Little Coloured Bricks

It’s Formula 1 Season again and fans all over the globe are all excited to watch the Australian Grand Prix to be held in Melbourne down under. In the world of Lego, there are F1 fans who are taking their love for Formula 1 and Lego to the next level and a group of fans below are the most extremely devoted ones -to both Lego and Formula 1:

This was of course something that was done a few years ago but this doesn’t dampen the excitement for the Grand Prix 2010 series. The Bahrain Grand Prix 2010 became witness to the third win of Fernando Alonso of Ferrari who won the race in 2005 and 2006. This year, the race car driver was followed by fellow Ferrari racer, Felipe Massa who just recovered from a serious injury he got in 2009. The race in Bahrain was also Michael Schumacher’s first race in three years making the event a rather memorable one for many fans.

Meanwhile in Legoland, M. Schumacher and R. Barichello minifigs are still rocking on. The Lego photo however are a few years old and it dates back to the time when German champ Schumacher was still driving for Ferrari.

If you are a fan of Ferrari and all its previous drivers, you can still buy the Ferrari collection from Lego Systems. They are very affordable and really cute. There are many online stores selling them and they do not go up to $30. Cool right?

Another fan who tool Lego F1 to the next level is YouTuberToyshansolo who made an outstanding video of Michael Schumacher’s pit stop in one of those races when the legend was still driving for Ferrari. The clips are not that many but the work of this guy is amazing.  If you would like to take a look at this video you can click here but be sure to be back for more Lego action!

Back in 2008, a new brand of Lego minifigs was featured in many a news channel and newspapers. This new set was not released by Lego but by a Lego fan who is very into World War II and the War on Terror. It was taken to the next level however when a masked Osama follower was seen in a photo and it was holding a rocket launcher, an assault rifle and a good number of grenades. Another one of these figures include a Nazi major bearing the insignia of the SS.

The Ramadhan Foundation spokesperson Mohammed Shaffiq told “The Sun” in 2008 that the minifigs were “absolutely disgusting”. He further added that the minifigs are glorifying terrorism and that the makers of the said Legomen should be ashamed. A Jewish foundation also reacted with regards to these Legomen and said the minifigs were distasteful. Well, so much for Lego-making infidels but these Lego minifigs are just mirrors of what is really going on in the world. The toys were released by BrickArms and are not associated with the Lego Group. According to Will Chapman, the business’ founder, it was never his intention to offend or to glorify anything. He was quoted in one interview as saying “…the kids love the bad guys.”

And the kids sure do love the bad guys and many of these kids are from the United Kingdom and Germany.

After two years, these Lego minifigs are still very popular all over the globe and many are of course, still against them. But you got to admit though, they look cute don’t they?

The Nazi Legomen are as adorable as the scarf-wearing Al Qaeda. Legomen are not created equal, some of them are doctors, some are businessmen, some are soldiers both from the First World War and the Second World War, some of them are the guys fighting in Iraq. And if there are soldiers, there are also the bad guys. That’s the reality.

Whether you want to “stand up for your rights” or “turn your lights down low”, Lego Bob Marley is your ultimate Lego companion. The dread-donning singing sensation is not only an unofficial symbol of the rastafarians and of Jamaica but a hero in his own right as well.

Nesta Robert Marley hails from a small village in Jamaica and by the time he got a passport, his name appeared as Robert Nesta Marley –a rather crude mistake. Bob’s father is an English captain of the Royal Marines. He married Bob’s mother Cedella Booker who was only 18 years old at the time. As a young boy, he was always teased by others because of his color and his mixed racial origins. The “One Love” singer faced questions with regards to his racial identity all his life.

The singer once said “I don’t have prejudice against meself. My father was a white and my mother was black. Them call me half-caste or whatever. Me don’t dip on nobody’s side. Me don’t dip on the black man’s side nor the white man’s side. Me dip on God’s side, the one who create me and cause me to come from black and white.”

Although Bob Marley acknowledged his mixed ancestry, he was known as a black African. His songs “Black Survivor”, “Blackman Redemption” and “Babylon System” were all about the struggles of black people. He is also famous for his songs of freedom. Many people sang these songs during protest rallies and are also very popular among university students in all parts of the globe. Bob Marley is rasta personified and with him in Legoland, the Lego people will surely be having lots of reggae fun.

The Lego version of the famous singer was made by LegoLyons. LegoLyons sure is a talented Lego builder. It is no wonder he decided to make a Bob Marley look alike who is a very talented man.

You would have to agree that the Lego Che Guevarra is less subversive than the original. The minifig is iconic especially to the younger generation but the question is, do they really know who Che Guevarra is?

Che Guevarra is not just the guy whose face is usually printed on shirts of university students, he is the Marxist revolutionary from Argentina.  The famous global insignia, was a medical student who traveled all around Latin America and saw endemic poverty in the countries he went to. El Che as he is known by his comrades believed that Latin America’s ingrained economic inequality is a result of neocolonialism, imperialism and capitalism. Young Che also surmised that the only remedy to this “sickness” is world revolution.  His beliefs later on prompted Che to push for social reforms in Guatemala who was then under the leadership of Jacobo Arbenz Guzman. Guzman was thrown out of power and solidified the radical ideology of the guerilla hero.

The Lego minifig seems to be alone in the photo though. It just doesn’t feel right that he is not with the brothers Castro (Raul and Fidel). Che met Raul and Fidel in Mexico City, he later on became one of the forefronts of the Castros’ infamous 26^th of July Movement. The three invaded Cuba to overthrow Fulgencio Batista, a US-backed dictator.  Che, Raul and Fidel were able to execute their mission after two years of hardship and after that played an important role in Fidel Castro’s government. He walked the globe on behalf of socialist Cuba, trained the militia in the Bay of Pigs, wrote a manual for guerilla warfare and incited other revolutions after that.

Che Guevarra was captured in Bolivia by the CIA and was later on executed. Let’s hope that Legoland will not execute the revered (and reviled) Che though.

34 year old Darren Smith has the biggest private collection of the little coloured bricks in the world. The British collector started collecting Lego bricks when he was 5 years old. What started as a Christmas present became a fascination and the boy decided to collect the blocks all his life. The entire collection is 2 million bricks now and it is worth over $92, 800. His favorites are Lego Star Wars apart from his collection of astronauts, cowboys, police and superheroes.

His wife Claire does not mind him collecting all the Lego he wants as long as he keeps them in their garage. But as they started spreading all over their house, she started to get mad as well but there is just no stopping the British collector. He orders all the new Lego toys and said that he wants them all.

When Darren turned 27 he joined the adult Lego Club “Brickish Association” a UK-based community interested in anything Lego. The association has its very own newsletter and it is called “The Brick Issue” written by members of the Brickish Association for its members.

If you are in the UK and is a Lego aficionado but is not yet a member of the association, you should join the community today. When you’re a member you will get a subscription to the community’s newsletter, access their website and the opportunity to join events organized by members both in the United Kingdom and abroad.

The aims of the association is to provide a forum for adult Lego fans within the UK and to make it known that there are lots of adults who still love and will keep on loving the coloured bricks. The Brickish Association also organize shows for the general public and of course for its Lego-loving members.