Design your own LEGO kit

File this under "wish we had this when we were kids": LEGO is starting a new program called LEGO Factory where you can download a desktop application that allows you to create a custom brick design. You can take the designs you create using the LEGO Digital Designer software, upload them to the LEGO website, and actually order a kit of LEGO bricks that will make the design you spec'd out. Sweeeeet! We really ought to finish this post but, um, we got some LEGOin' to take care of — see ya!

[Thanks, Da Greasy Guide]

[Matt @ Dec 19th 2005 1:25AM]

This is the kind of thing that makes me pissed that I was born into a generation who had to accept "Power Rangers" as the most revolutionary thing.

Whatever happened to good ol' fashioned buckets of LEGOs? Buy a tub, dump it on the ground, and start building says I

[matt preston @ Dec 19th 2005 1:25AM]

good point #1

bet itrs expensive, but still more fun to have a multicoloured car than some crappy grey one. just pretend they are on weed and everything is better multicoloured

[eno @ Dec 19th 2005 1:25AM]

hii

[strider_mt2k @ Dec 19th 2005 1:25AM]

That is so cool.

[Fredrik @ Dec 19th 2005 1:25AM]

yeah, you've a got a point there Matt. What would happen to a ten year old's creativity if he could just order the pieces he needs to make something? On the other hand there is still the element of designing it and figuring out what you want to do and what you need to do it.

I can't really make up my mind about what I think of this yet but at this very moment I wish that I was a kid again and just as nuts about Lego as I was back then. Man, I would go crazy with this!

[Trejkaz @ Dec 19th 2005 1:25AM]

Woot. One Nintendo DS charging cradle kit coming right up.

[Marc @ Dec 19th 2005 1:25AM]

I think this is cool but not necessarily the best think for kids. The last thing we need is a virtual world to play with legos in. part of the fun was making the contraption work with the pieces that you had.

Anyway I really like the idea. I would like other web sites to let you configure the product and then they would send you a kit. For example a customized deck kit from home depot or a hardware or plumbiung kit from mcmaster.com (one of the best sites for mechanical parts on the web).

I can imagine the day when an entreprenour could build his own product and have a web page selling a product that consists of a few parts from emachineshop.com, a kit from mcmaster.com, and a couple special parts from a specialty shop and wala I have a bolt on whatzit for someones car, home, etc. Minimal overhead - just some time putting together the kits and designing the parts and paying for a prototype (that you could probably sell anyway).

[John @ Dec 19th 2005 1:25AM]

Very cool! Now I can build LEGO mosaics and pixle pictures and have them delivered to me.

[Whiplash @ Dec 19th 2005 1:25AM]

No, this is the coolest thing since they started making those little people with changeable plastic hair. I don't know how many times as a kid, my well planned design for an advanced fighter ship, handheld weapon, airplane, or fortress would have to be pared back, crippled, or abandoned because of brick supply problems. NO MORE I SAY!!!!

[LCD @ Dec 19th 2005 1:25AM]

don't forget that you could make cool things and crash them together to see all the parts fly into the air!

Marc... what you're talking about is starting to happen already. virtual organizations are cropping up left and right, that have no physical plant or facility and just builds custom order or mass produced products by utilizing just in time manufacturing and "mass customization". This lego stuff is just the tip of the iceberg in the "mass customization" marketplace that is trying to get established - M&M's buy your color choices, valentine hearts with your own quotes, custom shoes on order, PEZ MP3 player, et. al.

[Kevin Howard @ Dec 19th 2005 1:25AM]

didn't they already invent this ten years ago in the book "Microserfs?"

[Ping @ Dec 19th 2005 1:25AM]

i think its great! and i agree with whiplash ... there's always that one piece missing that will mak your gun or ship or plane SOOOOO much cooler if only you had it....
i'm sure it will be pretty expensive to order your own tub of lego pieces, so i guess rather than build out of custom you could probably use the customs as ... finishing touches... :D
anyway, i wish my parents still bought me lego... hell, i wish my parents still bought me things... its somehow more fun when they do... :D

[Michael Rylander @ Dec 19th 2005 1:25AM]

The Mac version doesn't run too well on my G5. Anyone else have problems?

[Ben @ Dec 19th 2005 1:25AM]

John: my thoughts EXACTLY.

:D

[Google Nazi @ Dec 19th 2005 1:25AM]

I agree with #1....

[Lee Gibson @ Dec 19th 2005 1:25AM]

All you retro-grouch grognards that whine about LEGO buckets haven't been to your local toy store lately.

