Little Coloured Bricks

Love is in the air in Legolandia and it is now time to listen to the classic love songs yet again. Now if you think Valentines should only be celebrated on February 14th, in Legoland -this is not the case.

Legolandia celebrates Valentines to the hilt and the Lego Beatles’ “Love Me Do” performance can prove it. Lego minifigs are now in the mood for lots of loving and this can be seen in many Lego videos. The Lego”Love Me Do” was created by Ricardo Luis Guerra, a YouTuber and his clip is a reminder of how good it is to love and be loved. The Lego enthusiast is also a Beatles fan and makes Lego animation on his spare time. The “Love Me Do” video is one of his best and many Lego fanatics are waiting for more Lego animation from this guy.

Another proof for love’s presence in the Lego atmosphere is a Lego animation done by Ozi. Ozi is YouTuber Kassettendeck’s friend and Kassettendeck posted Ozi’s “Power of Lego Love” in the video sharing website. The clip is a 5 minute mini Lego movie originally made for a wedding -sweet right? Although there is no script and the story can only be told through the different background songs, the “Power of Lego Love” is still a masterpiece in its own right. However, basing on the comments, you’d either love it or hate it. There shouldn’t be room for hate though since we should all be celebrating love.

Lego love stories abound -some are done by children, some by adults. There are clips on Taylor Swift’s most popular song “Love Story” aptly titled “Lego Love Story” but these Lego animations are not as good as the ones done by Ozi and Guerra. They are still worth mentioning because this is yet another proof that Lego love is in the air.

Every year, couples try to come up of new ways of making their Valentine’s Day more special than the last. Most do this by giving personalized gifts to each other. This, they feel, makes them different to the other couples around them. However, customized gift-giving has been the norm lately that it has already lost its novelty. Giving a personalized present nowadays does not feel one-of-a-kind anymore because everyone is doing it. Even the so-called customized gifts do not feel personal anymore as there are already too many companies mass-producing templates for such gifts.

Nevertheless, there are still some couples who believe in giving personalized gifts and attempt to break the current trend by giving Lego Valentines gifts. Lego Valentines are Valentine gifts that are made up of Lego blocks. They can range from Valentine hearts and Valentine mosaics to Valentine dioramas depicting perhaps a couple’s memorable date and other Valentine-related Lego sculptures.

One man gave his wife a Lego Valentine mosaic. It had a huge square baseplate that says “Be Mine” and an arched gazebo attached at the lower left corner with two small figures inside representing him and his wife. Another man gave his wife a large Hershey’s Kiss made up of brown Lego blocks.

But there is one woman who made the Lego Valentine a tradition in her relationship. A few years before she and her boyfriend got married, she gave him a heart made of Lego blocks inside a box that was also made of Lego and every year since then, she would add a new layer on it, with different themes each year. For example, for the year 2002, she added an “American flag” layer to commemorate the September 11 terrorist attacks and for their wedding year, she added a white layer.

These instances show that with just a little creativity and resourcefulness, Lego Valentines can be a great and unique way of showing your love to your partner during the most romantic time of the year.

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.

Legolandia amidst all the modernity and free thinking still put their faith into practice. Religious Lego men and women whether Christian, Moslem, Hindu or any other religion are depicted in many photos. Adam, for example, was captured talking to Yahweh in the Lego Garden of Eden.

In other parts of Legoland, there are Lego mosques where most Lego Moslem minifigs worship. This goes to show that in the land of Lego minifigs, there is a harmonious relationship between all religions. Now this is very good news for everyone because this can teach children how to live and let live without judging people because of their faith.

Even if we live in modern times, most of us still discriminate against people of different faith or beliefs. Of course, everyone is entitled to his or her opinion but respect for each other is something that we should all learn. Through Lego blocks that are religiously inspired, we can teach our children to respect others even if they do not have the same religion or faith.

What makes Legoland a conducive place for learning is that not only the Moslem and Christian faiths are included in Lego creations, there are Buddhist temples as well. Even Siddharta Gautama Buddha has his very own Lego version and grottoes of the monk can also be seen in Legoland. This has delighted many Lego Buddhists minifigs and it should delight parents whether Buddhist or not.

Religion has always been a very sensitive issue and the world’s history tells of the crusades and holy wars -making it a more difficult issue. Today, people still discriminate against those who do not believe in the same things and this is something that Lego can change. Of course Lego alone will not change how we view the world but it can be used to teach our children how to treat others with respect. And even if “unity in diversity” is close to impossible, it can be achieved.

Almost 10 years ago, an American author, artist, and atheist, began a web project called The Brick Testament. The said project is a selection of Bible stories told through photographs of dioramas made from Lego blocks. When it first came out, it featured six narratives from the book of Genesis and since then, The Brick Testament has covered more than 400 stories using more than 4000 images. A hardbound book version of the web project has also been released. Both the web project and the books were made available to the public for the use of churches and anti-church groups making the Brick Testament a rather popular Lego diorama.

The narration of the stories is basically straightforward, although its creator did give a little more attention to the elements in the story that contain sex, destruction, and violence. However, the images frequently make a piercingly ironic comment on the words, especially on passages that are instructional.

For instance, the photographs used to tell the Ten Commandments oddly choose to put at the forefront the primary capital nature of the transgressions as shown in the scene. One glaring example is the command to not put up with fake prophets is put side by side with sights of the Jews appropriating the passage to Jesus.

The photographs in The Brick Testament are those of dioramas made from the creator’s own collection of Legos. In some of the cases where modifications are done to the Lego pieces, the adjustments are just simple alterations created with markers and hobby knives. An example of these modifications is God’s hair which the creator of the Brick Testament made by carving a white Lego helmet piece. The only entirely non-Lego element in the dioramas is the sky in the background. The artist also sometimes added speech balloons and edited the photographs using image editing computer programs like Paint Shop Pro or Adobe Photoshop.