10 of the Geekiest LEGO Creations EVER!

http://youtu.be/B4KZ5yDiJ74
LEGOS!!!! Oh. No. LEGO!!!! LEGO is plural, did you know that? ANYWAY…

Did you know that every person on the Planet Earth owns 86 LEGO bricks?? I mean, not EVERYONE owns a lego brick. But if you were to average it out, you would own 86. And so would your neighbor. And your mother. And brother. There are 7.1 billion people on planet Earth. That means there are 610 BILLION LEGOS out there. If you don’t count the ones that are in the landfill. Or got swallowed by a kid. Or run over by a truck. But regardless, that’s a lotta LEGOS!

Ugh! But wait. LEGO is both singular AND plural. In fact, 98.3% of the people on planet Earth say it incorrectly by adding an “S” to LEGO.

LEGO actually comes from two Danish words, LEG and GODT, which together means “play well”. In 1932, they took the LE from LEG and the GO from GODT. And now you have your history lesson. Thanks Paul Dixon!

Now that school is dismissed, let’s geek out with the 10 best LEGO creations of all time!

LEGO Keyboard

First… the LEGO keyboard. It’s almost entirely made out of LEGO bricks. Jason Alleman began the project back in 2005 and finally had what he needed to finish it this year. He had to find a frame that could accommodate the bricks AND have them be spaced out appropriately so the keys were easy to use. He used a grid made up of Technic connectors and axles to accomplish the task. And it seems he can type just as efficiently and smoothly as with any other keyboard!

LEGO Doom Playset

If a keyboard isn’t good enough, Ian “Ochre Jelly” Heath went all out with a LEGO Doom playset. It has multiple levels. Blood splatter. Missile trails. Floating heads. How could you go wrong!?

LEGO Han Solo’s Blaster

Baron von Brunk thought creating a Star Wars blaster would be more fun and… well, I have to agree. He wanted to make it for Star Wars Day this year and succeeded. It’s complete with an Arduino, noises, and flashing LEDs. It OF COURSE has a working trigger. When you push it, it sends a signal to the Arduino, which will turn on the LEDs, PLUS sound off the blaster noises. And it only needs a 9 volt battery.

Working LEGO Particle Accelerator

Feeling the need for a particle accelerator? Me too! And so was Jason Alleman. He’s been a busy man! It will drop a LEGO soccer ball… or a “particle” into the system and a bunch of small spinning LEGO wheels will push the ball along around the ring using a LEGO Power Functions M Motor. It’ll speed up and act like an awesome particle accelerator, up to 440 studs per second. Maybe not as awesome as the Large Hadron Collider, but it’s made out of LEGO! That in and of itself… AWESOME!

LEGO Braille Printer

Using a LEGO Mindstorms kit and a few pieces of hardware, seventh grader Subham Banerjee took it upon himself to create a LEGO braille printer for his science fair project. It costs about $350 and is called the Braigo. It scrolls through the letters of the alphabet… the user chooses the letter they want and it’ll print it out in Braille. It’s not the fastest machine in the world, but when you consider the price, and the fact that other options cost more than $2,000, it could just be worth it. And HEY! It’s made out of LEGO bricks!

Working LEGO Microscope

The scientist in you will appreciate this microscope made out of LEGO… and it works! Carl Merriam used a planetary gear system for fine and coarse adjustment of the objective lens. It has adjustable knobs, lights and magnification. If you like the idea, you could support him on the LEGO Ideas website, where if he gets 10,000 votes, he’ll get support FROM Lego!

LEGO Robotic Arm

You may remember me showing this to you earlier this year… the LEGO robotic arm! Diavo Voltaggio made the Mark 6 out of a Mindstorms kit. There are four buttons that are connected to their own motors. Each motor controls a finger. Press a button. Flex a finger. It may not take you down just yet, but it can shake your hand!

CUBESTORMER 3 Rubik’s Cube-Solving Robot

Oooh… and you can’t forget about the Rubik’s Cube robotic LEGO’ified Cubestormer 3. It uses a Samsung Galaxy S4 for a brain with a Exynos Octa-core processor. On top of THAT, there are four Cortex A15 and four Cortex A7 processors dedicated to the eight Lego Mindstorms actuators! The world record for a human to solve the Rubik’s Cube is 5.55 seconds last year. The Cubestormer 3 took only 3.253 seconds. Whew!

LEGO Pinball Machine

I love, love, LOVE the LEGO pinball machine! A LEGO NXT. Some Littlebits. An Arduino. And voila! Philip Verbeek has a working pinball machine called the Great Ball Contraption! It took more than 4,000 LEGO bricks, 6 servos, five motors, an MP3 player, lights, buzzers, speakers and displays! God, I want one of these!!!

LEGO Simpsons Springfield

And last… but not least. Simpsons made out of LEGO bricks. Not just the characters, though. NO way! That’d be too easy. Matt De Lanoy recreated the whole town of Springfield! It only took him about 3 months. I’m guessing he didn’t have a job. And he doesn’t even have a count on HOW many LEGO bricks it took him. Or how much money it cost. Sometimes… ignorance is bliss!

What LEGO creations have you seen that wow you? Or do you just think people have way too much time on their hands? Either way, let me know. Leave a comment below!

Remember, we’ll be livestreaming at the AT&T Hackathon on January 4th, then from CES the 6th through the 9th. TONS of awesome coverage coming your way! Keep your browser opened to http://geekbeat.wpengine.com/live.