One of the many cool things I didn’t list in my report on Steam 2013 was mechabrick. It was started by British AFOL Ben Jarvis that combines three of his passions: Lego, robots and wargaming. Ben has launched a kick-starter project to get it under way. If successful, this should enable the launch of the first mechabrick kit, which will consist of all the parts you need to turn four minifigs into kick-ass mecha (with friggin’ big guns, of course) and four boards that are to be combined to form the play board. The kit will also contain stickers to customise the mecha, as well as dice and a rulebook. Mechabrick is more than just a war game with mecha, however. An essential and fun part of the game will be building the scenery and obstacles on the game board with our favourite plastic bricks. Ben built a rather impressive example for the show. At the event I had the opportunity to handle two of the prototypes and they looked (and felt) promising. I’m sure that plenty of you, like Ben, are fans of Lego, robots and wargaming.
Check out the pictures in the flickr group and the project page. If you like what you see, you can pledge your support.Lego MinirobotMobileframezero LegosLegos FtwRobot LegoLego SciSagethe13Th CheckZomg LegoMechs BuiltLego KampfForwardMechs built from Legos For the game; the Grappler: by Sagethe13th Check out his flickr stream.McCANDLESS (KDKA) — Two brothers from Fox Chapel have a shot at being named world champions after winning the largest First Lego League Championship in Pittsburgh this weekend. The brothers, on the team named “Not the Droids You Are Looking For” are moving on. Seventy-five teams packed the gym at La Roche College. But these kids, wearing black and gold, don’t have anything to do with football, baseball or hockey. They are competing in the Western Pennsylvania First Lego League Grand Championship. “There are obstacles on the game board and you have to program your robot to complete the obstacles,” said Elizabeth Kamin, a Lego robotics competitor.
Teams of as many as 10 kids, ages 7 to 13, compete for a shot to move on to the world championships. “As long as teams competed in one of the qualifiers, they could attend this event, and the winner from this event — not only in the table game but in all the different elements — will actually go to the world championships in St. Louis in April to compete against teams from all across the world,” said Timothy Friez, the head judge. Join The Conversation On The KDKA Facebook Page Stay Up To Date, Follow KDKA On Twitter They must build and program their robot to complete the assigned tasks, but there’s a whole lot more to it than that. “A tabletop game that has a lot of different challenges that a completely autonomous robot has to complete, then they also have a research project, a teamwork challenge and also a presentation about how their robots and programs work,” Friez said. For kids, the plastic blocks teach them about science, technology, engineering and math.
“I learned about a lot of projects and teamwork, and I learned how to program some stuff so it’s just really fun altogether,” Kamin said. This article is about the Lego-based board game franchise. For Lego-based video games, see List of Lego video games. Lego Games was a product range of the construction toy Lego, which focuses on a series of playable games of different types, all of which use Lego bricks, and use the Lego concept of building to encourage players to change and adapt the rules of the games. The Lego Games sets are board games created by designer Cephas Howard, with consultants Bernie DeKoven and Reiner Knizia, that incorporate Lego pieces as components for the game.[1] Most use original themes and settings, though a small number have been based on existing Lego themes, such as Harry Potter Hogwarts which is based on the Lego Harry Potter theme, and Ninjago: The Board Game, based on Ninjago. The Ramses characters represent a mini-theme within the Games line, comprising three of the sets so far: Ramses Pyramid, Orient Bazaar, and Ramses Return.
A more promoted subtheme is the Role-playing game based Heroica, with boards that can be connected to one another. All of the sets make use of the distinctive Lego Dice - a solid plastic, Lego-compatible iomji with soft rubber rimming on each edge to give the die a particularly strong bounce. Depending on the game, the die can be built with different Lego tiles on its faces which will affect gameplay in different ways. The age recommendations range from five and up to eight and up. The first Lego Games sets were released on July 2, 2009 in the United Kingdom. These ten sets varied in size from around 100 to 350 pieces.[2] Four of the sets - Lava Dragon, Pirate Code, Minotarus, and Creationary - were later released in the United States in March 2010. In March 2010 four new sets were released in the United Kingdom, ranging in size from around 90 pieces to 120. In the United States five of the original ten games were released in June 2010, with only Lunar Command not getting released.[2] This delay between European and American releases has repeated with each subsequent wave of new games.
As part of a promotion for the American release, a tour of 13 different parts of the United States was undertaken from July 2 to September 19, 2010. In July 2010 another four new sets were released in the United Kingdom. At around the same time, Shave a Sheep and Harry Potter Hogwarts were released in the United States, with the former game being renamed "Wild Wool," with Magma Monster and Orient Bazaar following in August and Atlantis Treasure in October. Christmas 2010 saw the distribution of the special set 2010: Happy Holidays - The Christmas Game, a gift to LEGO staff and partners. A further five sets are scheduled for general UK release in early 2011. ^ a b c dDeviant Robot Movie Meet - The Lego Batman Movie So it looks like Arrested Development is getting some sort of Lego-based reboot, with Will Arnett reprising his role as Batman and Michael Cera playing his trusty sidekick Robin. There are a bunch of other big name actors in here, and considering that 2014's Lego Movie did almost half a billion worldwide at the box office, we're expecting good things.