legos

With Web 2.0 in full ascent and the widely accepted view that do-it-yourself, or DIY, is the way to get users or audiences engaged these days, we tend to forget that it's a relatively new phenomenon, at least from the corporate perspective.

For every Second Life or YouTube that exists today, that encourages users to create their own content and to potentially do so without spending any money on their corporate parents' products, there are endless examples of companies going out of their way in the past to make sure you do anything but that.

But way back … Read more

If you happen to have seen my work in the past, you may have noticed that I am a big fan of all things Lego.

Over the years, I've covered two national master Lego model builder competitions, visited Microsoft headquarters for a demonstration of Lego robots, written about the communities behind Lego robotics, and much more. Oh, and played with the bricks a lot myself, though certainly not nearly as much as some of the people I've met while writing about this wonderful toy.

I even have a friend whose car is covered in the colored bricks.

So … Read more

If you're the kind of person for whom every year is centered around Burning Man, then there's a certain problem you have with the calendar: you can't go to other Labor Day weekend events.

Not that I would know anything about this, of course, because I only go to Burning Man some years, and it's only coincidence that it's happened 10 years in a row.

But anyway, I noticed today that there's going to be a great Lego fan festival in Washington, D.C., next year, called BrickFair. "Fantastic," I thought, as … Read more

When I was in high school, all those years ago, being a nerd, or a geek, was a painful thing. We were the outcasts, the forgotten ones who couldn't get a date to save our lives, and for whom the future seemed certain to be a blur of solitary days and nights spent coding.

Over the years, as my lot in life improved, it occurred to me from time to time that I should go back to that school, take a few of these unfortunate souls aside, and give them the good news: Sure, today you're alone and … Read more

Now this is more like it. Forget about those Lego iPod docks. Toys should be toys--and armed vehicles, of course. The new "Motorized Walking AT-AT" just listed in the Lego catalog fills both requirements, as seen on Boing Boing. (That's "All-Terrain Armored Transport," for the Star Wars-challenged among you.)

This is no ordinary remote-controlled toy, but a multi-jointed beast with a moving head and rotating laser cannons that stands a foot tall. We're particularly fond of the dangling Luke Skywalker that's included, because his precarious position is something we can easily relate to.… Read more

You know a toy has reached rarefied status when dishwashers are designed specifically to clean it, an honor that's been bestowed upon the almighty Lego. And now that the little plastic bricks have reached a point of ubiquity matched by the iPod, it seems only fitting that the two cultural icons combine forces.

South Korea's 10x10 is offering just that, in the form of what looks like a Lego that's really an iPod dock. It even has "some scrawny little speakers built in," according to Technabob--just don't expect concert-quality sound, especially for $16. We … Read more

This Lego Ice Brick tray is as cold as ice, and willing to sacrifice our love. But not our love of Legos.

The $7.99 tray, available through Lego's online store turns boring old ice into ridiculously awesome Lego ice bricks.

According to the Lego site, you can build little Lego sculptures out of the ice bricks...but a close inspection of the tray reveals that it only creates the "male," nubby side of the bricks, and not the "female," Lego-nub-receptor side of the bricks.

Thus, cool as these ice cubes look, your "sculptures&… Read more

Unlike a lot of my colleagues here at CNET Networks, I'm not a gamer. My tactics in hand-to-hand combat games entail less adroit maneuvering using precise button combinations and more random mashing of various buttons in the faint hope that if I mash fast enough, I'll accidentally stumble across some winning combination that I can never hope to recreate. And my skills in driving games may leave you concerned about my actual, real-life driving skills. (Don't worry, I know not to mow down unsuspecting pedestrians. Usually.) So it's a little odd that I'm here writing … Read more