When You Wish Upon a Star...

Here's something that is going on in Japan:




LEGO Cuusoo is a site that has been around for a bit, but only recently got translated to English. You can read the FAQ here.

In some ways, it looks like LEGO Design byME. You can create your own set. However, there is a big difference - LC allows for the opportunity to make production runs of selected sets. The LEGO Group is an official partner in this, also.

The site is in open beta, so there are bugs, and the error messages are in Japanese, so have Google translate handy. Registration takes a few moments to do, but it allows you to vote and create wishes.

However, the idea is pretty cool - make a wish, get 1000 supporters, and your wish gets considered for a production run!

Main Street Train Station, Walt Disney World

DSC02102.jpg, originally uploaded by jmenomeno.

In a few days, I will be at Festival of the Masters at Downtown Disney, Orlando, Florida. It's an arts show, with chalk drawings on teh sidewalk and many, many vendors. The LEGO Imagination Center has a display from the local LEGO group to join in the fun. This year there will be a Master Build of Buzz Lightyear too!

This is one of the models on display in 2008. Built by Robin Werner, this is a nice rendition of the Main Street Train Station at the Magic Kingdom.

Clutch Powers?

Busy news week....



It doesn't look bad.

Tip of the hat to Katrin Elster of Strategic Play.

LEGO Rock Band!

Coming out today (Nov. 3)!

Competing Brands...

DSC03900.jpg, originally uploaded by jmenomeno.

It was a bit ago that there were a few competitors to the LEGO brick, including the military Blockmen and of course Megabloks and Best-Lock. One competing brick that did not last was the Tyco brick. Here's an ad from them, displayed at the LEGO Idea House in Billund, Denmark.

From BrickJournal's photo archive.

Lighted LEGO Lamp Post

Lighted LEGO Lamp Post, originally uploaded by brickmodder.

If you want a light for your layout....Rob the Brickmodder made some self-contained lights!

Odds and ends...

For those using Power Functions motors and controllers, there is an updated version that is superceding the previous version. The hardware is the same - it's the firmware that is different. You can get more information at TechnicBRICKS For the most part this will not affect the casual user yet but for those who are using the NXT with Power Functions, this adds more potential functionality.

If you want to see a nice model go to this link. It's not very often that real objects are modeled, and this is pretty cool in that the model does everything but actually work.

And if you are a Mac user and play with building LEGO models with Bricksmith, there is a new version out that you can get here! I use it for making models (yes, I did build Wall-E, but it's a 2000 part model!!) and use it with LPub to make instructions.

And there is progress with the website going on...more in a bit on that.