22 May 2012

A question of scale

Thursday was Ascension Day here, and it seems Germany celebrates it as "Men's Day", a replacement for Father's Day. Evan took part in a sport club event that involved teams of five challenging each other in what is best described as "human foosball", as you can see above. How meta is that? Scale down a sport, make it a game, then scale the game back up to make something new.

The next day we made our way to Legoland Deutschland in Günzburg. Before the park opened we were greeted with announcements addressed to "Children, parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles..." Well, Legoland, we felt a bit left out. I mean, I am an aunt, but my nephew was not there with me. Maybe you should add a few more possibilities, like "...fans, freaks, and engineers." Just a suggestion. Kind of like this Lego for Men approach.

Anyway. Legoland is a super awesome place to visit. Even if you have no interest in rides, the miniatures, decorations in general, and the shops, are all fantastic. Do note that by not going on rides you will miss out on some of the best models. Rides generally start with a meander through an area with a bit of a story to the whole thing, including lots of awesome Lego stuff, and only after that are you plunged down the track into the water, or propelled all over the place in loops. My favourite thing was when we did the dragon ride that went with a whole castle and wizard story. They had made crests from Lego to put on the walls! The best crest was in the tunnel at the beginning of the ride though: it was made of translucent Lego blocks and back-lit. Brilliant!

If regular roller coasters and other rides are too sissy for you, or too small and uncomfortable—as it may happen, try the Kuka ride. Kuka is an industrial robot manufacturer and if you crank their ride all the way up... well it made me scream loads. Especially when it spun us backwards. Wow.

Below is a load of pictures, mostly of the miniature models. They're apparently about 1:20. The characters are made from blocks presumably because using minifigs would make everything too small. The stadium is an exception, in this case the model would probably become impossibly large if it was also 1:20.

Here's a brief clip of life in the miniature zone. The actions are fairly basic, but very effectively handled. Many actions are triggered by buttons, conveniently placed at child-height. Sounds are also used very well to really make the ideas come to life. I'm sure Hamburg's Miniatur Wunderland will prove to be more impressive, but the Lego did pack a lot of charm and is quite astounding if you consider that these models have to live outside in all kinds of weather.

Fun Lego links recently received from friends: isogawastudio's LEGOstudio and bricksports.de.

UPDATE: Just seen on German TV, the creations of Steffen Tröger.

P.S. It's so interesting to see what it's like being a kid on an outing these days. If you're old enough not to drop a camera, you've got one in your hand and you're taking your own pictures of stuff you like. No more film, no more dad taking two pictures in one day. It's all you and what you want to do... even if you're only six. Lucky!

No comments:

Post a Comment