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Space.

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Humankind has been gazing
into its infinite vastness for millennia.

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Here we are pushing the boundaries
of our knowledge,

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venturing out into...

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What? What are LEGO minifigures
doing out here?

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What the heck are toys
doing in outer space?

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00:01:04,939 --> 00:01:07,566
To answer that,
first we have to start our story

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back on good old planet Earth.

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Here in the U.S.'s Pacific Northwest,

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a boy named Thorin makes last-minute
preparations on his battle scene.

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In the Netherlands,
Rosa is building a car in her living room.

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In Shanghai, China, Yuhang celebrates
his birthday with a new LEGO set.

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And in Denver, Colorado,

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Eben, like so many around the world,

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is sprawled on his living room floor
playing with LEGO bricks.

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This is what we expect, right?

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After all, around half a billion people
grew up with LEGO bricks.

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There are over 100 LEGO pieces
for every person on the planet.

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But this story... but...
Can you hear me out there?

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There. That's better.

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What? What's wrong?

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Why are you looking
at me like that? Oh, oh.

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There. How's that?

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Now, I know. I know.

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You recognize me, right?

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Featureless yet functional hands.

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Interchangeable hair.

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Perfect golden, uh, tan, I guess?

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But this story's not about me.
Well, not entirely.

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This story is about
a simple toy that became,

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well, more than a toy.

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And how its unique properties
ushered in a new era of creativity,

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not just for kids,
but for a whole generation.

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This is about more than the brick.

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This is beyond the--
No, hang on a second.

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Beyond the brick!
A LEGO Brickumentary!

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Ooh, look at that. That's awesome.

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At the annual Toy Fair in New York City,

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the world's toy manufacturers
gather to show off

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what they hope will be
big products for kids.

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LEGO is, let's face it,

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undoubtedly the greatest
success story of the toy industry.

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They have become
the number two toy company

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with simply one category of toy,
and that's construction.

45
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And that's up against giants
like Mattel and Hasbro.

46
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Mattel has Hot Wheels.
They have Barbie.

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Hasbro has GI Joe.
And they've got other lines.

48
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And LEGO just has LEGO.

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When other toy companies look at LEGO,
they look at them as a powerhouse.

50
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When you look
at a four billion dollar brand

51
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and that's going to continue
to grow this year,

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it's amazing
what they've done.

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It's become a monster brand
of the toy business.

54
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So how did the LEGO company
become so huge?

55
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I can explain that, but I think I better
park this thing first.

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Recognize this baby?

57
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Yeah, good old number 497.

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Galaxy Explorer.

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It had these cool yellow-tinted windows,

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all these 2x2 computer bricks,

61
00:04:01,824 --> 00:04:04,284
and, uh, these things.

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It's just a small part
of the LEGO brand's fascinating history.

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Let's take a moment
for a little primer on how the toy began.

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Oh, no, wait a second.

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There we go. Much better.

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Many people know Denmark as the home
ofready-to-assemble furniture.

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Sadly, those people are wrong
because that's Sweden.

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Denmark is home
to Hans Christian Andersen,

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delicious pastries,

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and the birthplace of,
you guessed it, LEGO bricks.

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Back in 1916, a Danish man
by the name of Ole Kirk Christiansen

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lived in the quaint little town
of Billund, Denmark.

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A carpenter by trade, he started a small
wood shop which burned to the ground.

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Not a great start, but Ole would not
be dissuaded, so he built another one.

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In the new factory,
he was inspired to build toys.

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By the 1930s, Ole was known
for his pull toys made from birch wood.

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Trucks, trains, and of course ducks.

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It was around this time that Ole
came up with the name LEGO.

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It comes from the Danish phrase
leg godt, meaning "play well."

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Then the factory burned down again.

81
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But with Ole's perseverance,
it was rebuilt again,

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this time mostly
for making wooden toys,

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until a fateful day in 1947,
when Ole was visiting a toy fair.

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He came across a new contraption,
a plastic molding machine.

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Ole brought the first one
back to Denmark,

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though not everyone was impressed.

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At first, Ole used
his hand-powered molding machine

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to make simple plastic toys.

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But then his son Godtfred
had a brilliant idea.

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I remember my father, for him,
the system was very, very important,

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to turn the bricks
into a system of play.

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The brick in itself is, of course,
a simple structure.

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But with the number of bricks,
you have endless possibilities.

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The idea stuck,
and the LEGO system of play was born

95
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and continues to this day.

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In fact, bricks made in 1955
still work with bricks you can buy today.

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The bricks were great for stacking,
but still had room for improvement.

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00:06:01,527 --> 00:06:04,446
The Christiansen solution
was clutch power.

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00:06:04,530 --> 00:06:05,947
What is clutch power?

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Clutch power is the result
of the patented studs and tubes design

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00:06:09,035 --> 00:06:10,535
that holds the bricks together.

102
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And allows them to...

103
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...whew...

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come apart.

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Then in 1960,
the factory burned down again.

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Yeesh. What are they building
these factories out of, anyway?

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But Ole went back to work,
and despite those pesky fires,

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his company continued to grow.

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This magic formula
of an ever-expanding system

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with its locking bricks made LEGO toys

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something that appealed
to kids everywhere.

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What started as a Danish endeavor
became a global phenomenon.

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Helping with this expansion
of the company

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was oldest grandson Kjeld,
who you met before.

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You might recognize him
from some of the earliest boxes.

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Cute kid.

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Personally, I feel Kjeld's
greatest contribution to LEGO history

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was his role in the development
of LEGO minifigures, or minifigs.

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Hey, guys, still no arms, huh?

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They obviously improved
on that design over the years.

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But what really catapulted the company
into greater success

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were the new theme sets,
like Castle and Space.

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And later, licensed themes
like Star Wars.

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Hey! And Harry Potter.

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Whoa, whoa.

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Whoa! Yikes!

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Today the LEGO company makes
more than 100, 000 pieces a minute,

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and has become one of the biggest
toy companies in the world.

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But not without first experiencing
some serious challenges

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in having to redefine itself
along the way.

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But we'll get into that later.

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And just think, all this from a humble
carpenter in Billund, Denmark.

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Ooh, sorry.

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No clutch power, I guess.

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Billund is still the heart
of the LEGO company,

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and LEGO minifigures
are still made here.

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Handsome little devils,
aren't they?

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Okay, that shot kinda freaks me out.

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Billund is also home
to the LEGO design team.

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Here, inside the design room,
the LEGO sets of tomorrow

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are being dreamed up
today by designers.

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Everybody I meet says

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that I have one
of the coolest jobs in the world.

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It's fantastic to be able
to create with these bricks.

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We have our desks full
of LEGO all the time.

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It's like being a child
for the rest of my life.

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For many, the only limitation of building
with LEGO bricks is your imagination.

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00:08:20,917 --> 00:08:22,918
But for the designers
at the LEGO company,

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it's a much more regimented process.

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We're always working within
a system based on

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these LEGO bricks here.

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There's not an infinite
amount of possibility.

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The constraints becomes
the challenge, if you will.

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Then it's those constraints
that are interesting

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to find how do we make it work.

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You have to think about
how kids play with LEGO,

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which is something that
we always have in our minds.

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If you're five years old,
it's a lot harder to build

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with smaller bricks than it is
for an eight-year-old.

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At the core of the design process
is one guiding principal.

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The design process really starts
with an idea of a story in a universe.

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We really take a starting point
in who these characters are,

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00:09:02,124 --> 00:09:05,168
where they're living,
what they're doing.

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00:09:05,253 --> 00:09:07,671
Story provides context
for what you're doing.

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00:09:07,755 --> 00:09:11,508
It gives you
and kids especially a meaning.

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It sort of helps to unlock
their imagination in new ways.

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We were just trying to put together
color combinations we haven't done before.

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00:09:18,891 --> 00:09:22,352
Jamie Berard is one
of the company's design stars.

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He's the creative lead
for the expert building series.

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Today he's showing his boss
his new Parisian cafe model

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which will be revealed
to the public soon.

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What I really hope to highlight
at BrickCon is the storytelling.

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For example,
the gentleman on the balcony

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has actually got
a little bit of a surprise,

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and he's got this ring in his hand.

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That will help him hopefully
marry his girlfriend.

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The job, it's amazing.

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I don't want to oversell it
that, you know,

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00:09:48,462 --> 00:09:52,173
there's rivers of chocolate milk
and massages on Tuesdays.

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You know, it's a job.
But it's an amazing job.

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You almost wonder, like,
how long can this last?

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Is this for real?

183
00:10:04,061 --> 00:10:07,397
Another coveted job at the LEGO company
is that of master builder.

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00:10:07,481 --> 00:10:11,026
Like the designers,
master builders are, well,

185
00:10:11,110 --> 00:10:13,528
masters at building with LEGO bricks.

186
00:10:13,613 --> 00:10:15,614
But they get to think outside the box.

187
00:10:19,118 --> 00:10:22,829
So as a master builder, we get to do
everything it takes to make our models,

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00:10:22,913 --> 00:10:25,206
we design models,
we do a pretty good mixture.

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00:10:25,291 --> 00:10:27,125
We do everything
from little tiny models,

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00:10:27,209 --> 00:10:29,336
all the way up to human beings.

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00:10:29,420 --> 00:10:30,670
It's always going to be different.

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Every model poses its own challenge.

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00:10:32,715 --> 00:10:34,341
Sometimes it's
the sheer size of the models.

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00:10:34,425 --> 00:10:35,675
Ultimately, at the end of the day,

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00:10:35,760 --> 00:10:38,178
it's really just pushing the bounds
of what you can do with LEGO,

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00:10:38,262 --> 00:10:41,431
being creative and being artistic
and all these amazing things.

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00:10:43,267 --> 00:10:46,102
Today, the master builders
are working on a huge project

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00:10:46,187 --> 00:10:47,771
that'll be seen all over the world:

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00:10:47,855 --> 00:10:49,481
the setting for The LEGO Movie.

200
00:10:50,858 --> 00:10:53,902
The nicest thing about
working for LEGO is that

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00:10:53,986 --> 00:10:56,905
we have all of the pieces we need.

202
00:10:56,989 --> 00:11:01,785
It's something that most
people would just dream of.

203
00:11:01,869 --> 00:11:06,581
For this particular city,
I got to sit down and

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00:11:06,666 --> 00:11:09,084
order whatever I wanted.

205
00:11:09,168 --> 00:11:11,670
As far as the plot of the movie,

206
00:11:11,754 --> 00:11:14,923
I really don't know a lot about it.

207
00:11:15,007 --> 00:11:18,802
Um, there's a lot more than just this
that's going to be in this movie,

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00:11:18,886 --> 00:11:21,596
that we're all working on
at the same time.

209
00:11:21,681 --> 00:11:24,933
And it's a monumental undertaking.

210
00:11:28,187 --> 00:11:29,938
Weeks later, their LEGO city arrives

211
00:11:30,022 --> 00:11:33,983
and is reassembled by Paul's team
on a soundstage in Los Angeles.

212
00:11:34,068 --> 00:11:36,403
It serves as the setting
for the live action sequences

213
00:11:36,487 --> 00:11:38,363
in Will Ferrell's basement.

214
00:11:38,447 --> 00:11:39,656
Okay, clearing guys, please.

215
00:11:39,740 --> 00:11:40,782
Action.

216
00:11:42,993 --> 00:11:45,161
Yeah, it's been kind
of crazy, we've had, uh,

217
00:11:45,246 --> 00:11:46,996
we're shooting for five days
of live action

218
00:11:47,081 --> 00:11:48,998
and the movie's
mostly animated.

219
00:11:49,083 --> 00:11:52,210
And we've built this ridiculous
LEGO model back there.

220
00:11:52,294 --> 00:11:53,336
We built it ourselves.

221
00:11:53,421 --> 00:11:56,172
Personally,
with our bare hands.

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00:11:56,257 --> 00:11:59,759
Actually, we had a team
of super master builders.

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00:11:59,844 --> 00:12:01,469
And it turned out pretty awesome.

224
00:12:01,554 --> 00:12:03,888
It's pretty ridiculous.

225
00:12:03,973 --> 00:12:05,849
These guys have been
working on it in Connecticut

226
00:12:05,933 --> 00:12:07,100
for, like, three months.

227
00:12:07,184 --> 00:12:09,018
And then, of course,
the first thing we do is go,

228
00:12:09,103 --> 00:12:11,271
okay, we're going to smash all of this.

229
00:12:11,355 --> 00:12:14,899
So there's a city,
there's sort of a castle world

230
00:12:14,984 --> 00:12:16,693
that we're calling Middle Zealand.

