While the initial trailer for Rogue One: A Star Wars Story hasn’t even been out a complete month yet, here we see a unique recreation of the teaser, done completely in LEGO. The sequence of events featured in the toy creation mimic that of the actual trailer (see below), highlighting lead character Jyn Erso and setting up the scene for a band of Rebel fighters that aim to steal the plans to the Death Star before the Emperor can use it to conquer every known universe. So while you get amped up for the December release of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, be sure to check out this entertaining LEGO recreation above. Your Daily Dose of Highsnobiety Receive the best in sneakers, fashion and street culture straight to your inbox!And so, behold probably my favourite LEGO set of all time..... Set 10188 Death Star - a work of utter genius Put simply, Set 10188 Death Star is like a love letter from the LEGO company to Star Wars fans around the world. It's miraculous to me the way that the designers of this set have managed to squeeze so much detail, and so many references to Star Wars, into just one set.
Basically, the model is split into multiple compartments, each of which references a particular Death Star-related scene or location from the original Star Wars movie (plus one scene from Return of the Jedi, for good measure). I must warn you that I could eulogise about this set for hours, but for the sake of anybody reading this I'll force myself to just try and call out some of the highlights so that the length of this posting remains manageable. First, cast your mind back to the scene in Star Wars where Luke and Han dress as stormtroopers and escort Chewie to the prison block restrained in 'binders' to rescue Leia, who was scheduled for 'termination'. The shoot out in the prison block is neatly recreated within this set, both in terms of the imposing design of the prison block itself, and also the inclusion of the key characters from the scene in minifig form (click the pics to enlarge). Han and Luke are even wearing stormtrooper uniforms, and Chewie's wearing binders ! Leia herself is hidden behind the black walls of her cell above but can be released from the clutches of the IT-O interrogator droid (included in the set) by popping the bars of her cell;
the cell block also features a moveable CCTV camera (the blue object in the picture above) and a cog which you rotate in order to open a secret trapdoor to the Garbage Compactor beneath. Pinned down in the cell block, Luke, Leia, Chewie and Han leap through the blasted drainage grating and fall headlong down the garbage chute into fetid depths of the Garbage Compactor below - Han to Chewie : "I don't care what you smell". As in the movie, the LEGO walls close in on our heroes (just push the red lever, shown at the top of the picture above), while a monster (the dianoga) lurks amongst the debris ready to pull Luke under..... Meanwhile, Ben Kenobi is on a mission to disable the tractor beam which is preventing the Millenium Falcon from escaping. Having distracted a guard with a Jedi Mind Trick, he creeps up to the controls and deactivates the beam while a black R2 unit goes about its business below. Disabling the Tractor Beam Elsewhere, having now escaped from the Garbage Compactor, Leia and Luke get separated from Han and Chewie, and they arrive at a dead end, more specifically the edge of a deep chasm.
With stormtroopers behind them, they have no option but to swing across.... Swinging Across the Chasm Honestly, I could just go on. As well as recreating the iconic Star Wars scenes above, the set also features a number of other compartments including a TIE hanger containing Vader's TIE Advanced, Grand Moff Tarkin's conference room, a cargo loading bay, a couple of turbo lasers modelled on those which were supposed to protect the Death Star trench, the Emperor's Throne Room, a control room for the Death Star's primary weapon, and of course the primary weapon itself, caught in the moment of firing (at Alderaan, presumably). Half a movie, then, lovingly crammed into one magnificent LEGO set. Death Star Primary Weapon - bye bye, Alderaan And there are also a host of 'play features' as the LEGO company might call them - a working central lift, blast doors which slide open and shut, a launch cradle for Vader's TIE Advanced, a working cargo lift and crane, controls to aim the Death Star primary weapon - the list goes on and on.
I doubt that any LEGO set in history has managed to cram in as many features as this one. Vader's TIE Advanced ready for launch And if that wasn't enough, the set also contains 24 minifigs - more than almost any other set ever. These include some rarities such as a black protocol droid and R2-Q5, as well as Luke and Han in stormtrooper outfits, Grand Moff Tarkin, Vader and the Emperor himself - a minifig collector's dream. If you're a fan of LEGO and a fan of Star Wars then this is the nearest you'll get to a no-brainer for as long as you live. Trust me - you will not regret it. It's even still available direct from LEGO despite having been around for a few years now so there's really no excuse not to. All these minifigs in just one set... Seriously - it's utterly, utterly brilliant.LEGO has captured the imaginations of children for several decades and continues creating a wide range of products to this day. The famous colored bricks made their debut in Billund, Denmark in 1958 as a creation of the LEGO Group.
Considered the toy of a million possibilities, the main focus for LEGO was to create something children can play with, over and over, any way they see fit. Despite the company’s focus on an imaginative, child-friendly product, several incidents over the years have provided dark blemishes on LEGO’s otherwise untarnished name. The AMC show Breaking Bad focused on the exploits of a chemistry-teacher-turned-meth-cook and his drug dealer ex-student. Naturally, a Breaking Bad set made from LEGO bricks that became available for purchase online for $250 caused quite a stir. Several Twitter followers posted concerned comments suggesting the set is highly inappropriate for children and the use of LEGO bricks is misleading. If you’re thinking “There is no way LEGO signed off on that,” you would be correct. LEGO has in no way endorsed or acknowledged the set, though the entire thing is made from their product. The independent company Citizen Brick purchases LEGO pieces and then redresses them into sets that would never make it into the actual toy line, such as drug- and sex-themed sets.
