What a shame. The LEGO house has been demolished just weeks after completion for James May’s other show, Toy Stories. (He’s known as Captain Slow on Top Gear, too)

Legoland didn’t want it due to the high cost of transporting it and it was never intended to be permanent, so down she came. At least some good will come of it as the used LEGO blocks will be donated to charity. Hit up Telegraph for a photoset showing the completed inside and the demolition.

These LEGO walkie talkies could be so much cooler. It’s not that they are lacking in a technical way. Nope, they pack all the standard bells and whistles of a modern walkie talkie. It’s that the LEGO-look is printed on and not actual LEGO bumps. Lame. I know. Good thing they are only $28 from Urban Outfitters.

We’re normally not too keen on Lego stuff, but we’ll make an exception in the interest of camaraderie. Plus, it involves James May from Top Gear, a show we can all get behind (even if I don’t know a darn thing about cars!). Right, so architect Barnaby Gunning designed a real house out of Lego. No, not a “Lego house,” that is, a Lego house for Lego people, but a real, human-livable house made out of Lego. Indeed.

The story goes that James May, the shaggy haired Top Gear presenter, put the word out the he wanted a Lego house built; he’d then live in it. That’s where Mr. Gunning comes in, bringing his University College London knowhow to the project.

A highlight from a recent Oobject interview:

Oobject: One of the problems with giant Lego structures we’ve seen before is that they look nasty because the designs are literal and figurative, like something from a model village. How did you manage to get the Lego house to actually look interesting architecturally?

BG: Largely that was a result of James May being on the same page as us. James realized the kitsch potential from the get go and specifically asked that we didn’t just build an overgrown standard model.

That’s the key, I guess. Not to build a merely shoddy Lego house, but to live up to James May’s infatuation with kitsch (and driving slowly and prudently).

If this video doesn’t warm the swollen-shut cockles of your adult heart, then you didn’t grow up in the eighties. I, for one, was awash in a sea of Atari, NES, LEGO, and Pac-Man.

The stop-motion footage in this video apparently took 1500 hours to put together, which is pretty amazing considering the final product is just under four minutes long. Four wonderful, cockle-warming minutes.

8-bit trip [YouTube via BoingBoing]

If we feature something LEGO here on CrunchGear, you can be sure that it’s worth your time and these Toy Story LEGO Minifigs are the coolest thing I have seen all day. Apparently Disney and LEGO hooked up back in February – who knew? – and this is the first of what is sure to be a fantasic partnership.

The set will be available in January 2010, which will be followed by Cars and Prince of Persia sets. Hit up this Flickr set for many more photos.

[via GearFuse]

There seems to be a little controversy over these German LEGO ads. The Making History campaign uses LEGO blocks to recreate historic moments. You have to admit that they are well done. But you see, a guy on Flickr has been doing this for sometime and one of the ad images is a little too similar to be done accidently.

But thankfully the guy on Flickr has remanded grounded about the subject.

pdnpulse.com

“The Jung von Matt agency originally contacted me to do the historical Lego photos for their 50th anniversary ad campaign, but I didn’t think their choice of photos would work very well. They obviously had a go at doing them themselves. I wasn’t the first person to do classic photos in Lego, so I’m not particularly concerned. It is nice to see the comments on that thread linking to my work though, it’s quite flattering.”

It’s worth your time to check out Mike Stimpson’s work on Flickr. His LEGO work is just as impressive as the LEGO ads.

[via offworld]

I don’t get a bonerd for LEGOs like some people I know whose names start with a J and end with an S and work for a site that rhymes with shmimono, but I have fond memories of spending countless hours as a youth erecting LEGO fortresses and castles and whatever else my imagination could conjure up. It was always about smashing the other fortress and kicking some tiny LEGO ass, but that was at least 20 years ago. Now fast forward to 2009 and while I still like to kick ass, I enjoy doing it on a much smaller scale. Enter LEGO Battles for the Nintendo DS.

If you’re a hardcore RTS gamer then Battles isn’t really for you, but it’s still fun to see tiny LEGO pirates, knights and moon men duke it out on the small screen. However, the charm dissipates rather quickly into story mode one of six. Think of Battles as an introductory course to real time strategy games. I hate RTS, but found LEGO Battles to be amusing and worth the time to review.

The cut scenes are fairly amusing and I have to say that the tiny actors portraying LEGO characters are hilarious, which made me laugh out loud. Multiplayer is about as good as your chosen opponent allows. In other words, find someone who is good at RTS and multiplayer can be pretty sweet on Battles. Another highlight is the free play mode where you can mix and match troops from the Space, Pirates and Castle series to do your bidding.

