Little Coloured Bricks

Lego Mindstorms are toys manufactured by the Lego group that are made of robotics or construction blocks that can be programmed which stemmed from the educational toys that had programmable feeler blocks. It is named after a book by Seymour Papert entitled Mindstorms: Children, Computers, and Powerful Ideas. The first Lego Mindstorms version available to the public was produced more than 10 years ago and was commercially promoted as the Robotics Invention System or RIS. The next edition was released only four years ago and it was called Lego Mindstorms NXT. The latest of this line called Lego Mindstorms NXT 2.0 went out in the market just last year.

The beginning of the hardware and software of the Mindstorms RIS kit can be traced back to the programmable block that was made at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Media Lab. This block used the Brick Logo in its programming. A programming environment based on AgentSheets known as LegoSheets was used for this block and was made by the University of Colorado four years before the first release of Lego Mindstorms. The first Mindstorms RIS kit had one light sensor, two touch sensors, and two motors while both NXT editions have three servomechanism motors and four sensors, one for touch, one for light, one for sound, and one for distance.

Lego Mindstorms can be used to construct an embedded system model that has electromechanical pieces that are controlled by a computer. A lot of embedded systems used in real life may be represented in a smaller scale using these Mindstorms blocks like elevator controllers and robots used for industrial purposes. Aside from that, Lego Mindstorms can also be used as an educational toy. In fact, there is already an educational edition of this line known as Lego Mindstorms for Schools.

We keep on talking about Legoland but in technical terms we have not yet defined what or where Legoland is. Legoland is a Lego themed theme park that caters to young families. There are currently four Legolands in the world, three of which are located in Europe and one in the United States. The biggest and the oldest is Legoland Billund in Denmark. Two more are set to open, both in Asia; one in Malaysia and one in Dubai.

Unlike most theme parks, Legolands do not have a lot of extreme rides. Although they have a few roller coasters, most of their rides are made to suit young children. All four parks are divided into different areas. They each have their own Lego miniland which is a small-scale village that has models of famous landmarks and scenes from all over the world made from Lego blocks. Each Legoland also have a Lego Mindstorms center for fun education; Duplo Gardens for the younger children; different Driving areas that include Driving school, Ballooning school, Boating school, and Fire Academy; and other attractions such as Wild Woods, My Town, and Knight’s Kingdom.

As with the environment, Legoland rides are also Lego themed. Most of them are built to look like they were made from Lego blocks. They also have the tendency to be derived from one specific line of Lego. For instance, the Dragon Coaster, which is a popular ride in all four Legolands, is loosely based on a Lego set called Knight’s Kingdom. The Driving school, another famous ride, allows children to drive small electric cars around a small network of roads and receive a pretend driving license. The cars in this attraction are made to appear as if they are enlarged versions of the Lego toy cars. Although, there are some similarities to the rides in the four Legolands, like with the Disney parks, the actual set of rides differ among the parks.

If you want to go to all Legolands to see the wonders of Lego and Legolandia, book a flight today and have fun the Lego way.

Lego Licensed Themes are Lego toys that are based on another license. Through the years, Lego has used a number of cartoon and film franchises as a subject for their licensed theme sets. Some of these are adventure movies like Indiana Jones and superheroes like Spiderman, Batman, and Ben 10. They also have Harry Potter, Spongebob SquarePants, and Star Wars. With Star Wars being the longest running Lego licensed theme. To date, Lego has already licensed more than 20 franchises for this product.

Lego’s licensing began a little over ten years ago with Winnie the Pooh, a Disney TV show that was also based on a popular children’s book. The first set was produced in 1999 and it was composed of Duplo bricks, a type of Lego that are made for children aged one to six years old. 14 other Winnie the Pooh Lego sets followed and all were made of Duplo blocks. The release of Winnie the Pooh-themed Lego sets ended in 2002.

But Lego Licensed Themes are not only limited to toy blocks. Lego also produced licensed themed videogames and the first of this kind to be sold was the Lego Creator: Harry Potter, a videogame released on PC. The themes are also not limited to just TV series and movies. Lego also have licensed themes based on popular products such as Coca-Cola and McDonald’s.

However, although most of the Lego licensed themes like Lego Indiana Jones and Lego Star Wars have contributed greatly in increasing the sales of the product, Lego still wants to depend more on the characters and classic themes that the company created itself. This is to make sure that Lego will be able to stand on its own feet, without the name of other franchises attached to it. But for sure, Lego will still continue to release licensed themes for the enjoyment of Lego, film, and cartoon enthusiasts.

Aside from Lego toys, Lego videogames, and Lego wear, the Lego Group also offers consultant services called Lego Serious Play through Lego Serious Play Certified Partners. The goal of this service is to foster creative thinking by using Lego blocks to create models and representations of each person’s identity in an organization along with his or her experiences. People who participate in this kind of team building solve hypothetical scenes by 3D Lego constructions. This is where the name serious play was derived from.

Last year, Lego Serious Play was developed even further so that it can also be applied in schools. Trained teachers may now use this method with students aged six years old and above. This educational version has the same objectives as the corporate one: to promote teamwork and creative thinking, paying more attention to making a course of action that allows more in-depth reflection and practical conversations.

Lego Serious Play has been described as a fervent and sensible method for building belief not only to oneself but among colleagues as well. The approach of Lego Serious Play is based on a research that says a hands-on and minds-on knowledge results in a more immersed and profound understanding of one’s environment and the potential that environment has. It has also been reported that those who participate in this method of team building gain better and more effective communication skills, the ability to more enthusiastically use their imaginations, and an improved confidence and dedication and more insightful approach to their work.

The concept for Lego Serious Play was created in the past decade as a way to give managers an easier method for describing, creating, and challenging their business views. The foundation of this method merges constructivism ideas with constructionsim, complicated theories on systems of adaptation, and other theories made relevant to organization and management contexts.

The Lego Group is famous for making toy blocks that can be used to build houses, helicopters, castles, playgrounds, anything you can think of. However, it also has an entirely different range of products meant exclusively for children and that doesn’t only pertain to the Danish building blocks.

In 1993, the Lego Group released the first range of Lego Wear. Lego Wear is a line of clothing for active boys and girls of ages 0 to 12 years old. The collections in this line are especially designed based on the development of children at different ages.

Because the clothes are meant for kids, Lego Wear follows a unique set of values. The first one is fun. The designs of Lego Wear clothing especially in the color choices are catchy and charming and they incorporate images and graphic features normally found in Lego toys. The second value is function. Lego Wear made dressing and undressing easy for children. Because children learn different things at different ages, Lego Wear integrated features that are specific to a child’s age along with zipper straps, push buttons, hook buttons, and other buttons that are easy to handle. Lego Wear clothes also aim to encourage and inspire children to do things for themselves. Lego Wear calls it playful learning. The third value is quality, not just quality of the finish product but quality from the raw materials up to the smallest details. This is to ensure that Lego clothes will be able to survive even the most active kinds of play, everyday use, and washing. The materials used are also dependent on the age. The last value is comfort. Because most children love to explore, the clothes they wear should allow them to freely do so.

Since it first came out, Lego Wear has released a wide variety of collections, from back-to-school outfits to season wardrobes, and they are available in over 20 European countries.