231
00:12:16,777 --> 00:12:18,695
There's a pirate ship.

232
00:12:18,779 --> 00:12:22,282
Some classic space stuff from '79.

233
00:12:22,366 --> 00:12:25,535
We heard we would get
some free LEGOs.

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00:12:25,619 --> 00:12:30,123
Yeah! I'm literally doing this
for one classic space ship.

235
00:12:30,207 --> 00:12:31,916
Hey, Phil, have your
people call my people,

236
00:12:32,001 --> 00:12:34,753
we'll hook you up.
Maybe we can do lunch?

237
00:12:34,837 --> 00:12:37,672
So, this movie set
is pretty impressive.

238
00:12:37,757 --> 00:12:39,716
But the master builders
in the Czech Republic

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00:12:39,800 --> 00:12:41,634
are working on even bigger things.

240
00:12:50,019 --> 00:12:51,853
In Kladno, we produce big models

241
00:12:51,937 --> 00:12:55,106
for LEGOLAND parks and for LEGO markets.

242
00:12:55,858 --> 00:12:58,443
There's a lot of different stuff
we can do.

243
00:12:59,528 --> 00:13:03,531
What people don't know
is we have computer programs

244
00:13:03,616 --> 00:13:05,950
where model builders see the layers.

245
00:13:06,035 --> 00:13:08,453
There is not visible every single brick.

246
00:13:08,537 --> 00:13:10,955
There is steel construction inside.

247
00:13:13,584 --> 00:13:17,295
We are looking forward
to the biggest project we've ever built.

248
00:13:17,379 --> 00:13:20,089
It's secret.
Nobody should know about the project.

249
00:13:21,091 --> 00:13:22,801
So there, this is the interface.

250
00:13:22,885 --> 00:13:24,969
Working with Jaromir on the secret build

251
00:13:25,054 --> 00:13:27,597
is American project manager Dale Chasse.

252
00:13:27,681 --> 00:13:31,976
Okay, so we'll convert all this stuff
from millimeters to inches.

253
00:13:32,061 --> 00:13:35,230
I have the most interesting project
on my plate right now,

254
00:13:35,314 --> 00:13:38,608
than I've had in the whole 21 years
that I've been with the LEGO company.

255
00:13:38,692 --> 00:13:43,363
We're secretly designing and building
an X-Wing fighter, life size.

256
00:13:45,950 --> 00:13:47,575
But what's really cool
about this project is

257
00:13:47,660 --> 00:13:50,411
we're copying one of our sets
that you can actually buy in store.

258
00:13:50,496 --> 00:13:53,748
It's actually the item number, 9493.

259
00:13:53,833 --> 00:13:56,793
And you can build this set at home.

260
00:13:56,877 --> 00:14:00,463
But what we've done is
we've built it 42 times bigger than this.

261
00:14:00,548 --> 00:14:04,342
This is going to be the biggest
LEGO model ever built.

262
00:14:04,844 --> 00:14:07,720
Even we can't believe
this will be a reality.

263
00:14:08,514 --> 00:14:10,056
We have a big team here.

264
00:14:10,140 --> 00:14:12,642
There is a designer,
there is technical developer,

265
00:14:12,726 --> 00:14:16,145
and there is team of model builders
and mechanics.

266
00:14:17,940 --> 00:14:20,400
The beginning of our process is design.

267
00:14:20,484 --> 00:14:22,110
Then in technical development,

268
00:14:22,194 --> 00:14:24,904
it's about designing
internal steel construction.

269
00:14:24,989 --> 00:14:27,615
We have a lot of challenges
in front of us.

270
00:14:27,700 --> 00:14:31,160
We don't have much time
for every single step.

271
00:14:31,245 --> 00:14:33,454
There will be eight tons of bricks used.

272
00:14:33,539 --> 00:14:37,709
So they have to produce the bricks for us
for a couple weeks in Billund.

273
00:14:37,793 --> 00:14:40,128
It's crazy.

274
00:15:23,172 --> 00:15:27,008
The X-Wing is 44 feet
from wing tip to wing tip.

275
00:15:27,092 --> 00:15:29,969
It's 45 feet from bow to stern.

276
00:15:30,054 --> 00:15:32,013
It's 11 feet tall.

277
00:15:32,097 --> 00:15:35,058
It weighs 44,000 pounds.

278
00:15:35,142 --> 00:15:37,226
And took 17,000 hours to build.

279
00:15:39,355 --> 00:15:42,649
Finally, the X-Wing model is
ready to cross the Atlantic,

280
00:15:42,733 --> 00:15:44,651
where its adventure will continue.

281
00:15:44,735 --> 00:15:46,986
But we'll get back to that later.

282
00:15:51,200 --> 00:15:54,243
? I'm gonna pick up the pieces ?

283
00:15:54,328 --> 00:15:57,246
? And build a LEGO house ?

284
00:15:57,331 --> 00:16:01,376
? If things go wrong
we can knock it down ?

285
00:16:01,460 --> 00:16:04,045
LEGO was definitely part
of my childhood, it was, uh...

286
00:16:04,129 --> 00:16:06,714
Me and my brother had a big box
filled with everything,

287
00:16:06,799 --> 00:16:08,466
um, just passed down
from my parents.

288
00:16:08,550 --> 00:16:10,426
But it was more of the blocks
rather than the sets.

289
00:16:10,511 --> 00:16:13,012
And any time we'd get a set,
it would be like one of the small ones.

290
00:16:13,097 --> 00:16:14,681
And you'd always look at the big kits

291
00:16:14,765 --> 00:16:16,557
in the shops and be like,
"Oh, I want that."

292
00:16:16,642 --> 00:16:19,018
And as soon as
I came into money, I was like,

293
00:16:19,103 --> 00:16:22,313
"What should I buy?
House? Nah. Car? Nah. LEGO."

294
00:16:22,398 --> 00:16:26,359
My album went gold in a week,
and I wanted a way to celebrate.

295
00:16:26,443 --> 00:16:29,278
The first thing that I bought
was the Death Star.

296
00:16:29,363 --> 00:16:33,157
The main thing that it does is it,
it brings out a bit of your childhood.

297
00:16:33,242 --> 00:16:35,118
Which is important
not to forget as well.

298
00:16:35,202 --> 00:16:38,413
You know, it's good not
to take life too seriously.

299
00:16:38,497 --> 00:16:41,374
Growing up, LEGOs
was more like this to me.

300
00:16:41,458 --> 00:16:44,252
It was more, you know,
the bin of chaos.

301
00:16:44,336 --> 00:16:46,754
I was like, "Oh, no, who would--
why would you get LEGOs

302
00:16:46,839 --> 00:16:48,673
to be told how
to put them together?"

303
00:16:48,757 --> 00:16:50,883
Like, I always thought
it was a very creative thing.

304
00:16:51,051 --> 00:16:53,761
And then I, I think
I rediscovered LEGOs

305
00:16:53,846 --> 00:16:56,055
right around the second
or third season of South Park.

306
00:16:56,974 --> 00:16:59,058
People would walk in while
chaos was going on,

307
00:16:59,143 --> 00:17:01,102
and I'd just be putting
together these things.

308
00:17:01,186 --> 00:17:04,605
And I think that having that
instruction book that said,

309
00:17:04,690 --> 00:17:07,191
this one on top of that one.
And this one on that one.

310
00:17:07,276 --> 00:17:09,610
It was just so therapeutic for me

311
00:17:09,695 --> 00:17:12,739
because the rest of my life was,
think of something, think of something.

312
00:17:12,823 --> 00:17:14,657
You know, be creative,
be creative, be creative.

313
00:17:14,742 --> 00:17:18,578
And I found it so
insanely therapeutic.

314
00:17:23,751 --> 00:17:25,626
...goes to the basket!

315
00:17:26,378 --> 00:17:29,047
I've actually been on the road
to a lot of different games.

316
00:17:29,131 --> 00:17:33,259
And the fans are like,
"Man, I love LEGOs just like you, man."

317
00:17:36,597 --> 00:17:38,598
I have at least 30 boxes

318
00:17:38,682 --> 00:17:41,309
that are waiting at home
for me to start working on.

319
00:17:41,393 --> 00:17:43,686
The biggest piece that I have
is actually the piece

320
00:17:43,771 --> 00:17:45,897
that was given to me
by Ellen DeGeneres.

321
00:17:45,981 --> 00:17:48,691
We told our friends at LEGOs
that you love LEGOs.

322
00:17:48,776 --> 00:17:50,693
- Mm-hmm.
- So we got you something.

323
00:17:58,410 --> 00:17:59,786
Wait a second.

324
00:17:59,870 --> 00:18:03,498
Did any of those guys
look like kids to you?

325
00:18:03,582 --> 00:18:06,667
It seems like LEGO fans
come in many forms.

326
00:18:06,752 --> 00:18:08,669
Let's go meet some of these, um,

327
00:18:08,754 --> 00:18:11,214
well, I'm not sure what you call them.

328
00:18:11,298 --> 00:18:13,216
Let's go find out.

329
00:18:13,300 --> 00:18:16,177
Hey! Can somebody just
throw my hair back up here?

330
00:18:18,180 --> 00:18:20,431
Here at BrickCon in Seattle,
you can see part

331
00:18:20,516 --> 00:18:23,059
of the huge community
that's building with LEGO bricks.

332
00:18:23,143 --> 00:18:25,394
BrickCon is one of North America's
top LEGO conventions,

333
00:18:25,479 --> 00:18:27,605
along with Chicago's BrickWorld
and Virginia's BrickFair.

334
00:18:30,317 --> 00:18:31,818
And there are similar fan events

335
00:18:31,902 --> 00:18:34,278
throughout Europe, Asia,
and around the globe.

336
00:18:35,989 --> 00:18:37,824
Spending a little time
at one of these conventions

337
00:18:37,908 --> 00:18:40,827
gives you an idea of the vastness
of the LEGO universe.

338
00:18:43,872 --> 00:18:45,498
There are those that use LEGO,

339
00:18:45,582 --> 00:18:48,376
and there is an adult fan community.

340
00:18:48,460 --> 00:18:51,796
We all refer to ourselves
as AFOLs, absolutely.

341
00:18:51,880 --> 00:18:53,631
An Adult Fan Of LEGO.

342
00:18:53,715 --> 00:18:55,883
Which is basically,
the reason we're all here.

343
00:18:55,968 --> 00:18:59,554
To me, being one
is just enjoying everything

344
00:18:59,638 --> 00:19:01,180
about what LEGO's about.

345
00:19:02,391 --> 00:19:04,642
You know the Comic Book Guy
from The Simpsons?

346
00:19:04,726 --> 00:19:07,228
That's I think what people
think an AFOL is.

347
00:19:07,312 --> 00:19:09,730
Just a big guy living
in his parents' basement.

348
00:19:09,815 --> 00:19:13,192
Just kinda tapping
at the computer all day long.

349
00:19:13,277 --> 00:19:15,611
Well, if that's
not an AFOL, what is?

350
00:19:15,696 --> 00:19:19,824
Blue collar, white collar.
Programmers, construction guys.

351
00:19:19,908 --> 00:19:21,659
Schoolteachers. Executives.

352
00:19:21,743 --> 00:19:23,661
People working
in science and industry.

353
00:19:23,745 --> 00:19:27,165
Geeks, strangers, weirdoes.
People like me.

354
00:19:27,249 --> 00:19:29,709
I am totally a geek.

355
00:19:29,793 --> 00:19:31,752
For me, this is the class reunion

356
00:19:31,837 --> 00:19:34,463
with all your best friends,
once a year.

357
00:19:34,548 --> 00:19:36,340
AFOLs are definitely a community.
Very much so.

358
00:19:36,425 --> 00:19:38,843
And thank you, Internet,
for making that happen.

359
00:19:38,927 --> 00:19:42,972
It was a kind of a light bulb,
when I go on the Internet, and I'm like,

360
00:19:43,056 --> 00:19:45,558
"Wow, there's other people
that like doing this."

361
00:19:47,853 --> 00:19:50,396
The LEGO community
does have its own language,

362
00:19:50,480 --> 00:19:52,940
and it's defined
by the acronyms that it uses.

363
00:19:53,025 --> 00:19:54,984
An AFOL is an Adult Fan Of LEGO.

364
00:19:55,068 --> 00:19:58,404
As opposed to KFOL,
which is Kid Fan Of LEGO.

365
00:19:58,488 --> 00:20:01,240
TFOL, which is Teen Fans Of LEGOs.

