for ideas that make the map of the future
Olympus E-P2: How's the view? Electronic, expensive
Crave Olympus has announced the E-P2, the second retro-styled Micro Four Thirds camera in the Pen range
MSN Music relaunches with free streaming
Crave MSN Music has relaunched its download store, and introduced into private beta a free streaming service