In this modern age of domestic terrorism and paranoia, sometimes all it takes is a single word to send everyone into a panic. In the case of a 6 year old boy from Massachusetts, that word was “gun.” During a morning trip to Old Mill Pond Elementary, the kindergartner pulled out a quarter-sized LEGO minifigure rifle in front of the other students. The other children began to panic, rousing the concern of the bus driver, who immediately slammed on the brakes. Although the boy obviously did not face any legal repercussions, he was given detention and ordered to write an official apology to the driver and all the children on the bus. The mother of the boy declared the school “overreacted” and that the toy did not pose a threat of any kind. The bus driver, however, stated that several of the children were still in shock and the ordeal was quite disruptive. In a similar trend, a company known as BrickArms created a controversial minifigure bandit, affectionately named Mr. White.
The minifigure wears a tan militant shirt and black pants, accessorized with a pistol, an assault rifle, an RPG, and several grenades. The figure also sports a white head wrap that bears a striking resemblance to an Islamic terrorist. At least that is what a Muslim organization called the Ramadhan Foundation believes. The foundations members viewed the minifigure as highly obscene and labeled it as “glorifying terrorism.” BrickArms founder Will Chapman has stated that the minifigure is not a terrorist, but simply a run-of-the-mill bandit with no specific skill set or personality. The Simpsons, for those who have been living under a rock for the last 25 years, is an animated television show that focuses on the mishaps of a dysfunctional, yellow-skinned family set in the fictional town of Springfield. The colorful denizens of Springfield are good candidates for collaboration with LEGO—however, the adult subject matter of the show certainly did not fit the age group of the toy line.
When LEGO announced that Simpsons-themed sets would be release in 2014, parents grew concerned that the series wasn’t child appropriate. While LEGO has not made any official announcements involving the concerns, one company spokesman assured detractors that the series of sets were intended exclusively for fans of the television show. Anyone who has ever played a LEGO video game will know that humor goes hand-in-hand with those colorful bricks. One father of two, however, did not find the humor in a sticker of a construction minifigure accompanied by the catcall “Hey Babe!” Josh Stearns, who is also a Campaign Director for Free Press, posted the complaint online upon discovering the sexist statement. The complaint gained enough awareness that LEGO saw fit to send Stearns not one reply, but two. The first email, sent by Charlotte Simonsen, Head of Corporate Communications, was considered by Stearns to be insulting, as it insinuated that the company was sorry he couldn’t take a joke.
The second email, sent by Andrea Ryder, Head of Outbound Licensing Department, contained a more amiable message that apologized for the sticker’s appearance, while assuring him that the product was discontinued and future decisions would not be made so careless. It is a fact of life that sometimes lovable creations have a dark side lurking beneath the exterior that the rest of the world sees. The factories that make the LEGOs children love are no different. Earlier this year, LEGO announced that, due to a change with their parent factory in Denmark, 380 workers will be laid off by 2015. The Denmark factory has always produced, decorated, and packaged a large portion of the available sets, while other factories around the world picked up the slack—but the Denmark factory will no longer package or decorate their bricks, instead sending them to factories closer to distribution points. The Chief Executive of the Denmark plant has stated that while certain employees can retrain and find other positions within the factory, a significant portion will simply be laid off.
Following in the footsteps of Mr. White, the “Jabba the Hutt’s Palace” set from the LEGO Star Wars line is said to resemble real mosques in Istanbul and Lebanon. A Turkish community in Austria has declared the set is an affront to the principles of their religion, and that depicting an intergalactic gangster as the palace’s owner is offensive. When word traveled around the Internet that the Jabba set would be discontinued in 2013, the Turkish sympathizers claimed a victory for their cause. LEGO has since corrected the rumors that they were withdrawing the set due to prejudice. In an official announcement, LEGO stated the set had run its course after two years on shelves, and that it was simply time to retire the model. Photo credit: Shadman the Wonderguy A long time ago, in a brick factory far, far away, a decision was made to unite all the minifigures under one race of color. That color was yellow. According to Michael McNally, the choice for the color was so that the individual playing with the figures could imagine any person from any walk of life.
For several decades the LEGO sets have included the bright yellow faces on every single figure—that is, until they ran into Lando Calrissian. You see, when LEGO acquired the rights to create sets for Star Wars, everything was fine for the yellow-faced characters—except Lando did not receive a figure at all. When LEGO showed no signs of creating the epic character, the public cried out for racial equality among the minifigures. LEGO finally had to address the fact that making every figure yellow would exclude members of races with a darker skin tone. Since that time, LEGO has made strides to include skin tones that not only depict actual races, but also show a wider spectrum of colors. It is no small secret that most would consider LEGOs to be a boy’s toy, regardless of the fact that LEGO has stated that is a unisex product. In opposition to these claims, LEGO released the “Friends” theme of sets that were specifically intended for girls. The sets feature pink and purple bricks, accessories like lipstick and purses, and professions such as baker and beautician.
Upon the announcement that such a line would exist, several Facebook commenters became outraged at the apparent prejudice towards women. Instead of depicting a female scientist or doctor, the sets reinforce the stereotype that women are only concerned with their looks. While the sets have increased in popularity since their initial release, many still find them unsuitable for the world of the modern girl. Photo credit: The Museum of Modern Art In 1996, an artist from Poland named Zbigniew Libera requested bricks from the LEGO Group in order to make his latest creation. Hoping for some pleasant attention, LEGO agreed to supply the artist with the bricks, not knowing what they were intended for. To everyone’s shock, Libera had used the acquired bricks to construct a concentration camp, eerily similar to the infamous Auschwitz. Initially, the concept was considered a poor take on some dark humor—however, Libera claimed it was an artistic statement and not an attempt to lighten the tragedies of the Holocaust.