366
00:20:01,325 --> 00:20:03,534
Some people use the term NLSO,

367
00:20:03,619 --> 00:20:06,204
which stands for
Non LEGO Significant Other.

368
00:20:06,288 --> 00:20:08,915
MOC. Which means
My Own Creation.

369
00:20:08,999 --> 00:20:10,917
A LUG is a LEGO Users' Group.

370
00:20:11,001 --> 00:20:13,294
LTC. LEGO Train Club.

371
00:20:13,378 --> 00:20:15,338
GBC. Great Ball Contraption.

372
00:20:15,422 --> 00:20:17,757
SNOT would be Studs Not On Top.

373
00:20:17,841 --> 00:20:20,509
There's POOP. Parts Out of Other Parts.

374
00:20:20,594 --> 00:20:22,595
CRAPP is a Crummy Ramp And Pit Plate.

375
00:20:22,679 --> 00:20:25,598
BURP. Big Ugly Rock Piece.

376
00:20:25,682 --> 00:20:27,183
And the infamous LURP.

377
00:20:27,267 --> 00:20:29,227
The Little Ugly Rock Piece.

378
00:20:32,773 --> 00:20:34,565
They even have their own currency.

379
00:20:34,650 --> 00:20:36,275
It's a black, 1 x2 brick.

380
00:20:36,360 --> 00:20:38,778
You can buy these
for three, four cents apiece.

381
00:20:38,862 --> 00:20:40,446
But this piece produced in white,

382
00:20:40,530 --> 00:20:43,199
the last time they made it
was the mid '80s.

383
00:20:43,283 --> 00:20:45,660
Just like a stock market would be,
supply and demand.

384
00:20:45,744 --> 00:20:49,330
And you wanna go buy it,
you're gonna spend $4 or $5 for it.

385
00:20:49,414 --> 00:20:52,792
So what does the LEGO company
make of all of this?

386
00:20:52,876 --> 00:20:54,502
We were kind of shocked.

387
00:20:54,586 --> 00:20:57,296
This is all based
on what they want to do.

388
00:20:57,381 --> 00:20:59,423
It's things they want to make.

389
00:20:59,508 --> 00:21:01,884
It's events they want to organize.

390
00:21:01,969 --> 00:21:03,803
We hadn't planned that.

391
00:21:03,887 --> 00:21:05,680
It's out of our control.

392
00:21:24,199 --> 00:21:25,241
Done!

393
00:21:26,451 --> 00:21:28,286
Two, one, start.

394
00:21:34,251 --> 00:21:35,668
There it is. I found it.

395
00:21:35,752 --> 00:21:38,004
- No, no. That's not it.
- No, it's definitely it.

396
00:21:39,256 --> 00:21:43,384
A familiar face at many conventions
is LEGO Designer Jamie Berard.

397
00:21:43,468 --> 00:21:44,969
Remember him?

398
00:21:45,053 --> 00:21:46,971
Jamie's LEGO career started as an AFOL.

399
00:21:47,973 --> 00:21:49,348
I was just at a toy store,

400
00:21:49,433 --> 00:21:51,851
and I see all these adults
in the LEGO aisle.

401
00:21:51,935 --> 00:21:53,602
And I'm thinking,
this is a bit odd.

402
00:21:53,687 --> 00:21:56,063
'Cause I'm used to normally
waiting until the kids leave

403
00:21:56,148 --> 00:21:57,898
and then I can come over
and take a quick peek

404
00:21:57,983 --> 00:21:59,608
and pretend
I'm shopping for someone.

405
00:21:59,693 --> 00:22:03,237
These guys are hanging out talking,
and they're showing off the sets,

406
00:22:03,322 --> 00:22:05,239
and they're buying five copies of a set.

407
00:22:05,324 --> 00:22:07,283
And I'm like, I do that!

408
00:22:07,367 --> 00:22:08,826
What do you...
Who are you guys?

409
00:22:08,910 --> 00:22:11,787
And they said, "Yeah, we have a club.
Would you like to join?"

410
00:22:11,872 --> 00:22:13,998
And so it was actually this
really cool moment where I...

411
00:22:14,082 --> 00:22:17,543
I didn't even know it was there
and then it kind of found me.

412
00:22:17,627 --> 00:22:19,879
Jamie's life changed when
Kjeld Kristiansen

413
00:22:19,963 --> 00:22:23,632
and other LEGO executives
visited a convention and saw his work.

414
00:22:25,594 --> 00:22:27,887
All these LEGO people that
I never imagined I'd ever meet

415
00:22:27,971 --> 00:22:29,722
were all in one place at one time,

416
00:22:29,806 --> 00:22:31,140
and saw all the stuff I was building

417
00:22:31,224 --> 00:22:32,767
and started having
a conversation with me,

418
00:22:32,851 --> 00:22:34,268
asking curious questions like,

419
00:22:34,353 --> 00:22:36,145
"Have you ever thought
of working overseas?"

420
00:22:36,229 --> 00:22:37,938
And then he hands me
his business card

421
00:22:38,023 --> 00:22:39,857
and says,
"I'd like to continue this conversation

422
00:22:39,941 --> 00:22:41,317
when I get back to Denmark."

423
00:22:41,401 --> 00:22:45,488
And then... he did, and I got
an internship, and then I got the job.

424
00:22:46,573 --> 00:22:48,616
I think it's awesome
when I go to the LEGO events

425
00:22:48,700 --> 00:22:51,077
because, in many ways,
some things haven't changed at all.

426
00:22:51,161 --> 00:22:52,703
I still have that curiosity.

427
00:22:52,788 --> 00:22:54,580
I just can't wait to see
what everybody's built,

428
00:22:54,664 --> 00:22:56,665
to see the old faces,
people that I've hung out with.

429
00:22:56,750 --> 00:22:59,627
It's just fun. People seem
genuinely happy to see me.

430
00:22:59,711 --> 00:23:02,922
And I love the fact that I still feel
like I'm part of the community.

431
00:23:07,135 --> 00:23:09,970
I'm a complete AFOL.
I hate the term, because, like,

432
00:23:10,055 --> 00:23:12,598
Trekkies and Whovians
get these cool handles.

433
00:23:12,682 --> 00:23:14,058
We have to use an acronym.

434
00:23:14,726 --> 00:23:18,646
I build characters
from the big screen and the small screen,

435
00:23:18,730 --> 00:23:22,441
from video games
and from Internet culture and memes.

436
00:23:22,526 --> 00:23:24,568
The first one
was my Stephen Hawking model,

437
00:23:24,653 --> 00:23:27,071
which unexpectedly went viral.

438
00:23:27,155 --> 00:23:30,616
And that's when I realized there was
a larger audience for LEGO creations.

439
00:23:31,618 --> 00:23:35,329
I'm most looking forward to connecting
with all my LEGO buddies again.

440
00:23:35,414 --> 00:23:37,415
Uh, we get to see
all the new things

441
00:23:37,499 --> 00:23:40,626
that we've created.
It's putting on a show.

442
00:23:40,710 --> 00:23:43,712
And for a nerd like me,

443
00:23:43,797 --> 00:23:46,757
it's not often you get
a chance to put on a show.

444
00:23:46,842 --> 00:23:49,343
So, did you figure out
what you're bringing to BrickCon?

445
00:23:49,428 --> 00:23:53,347
Yeah, I think I'm going to bring
the Haunted Doll House.

446
00:23:53,432 --> 00:23:55,766
We both were into LEGO as kids.

447
00:23:55,851 --> 00:23:58,269
We didn't realize it
when we started dating.

448
00:23:58,353 --> 00:24:00,354
And when we got married
and moved into the house,

449
00:24:00,439 --> 00:24:02,773
Dave's mom called and said,
"Come get your stuff."

450
00:24:02,858 --> 00:24:05,776
In that stuff,
we found a huge tub of LEGO.

451
00:24:05,861 --> 00:24:07,862
We sat down one evening
and started building.

452
00:24:07,946 --> 00:24:10,823
So, yeah, we did that and found out
it was a lot of fun to build together.

453
00:24:10,907 --> 00:24:12,199
- Yeah.
- And we really enjoyed it.

454
00:24:14,119 --> 00:24:15,828
I tend to build a lot
of steampunk creations.

455
00:24:15,912 --> 00:24:18,664
I just like the elegance of steampunk.

456
00:24:18,748 --> 00:24:21,500
I tend to focus more
on the small details and interiors.

457
00:24:21,585 --> 00:24:23,544
You're also really big on minifigs.

458
00:24:23,628 --> 00:24:26,255
Yes. I do like minifigs.

459
00:24:26,339 --> 00:24:28,382
Well, obviously we're gonna have
to take the car down.

460
00:24:28,467 --> 00:24:31,177
The big joke at LEGO
conventions is the 1 x5.

461
00:24:31,261 --> 00:24:33,971
And uh, for those of you that
don't know what a 1 x5 is...

462
00:24:34,055 --> 00:24:37,892
That is a guy code in the LEGO community
for a hot girl.

463
00:24:37,976 --> 00:24:40,978
And, it's because LEGO
doesn't make a 1 x5.

464
00:24:41,062 --> 00:24:44,523
Years ago, hot girls at conventions
were a rarity.

465
00:24:44,608 --> 00:24:48,736
But, you know, luckily I have my 1 x5,
so I'm all good.

466
00:24:53,116 --> 00:24:57,953
My definition of adults that play
with LEGOs are just tall kids.

467
00:25:04,586 --> 00:25:07,630
I like to build,
but I'm not the best builder.

468
00:25:07,714 --> 00:25:09,840
Do you wanna know
who the best builder is?

469
00:25:10,842 --> 00:25:12,218
My mom.

470
00:25:14,930 --> 00:25:18,057
I'm finishing up just the last few
of the birch trees

471
00:25:18,141 --> 00:25:20,267
here behind the library.

472
00:25:20,352 --> 00:25:24,939
And, uh,
it's in the middle of Rivendell.

473
00:25:25,023 --> 00:25:28,442
And we're really excited
about finishing it,

474
00:25:28,527 --> 00:25:33,822
but we're also a little bit surprised
at how big it turned out to be.

475
00:25:33,907 --> 00:25:36,784
You never quite know when you're
working on one section at a time,

476
00:25:36,868 --> 00:25:38,744
until you put it all together.

477
00:25:39,829 --> 00:25:42,957
I just started building again
a couple years ago

478
00:25:43,041 --> 00:25:45,292
when my son was getting
interested in building.

479
00:25:45,377 --> 00:25:47,795
Let's make it only
two segments long.

480
00:25:47,879 --> 00:25:48,921
Why?

481
00:25:49,005 --> 00:25:51,590
Because we don't want it to be too wide,
'cause it's up next to rocks.

482
00:25:51,675 --> 00:25:54,260
I went from doing laundry one day

483
00:25:54,344 --> 00:25:58,013
to having over two and a half million hits
on my Flickr pages.

484
00:25:58,098 --> 00:26:00,724
And it was pretty overwhelming.

485
00:26:00,809 --> 00:26:03,561
For two years in a row,
Alice's work has received

486
00:26:03,645 --> 00:26:06,689
the coveted People's Choice Award
from convention goers.

487
00:26:06,773 --> 00:26:09,942
This year she's built
an enormous model of Rivendell,

488
00:26:10,026 --> 00:26:12,069
the mythic city from
The Lord of the Rings.

489
00:26:13,655 --> 00:26:15,239
I think people are going to like it.

490
00:26:15,323 --> 00:26:18,158
I don't think that there's
anything quite like it.

491
00:26:19,911 --> 00:26:22,329
One of my favorite things
to do in a convention is

492
00:26:22,414 --> 00:26:24,081
to encourage the girls to build.

493
00:26:26,126 --> 00:26:29,128
LEGO has historically
really been focused on boys.

494
00:26:29,212 --> 00:26:34,383
And they have admitted they have only
been addressing half the population.

495
00:26:34,467 --> 00:26:36,343
They're now taking it seriously.

496
00:26:36,428 --> 00:26:40,389
I think there's a tremendous world
of possibilities

497
00:26:40,473 --> 00:26:43,267
that has been untapped so far.

498
00:26:43,351 --> 00:26:45,728
There are lots of girls
who come up and say,

499
00:26:45,812 --> 00:26:47,771
"Thank you for being
a role model."

500
00:26:48,607 --> 00:26:51,025
Raise the drawbridge!

501
00:26:51,109 --> 00:26:53,402
Load the "cattle-pults"!

502
00:26:53,486 --> 00:26:55,696
Release the hounds!

503
00:26:55,780 --> 00:26:57,448
Oh! Hi, guys.

