Lego Everywhere

[woodwardiocom]

The three Lego blogs I read on a regular basis are:

• The New Elementary, devoted entirely to announcing new Lego parts and exploring their possibilities.
  
• The Brothers Brick, which is mostly about gorgeous or ingenious fan-built creations. (This is the site I'd recommend to non-Lego fans. It's well worth it just for sheer beauty.)
  
• Brickset, a news blog with a substantial Lego database attached. Or vice-versa. It sometimes has a slight whiny tone, but it's rare.

XKCD has said that human subcultures are fractal, and there is no bottom. This is entirely true in Lego fandom. Some examples, many of which overlap:

• Purists, who do not cut or paint Lego, nor use any non-Lego parts (such as Mega Bloks).
  
• There's a subgroup of "legal" purists, who also don't use any technique the Lego Group would not allow in a real set. (Here's Lego official PDF on some illegal building techniques. Note that they are often concerned about tenth-of-a-millimeter issues.)
  
• People who will cut, paint, or use third-party parts, subdivided in various combinations.
  
• Train fans.
  
• Because Lego has often changed their Train technology to use different voltage or tracks, train fans are subdivided based on what tech they use.
• Minifigure fans.
  
• Minifigure fans who are into customization.
  
• Digital Lego fans, who spend most of their time using CAD tools instead of real plastic.
  
• Lego board game players. (A small pack, since the games are not all that great qua games.)
  
• Lego computer game fans. (A huge group, since the computer games are surprisingly good.)
  
• Lego Mindstorms fans. They build robots!
  
• Mosaic builders.
  
• Spaceship builders.
  
• Builders of military equipment, 1900-present day (an area deliberately avoided by the Lego Group).
  
• As ever, within that group, there's a subgroup uncomfortably obsessed with German stuff from WW2.
  
• Mecha builders.
  
• People who spend more time updating the assorted Lego wikis than playing with real plastic.
  
• People fixated on one specific theme, such as Star Wars or Bionicle.
  
• Modulex fans. (Modulex being an officially-incompatible brick system produced by Lego in the 1960s for architects.)
  
• Bionicle builders, people who build their own creations using primarily parts from the action-figure-ish Bionicle and Hero Factory themes.
  
• Microscale builders.
  
• Diorama builders.
  
• More as I think of them...

Comments

[rednikki.livejournal.com]

I have just passed this on to my other half. I know he's going to love reading this.

[ceo]

I note that the official PDF does not cover my favorite questionable technique, the 5-5-7 isoceles right triangle. Works in both System and Technic, though in the former it benefits from some reinforcing.

[ceo]

Two other blogs: Brick Engineer, updated infrequently but lots of useful techniques, and Sariel.pl, really impressive MOCs (mostly vehicles) by the author of The Unofficial LEGO Technic Builder's Guide.

[weegoddess.livejournal.com]

Did you link to this? Did I miss it?

http://www.streetartutopia.com/?attachment_id=5999

Because, well...

[woodwardiocom.livejournal.com]

I can't imagine giving away my hard-won Lego like that, but I approve!