LEGO Battles isn’t perfect, though. With such a small screen on the DS (and even DSi), trying to control your troops when there’s so much going on can be a challenge. The artificial intelligence is pretty dumb and I spent a few minutes cursing them out when they decided to get lost or stop doing their jobs. Can you imagine a grown man yelling at a video game on a packed plane? Yeah, that was me over the weekend.

I enjoyed Battles but it’s not for everyone. Seasoned RTS gamers will want to pass unless they plan on handing it down to junior RTS nerds in the making. If anything, LEGO titles like Battles are much better than the licensed titles that involve non-LEGO characters like Batman. Just saying.

LEGO Battles

Here’s a cut scene in glorious HD.

Here’s the product description:

“Take control of the Dynamic Duo, Batman and Robin, as you build, drive, swing, and fight your way through Gotham City capturing escaped villains and putting them back in Arkham Asylum where they belong. Battle against legendary villains including The Joker, The Penguin, Catwoman and more to keep the streets of Gotham clean. Then, for the first time, jump into the story from the other side and play as Batman’s foes. Enjoy the power you wield as you spread chaos throughout the city.”

Yay! I’ve ALWAYS wanted to play as Catwoman. Play as Catwoman, be Catwoman in real life — same difference. Other available platforms include the PS3, Xbox 360, Nintendo DS, Sony PSP, PC, and PS2.

LEGO Batman [Amazon via FatWallet]

Got a DIY itche like I do? Need some inspiration? You may wanna check out these 35 creative USB flash drives for some creative juice. Some can be constructed with nothing more than a Dremel and super glue.

Like this LEGO drive. Take three approperiate size LEGO blocks, glue two together, and carefully cut out the top LEGO to fit the flash drive. Put the flash drive in the cut out and glue the top LEGO on. Easy. Others, are a bit more involved but still cool to look at.

No fair! I wish I had a broken arm with a bionic LEGO cast that allowed me to accessorize with several wonderful gadgets like flashlights and voice recorders. Lucky!

That’s the kind of talk this kid is going to hear on the playground for quite some time. He broke his arm and his dad “putty-glued a large flat Lego directly on the cast” and glued smaller LEGO pieces to “a voice recorder/changer, a compass, a flashlight, a USB drive, and a small box.” Now Junior can just pop a few gadgets onto his arm, grab his hot lunch ticket, and head out the door in the morning.

Broken Arm Lego Accessories [Instructables]

It seems that a person could probably theme an entire desk around these creations. Everything from flash drives, to USB hubs, to a webcams, to paper clip holders are available. These things are pretty expensive, but everyone that visits your cube will be envious. Even the chick from accounting.

Does anyone else think that the Rock Band franchise has gone too far? I understand that Harmonix is going up against Red Octane, but Lego? Beatles, sure. Metallica, oh yeah. But Lego? I guess.

Oh, I see how Harmonix, MTV, Warner Bros. Interactive and TT Games are angling this version of RB by letting you “Build a Band and Rock the Universe.” Because you couldn’t do that with any other version of Rock Band!

Anyway, Lego Rock Band for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and Nintendo DS will be out in time for the holidays.

Wait a second. Since when is Blur a “classic favorite suitable for younger audiences”? And I guarantee Carl Douglas isn’t a hit with kids either. The following tracks are included:

Blur: “Song 2”
Carl Douglas: “Kung Fu Fighting”
Europe: “The Final Countdown”
Good Charlotte: “Boys and Girls”
Pink: “So What”

And it looks like you’ll be rockin’ out at local venues, stadiums and “fantasy locations on Earth” and maybe outer space.

I have no idea why the world needs a LEGO version of Rock Band and what we could all expect in terms of a track list for the game, but apparently LEGO Rock Band is coming this year.

According to Kotaku, one of Harmonix’ senior designers was supposed to announce the game at GDC this year, but it never happened for some reason or another. A presentation slide from the aforementioned designer, Dan Teasdale, shows that LEGO Rock Band will apparently come out in between Rock Band Unplugged for the PSP and the Beatles version of Rock Band.

Again, I can’t wrap my head around the track list. Perhaps it’ll be a children’s game with music repurposed for youngsters a la those Kidz Bop CDs. Or, better yet, it’ll be a bunch of songs by System of a Down, Pantera, and Ozzy Osbourne being performed by LEGO characters.

[via Kotaku]

Sean Kenney via TinyCartridge

Apparently if you work at LEGO, you get a miniaturized LEGO person of yourself with your contact info on the back. Then when someone asks for your business card, you hand them the figure. That is — how you say — outstanding. Never mind the gigantic bulge of LEGO figures in everyone’s pockets and the incessant noise that must fill every hallway at LEGO headquarters when people walk around, it’s the principle of the idea that makes it so wonderful.

It’d be fun to work at LEGO long enough to collect a paycheck and a sack full of mini Dougs, just so I can cross that off my list of things to do before I die.