504
00:26:58,491 --> 00:27:01,702
As you can see, people build
all sorts of things out of LEGO bricks.

505
00:27:01,786 --> 00:27:05,205
The combinations people come up with,
it's almost infinite.

506
00:27:05,290 --> 00:27:09,251
Wait a minute,
I wonder if it is infinite. Hey!

507
00:27:09,336 --> 00:27:12,755
There's a guy in Denmark
trying to figure that out.

508
00:27:15,216 --> 00:27:19,136
I'm going to talk about
things that we know about

509
00:27:19,220 --> 00:27:22,765
the growth of the number
of LEGO configurations.

510
00:27:22,849 --> 00:27:25,976
My name is Soren Eilers.
I'm a professor of mathematics.

511
00:27:27,270 --> 00:27:28,979
It all started in LEGOLAND, actually.

512
00:27:29,064 --> 00:27:31,565
It was one of those rainy days
in Danish summer,

513
00:27:31,650 --> 00:27:33,233
and I was there with my daughter.

514
00:27:34,402 --> 00:27:36,987
Soren saw a display dedicated
to the original patent

515
00:27:37,072 --> 00:27:39,823
filed by Ole's son, Godtfred.

516
00:27:39,908 --> 00:27:42,284
Godtfred was asked
by the patent officer,

517
00:27:42,369 --> 00:27:44,953
"How many ways can you put
together six of these bricks?"

518
00:27:45,038 --> 00:27:47,456
And he says, something like,
"We're still working on it,

519
00:27:47,540 --> 00:27:52,419
but when I left home,
we had 102,981,000,"

520
00:27:52,504 --> 00:27:53,921
or something like that.

521
00:27:54,005 --> 00:27:56,215
And so I was wondering
how they computed that number

522
00:27:56,299 --> 00:27:59,593
because it seemed to be
a difficult mathematical problem.

523
00:27:59,678 --> 00:28:02,888
What LEGO had done
was to just count the-- the towers

524
00:28:02,972 --> 00:28:05,182
where you put the things
on top of each other.

525
00:28:05,266 --> 00:28:08,769
Whereas if I have a building
that is sort of low and wide,

526
00:28:08,853 --> 00:28:11,188
I have a lot of options
for the final one.

527
00:28:12,899 --> 00:28:15,109
Of course I tried to attack
this with theory,

528
00:28:15,193 --> 00:28:16,944
but I didn't get anywhere.

529
00:28:17,028 --> 00:28:20,280
So, essentially, all that I could think
of doing was ask a computer.

530
00:28:20,365 --> 00:28:23,033
In fact my program was very inefficient.

531
00:28:23,118 --> 00:28:25,035
Took me a week to compute this number.

532
00:28:25,120 --> 00:28:27,955
The correct number is quite a lot higher.

533
00:28:28,039 --> 00:28:34,378
The correct number is 915, 103,765.

534
00:28:36,548 --> 00:28:39,466
But once Soren had the number,
the obvious question was,

535
00:28:39,551 --> 00:28:41,552
what happens if you add
a seventh brick?

536
00:28:41,636 --> 00:28:43,220
Or an eighth?

537
00:28:44,973 --> 00:28:47,975
So it's pretty easy to count
all the way to five.

538
00:28:48,059 --> 00:28:52,187
Six, I can now recompute this number
maybe in five minutes or so.

539
00:28:52,272 --> 00:28:56,316
And then each time it takes
about a hundred times more.

540
00:28:56,401 --> 00:28:59,361
So, next time it's a couple of hours.

541
00:28:59,446 --> 00:29:03,157
Counting eight it took me
something like 500 hours.

542
00:29:03,241 --> 00:29:05,784
So if I was to count with nine or ten...

543
00:29:05,869 --> 00:29:09,288
This would probably take years,
maybe hundreds of years.

544
00:29:10,248 --> 00:29:14,001
So what does this unsolvable problem
say about the LEGO system?

545
00:29:15,003 --> 00:29:18,630
By mathematical definition,
this is a finite system.

546
00:29:18,715 --> 00:29:20,841
We have a finite number of bricks.

547
00:29:20,925 --> 00:29:24,762
They have a finite number
of studs and holes.

548
00:29:24,846 --> 00:29:27,306
But for all practical human purposes,

549
00:29:27,390 --> 00:29:30,267
these bricks are infinitely flexible,

550
00:29:30,351 --> 00:29:32,144
and not only that, they define

551
00:29:32,228 --> 00:29:35,063
a mathematical problem
of infinite complexity.

552
00:29:35,148 --> 00:29:36,690
So I would say that,

553
00:29:36,775 --> 00:29:39,902
"Yes, it is finite,
but in a way it's also infinite."

554
00:29:39,986 --> 00:29:44,823
I think this is the beginning
of what we call systematic creativity.

555
00:29:44,908 --> 00:29:49,828
This basic system of tubes and studs
that locks together,

556
00:29:49,913 --> 00:29:53,457
and it will take a child's idea
or an adult's idea,

557
00:29:53,541 --> 00:29:54,958
and it'll hold it together.

558
00:29:55,043 --> 00:29:58,670
It'll give it form and give them
a new medium of communication.

559
00:29:58,755 --> 00:30:01,965
The interesting thing with
the LEGO brick, as we see here,

560
00:30:02,050 --> 00:30:04,384
is that the instructions
for how it fits with the rest

561
00:30:04,469 --> 00:30:05,886
is actually embedded.

562
00:30:05,970 --> 00:30:09,389
We don't need an instruction.
We don't need a dictionary or grammar.

563
00:30:09,474 --> 00:30:11,099
It's embedded in the system.

564
00:30:12,435 --> 00:30:14,228
It became this platform

565
00:30:14,312 --> 00:30:16,980
where people all over the world
had a shared language,

566
00:30:17,065 --> 00:30:21,026
it's like the letters
or notes in music.

567
00:30:21,110 --> 00:30:22,736
It's a creative tool,

568
00:30:22,821 --> 00:30:25,155
it's a creative medium,

569
00:30:25,240 --> 00:30:27,950
but it's also a language.

570
00:30:28,034 --> 00:30:30,244
It's a language that's more global

571
00:30:30,328 --> 00:30:32,871
than English and Windows.

572
00:30:36,376 --> 00:30:37,960
So with such a limitless product,

573
00:30:38,044 --> 00:30:42,339
how did the LEGO company experience
anything but constant success?

574
00:30:42,423 --> 00:30:46,844
Believe it or not, not that long ago,
the company was in pretty dire straits.

575
00:30:46,928 --> 00:30:48,971
On the CBS Worldwide
Market Watch,

576
00:30:49,055 --> 00:30:51,056
the Danish toymaker LEGO

577
00:30:51,140 --> 00:30:54,101
today reported
its first ever annual loss.

578
00:30:54,185 --> 00:30:58,188
If the kids love it, why then is
the Danish company in so much trouble?

579
00:30:59,482 --> 00:31:02,401
What happened to LEGO is LEGO
had an unprecedented growth rate

580
00:31:02,485 --> 00:31:05,153
when it really got
the bricks right in '78,

581
00:31:05,238 --> 00:31:07,114
until the mid-1990s.

582
00:31:07,198 --> 00:31:11,451
It was growing fast, everything was good,
and it suddenly collapsed.

583
00:31:11,536 --> 00:31:15,414
Sales of two of their
three big products fall off a cliff.

584
00:31:15,498 --> 00:31:18,542
And they almost went out of
business in 2003.

585
00:31:18,626 --> 00:31:22,838
Ten years ago, our company
was in serious trouble,

586
00:31:22,922 --> 00:31:25,841
and the wonderful thing about it,
we couldn't blame anybody else.

587
00:31:25,925 --> 00:31:28,635
They had lost sight
of their most important asset:

588
00:31:28,720 --> 00:31:31,138
the genius of the LEGO system.

589
00:31:32,265 --> 00:31:35,350
Smart people from around the world
had told LEGO in the '90s

590
00:31:35,435 --> 00:31:38,687
that this brick is gonna
become irrelevant.

591
00:31:38,771 --> 00:31:40,272
You need to find new things.

592
00:31:40,356 --> 00:31:43,483
It was seen as--
Actually, this was seen as uncool.

593
00:31:43,568 --> 00:31:47,112
They were making more and more
custom pieces for specific sets.

594
00:31:47,196 --> 00:31:50,782
At one point, they had
over 14, 000 unique elements.

595
00:31:50,867 --> 00:31:54,953
Some of the sets had only a few elements
and required almost no construction.

596
00:31:55,038 --> 00:31:58,040
When we made products
which were quicker to build,

597
00:31:58,124 --> 00:32:01,251
those who didn't like to build
still said, "I don't like to build it.

598
00:32:01,336 --> 00:32:04,171
I'd rather buy a die-cast car
or doll or something else."

599
00:32:04,255 --> 00:32:06,798
And those who actually did
like LEGO for what it is,

600
00:32:06,883 --> 00:32:08,967
they said, "What is this now?"

601
00:32:09,052 --> 00:32:11,011
And because we didn't understand that

602
00:32:11,095 --> 00:32:13,680
and also because
we were actually, frankly,

603
00:32:13,765 --> 00:32:16,558
quite arrogant as a company
towards our customers,

604
00:32:16,643 --> 00:32:18,602
we were making the wrong products,

605
00:32:18,686 --> 00:32:20,854
and we were not even
able to deliver the products

606
00:32:20,939 --> 00:32:22,773
that people wanted to the stores.

607
00:32:22,857 --> 00:32:24,524
Their fans knew what was wrong,

608
00:32:24,609 --> 00:32:27,152
but LEGO company executives
weren't paying attention

609
00:32:27,236 --> 00:32:29,655
to the community that had grown
around their product.

610
00:32:29,739 --> 00:32:32,199
The seed of change had been
planted a few years earlier

611
00:32:32,283 --> 00:32:36,161
with the release
of a product called Mindstorms.

612
00:32:36,245 --> 00:32:39,623
This little yellow brick,
developed by LEGO and MIT,

613
00:32:39,707 --> 00:32:43,126
turns LEGO creations
into interactive robots.

614
00:32:43,211 --> 00:32:46,505
For us this was a great opportunity,

615
00:32:46,589 --> 00:32:49,007
'cause we saw a great potential
of combining LEGO and computers.

616
00:32:49,092 --> 00:32:53,220
LEGO had in mind that
they would develop it,

617
00:32:53,304 --> 00:32:57,099
and then kids would play with it
in the prescribed way,

618
00:32:57,183 --> 00:33:00,060
and they had as an audience children,

619
00:33:00,144 --> 00:33:02,354
their standard, traditional audience.

620
00:33:02,438 --> 00:33:06,400
But it really sort of captured
the imagination of people of all ages,

621
00:33:06,484 --> 00:33:09,945
not just the young people that
Mindstorms was initially intended for.

622
00:33:10,029 --> 00:33:12,739
In fact, in the first year
that Mindstorms came out,

623
00:33:12,824 --> 00:33:15,283
half of the sales
were to adults for adult use.

624
00:33:15,368 --> 00:33:19,496
Then there was someone who liked LEGO
who was at Stanford and was like,

625
00:33:19,580 --> 00:33:23,917
"Hmm, this brick, I could hack
that open and reverse engineer it."

626
00:33:24,002 --> 00:33:27,838
And they were opening up the Mindstorms.
They were writing new software for it.

627
00:33:27,922 --> 00:33:31,967
Within three months,
a thousand hackers were working on it.

628
00:33:32,051 --> 00:33:34,803
And this was rather a shock for them.

629
00:33:34,887 --> 00:33:38,432
LEGO's response was
pretty much like, "What is this?"

630
00:33:38,516 --> 00:33:40,559
They're taking apart
what we created.

631
00:33:40,643 --> 00:33:43,228
I mean, we put this together,
so it shouldn't be taken apart.

632
00:33:43,312 --> 00:33:44,730
That's our secrets.

633
00:33:44,814 --> 00:33:47,607
There was a lot of questions
in our leadership.

634
00:33:47,692 --> 00:33:53,905
We could either take the aggressive
and protective and controlling route,

635
00:33:53,990 --> 00:33:56,450
and the other route
would be to say well,

636
00:33:56,534 --> 00:34:00,287
this is, uh, interesting.

637
00:34:00,371 --> 00:34:02,831
In most companies,
and also in a very traditional way

638
00:34:02,915 --> 00:34:05,042
of innovating
was to have it super-secret.

639
00:34:05,126 --> 00:34:09,171
It's like closed walls, sign on the "X,"
and we couldn't say anything.

