Little Coloured Bricks

If you love building stuff by using Lego, getting a Lego Digital Designer is a must. The latest version is already available at the Lego website and as always, the digital designer software is free. The minimum system requirement to download the said software is for your computer to have at least 512 MB of RAM, have space of at least 100 MB, 32 MB graphics card and a 1 GHz processor. For those using a Mac, you should have a NVidia GeForce 5200/ATI Radeon 7500, hard disk space of a hundred MB and an OS x 10.4 (and/or higher).

What can the Lego Digital Designer do?

The program gives Lego fanatics the capability to plan what they want to build by putting it in the drawing boards first. This software is an amazing tool for serious Lego builders, and if you use this program it prevents you from building and rebuilding. Mistakes will also be minimized. Now isn’t that great?

The great thing about this software is that if you are a newbie at building with Lego, you can experiment with the Lego designer first and then proceed with the building. You can create a car, a house, a hotel or maybe a helicopter. Whatever Lego project you want to work on, this software will surely come in handy.

Lego Digital Designer 3 has an online panel and an improved user interface to make your designing projects more fun. It even has a new building guide to help you with your Lego project. The software may look fun but it is not as easy as it looks. Adults who are not into using digital software will have a hard time using this design tool. It is not surprising though that children have so much ease in using the software.

Valentines is in the air and all the shops are preparing to adorn their stores with pink and red hearts to attract customers. It is February again -the month of love. Every flower shop and gift shop are now ready with their Valentines goodies. In fact, all the Casanovas are now carefully planning their Valentines Day date OR dates beginning February 1st. In an effort to be different from those who give flowers, jewelry, wine or chocolate on Valentines Day, many Lego fanatics are now making their very own Lego hearts so if your girlfriend, wife, husband or boyfriend reads this blog do not make him or her notice that you have been buying tons of Legos in the past few days. Hide your receipts everyone!

Legos are cool and they last for a lifetime so giving  Lego heart to your girlfriend or boyfriend is not such a bad idea but how do you make a Lego heart? Well it is up to you to be creative about it but here is some good news, those who are in Orlando, Florida can attend the Lego store’s monthly mini model build. For this month, the theme is to make Lego hearts. Visit the Lego store on February 3, the mini build will start from 5 in the afternoon and end at 7 in the evening. The workshop will teach you how to make a mini heart out of the world’s most loved bricks. Now isn’t that something to be happy about? Now you won’t need to scour for “how to’s” online because you can learn it straight from the Lego store. And you do not have to pay for a workshop fee, this is totally free. Quantities of Lego will be given but there is a limited supply so be sure to sign up as early as possible. Models however are not for retail so you would have to make one yourself for you to be able to take home that Lego heart. The downside is you would have to 6 to 12 years old. Adults can go there to learn and on February 14th, you can also go back to build another heart for Valentine’s Day.

Jame’s May three-million piece Lego house has been destroyed brick by brick weeks after the house’s completion. The house was built in Denbies Wine Estate in Dorking for Toy Stories a show ran by BBC.

Captain Slow a.k.a. James May in Top Gear had to destroy the house because Legoland cannot transport the whole thing due to transport costs. All the blocks used in making the house are up for donation so some good came out of the demolition job.
Lego and James May fans were saddened by the demolition especially because the volunteers and May himself worked very hard to erect the house. What a pity but oh well.

The heartbreaking news made it more heartbreaking when the Lego house was destroyed a bit more violent than expected. Of course taking it down would be harder if volunteers removed the bricks one by one –harder than actually building it.

The house was demolished on September 22, 2009 but due to the £50,000 transport and rebuilding fee, hope to restore the Lego house was moot. Now, a few days later, fans still mourn for the house’s demolition.

Knocking the house down not only broke the hearts of those who have seen it on BBC, it also broke the hearts of the 1000 volunteers who worked very hard to build it. James May described the house as a very lovely thing but so much for lovely things if they cost much too much to be rebuilt in another location.

If you are geeky and go gaga over Lego animated series, of whatever kind, then you must know where to look for your favorite Lego films. For those who just started this addictive hobby type in Lego in YouTube and you will be amazed by the onslaught of Lego figures doing action scenes, singing, dancing, modeling, and saving the world i.e. Indiana Jones and Batman Lego. Thanks to the World Wide Web, Lego animation is everywhere and it now entertains kids and adults alike.

An entire website that shows Lego films is even available, if you want to check it out you can go to www.brickfilms.com but finish reading this article first for a more enjoyable Lego animation watching.

You can also go to YouTube and watch amateur and professional Lego animations from the site. For the ones who want to learn how to make these animations you can look for tutorials online as well but for those who just want to watch, well good for you! Because there are hundreds of Lego videos you can watch and the creators even update weekly.

To produce your own Lego animation you better cover all windows and pay close attention to the lighting you have in the room where you’d shoot. Light changes while filming so take note of this. Use a lamp if possible or you can use a makeshift reflector. Be very patient because you’d need to change your position frame by frame. Check out Brickfilms tutorials for a more detailed technique.

For those of you who indulge in playing Lego games like Indiana Jones and Star Wars, Lego series have something great for you. It is aptly called Lego Battles that is available in Nintendo DS.

Lego Battles is developed by Hellbent Games. The video game is published in cooperation with Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment and TT Games. It was released just this year, on June 9th. It is different, compared with other games in the series. It turns the series from action to real-time strategy, more commonly known by its initials RTS. It gives players like you several options to do, like quests, battles, and tasks.

Lego Battles has three stories which you can choose to play. In each story you can choose an option to play the protagonist or the antagonist. There are up to 90 levels that you can play. These levels are composed of 6 quests for each of the protagonists and antagonists of every story. Then there are 5 levels in every quest. These quests are also split into three acts with an act having 4 to 6 levels.

The game also offers several factions or characters types you can play with. They are medieval knights, astronauts, aliens, skeleton warriors, pirates, and an imperial navy. Each of them has a unique campaign that makes you finish it in two hours or so. You can search for mini-kits in order to unlock some hidden heroes like Ghost, Conquistador, and Agent Chase.

Arguably, the most prominent features of Lego battles are the periodical maintenance of your bases, and the Lego blocks that compose the game itself.

Overall, Lego Battles is suitable for gamers who enjoy playing the RTS genre. Though the interface is cutesy enough for children to play, it has strategic elements that catch the interest of seasoned players. If you want some action with your friends or other RTS addicts, it also comes in multi-player mode available. Once again, feel the thrill with new Lego Battles!