These Lego minifigs are going to Jupiter, article.
Some realms of nerddom are beyond even my ken. Like LEGO. (Which should shame me, since it's Danish.) I mean, it's a kool toy, but it's a toy. Sorry guys. (Maybe Pascal and Alex can explain, or just thumb me over the noggin.)
I'm not sure why they spent 15 grand on carving these in aluminium. Plastic is not harmless enough? Unless it's simply that they wanted them to be unique, and this was cheaper that making the usual molds to make plastic figures. (I do know that's a very costly affair.)
"Just a toy"? "Just a toy"? That's like saying that Rolex is "just a watch", that Rolls Royce is "just a car", that cashmere is "just wool", that The Simpsons is "just a cartoon", that Elvis is "just a dead singer", that Texas is "just an American State", that Cubans are "just cigars", that Doctor Who is "just another guy in a phone booth thinking he's Clark Kent", that legend is "just a story", that Lebanese nationalism is "just mindless chauvinism". (pant, pant, rant, wheeze, puff)
ReplyDeleteYou're right, utter shame on you, you race-traitor muggle-lover! What would Lego Voldemort say?
Do you think any red-white-and-green-blooded Lebanese would pause and hesitate for a microsecond before passionately and immoderately rooting for our proudly national tabbouleh? FYI, there's an unending edit war between us and the Israelis on its Wikipedia article. These poor clods, with their country founded only 66 years ago, claim to have invented that old traditional dish, oy, can you believe the humongas gonif khutzpah on those meshuggenah schmendrick schmucks thinking they're such vonderful gefilte mavernim? [tsk!]
Still, one thing I cannot begin to fathomably comprehend, is why they didn't give top priority to sending MY august Pharaonic divine effigy of Germany-sculpted humblitude (see new avatar, happy birthday to moi). What were they thinking, eh?!!?
Another thing that I wonder, is their complete absence of worry that potential aliens will mistake this for an accurate representation of Earth people, like the one on that engraved plate on the Viking space probe. ("Viking"... notice how I subliminally attempt to awaken your lukewarm nationalism again? So, any tingling yet from your edderkop-sense?)
Admittedly, plastic is likely to struggle trying to accomplish that space journey without the cosmic rays turning it into a molten puddle. (Reminds me of the first time I used the flamethrower on Tan enemies in the very first Army Men videogame. Aah, fond memories...
But 15 grand? Fuckit clickit, I can find you a dozen artisans that would gladly do the job for a tenth of that sum. One of which is a cousin of mine. No fib.
Unless they're GIANT figurines?...
Hey, I think I have the archer one on the left. But mine's wearing a cape.
Subliminal message #2: position your cursor on that URL'ed tabbouleh word above and wait for a second or two.
ReplyDeleteApart from the planet, the rest are all stock components. Actually, the lightening bolt, I've seen similar, but not necessarily that one.
ReplyDeleteYou can piss through $1000 by having 5 people in a 2 hour meeting. That's just what it costs in the business world.
Why Lego? Can't say. It's probably the most prevalent toy out there. It used to be educational, now it's all movie tie ins and collectibles. Lego is a contraction of the phrase "play well". They were a gun free toy company, focused on peace. Now it's about profit.
Indeed.
ReplyDeleteMisunderstand me correctly (as my dad used to say): I loved Lego as a kid. Used it all the time. For example to build rubber-band-driven boats.
But I liked it a lot better when it was just a big bucket of various sizes, instead of pre-conceived vehicles.
Lego is not just pre-built cars. You can still do a lot of cool stuff. The new elements free you up for more textures and complexity, and definitely doesn't limit you. There is a cost though, you need to hit a critical mass of components before you are up and away.
ReplyDeletePascal, I see you are sporting a Playmobil figure as your Avatar. Cool dude ;-)
ReplyDeleteI hope you can buy packs of generic mixed bricks?
ReplyDeleteYes, Eo, you can.
ReplyDeleteActually, Alex, although I modded and blinkified a photo from the web, I do have that figure ("and what a handsome figure it is that I have!").
Or what, did you think my constant mentions of that pyramid on my blog were a fib? FYI, we Lebanese never lie. We just exaggerate. Ever so slightly.
BTW, don't forget about the videogames. Which IMHO are quite entertaining.
I'm surprised (and almost disappointed) that nobody has yet left their cursor on the URL'd word "tabbouleh" above. Why do I bother to code hi-tech subliminal jokes, huh?
A bit frustrating: it's been ages since my machine has shown the avatars. Unless I make a comment, then they are there. In two different browsers. Weird.
ReplyDeleteIt seems in this company, I should have a sculpture of me made in LEGO and photographed just for the avatar. (LEGO being slightly crude, it'd look like a Bizarro version of me, white and angular.)
Carved out of aluminium simply because the standard Lego ABS resin wouldn't last long in outer space!
ReplyDeleteTo quote the article:
[...] it will spend a year orbiting the gas giant. Before radiation completely fries the probe, it'll be sent on one final screaming death dive of death into Jupiter's atmosphere [...]
A couple of weeks ago, I bought a little "no-brand-infringment-intended" China-made building brick box of the [ahem] "Pirates" series. The two characters that came with the miniature ship had Jack Sparrow and Will Turner's likeness very well rendered.
ReplyDeleteIf you're serious, Captain, I happen to have somewhere a collection of make-your-own-Lego-figure Flash apps, which I'm sure I could locate again. And I feel confident I can adjust the facial likeness to make you a very decent avatar. With just a wee bit of extra work, I could also make the animated blinking eyes. Courtesy of a nifty free app I repeatedly transferred from one of my very old PCs, "Microsoft Gif Animator".
I think I also have somewhere a Flash app for making your own South Park custom characters, with tons of options. But I doubt this one can capture accurately enough your sexy eyes. ;-)
The Playmobil customizable minikit line came with something similar on their website (which I promptly saved), but so far it's only got the elements from the 24 models in Series 1.
Some day, I'll share with you the results of my customizing a Max Steel action figure. Turned it into a Mini-Me. No easy task: had to completely reshape the jaw and nose, redo the hairdo, fix hair & eye colors, make new brows and goatee... Still planning to give "him" a pair of specs to make it complete.
Only problem is, that was an old project. Now I might need to adjust some (handsomely mature) grey temples.
OK, that's enough blogging for today (yes, already, sorry). Very busy schedule these days. Having some work done @ the house.
(No, not the Pyramid, the BIGGER house!)