LEGO SUPER BOWL XLVIII

If you haven't figured it out from my LEGO Stadiums, I'm a big fan of sports. Baseball and football are my two favorites to follow (and play), so my jaw dropped when I came across this video depicting the Seahawks thrashing the Broncos LEGO-style:

I used to love to do LEGO stop motion animation, but my videos weren't really too great. However, making LEGO movies is a fond part of my childhood, which is why I loved this video and also why I'm totally looking forward to seeing The LEGO Movie on friday!

I was rooting for neither the Seahawks nor Broncos (I'm a Jets fan, so if anything I was rooting for the stadium), but I was hoping for an entertaining and competitive game.



So I guess you could say my "team" lost.

My Love for Lego (A short essay)

I remember being maybe four of five years old and spending my days either napping or building puzzles. When I finished a puzzle, I had a signature celebration: the puzzle dance. I would jump up and down and wiggle my little arms and celebrate my success. There was something I loved about figuring out where everything had to go, putting it all together, and being able to enjoy (and dance around) the finished product.

Constructing things has always felt very natural to me. When I was introduced to Lego blocks, they quickly became my passion. Legos have dominated my life ever since. All of my friends loved Lego too, but they spent their time playing with completed kits when all I wanted to do was build. Sometimes I would even take the assembled kits apart and build them again.

Lego building became my main form of expression, and it has always been my favorite activity. When all of my friends stopped playing with their Legos, I kept on creating. The beauty of Lego is its infinite capabilities. Often times throughout my childhood I would see an everyday object and my brain would naturally race to figure out how exactly I would recreate whatever I was looking at in Lego. I strongly believe that no matter what the object, anything can be built out of Lego.

Legos have also stuck with me through tough times. When my family moved from New York City to Evanston, Illinois, gaining access to a Lego collection which had been in storage for years was the silver lining to an overall lousy experience. I didn’t know anybody or anything in the midwest, so I turned to my Lego collection and nine months later, I had a completed Lego Wrigley Field in my bedroom that measured almost three feet square.

Every jigsaw puzzle has a set finished product. After putting all the pieces where they need to go, you see exactly what was on the box when you bought the puzzle. There are only so many kinds of Lego bricks, so in many ways building lego is like solving a puzzle without a set finished product. There are no limits, no restrictions, and endless possibilities for creativity. And in case you were wondering, no; I don’t dance around my Lego creations.

The Cult of LEGO- (Review)

So the other day I picked up a book I've been looking forward to reading for a while, which is The Cult of LEGO by John Baichtal and Joe Meno.

The large, hardcover book is visually striking, with the simple title displayed in bold black letters and the iconic, smiling LEGO spaceman adorning the front cover.

The purpose of the book is similar to the purpose of my project, which is why I was initially so interested in buying and reading it. The authors explore the phenomenon that is LEGO, and prove its cultural significance throughout the chapters.

Even for somebody with a lot of knowledge about LEGO, like myself, there was still a lot in this book that I learned and was interested in reading. The chapters are neatly organized and I would say just about every angle of LEGO is covered, from the history to it's wide usage among adults, to the different kinds of models people make and even LEGO's therapeutic affect on children who suffer from autism.

Fortunately and unfortunately, LEGO is an enormous field and I couldn't help feeling that despite the amount of information that was in the book, there was still a lot left out. However, I understand that they can only pack so much in, especially considering that graphics and pictures are given a lot more emphasis in the layout than the information. The design of the chapters are bold, colorful and visually pleasing. In sections such as "architectural renditions," there were only a few pages that had maybe 7 or 8 architectural LEGO models. In my opinion, there are so many amazing models out there, the book could have benefited from a bunch more. But on the other hand, if this book had everything in it the way that I want, it would be no different from clicking through LEGO galleries on Flickr, Brickshelf or Mocpages.

Overall, The Cult of LEGO is more of a tribute to LEGO than a thorough investigation. The interviews are interesting, and I think the books does basically what I would like to do through my project, which is to shed light on the many possibilities of LEGO. Anybody who is unfamiliar with LEGO or who doubts its potential beyond being a toy should definitely take a look at this book.

Google, Porn Stars, and LEGO!

It has been an oddly eventful week for LEGO...