640
00:34:09,255 --> 00:34:11,423
We had a lot of internal discussions
with our lawyers,

641
00:34:11,507 --> 00:34:13,133
top management was involved.

642
00:34:13,217 --> 00:34:15,761
Kjeld had to stand up and say,
"But I want this.

643
00:34:15,845 --> 00:34:19,347
We're a company who makes things
that people can create with."

644
00:34:21,684 --> 00:34:25,145
When a company
starts to deal with users,

645
00:34:25,229 --> 00:34:27,981
and discovers that it
can get ideas from users,

646
00:34:28,066 --> 00:34:30,484
that's Mindstorms.

647
00:34:30,568 --> 00:34:32,152
That's the new way of saying,

648
00:34:32,236 --> 00:34:34,362
you will deal with
your Adult Fans Of LEGO,

649
00:34:34,447 --> 00:34:36,656
and you will
get from them useful ideas.

650
00:34:36,741 --> 00:34:39,326
We need to be aware

651
00:34:39,410 --> 00:34:43,371
that 99.99%

652
00:34:43,456 --> 00:34:46,625
of the smartest people in the world
don't work for us.

653
00:34:51,297 --> 00:34:53,840
In the wake of the Mindstorms
product release,

654
00:34:53,925 --> 00:34:56,218
the LEGO company was
more open to ideas

655
00:34:56,302 --> 00:34:59,304
that came from outside
the walls of its design room.

656
00:35:01,390 --> 00:35:06,603
Chicago Architect Adam Reed Tucker
builds skyscrapers out of LEGO bricks.

657
00:35:08,397 --> 00:35:11,691
In 2005, when his firm
went belly-up from the economy,

658
00:35:11,776 --> 00:35:14,319
Adam decided to return
to the more artistic side

659
00:35:14,403 --> 00:35:17,280
of architecture by creating
architectural models.

660
00:35:19,784 --> 00:35:23,870
One day I ventured out
to a local toy store

661
00:35:23,955 --> 00:35:27,499
and filled about a dozen
shopping carts of LEGO sets

662
00:35:27,583 --> 00:35:29,209
to get reacquainted with the brick.

663
00:35:29,293 --> 00:35:32,838
And when I got home,
I dumped out all these sets,

664
00:35:32,922 --> 00:35:35,340
and my fiancée came home,

665
00:35:35,424 --> 00:35:37,342
and she saw me sitting there

666
00:35:37,426 --> 00:35:38,760
and she made a U-turn.

667
00:35:38,845 --> 00:35:40,804
Then an hour later,
called me and said,

668
00:35:40,888 --> 00:35:42,639
"Is there something
I need to know?"

669
00:35:42,723 --> 00:35:47,060
Adam's work soon caught the attention
of the LEGO company's Paal Smith-Meyer.

670
00:35:47,145 --> 00:35:49,604
And I had this idea that let's start
new business with people

671
00:35:49,689 --> 00:35:53,275
who have a passionate
feeling about what we do.

672
00:35:53,359 --> 00:35:55,652
And then I meet Adam
and he's standing there

673
00:35:55,736 --> 00:35:59,156
with these super tall structures
built out of LEGO.

674
00:35:59,240 --> 00:36:01,575
And I'm like,
"Wow! These are amazing."

675
00:36:01,659 --> 00:36:04,953
We can do a whole line
but me coming from the inside,

676
00:36:05,037 --> 00:36:06,997
I need evidence, you know,
I need proof.

677
00:36:07,081 --> 00:36:09,291
So we can prove
to the world that this works.

678
00:36:09,375 --> 00:36:12,335
Two months later, I come
to BrickWorld and Adam says,

679
00:36:12,420 --> 00:36:14,546
"I have a surprise for you."

680
00:36:14,630 --> 00:36:17,716
And then he's created
200 boxes of the first set.

681
00:36:17,800 --> 00:36:20,886
On his own,
Adam had designed the box graphics

682
00:36:20,970 --> 00:36:23,388
and had packaged every single set.

683
00:36:25,266 --> 00:36:28,185
If Adam and Paal could make
the architecture series happen,

684
00:36:28,269 --> 00:36:29,769
it would take some convincing.

685
00:36:29,854 --> 00:36:32,314
After all, what Adam
was proposing to a toy company

686
00:36:32,398 --> 00:36:33,899
wasn't exactly a toy,

687
00:36:33,983 --> 00:36:38,361
and up until now LEGO designs
were only made by LEGO designers.

688
00:36:39,655 --> 00:36:43,116
If he hadn't taken
and been so pushy,

689
00:36:43,201 --> 00:36:47,078
LEGO architecture as it is today
probably wouldn't happen.

690
00:36:47,163 --> 00:36:48,997
The series was a success,

691
00:36:49,081 --> 00:36:52,167
and the line has been
expanding ever since.

692
00:36:52,251 --> 00:36:57,172
So, it proved that we can work
with individuals on the outside.

693
00:36:57,256 --> 00:36:58,590
It's not going to break LEGO.

694
00:36:58,674 --> 00:37:00,634
It's actually creating energy.

695
00:37:00,718 --> 00:37:05,055
It's creating kind of this hope,
uh, that we can make more things.

696
00:37:10,645 --> 00:37:14,564
Adam is now working on a new venture
to push the LEGO boundaries.

697
00:37:14,649 --> 00:37:17,150
Following up on what I did
with the LEGO architecture,

698
00:37:17,235 --> 00:37:21,238
I wanted to create
a roller coaster for LEGO.

699
00:37:21,322 --> 00:37:23,573
I'm always about pushing the lines.

700
00:37:28,913 --> 00:37:30,330
To make the roller coaster work,

701
00:37:30,414 --> 00:37:33,667
Adam designed
two new elements in his workshop:

702
00:37:33,751 --> 00:37:35,669
a ball joint attached to a rail tie,

703
00:37:35,753 --> 00:37:38,213
and a hitch to mount the ball in.

704
00:37:38,297 --> 00:37:40,840
The fact that they do
create new elements,

705
00:37:40,925 --> 00:37:44,928
um, gives me hope that, you know,
these elements can also be created.

706
00:37:50,142 --> 00:37:52,894
Ten days later, Adam unveils
his coaster prototype

707
00:37:52,979 --> 00:37:54,479
for Paal at BrickWorld.

708
00:37:54,563 --> 00:37:59,317
It's so smooth.
It's amazing. Whee!

709
00:37:59,402 --> 00:38:03,446
So, that's more of like
um, a sci-fi kind of use.

710
00:38:03,531 --> 00:38:05,407
This one is a runaway coal mine.

711
00:38:05,491 --> 00:38:07,075
- Yeah.
- Or silver mine. Yeah.

712
00:38:07,159 --> 00:38:09,619
This would not have
been possible before.

713
00:38:09,704 --> 00:38:12,372
It might look like
a roller coaster part,

714
00:38:12,456 --> 00:38:14,958
but hey, you can use it
for anything you want.

715
00:38:15,042 --> 00:38:16,251
I think it's amazing.

716
00:38:16,335 --> 00:38:17,877
I mean, I definitely
think that, you know,

717
00:38:17,962 --> 00:38:21,131
kids, adults all over the world
will want to play with this.

718
00:38:21,215 --> 00:38:22,799
- Everyone.
- Thanks, buddy.

719
00:38:27,138 --> 00:38:29,639
In Tokyo, Japan, Kohei Nishiyama

720
00:38:29,724 --> 00:38:33,310
has helped open the doors
to creativity from the LEGO community.

721
00:38:33,394 --> 00:38:36,438
He's an expert in crowd creation
and calls his project Cuusoo,

722
00:38:36,522 --> 00:38:38,732
which means "dream" or "wish."

723
00:38:40,276 --> 00:38:42,569
Kohei worked with Paal
to create a platform

724
00:38:42,653 --> 00:38:45,572
that brings LEGO users'
dreams to reality.

725
00:38:45,656 --> 00:38:48,825
The idea for LEGO Cuusoo
is that anyone in the world

726
00:38:48,909 --> 00:38:53,621
who has a LEGO idea can "wish"
that LEGO will one day make this.

727
00:38:53,706 --> 00:38:56,041
The only thing you have
to do is actually share it

728
00:38:56,125 --> 00:38:58,293
with the world on the Cuusoo platform,

729
00:38:58,377 --> 00:39:02,589
and through that, create a community
of interest around your wish.

730
00:39:02,673 --> 00:39:06,134
Designs that gain support
from 10,000 or more LEGO users

731
00:39:06,218 --> 00:39:08,720
go up for review with LEGO management.

732
00:39:08,804 --> 00:39:13,058
It's quite an honor for a design
to get released as an official LEGO set.

733
00:39:13,142 --> 00:39:16,811
The first idea that got
10,000 votes was LEGO Minecraft.

734
00:39:16,896 --> 00:39:18,396
Took 48 hours.

735
00:39:18,481 --> 00:39:21,149
It broke our servers several times.

736
00:39:21,233 --> 00:39:22,817
I think it's safe to say that LEGO fans

737
00:39:22,902 --> 00:39:25,570
were waiting for an idea
like Kohei's to come along.

738
00:39:25,654 --> 00:39:27,947
Now the finalists are being reviewed

739
00:39:28,032 --> 00:39:30,158
for Cuusoo set number five.

740
00:39:35,873 --> 00:39:39,459
If this is what it is to be a geek,
I am definitely okay with that

741
00:39:39,543 --> 00:39:42,587
'cause, uh, it's the most fun
I've ever had.

742
00:39:44,215 --> 00:39:47,467
"Cuusoo" loosely translated means a wish.

743
00:39:47,551 --> 00:39:52,347
And uh, my wish is to see
more space exploration.

744
00:39:52,431 --> 00:39:55,475
I want people to be more
interested in space exploration.

745
00:39:56,852 --> 00:39:59,646
I knew even
from elementary school

746
00:39:59,730 --> 00:40:02,816
that I wanted to be
a mechanical engineer when I grew up.

747
00:40:02,900 --> 00:40:04,484
The trouble is, there were no

748
00:40:04,568 --> 00:40:07,862
mechanical engineering classes
in middle school.

749
00:40:07,947 --> 00:40:10,740
So uh, I would design
entire manned missions

750
00:40:10,825 --> 00:40:13,410
to Jupiter using LEGO designs.

751
00:40:14,495 --> 00:40:17,372
After college, Stephen landed
his first engineering job,

752
00:40:17,456 --> 00:40:19,874
working on a space vehicle for NASA,

753
00:40:19,959 --> 00:40:21,584
the Mars Curiosity Rover.

754
00:40:23,129 --> 00:40:24,921
I spent a lot of time
in clean rooms

755
00:40:25,005 --> 00:40:28,425
working around parts
of the actual rover itself.

756
00:40:28,509 --> 00:40:31,344
It was all I could ever want to do.

757
00:40:31,429 --> 00:40:34,806
It's a huge,
seven-foot-tall, 2,000-pound,

758
00:40:34,890 --> 00:40:36,891
nuclear-powered, rock-drilling,

759
00:40:36,976 --> 00:40:39,727
laser-blasting,
science-performing robot.

760
00:40:43,441 --> 00:40:46,359
Originally I just wanted
to build a rover so I could,

761
00:40:46,444 --> 00:40:48,903
you know, show my friends
and family what I was working on

762
00:40:48,988 --> 00:40:52,740
and how cool it was before
anyone else even knew about it.

763
00:40:52,825 --> 00:40:57,620
This is the off-set differential,
rocker bogey suspension system.

764
00:40:57,705 --> 00:41:01,374
And on top here is the uh,
off-set differential arm

765
00:41:01,459 --> 00:41:03,209
that swings across the top of the rover,

766
00:41:03,294 --> 00:41:07,172
and it connects the left and right sides
of the suspension system

767
00:41:07,256 --> 00:41:10,258
that allows the rover to keep
all six wheels on the ground

768
00:41:10,342 --> 00:41:12,844
as it travels over uneven terrain.

769
00:41:12,928 --> 00:41:15,597
It doesn't have to be, you know,
battling Martians or anything.

770
00:41:15,681 --> 00:41:17,682
It's doing it all for science.

771
00:41:19,143 --> 00:41:21,811
I'm not a very outgoing person,

772
00:41:21,896 --> 00:41:23,897
and I didn't always, uh,

773
00:41:23,981 --> 00:41:26,191
interact with a lot
of LEGO users before.

774
00:41:26,275 --> 00:41:28,234
I just had my own
personal collection.