What happened to LEGO buckets? Absolutely nothing. They still come in a bucket, full of LEGO.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B000284YR0/qid=1125342089/sr=8-2/ref=pd_bbs_2/103-4620349-0881413?v=glance&s=toys&n=507846

1000 pieces. $20. Stop whining.

[Lee Gibson @ Dec 19th 2005 1:25AM]

John, the LEGO mosaic kit has been available for a couple years. Check it out:

http://shop.lego.com/product.asp?p=3443&t=7&d=14&c=487271C4%2D7C76%2D4242%2D85EE%2D7CA5C150531A

[Boxgamex @ Dec 19th 2005 1:25AM]

mwhahahahha one lego ipod/imac g5 coming up!


btw: im 13 and still like to play with legos occasionally, i love being a geek.

[YourNameHere @ Dec 19th 2005 1:25AM]

So do they include the instructions on how to build it also?

[mccand @ Dec 19th 2005 1:25AM]

Hmm. I looked over the software and was sort of disapointed. I'm more interested in the Technic line of legos (Legos that WORK!), which barely made an appearance in the software. I hope that later versions will have more bricks available, and fewer other limitations. This has incredible potential, don't rest on your laurels LEGO.

[StreetStealth @ Dec 19th 2005 1:25AM]

I haven't snapped any lego together for the better part of a decade. That may change, though, if I'm suddenly able to design and build a proper model of the Serenity. :)

[aliask @ Dec 19th 2005 1:25AM]

Dear god, this program could be so good, but LEGO has wasted a lot of potential here. I love the idea that you can make a model on your computer and then order the parts to build it at home.

Except you can't make anything with the provided pieces. Why limit the number of parts your can use? Why limit what colours they come in? Why make it so that some pieces are only available in certain "sets"?

There is only a glimpse of the number of pieces that LEGO has to offer in that program, and in my short play with the program, I was frustrated many times because I couldn't do what I wanted.

Not to mention that the UI is pretty buggy.

LEGO killed my inner child.

[Tom Chiverton @ Dec 19th 2005 1:25AM]

IS it better / does it support LDraw though ?

[John Stracke @ Dec 19th 2005 1:25AM]

The Lego Store in the local mall (Burlington, MA) has a wall of bins of bricks, where you can pick out just the ones you want. Personally, I think that's a better idea; how can you work with Lego without feeling the bricks in your hands? (In UI-speak, the software can't convey the bricks' affordances properly.)

[The Random Hero @ Dec 19th 2005 1:25AM]

Blockland Ripoff IMO.

[fistpittingnork @ Dec 19th 2005 1:25AM]

Most of you complain that this takes away imagination and poses no challenge for kids.

Have you looked at legos available lately (or within the past 20 years at that?) They've been selling kits (ie: Star Wars) forever, which is composed of specific blocks you need and the instructions on how to put it together. This is no different, except it actually does spark imagination in thinking of exactly what he wants to build, in turn thinking out exactly what pieces he'll need.

This takes a familiar concept to a child and adds imagination & personalization.. What more could you ask for?

[fistpittingnork @ Dec 19th 2005 1:25AM]

Most of you complain that this takes away imagination and poses no challenge for kids.

Have you looked at legos available lately (or within the past 20 years at that?) They've been selling kits (ie: Star Wars) forever, which is composed of specific blocks you need and the instructions on how to put it together. This is no different, except it actually does spark imagination in thinking of exactly what he wants to build, in turn thinking out exactly what pieces he'll need.

This takes a familiar concept to a child and adds imagination & personalization.. What more could you ask for?

[Matthew @ Dec 19th 2005 1:25AM]

I also found the limited part selection to be very frustrating. What's more, the parts that they do let you use have expiration dates! Why would they want to stop you from designing using a perticular piece after a cartain date? The current set doesn't even have some of the parts shown in their advertizements for the product.

[Rons @ Dec 19th 2005 1:25AM]

Always look at the bright side of life. Think of the limited part selection as a creative challenge. Do you think PostIts, Velcro, Teflon or paper umbrellas for cocktails would have been invented if everything was just server for the people who invented those things ;) ? IMHO limitations and challenges makes you grow... Lego Factory is hard fun

[AC/BC @ Dec 19th 2005 1:25AM]

I was a LEGO JUNKIE when I was a kid, even into my early teen years(then I discovered girls, or they discovered me). I had a pretty good sized lego collection, but I was always limited in what I could build. Keep in mind this was before all these crazy-ass star wars pieces, but I still wondered what would have been possible if I had the entire lego catalog of pieces at my disposal. Provided I could have truly mastered the interface, the possiblities would have been endless! I hope that by the time I have kids, we won't have blown ourselves to hell and this kind of thing will still be there.