Coolest business card ever [PositiveSharing.com via Geekologie/Wired]

Exec: Okay, team. Times are tough and my wife has put on 20 pounds since Christmas. We need a surefire hit to cushion our bottom line and get those investors off my back. Any ideas? Johnson, what say you?

Johnson: Um…

Exec: You’re fired, Johnson. Hope you enjoyed your time here. Murphy?

Murphy: I’m just the janitor, remember? You told me to come in here so you could yell at somebody and look important to your subordinates.

Exec: Well, then, looks like you’ll serve your purpose after all. [Exec spits on the floor.] Now clean it up!

Jones: I have an idea, sir. How about a Lego Prince of Persia game. You know, like Lego Batman and Lego Star Wars, but this time set in the Prince of Persia universe.

Exec: And what universe would that be, Jones?

Jones: Persia, sir. It’s what they used to call Iran.

Exec: Hmm, Iran, not too sure about that. Aren’t we at war with Iran?

Jones: Not yet, sir. Maybe you’re thinking of Iraq?

Exec: Bah, they’re all the same. But excellent, that means there’s still time for us to exploit the country’s history and culture for our own personal gain.

Jones: Oh it gets better, sir. Instead of basing this game on the just-let-it-die-already franchise, we’ll base it on the upcoming Disney movie of the same name.

Exec: And what name would that be, Jones?

Jones: Price of Persia: The Sand of Time, sir. It stars Jake Gyllenhaal and Gemma Arterton. Studio says they’ll have it ready in 2010.

Exec: I don’t know who those people are. Are they famous?

Jones: Well, no, not in the traditional sense of the word. But the studio will launch a publicity blitz right as the movie is coming out. Leno, Letterman, puff pieces in exchange for journalistic integrity in the weeklies, etc. By the time it comes out, the public will be convinced that they’re famous even though they’re complete nobodies.

Exec: [Lights a cigar.] What? Oh, right, yeah, sure great. Bottom line it for me, Jones.

Jones: The game should be out in 2010 probably for every system under the sun, and it’ll be based on the movie, not the terrible games. And people love Lego for some reason. With the studio’s support, I’m sure IGN will at least give it a 7.034532, while simultaneously calling it a “cinematic achievement.” We can’t lose.

Exec: Perfect, Lego Prince of Persia it is. Hire the county dogcatcher to write the script and get someone who made a funny YouTube video to do the art direction.

Jones: Way ahead of you, sir, only the dogcatcher said he didn’t want to be associated with this project, said it was demeaning. We’ll have to settle for an NBC television writer.

Exec: Son of a bitch, fine. You keep trying that dogcatcher, though, I don’t want this project saddled with the stench of failure (a sitcom writer).

Jones: Right away, sir.

Exec: [Throws cigar on the floor.] Murphy!

fin.

(For the record – Batman would kick Superman’s ass.)

I was excited for Warner Bros., DC Comics and CobraMobile’s LEGO Batman: Gotham City Games for the iPhone. Then I finished it within 10 minutes.

The Good

• Umm…I like Batman.

The Bad

• Everything.

Don’t let the game’s title fool you – it’s not at all like the awesome LEGO games (Batman, Star Wars, Indiana Jones) available for various consoles. This is a pack of mini games. All of the mini games lack any sort of instruction, so you’re sitting there tapping and/or flailing about to figure out how to play the game.

Story Mode is fairly incoherent. The Riddler doesn’t make an appearance in the game and yet he’s included in the bad guy group shot. Oh, and Catwoman is on the screen that’s available in iTunes, but she never shows up in the game either. And Nightwing makes an appearance to stop Mr. Freeze in a cut scene, but nowhere else.

Freeplay makes up for it with some added content that’s unlocked when you accumulate enough points, but it’s a marginal benefit at that. There are other unlockable games, but the whole ‘no instructions’ comes into play and makes the whole experience frustrating. Sure, you eventually figure out what it is you need to do, but I would expect some instruction to begin with. Actually, instructions show up about half way through the story mode, but by that point I grew even more irritated that it wasn’t implemented from the beginning. I hope an update will fix this for potential buyer’s sake.

For $5 I would have expected more from this game. The Lego aspect never comes into play at all and I would advise against purchasing this game. It just wasn’t executed properly and I hope for the sake of those who purchased it that WB releases an update with new content or a new story line. Don’t buy this expecting a bite-sized version of the fun times you’ve come to know in the console version. Actually, just don’t buy it.

Hey, hyper-intelligent man-boys! Want to create an early form of artificial intelligence using colored blocks? Watch the video and learn the majesty of Turing Machines and thrill to the strains of the A-Team theme. This is a perfect storm for social bookmarking.

via BBG