775
00:41:28,319 --> 00:41:30,236
And I like how you can
disconnect the umbilical

776
00:41:30,321 --> 00:41:31,404
and take the capsule off...

777
00:41:31,489 --> 00:41:34,324
I went to my very first uh,
LEGO Users Group meeting,

778
00:41:34,408 --> 00:41:35,825
called uh, a LUG.

779
00:41:35,910 --> 00:41:39,037
And uh, the Curiosity Rover
was received very well.

780
00:41:39,121 --> 00:41:40,288
Everyone thought
it was awesome.

781
00:41:40,372 --> 00:41:44,083
In fact they said, "Hey, you should
submit this model to Cuusoo."

782
00:41:44,168 --> 00:41:45,585
And of course, the kid in me thought,

783
00:41:45,669 --> 00:41:48,880
"Oh, wow, I could be a LEGO designer.
"That's awesome."

784
00:41:48,964 --> 00:41:50,548
Looking at it and I voted for it,

785
00:41:50,633 --> 00:41:52,342
and there was only,
like, a few hundred votes.

786
00:41:52,426 --> 00:41:53,927
Then within a week I looked at it again.

787
00:41:54,011 --> 00:41:55,637
It started going up
all of a sudden, I went,

788
00:41:55,721 --> 00:41:58,973
"Wait a minute, that's Stephen's.
This is cool!"

789
00:41:59,058 --> 00:42:01,601
I know a little bit
about the other contestants,

790
00:42:01,685 --> 00:42:03,603
and one of them would definitely be

791
00:42:03,687 --> 00:42:06,648
the largest LEGO set
that LEGO has ever produced

792
00:42:06,732 --> 00:42:09,108
if they actually did turn it into a set.

793
00:42:18,661 --> 00:42:20,787
Took me about nine months to complete it.

794
00:42:20,871 --> 00:42:23,706
It's not just building, of course.
It's research.

795
00:42:23,791 --> 00:42:27,877
I had to find all the pictures
for the model and all the parts.

796
00:42:27,962 --> 00:42:31,756
I wasn't sure until the end
if it's going to work

797
00:42:31,840 --> 00:42:35,301
and drive because of the weight,
but I was lucky with that.

798
00:42:37,638 --> 00:42:39,430
It's not just about prestige.

799
00:42:39,515 --> 00:42:43,351
If the finalists' designs are chosen,
they'll get 1% of the net sales.

800
00:42:43,435 --> 00:42:47,105
If I win, then I will build it
twice this size

801
00:42:47,189 --> 00:42:49,732
and ride on it through the desert.

802
00:43:02,746 --> 00:43:04,998
It will just keep going
round and round.

803
00:43:05,082 --> 00:43:07,500
The third finalist in
this year's Cuusoo project

804
00:43:07,585 --> 00:43:10,086
is a user group led
by New Zealander Nick Vás.

805
00:43:12,339 --> 00:43:14,257
Nick and his team have
created LEGO models

806
00:43:14,341 --> 00:43:16,009
of the video game Portal 2,

807
00:43:16,093 --> 00:43:18,511
which is very popular
with the LEGO crowd.

808
00:43:18,637 --> 00:43:22,181
We had decided on Portal
as the topic for our Cuusoo project,

809
00:43:22,266 --> 00:43:24,767
simply because we had
a common love for LEGO

810
00:43:24,852 --> 00:43:26,311
and Portal as a video game.

811
00:43:26,395 --> 00:43:28,813
The Portal Project was one
of the fastest ever to reach

812
00:43:28,897 --> 00:43:30,815
the necessary 10,000 votes
to be considered

813
00:43:30,899 --> 00:43:33,526
a finalist on the Cuusoo website.

814
00:43:33,611 --> 00:43:36,404
We think that our project
is the most likely.

815
00:43:36,488 --> 00:43:38,990
We're holding high hopes
that it will be us.

816
00:43:39,074 --> 00:43:41,909
I voted for them, 'cause I played
the game, and I really enjoyed it.

817
00:43:41,994 --> 00:43:45,747
And I was... I'm hoping
that one could be chosen, too.

818
00:43:45,831 --> 00:43:48,916
I would definitely buy
multiple copies of that set.

819
00:43:49,001 --> 00:43:50,209
So if the product goes to design,

820
00:43:50,294 --> 00:43:51,919
what are you going to do
with all the money?

821
00:43:52,004 --> 00:43:53,838
If I could do whatever I wanted with it,

822
00:43:53,922 --> 00:43:57,759
I think it would probably all go
right back to LEGO.

823
00:43:57,843 --> 00:43:59,427
So basically
you're doing it for the brick.

824
00:43:59,511 --> 00:44:00,928
Yeah, pretty much.

825
00:44:03,766 --> 00:44:05,767
I think the interesting thing,

826
00:44:05,851 --> 00:44:07,852
and then maybe
the scary thing with Cuusoo,

827
00:44:07,936 --> 00:44:10,688
is that it has actually
opened the company,

828
00:44:10,773 --> 00:44:13,399
it has actually almost
turned it inside out.

829
00:44:13,484 --> 00:44:16,027
What happened before
with, you know, this,

830
00:44:16,111 --> 00:44:19,405
everything happened in secret,
behind closed walls,

831
00:44:19,490 --> 00:44:21,407
is now reversed.

832
00:44:21,492 --> 00:44:25,578
It's created an excitement
in the world that we can,

833
00:44:25,663 --> 00:44:29,582
together, shape the future
of LEGO products.

834
00:44:29,667 --> 00:44:33,252
After months of review,
LEGO representatives are ready to reveal

835
00:44:33,337 --> 00:44:38,508
which of the three finalists will be
chosen as Cuusoo set number 005.

836
00:44:44,473 --> 00:44:46,015
Are you guys excited?

837
00:44:50,020 --> 00:44:52,271
This is the next Cuusoo model
that you're gonna see.

838
00:44:53,273 --> 00:44:54,607
The winner...

839
00:44:54,692 --> 00:44:56,234
the Mars Curiosity Rover.

840
00:45:02,241 --> 00:45:04,158
No matter how much
I fantasized about it,

841
00:45:04,243 --> 00:45:08,079
it couldn't prepare me
for the reality of the actual news.

842
00:45:08,163 --> 00:45:11,249
I have all sorts of emotions
and feelings running through me.

843
00:45:11,333 --> 00:45:14,293
It's hard to try
and describe how they all feel

844
00:45:14,378 --> 00:45:17,171
when they're mushed together like that.

845
00:45:18,966 --> 00:45:20,633
Innovation from the LEGO community

846
00:45:20,718 --> 00:45:24,846
doesn't necessarily need to have
the LEGO company's involvement.

847
00:45:24,930 --> 00:45:26,931
While the LEGO company
is more and more open

848
00:45:27,015 --> 00:45:28,516
to innovators from the outside,

849
00:45:28,600 --> 00:45:30,893
there are others who are
customizing on their own.

850
00:45:31,770 --> 00:45:35,022
In Seattle, Washington, Will Chapman
has built a successful business

851
00:45:35,107 --> 00:45:37,817
around a hole in the LEGO product line.

852
00:45:37,901 --> 00:45:39,944
This is an M2 machine gun.

853
00:45:40,028 --> 00:45:43,156
This is the MP40 German
machine gun from World War II.

854
00:45:43,240 --> 00:45:44,282
My HCSR.

855
00:45:44,366 --> 00:45:47,702
His business manufactures
minifigure-scaled guns.

856
00:45:47,786 --> 00:45:49,370
Now, why would he do that?

857
00:45:50,122 --> 00:45:52,165
LEGO will not produce what I produce.

858
00:45:52,249 --> 00:45:54,250
LEGO won't do any weapons
that are modern.

859
00:45:54,334 --> 00:45:57,336
They'll do Wild West,
which is maybe up to the mid-1800s.

860
00:45:57,421 --> 00:45:59,964
And then we got postmodern,
which is Star Wars.

861
00:46:01,175 --> 00:46:05,136
Weapons don't fit
into the LEGO "play well" philosophy.

862
00:46:05,220 --> 00:46:08,222
I think being a Danish company,
the idea of handgun ownership,

863
00:46:08,307 --> 00:46:10,892
weapon ownership
is not a big part of their culture.

864
00:46:10,976 --> 00:46:12,894
So I said, "Let's try it ourselves."

865
00:46:12,978 --> 00:46:16,814
When I design a weapon, I look online
for some inspirational photos.

866
00:46:16,899 --> 00:46:20,026
The trouble with the minifigure
is they have giant-- giant hands,

867
00:46:20,110 --> 00:46:22,612
and they're a squashed-down
representation of a human.

868
00:46:22,696 --> 00:46:25,239
They're really tough
to try to design for.

869
00:46:26,408 --> 00:46:27,533
It's art.

870
00:46:27,618 --> 00:46:29,285
It's truly, I believe it's art.

871
00:46:35,292 --> 00:46:37,877
The folks that are
buying to equip an army

872
00:46:37,961 --> 00:46:40,087
are always adults,
and they'll buy a hundred of one gun,

873
00:46:40,172 --> 00:46:41,798
they'll buy 200 of a helmet.

874
00:46:41,882 --> 00:46:44,717
It's gone from just a couple of figures
armed with a weapon,

875
00:46:44,802 --> 00:46:48,763
to scenes, entire battles,
D-Day landing, Normandy Invasion.

876
00:46:48,847 --> 00:46:50,056
There's invasions of Fallujah,

877
00:46:50,140 --> 00:46:53,351
there's modern military Marines,
there's modern army.

878
00:46:53,435 --> 00:46:55,478
You need an M16.
It's an iconic weapon.

879
00:46:59,483 --> 00:47:01,818
This started as a hobby,
and I never thought

880
00:47:01,902 --> 00:47:06,322
that this would turn into something
that could be a worldwide phenomenon.

881
00:47:06,406 --> 00:47:09,075
The LEGO world
is so adaptable, it's so modular,

882
00:47:09,159 --> 00:47:12,036
that LEGO doesn't get to decide.

883
00:47:12,120 --> 00:47:14,413
We get to decide how we want
to build with those elements.

884
00:47:17,835 --> 00:47:19,961
Cut!

885
00:47:20,045 --> 00:47:23,840
Come on, guys, put some life into it.
You're so stiff.

886
00:47:26,093 --> 00:47:28,010
Okay, let's just take five then.

887
00:47:28,095 --> 00:47:29,470
Amateurs.

888
00:47:29,555 --> 00:47:31,722
All right, where was I...
Oh, right.

889
00:47:31,807 --> 00:47:32,849
Narrator guy!

890
00:47:34,518 --> 00:47:37,854
Okay, the LEGO system has proven
it's a great thing for play,

891
00:47:37,938 --> 00:47:40,606
but can it be used for
more serious endeavors?

892
00:47:40,691 --> 00:47:43,609
There's people around the world
using LEGO as a tool

893
00:47:43,694 --> 00:47:45,862
as much as a toy. Cut to:

894
00:47:45,946 --> 00:47:48,739
Exterior. Establishing shot.
Boise, Idaho.

895
00:47:51,827 --> 00:47:56,330
We're in my mom's garage,
and we're making my film Melting Point.

896
00:47:56,415 --> 00:47:59,834
It's a stop-motion animated
film made with LEGO bricks.

897
00:48:03,755 --> 00:48:06,215
Jonathan Vaughan and Matt Cohen
met at film school in Los Angeles,

898
00:48:06,300 --> 00:48:08,301
but they both dropped out
because they were frustrated

899
00:48:08,385 --> 00:48:10,595
by the scale of projects they could do.

900
00:48:11,930 --> 00:48:14,223
I used to think that LEGOs were
just for kids

901
00:48:14,308 --> 00:48:15,892
until I met Jonathan

902
00:48:15,976 --> 00:48:19,604
and got a telescope
into the LEGO brick filming community.

903
00:48:19,688 --> 00:48:21,731
With brick films, you're uninhibited.

904
00:48:21,815 --> 00:48:24,984
If he needs a 12-mile highway
to shoot a car chase,

905
00:48:25,068 --> 00:48:26,819
he builds the 12-mile highway.

906
00:48:26,904 --> 00:48:29,572
Whatever he thinks of,
he builds it and he does it.

907
00:48:29,656 --> 00:48:32,116
To get somebody to walk,
like, five feet,

908
00:48:32,200 --> 00:48:35,995
you have to take 15 frames
every second of that walk.

909
00:48:36,079 --> 00:48:38,915
So you have to move them in just
little millimeter increments.

910
00:48:38,999 --> 00:48:40,374
It's incredibly tedious.

