1. Is this the ultimate Christmas gift? A life-sized car made of Lego (more than 500,000 pieces, to be precise) that runs on air: sound too good to be true? There's something verging on the unbelievable about this Lego-tastic creation by Melbourne entrepreneur Steve Sammartino and self-taught tech head Raul Oaida. How can an engine run on air? And why doesn't the video explain more? Either what we're looking at here is an invention that could change the world, or a very time-consuming hoax. Still, it's hard not to feel a pang of want. Imagine unwrapping it on Christmas day. 2. The fake wine fraudster Rudy Kurniawan was once the toast of the fine-wine world, with his "blood hound" nose and overflowing collection. Then the millionaires who were paying big money for his bottles started to get suspicious. Kurniawan was capable of producing bottles of such rare vintage that they began to wonder where his supply came from. An FBI raid and a court case later, and Kurniawan is now a convicted fraudster.
Ben Goldstein speaks to expert oenophiles about how Kurniawan could have blended cheap new Californian wine with "very ordinary to poor" French vintage and passed it off as rarefied plonk. 3. Phone privacy What's the one thing you don't want your partner to find on your phone? Pictures from the office Christmas party? According to a recent survey in America, the answer is your bank account information. Apparently, only 5pc of people actually have nude pictures on their telephone. 4. Premier League manager Christmas gift guide Christmas is a hard time for managers, who have to travel the country and organise a bunch of men-boys to kick a ball around instead of spending quality time at home with their families. So do a good deed this year and give a gaffer a gift. Suggested pressies include a pair of socks for Roberto Martinez, dinner at Delia's for Chris Hughton, and an outbreak of war for Arsene Wenger. 5. Drop in to Dropbox The latest entry in the internet's envy-laden series of Offices That Are Cooler Than Yours is to be found today on Design Taxi, which has pics from inside the new Dropbox HQ.
They've gone for an "industrial and modern" look apparently. Although, aren't all new offices by definition industrial and modern? 6. The social minefield of kissing a woman 'hello' One kiss or two? Alan Tyers explains why so many men fall at the first hurdle when it comes to greeting a woman with a kiss 7. Guitar tuner of the future This gadgety guitar gizmo looks pretty great. It sells for a wince-inducing $300. Email tm@telegraph.co.uk or contact @jbcoopr and we'll hat-tip your Twitter account. [Steve Sammartino] is a Melbourne entrepreneur, and he had an idea: could it be possible to design and make a functional full-size Lego car? He sent out a single tweet to try to crowd fund the project: Anyone interested in investing $500-$1000 in a project which is awesome & a world first tweet me. Need about 20 participants… #startup Not one, not two, but forty Australians pledged money to start this crazy idea dubbed the #SuperAwesomeMicroProject. With the money raised, [Steve] and [Raul Oaida] purchased over 500,000 Lego pieces and began the build in Romania, where [Raul] lives.
Now before you get too excited, the car is not “fully” made out of Lego. It features real tires and some select load bearing elements. That being said, the entire engine is made completely out of Lego. It features four orbital engines utilizing a total of 256 pistons. The top speed they tested it to was about 20-30km/h — it might go faster, but they didn’t want to risk a catastrophic failure. Since its completion (it took nearly 18 months to build), it’s been shipped back to a secret location in Melbourne, but the team has made an excellent video showcasing the project. Stick around after the break to see your childhood dreams come to life.DETROIT — Chevrolet, along with students from Detroit’s Cody Rouge community, A World in Motion and FIRST LEGO® League, unveiled its life-size LEGO® Batmobile today at the North American International Auto Show. Measuring 17-feet long and featuring exclusive stud shooters, the LEGO® Batmobile from Chevrolet was designed to strike fear in the heart of any villain.
The vehicle was inspired by Batman’s Speedwagon featured in “The LEGO® Batman Movie,” which hits U.S. theaters on Feb. 10. In this exciting new animated LEGO® adventure, Batman, DC’s iconic Super Hero who famously prefers to work alone, must learn to cooperate and connect with others to save Gotham City from The Joker. “To work on the LEGO® Batmobile with Warner Bros. is an absolute thrill for us at Chevy,” said Paul Edwards, U.S. vice president of Chevrolet Marketing. “Many of the themes in ‘The LEGO® Batman Movie,’ like imagination, family and community, align perfectly with our Chevy brand values and add to the value of the partnership.” The LEGO® Batmobile from Chevrolet will also appear in the next variation of Chevrolet’s “Real People, Not Actors” campaign. In the new spot, real LEGO® Minifigure™ figurines discuss what kind of person would drive the all-new LEGO® Batmobile. LEGO® Batmobile Fast Facts: It’s 83 inches (6.92 feet) high, 204 inches (17 feet) long and 111 inches (9.25 feet) wide.
Total weight is 1,695.5 pounds. Each tire is just over 100 pounds. The interior frame is made from more than 86 feet of square tube aluminum and weighs 282.5 pounds. Total number of LEGO® bricks used to build the Batmobile: 344,187 Total number of LEGO® colors used: 17 The LEGO® Batmobile took 222 hours to design and 1,833 hours to build. The LEGO® Batmobile was designed and assembled in the LEGO® Model Shop in Enfield, Connecticut, by LEGO® Master Builders. Even outside of the LEGOverse, Batman tends to have all of the best toys. However, the LEGO Batmobile from the highly anticipated The LEGO Batman Movie may prove to be the greatest toy of them all. Chevrolet has teamed up with students from Detroit’s Cody Rouge community, A World in Motion, and First LEGO League to recreate the new LEGO Batmobile in real life! Via ComingSoon, the life-sized LEGO Batmobile was unveiled at the at the North American International Auto Show, and it is a staggering 17-feet long, just under 6.92 feet tall and 9.25 feet wide creation that took 344,187 LEGO bricks to build and over 1,833 hours to complete.
The LEGO Batmobile does have an interior frame that is made of square tube aluminum, so it’s not completely LEGO. But it is still very impressive. Chevy released several photos of the completed LEGO Batmobile, and the attention to detail was also particularly striking. The wheels alone are reportedly 100 pounds each, and the entire vehicle is said to weigh 1,695.5 pounds. You can see more of the photos in our gallery below. Within the film itself, LEGO Batman calls this car “The Speedwagon,” and he takes particular pride in its tricked out abilities to take down villains of all sizes. Chevy even parodied itself while teasing LEGO Batman’s pride in the newest commercial in the company’s “Real People, Not Actors” ad campaign. And let’s just say that LEGO Batman quickly regretted sitting in on his own focus group. What did you think about the life-sized LEGO Batmobile? Share your thoughts in the LEGO Bat-comment section below! Images: Chevrolet/John F. Martin