Just last week, millions of men across the globe blew the dust off their old childhood LEGO boxes and got building. Why? Because recently porn star Christie Mack made headlines after announcing via Twitter that she would perform a very NSFW act for whoever builds her the best LEGO model to put in her home. This is not only hilarious, but a very clever form of self marketing. Everybody loves LEGO, and she was just taking advantage of the cultural phenomenon that it is.

But that's not the only thing LEGO has done in the past week that's made headlines;

Apparently, LEGO is in full marketing mode leading up to the LEGO Movie (set to hit theaters in early February), having partnered with Chrome and releasing a new software that allows chrome users to build virtual Lego, somehow integrating this with Google maps. I think it's awesome that Google has made this partnership, as it proves that LEGO appeals to not only kids of people of all ages.

(Try it out at http://www.buildwithchrome.com/)

I, for one, already have Lego Digital Designer, so I'm fine without the program. However,I think that this partnership is just another example of how LEGO is a huge force in our culture and society.

Lego Digital Designer (First Project Update!)

Hello everybody

So, as you may or may not know, the purpose of my project is to build a LEGO model of my high school, and give it to the school when I'm finished.

A lot of people have asked me (1) how I plan on doing this, (2) how I'll get the LEGO, and (3) how long it will take. So here is my response to those questions.

1) I plan on designing the school on Lego Digital Designer  (also known as LDD). Digital Designer is a free computer program that is basically virtual LEGO. 

2) Once I've successfully designed the model, I'll take an inventory of the parts and order them on Bricklink, which is an online LEGO marketplace. 

3) I'm not exactly sure how long the model component of my overall project will take, but It should all be done and wrapped up around May 2014. 

I've already begun designing the base of school, referencing a map on the back of the student planners. I want everything to be as close to scale as possible, but I won't be bothered if it's not exactly perfect. (scale wise). I do, however, plan to pack AS MUCH DETAIL IN AS POSSIBLE, because with LEGO, anything is possible depending on how creatively you are willing to use the pieces.

My current progress on the base. LDD is very simple, and I've been using the program for a long time.

Introductory post (what is this blog all about??)

Hello all.

My name is Milo Krimstein, and I consider myself to be a Lego enthusiast. I'm a Senior at Evanston Township High School, and have been lucky enough to be a part of a class called Senior Studies. Senior Studies is a class that pushes students into adulthood by integrating them with their community, doing lots of community service hours, and teaching them about social issues. But that's all mainly first semester stuff. I've thoroughly enjoyed learning in Senior Studies, but I'm looking forward to beginning second semester more than anything.

A young version of myself
with what I believe is a pet
rock

So what's the big deal about second semester? Why is it so much cooler than first?

Well, the main feature of senior studies is the Second Semester Project! That is, an independent project that is just about completely self motivated. Some kids do extensive research projects for their second semester project, and produce a final product of essays or interviews or whatnot. Other kids take a more creative approach, and study music or learn new hobbies. The possibilities for what can be done for the second semester project are just about endless, and as soon as I heard about the existence of Senior Studies when I was a sophomore, I knew that I would sign up for the class and do a project focusing on LEGO!

My LEGO Citi Field
 (lets go Mets!!!)

So Lego it is. I build a lot of Lego and Lego has been a huge part of my life. My main intention for the project is to build a LEGO model of my high school. I intend to give it to ETHS when I'm done with it. On top of that, I plan to really dive into the Lego community that exists and learn about the many ways people use Lego, the many ways Lego impacts our society, and to uncover anything about the Lego culture that most people don't know about.

As for my previous experience in Lego building, I've been a builder my whole life. However, a large chunk of my childhood was actually somewhat "Lego-less" (no, not this guy). I say it was Lego-less because my physical Lego collection was actually in storage, far away from my house. However, I still found a way to build, which was by using Lego Digital Designer, a computer program that pretty much is virtual Lego building. Using this program, I built a lot of stadiums and learned a lot about the intricate potential for building that exists with Lego.

The seating bowl of Wrigley Field,
my first LEGO stadium

Here is a link to my MOCpages account: http://www.mocpages.com/home.php/20815
I enjoy looking back at my old models on this account and seeing how much I learned about lego as my models progressed. Ultimately, after my family moved to a house with more space I got my Legos back and had the opprotunity to build a real model!

I'm looking forward to learning as much as I can about LEGO over the course of this project, and I hope I can educate others about the many awesome ways LEGO impacts our society.