911
00:48:40,459 --> 00:48:43,210
There's nothing else I've ever done
that takes this long.

912
00:48:43,295 --> 00:48:45,296
But when you're working
with minifigs,

913
00:48:45,380 --> 00:48:48,007
you don't have to deal with
agents or egos, or anything

914
00:48:48,091 --> 00:48:51,010
that befalls working
with regular actors.

915
00:48:51,094 --> 00:48:52,720
They're great.

916
00:48:52,804 --> 00:48:56,265
If I want to do a 16-hour day,
they don't complain.

917
00:48:56,350 --> 00:48:57,642
No overtime.

918
00:48:58,727 --> 00:49:01,812
Jonathan's creating
one of his sets for his movie.

919
00:49:01,897 --> 00:49:04,106
They're doing the work
in the garage.

920
00:49:04,191 --> 00:49:07,735
He tells me he's making a movie.
I have to take that on faith.

921
00:49:07,819 --> 00:49:10,029
He's playing with LEGOs,

922
00:49:10,113 --> 00:49:12,823
something that he's done
since he was a toddler.

923
00:49:12,908 --> 00:49:17,370
My family has been
pretty supportive about this.

924
00:49:17,454 --> 00:49:18,704
He's very creative,

925
00:49:18,789 --> 00:49:22,124
but I would really like to be able
to park my car in the garage, yes.

926
00:49:26,463 --> 00:49:29,590
Well, there's been
a long tradition of brick films.

927
00:49:29,675 --> 00:49:32,593
One of my favorite
brick film makers is David Pagano.

928
00:49:33,637 --> 00:49:35,429
New York filmmaker David Pagano

929
00:49:35,514 --> 00:49:37,890
has been making brick films
since he was nine.

930
00:49:37,975 --> 00:49:40,601
David is considered
one of the top LEGO animators,

931
00:49:40,686 --> 00:49:44,105
and is known for creating complex
characters out of bricks.

932
00:49:44,189 --> 00:49:48,025
Most films you're going to see
will have minifigures as the main actor.

933
00:49:48,110 --> 00:49:50,111
They're just articulated enough to be

934
00:49:50,195 --> 00:49:52,196
moveable into a variety of fun poses,

935
00:49:52,280 --> 00:49:55,074
but not so over-articulated
that you need help

936
00:49:55,158 --> 00:49:57,284
getting them to stand up properly,

937
00:49:57,369 --> 00:49:59,078
or look like a normal human being,

938
00:49:59,162 --> 00:50:01,122
or as normal as someone
with no nose looks.

939
00:50:01,206 --> 00:50:02,581
Hey!

940
00:50:02,666 --> 00:50:04,625
I have done a lot of stuff
with minifigures,

941
00:50:04,710 --> 00:50:06,085
both for LEGO and just for myself,

942
00:50:06,169 --> 00:50:10,423
but I also am just endlessly fascinated
with what you can build from bricks.

943
00:50:10,507 --> 00:50:12,008
I just find it an interesting challenge

944
00:50:12,092 --> 00:50:14,719
as opposed to having
a readymade actor.

945
00:50:14,803 --> 00:50:18,222
I'd rather figure out ways
to make neat-looking characters,

946
00:50:18,306 --> 00:50:20,224
and then make sure
they're animate-able,

947
00:50:20,308 --> 00:50:21,642
then bring them to life.

948
00:50:24,312 --> 00:50:26,772
I am somewhat
of a LEGO archivist.

949
00:50:26,857 --> 00:50:28,774
On my better days
I consider myself

950
00:50:28,859 --> 00:50:31,652
a LEGO animation historian,
if such a job exists.

951
00:50:31,737 --> 00:50:33,738
I don't think it does,
but I'll pretend to myself,

952
00:50:33,822 --> 00:50:35,781
until someone tells me to stop.

953
00:50:35,866 --> 00:50:38,617
So, the very first LEGO films
were promotional videos

954
00:50:38,702 --> 00:50:41,078
or commercials that were made
in the '60s and '70s.

955
00:50:41,163 --> 00:50:44,165
I think it should have a big middle part

956
00:50:44,249 --> 00:50:46,417
and two little sides that stick out.

957
00:50:46,501 --> 00:50:48,335
But the first fan film didn't come

958
00:50:48,420 --> 00:50:50,296
until the mid-to-late 1980s,

959
00:50:50,380 --> 00:50:52,214
and that was a film
called The Magic Portal.

960
00:50:56,261 --> 00:50:58,345
They used sloped pieces
in a really interesting way

961
00:50:58,430 --> 00:51:00,473
where you could get these
weird little blobby creatures

962
00:51:00,557 --> 00:51:02,058
that crawl along the set.

963
00:51:02,142 --> 00:51:03,809
There's some nice animation

964
00:51:03,894 --> 00:51:05,603
with some of
the old LEGO backhoe pieces.

965
00:51:07,230 --> 00:51:10,024
In the early 2000s, LEGO films
really started to take off.

966
00:51:10,108 --> 00:51:12,193
Everyone had the Internet,
and it was starting to become

967
00:51:12,277 --> 00:51:15,279
this thing that was
not going away, it wasn't a fad.

968
00:51:15,363 --> 00:51:18,365
And it was in everybody's home
as a way to connect with other people.

969
00:51:18,450 --> 00:51:20,326
That's sort of when I would say

970
00:51:20,410 --> 00:51:23,412
"the modern era"
of LEGO animation started.

971
00:51:30,796 --> 00:51:32,171
The LEGO animation content

972
00:51:32,255 --> 00:51:33,923
that you can find online
just runs the gamut.

973
00:51:34,007 --> 00:51:36,675
There's cool stuff,
there's weird stuff.

974
00:51:36,760 --> 00:51:39,595
There's some stuff
that's really well put together

975
00:51:39,679 --> 00:51:41,514
and just shot gorgeously

976
00:51:41,598 --> 00:51:44,058
and has really
interesting parts usage.

977
00:51:44,142 --> 00:51:45,559
There's immensely
inappropriate stuff.

978
00:51:46,770 --> 00:51:48,187
You can get all kinds.

979
00:51:52,776 --> 00:51:54,443
One thing that's become
pretty common

980
00:51:54,528 --> 00:51:57,571
is shot-for-shot remakes
of scenes from famous films

981
00:51:57,656 --> 00:51:59,115
or film trailers.

982
00:51:59,199 --> 00:52:01,200
So they'll build each set
that you see in each shot...

983
00:52:01,284 --> 00:52:04,662
Describe what
Marsellus Wallace looks like!

984
00:52:04,746 --> 00:52:06,372
- What?
- Say what again!

985
00:52:06,456 --> 00:52:07,665
I've seen The Dark Knight.

986
00:52:07,749 --> 00:52:12,044
If you devote yourself to an ideal,

987
00:52:12,129 --> 00:52:14,630
then you become
something else entirely.

988
00:52:14,714 --> 00:52:17,383
Ed Sheeran has a music video
that someone was commissioned

989
00:52:17,467 --> 00:52:19,260
to make into LEGO.

990
00:52:19,344 --> 00:52:22,721
? I'm going to pick up the pieces ?

991
00:52:22,806 --> 00:52:24,431
? And build a LEGO house ?

992
00:52:24,516 --> 00:52:26,767
Another thing that people
are recreating with LEGO

993
00:52:26,852 --> 00:52:29,061
is just, like, news events.

994
00:52:29,146 --> 00:52:31,814
Some people were
re-creating Olympic scenes,

995
00:52:31,898 --> 00:52:33,816
and when Felix Baumgartner
did that jump from space,

996
00:52:33,900 --> 00:52:37,987
there was, like, a LEGO version
of it, like, 24 hours later.

997
00:52:41,158 --> 00:52:43,200
If you do a YouTube search for LEGO,

998
00:52:43,285 --> 00:52:46,787
you're going to find
13 million hits at least.

999
00:52:55,255 --> 00:52:57,131
I think it will only get more prevalent

1000
00:52:57,215 --> 00:52:59,884
and there will only be more
and more people doing it

1001
00:52:59,968 --> 00:53:01,343
because it's super fun.

1002
00:53:03,305 --> 00:53:04,680
Oh, my gosh!
I love this song!

1003
00:53:07,309 --> 00:53:09,685
The LEGO Movie was
done with computer graphics,

1004
00:53:09,769 --> 00:53:11,770
but made to look like a brick film.

1005
00:53:11,855 --> 00:53:13,397
The director specifically said

1006
00:53:13,481 --> 00:53:16,358
they were inspired by
LEGO stop-motion web videos.

1007
00:53:16,443 --> 00:53:19,195
And it's cool that they were able
to include a few of those.

1008
00:53:19,279 --> 00:53:20,696
In the climax of The LEGO Movie,

1009
00:53:20,780 --> 00:53:22,781
you can see my film Garbage Man.

1010
00:53:22,866 --> 00:53:23,908
Whoa! Awesome!

1011
00:53:23,992 --> 00:53:27,328
It's technically not a brick
film because it's computer generated.

1012
00:53:27,412 --> 00:53:29,997
Ours is going to be fully stop motion,

1013
00:53:30,081 --> 00:53:33,500
so I'm trying to make
one that's the best quality

1014
00:53:33,585 --> 00:53:35,586
for a really long running time.

1015
00:53:35,670 --> 00:53:37,713
It will be the greatest
LEGO movie ever made.

1016
00:53:37,797 --> 00:53:38,923
Otherwise, I've failed.

1017
00:53:39,007 --> 00:53:40,382
In the film, there's this cop,

1018
00:53:40,467 --> 00:53:43,385
who all he ever
wanted to do was be a cop,

1019
00:53:43,470 --> 00:53:44,803
this little LEGO guy named Tony.

1020
00:53:44,888 --> 00:53:46,847
And he used to be a skateboarder,

1021
00:53:46,932 --> 00:53:48,766
so he can chase criminals
down on his skateboard.

1022
00:53:48,850 --> 00:53:52,978
And then this guy Duman,
this great classic super villain,

1023
00:53:53,063 --> 00:53:55,814
comes into town
and just starts burning everything down.

1024
00:53:55,899 --> 00:53:58,442
Right now, you're afraid...

1025
00:53:58,526 --> 00:54:00,194
of melting.

1026
00:54:00,278 --> 00:54:02,446
In a few seconds,
you'll feel the burn

1027
00:54:02,530 --> 00:54:05,366
in your little, plastic eyeballs.

1028
00:54:05,450 --> 00:54:07,409
Was that the direction
you want to go?

1029
00:54:07,494 --> 00:54:10,246
- Yeah. I'm digging that.
- Wow.

1030
00:54:10,330 --> 00:54:12,164
When I was originally
working on the film,

1031
00:54:12,249 --> 00:54:14,583
I wasn't planning
to raise any money.

1032
00:54:14,668 --> 00:54:15,960
But then Matt looked at the script.

1033
00:54:16,044 --> 00:54:17,544
I was like, how are you
going to do this?

1034
00:54:17,629 --> 00:54:19,421
Do you have enough bricks?

1035
00:54:19,506 --> 00:54:22,341
This is way bigger than anything
you've done that I've seen.

1036
00:54:22,425 --> 00:54:24,218
And he said, "Uh, well,

1037
00:54:24,302 --> 00:54:26,929
we'll have to fill in the city
probably with some CGI,

1038
00:54:27,013 --> 00:54:28,347
maybe get a little bit more bricks."

1039
00:54:28,431 --> 00:54:30,182
And I was like, "No.

1040
00:54:30,267 --> 00:54:32,184
You have to build a city.

1041
00:54:32,269 --> 00:54:35,646
This has to be the greatest
LEGO movie ever made, Jonathan."

1042
00:54:35,730 --> 00:54:38,440
And so I said, "Okay,
we have to do a Kickstarter."

1043
00:54:38,525 --> 00:54:41,568
Hi, I'm Jonathan Vaughan,
and I'm directing Melting Point,

1044
00:54:41,653 --> 00:54:44,488
which is a stop-motion animated film
made with LEGO bricks.

1045
00:54:44,572 --> 00:54:46,699
I'm Robert Fleet.
I'm playing Duman.

1046
00:54:46,783 --> 00:54:49,910
I get to melt things a lot.
It's really fun.

1047
00:54:49,995 --> 00:54:50,828
Action.

1048
00:54:50,912 --> 00:54:54,206
So, guys, here's what I was
thinking up for the establishing shot.

1049
00:54:54,291 --> 00:54:57,209
We're going to need to build
basically everything you see here,

1050
00:54:57,294 --> 00:54:59,336
so pretty much the entire city.

