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You may not know who Ole Kirk Christensen was, but you see the effect he had on pop culture (and architecture) every time you find yourself in the toy aisle at Target. Christensen was the original inventor of LEGOs (excuse me, "LEGO bricks"), so in honor of his birthday this week, here are 10 crazy things made out of the tiny building blocks.
1. A car.
I guess if you can't afford the real thing, you can start hoarding LEGOs from your friends and family and construct one out of blocks. OK, maybe not "“ this one was made by professionals. It's a full-sized Volvo XC90 created by Lego Model Master Builders. The LEGO SUV found a home at Legoland California. The collaboration between the two companies was to show Volvo's commitment to families and safety. And coolness, I'd say, by the looks of that car.
2. Obama's inauguration.
Not only did the artists make sure the inauguration looked great from afar, they made LEGO people to resemble the President and his family, Joe Biden and his family, George and Laura Bush, and Justice John Roberts. The
was on display at Legoland in Carlsbad, California, in 2009.
3. A harpsichord"¦ that actually plays music. It has a range of 61 notes, far less than a real harpsichord, but considering that it's all LEGO, that's pretty impressive!
4. Han Solo in carbonite
"¦ err"¦ LEGOite?
Star Wars
plus LEGOs = a lot of people geeking out right now, I am sure. I'm not even a big
Star Wars
fan and I think this is pretty cool. More LEGO Star Wars stuff
,
and
.
5. King Tut. Our friends over at Neatorama covered this one last year. The 16-foot pharaoh took more than 200,000 bricks to build and was the centerpiece of a Legoland exhibition called Kingdom of the Pharaohs. I imagine seeing this guy floating down the River Thames would cause you to do a double take.
6. Bluetooth Printer. This one is a LEGO Mindstorms creation that can really print. Not too shabby, huh? Much better than the square houses I continually built with my LEGOs and Duplos. Here it is in action:
7. Stephen Colbert.
Artist Nathan Sawaya works with an awesome medium "“ LEGOs, of course. Colbert is just one of the many awesome things he has made from what we typically think of as a children's toy. That's Nathan in the picture with LEGO Stephen; you can check out his
.
8. Soccer Stadium.
Your eyes aren't deceiving you "“ that's all LEGO bricks and people. Stadiums are a pretty popular subject for LEGO art - here's
,
and the
. The Allianz Arena alone took about 1.3 million bricks to construct.
The original piece of art is mind-boggling enough; LEGO artist
s piece is equally amazing and perplexing.
10. Jesus.
Of course there's a LEGO Jesus; how could there not be? This guy stands nearly six feet tall and was unveiled by a Swedish church just in time for the Easter season last year. Parishoners donated around 30,000 LEGO bricks to complete the statue.
Did you grow up on LEGOs? What was your best creation? I wasn't a die-hard fan, but my cousin Dustin was - he would build these elaborate scenes and display them prominently in his room. I swear he could tell if I had even breathed on one of them.