1051
00:54:59,421 --> 00:55:00,921
We're going to have to use CGI, then?

1052
00:55:01,006 --> 00:55:02,840
I will not use CGI, okay?

1053
00:55:02,924 --> 00:55:06,677
I want this to be
the best brick film ever made.

1054
00:55:06,761 --> 00:55:10,556
LEGO started as a toy,
but now it's definitely--

1055
00:55:10,640 --> 00:55:13,267
it's a way people are
expressing themselves in this weird hobby,

1056
00:55:13,351 --> 00:55:15,561
so it's definitely also a tool

1057
00:55:15,645 --> 00:55:19,273
and a means to an end,
a means to tell stories

1058
00:55:19,357 --> 00:55:23,736
and express yourself
in a gigantic variety of ways.

1059
00:55:24,946 --> 00:55:27,197
All around the world,
people are pushing the limits

1060
00:55:27,282 --> 00:55:29,074
of what they can do with the LEGO system,

1061
00:55:29,159 --> 00:55:31,160
and what it's capable of
as a building material.

1062
00:55:31,244 --> 00:55:35,414
Now I can officially say,
that with the height of 112 feet,

1063
00:55:35,498 --> 00:55:38,125
11 and three-quarters inches,

1064
00:55:38,209 --> 00:55:41,920
you are now members
of the Guinness World Records family.

1065
00:55:42,005 --> 00:55:44,548
I'd like to present this certificate
and congratulate all of you.

1066
00:55:44,632 --> 00:55:47,217
- Yes!
- We broke the record.

1067
00:55:50,180 --> 00:55:52,890
In Melbourne,
Steve Sammartino and Raul Oaida

1068
00:55:52,974 --> 00:55:56,727
built a working car
almost entirely out of LEGO bricks.

1069
00:55:56,811 --> 00:55:58,812
It's not going to set
any land speed records,

1070
00:55:58,897 --> 00:56:00,564
and it doesn't go all that far,

1071
00:56:00,648 --> 00:56:04,276
but just the mere fact that
it does go is quite something.

1072
00:56:04,361 --> 00:56:06,445
Andrew Carol, an engineer at Apple,

1073
00:56:06,529 --> 00:56:09,865
studied the remnants of a Greek device
used to determine celestial events,

1074
00:56:09,949 --> 00:56:12,493
which was found at the bottom
of the Aegean Sea.

1075
00:56:12,577 --> 00:56:16,205
Then he reconstructed it from,
you guessed it, LEGO bricks.

1076
00:56:18,708 --> 00:56:22,044
At conventions, fans get together
to build great ball contraptions,

1077
00:56:22,128 --> 00:56:26,298
or GBCs, which deliver balls
from one module to another.

1078
00:56:26,383 --> 00:56:28,967
The GBC is a collaborative effort

1079
00:56:29,052 --> 00:56:31,512
to make a kinetic sculpture, if you will.

1080
00:56:31,596 --> 00:56:35,766
In this case, if you watch,
when this ball hits, two flip off.

1081
00:56:35,850 --> 00:56:38,394
And they're timed
so that this gate double flips.

1082
00:56:39,896 --> 00:56:42,523
Even Google's Larry Page
used LEGO bricks.

1083
00:56:42,607 --> 00:56:47,403
Actually, in college I built
an inkjet printer out of LEGOs.

1084
00:56:47,487 --> 00:56:51,740
Page and Sergey Brin even built
their first server out of LEGO bricks.

1085
00:56:52,742 --> 00:56:54,576
In England, TV host James May

1086
00:56:54,661 --> 00:56:58,497
decided to build an entire working house
out of LEGO bricks.

1087
00:56:58,581 --> 00:57:02,668
So, the LEGO system can enable people
to make real, working stuff.

1088
00:57:02,752 --> 00:57:06,839
Sometimes, however,
the goal is more cerebral.

1089
00:57:14,431 --> 00:57:16,140
What do you think that is?

1090
00:57:16,224 --> 00:57:17,516
How great is that?

1091
00:57:17,600 --> 00:57:19,435
You going to take a picture
with your cell phone?

1092
00:57:23,940 --> 00:57:26,984
Well, I didn't see it at first.
My sister pointed it out to me.

1093
00:57:27,068 --> 00:57:30,487
And I'm a preschool teacher,
and I am drawn to LEGOs.

1094
00:57:30,572 --> 00:57:33,615
I'm from Indiana, we don't see
things like that in Indiana.

1095
00:57:33,700 --> 00:57:35,284
So, it's unusual.

1096
00:57:54,971 --> 00:57:57,222
People are so familiar
with LEGO bricks.

1097
00:57:57,307 --> 00:58:00,017
Most everyone you know
has snapped a few bricks together,

1098
00:58:00,101 --> 00:58:03,937
and so that makes the art accessible,
it makes it relatable.

1099
00:58:09,652 --> 00:58:11,945
When I first started
going to galleries and saying,

1100
00:58:12,030 --> 00:58:13,447
"Hey, I do LEGO art."

1101
00:58:13,531 --> 00:58:15,491
They kind of looked at me
and said,

1102
00:58:15,575 --> 00:58:17,618
"Oh, okay, is that cars
and trucks or castles?"

1103
00:58:17,702 --> 00:58:21,205
You know, they have a set notion
of what LEGO art would be.

1104
00:58:24,334 --> 00:58:26,919
I order tens of thousands
of bricks every month.

1105
00:58:27,003 --> 00:58:29,755
This is how it is.
This is how I get my bricks.

1106
00:58:29,839 --> 00:58:34,009
In fact, I spend over
six figures annually just on LEGO.

1107
00:58:34,093 --> 00:58:36,929
There's probably
3 million bricks in this room.

1108
00:58:37,013 --> 00:58:39,515
I've made a career from a child's toy.

1109
00:58:41,309 --> 00:58:43,727
I've been told at times I'm a sellout

1110
00:58:43,811 --> 00:58:47,314
because I use this
commercial brand to create my art.

1111
00:58:47,398 --> 00:58:50,192
But it's a brand that I chose
because I believe

1112
00:58:50,276 --> 00:58:52,110
there's nothing I can't build out of it.

1113
00:58:55,198 --> 00:58:59,284
Growing up, I had a lot
of LEGO bricks as a toy.

1114
00:58:59,369 --> 00:59:01,620
It was something
my parents encouraged.

1115
00:59:01,704 --> 00:59:06,583
They let me have a 36-square-foot
LEGO city in our living room.

1116
00:59:06,668 --> 00:59:10,045
It was when I was about 10 years old,
wanted to get a dog.

1117
00:59:10,129 --> 00:59:11,964
Asked my parents,
"Can I get a dog?"

1118
00:59:12,048 --> 00:59:13,423
"No, you're not getting a dog."

1119
00:59:13,508 --> 00:59:15,842
I tore down my LEGO city,

1120
00:59:15,927 --> 00:59:20,347
used those bricks to create
my own life-size LEGO dog.

1121
00:59:20,431 --> 00:59:24,059
It was really my first time in realizing
it's not what's on the front of the box.

1122
00:59:24,143 --> 00:59:27,187
You can actually create whatever
you want out of this toy.

1123
00:59:27,272 --> 00:59:31,608
I got out of college, and I had
societal pressures to get a real job.

1124
00:59:31,693 --> 00:59:34,820
And I ended up going to law school.
I was doing corporate law.

1125
00:59:34,904 --> 00:59:36,488
And I would come home
at the end of the day

1126
00:59:36,573 --> 00:59:38,198
and I would need a creative outlet.

1127
00:59:38,283 --> 00:59:40,701
And sometimes that was drawing,
sometimes it was painting.

1128
00:59:40,785 --> 00:59:43,662
But once I started
doing sculptures out of LEGO,

1129
00:59:43,746 --> 00:59:46,748
I really had found my passion.

1130
00:59:46,833 --> 00:59:49,626
And it got to the point where I was
working full days at the law firm,

1131
00:59:49,711 --> 00:59:53,672
and I would come home at night and have
a slate of commissions to work on.

1132
00:59:53,756 --> 00:59:55,382
And I decided to make that change,

1133
00:59:55,466 --> 00:59:59,511
to leave the law practice
behind, and go be an artist.

1134
00:59:59,596 --> 01:00:01,263
An artist who plays with toys.

1135
01:00:04,809 --> 01:00:07,019
You know, I don't know if this is...
if I've broken through.

1136
01:00:07,103 --> 01:00:09,605
I don't know if an artist ever can feel
like they've broken through

1137
01:00:09,689 --> 01:00:12,608
because I keep setting
bigger and bigger goals.

1138
01:00:13,901 --> 01:00:16,695
Nathan has been offered
his biggest opportunity yet.

1139
01:00:16,779 --> 01:00:19,823
He's been booked for a one-man show
in New York's Times Square

1140
01:00:19,907 --> 01:00:22,784
and is prepping over
a hundred pieces for it.

1141
01:00:22,869 --> 01:00:27,331
The New York exhibition, I think,
will be the biggest show of my life,

1142
01:00:27,415 --> 01:00:29,833
a culmination of years' worth of work,

1143
01:00:29,917 --> 01:00:34,004
as well as the largest
solo LEGO art exhibition ever.

1144
01:00:35,089 --> 01:00:36,715
And there's a lot of pressure.

1145
01:00:37,967 --> 01:00:40,385
The show will feature
Nathan's original creations

1146
01:00:40,470 --> 01:00:44,014
as well as LEGO replicas
he is making of classical works of art.

1147
01:00:46,976 --> 01:00:49,353
For Nathan, this is the opportunity

1148
01:00:49,437 --> 01:00:52,356
to prove himself as a legitimate artist.

1149
01:00:52,440 --> 01:00:56,234
I'm worried that the venue
that's taking a big risk on me

1150
01:00:56,319 --> 01:00:57,944
feels like this is a failure.

1151
01:00:58,029 --> 01:01:01,031
I'm worried that, you know,
will they actually get it

1152
01:01:01,115 --> 01:01:04,326
when they see it
in the exhibition format?

1153
01:01:04,410 --> 01:01:06,870
And really, what's
the public going to think?

1154
01:01:10,083 --> 01:01:13,585
Thousands of miles away in Germany,
another artist, Jan Vormann,

1155
01:01:13,670 --> 01:01:16,004
has taken LEGO arts to the streets.

1156
01:01:22,887 --> 01:01:24,137
I really like to work with objects

1157
01:01:24,222 --> 01:01:27,849
that everybody
has a preconceived image of.

1158
01:01:29,352 --> 01:01:31,645
The good thing with playful
elements in the work is that

1159
01:01:31,729 --> 01:01:35,774
people get attracted by it
rather than repulsed.

1160
01:01:35,858 --> 01:01:37,818
If I use a material
which people like,

1161
01:01:37,902 --> 01:01:43,031
they are more likely to start
interacting with me.

1162
01:01:46,536 --> 01:01:48,787
So now it has different aspects to it.

1163
01:01:48,871 --> 01:01:50,789
On the one side,
the sculpture installation,

1164
01:01:50,873 --> 01:01:53,333
where it's just there
to be visually perceived.

1165
01:01:53,418 --> 01:01:56,878
And on the other side,
a performance kind of action.

1166
01:01:57,964 --> 01:02:01,842
It looks like a lot of fun,
but Jan's work has serious undertones.

1167
01:02:01,926 --> 01:02:04,386
Most of the times
I tried to find locations

1168
01:02:04,470 --> 01:02:07,389
which have a kind
of historical background

1169
01:02:07,473 --> 01:02:09,975
or political meaning.

1170
01:02:10,059 --> 01:02:13,437
Today we are here
in the very back of the Anhalter Bahnhof.

1171
01:02:13,521 --> 01:02:16,940
This used to be the main
train station for Berlin.

1172
01:02:17,024 --> 01:02:19,109
This is also a place where
a lot of Jews were deported

1173
01:02:19,193 --> 01:02:20,777
before the war ended.

1174
01:02:21,863 --> 01:02:24,448
The Holocaust is an event
that's omnipresent in my mind,

1175
01:02:24,532 --> 01:02:25,949
so I think about it a lot.

1176
01:02:26,033 --> 01:02:27,993
You don't necessarily
see it in my work,

1177
01:02:28,077 --> 01:02:29,828
because I don't want
to add like,

1178
01:02:29,912 --> 01:02:33,373
visually dark
and heavy subjects.

1179
01:02:34,375 --> 01:02:37,169
So my idea to use
the plastic construction bricks

1180
01:02:37,253 --> 01:02:42,299
was to add a kind of colorful
part of contemporary times,

1181
01:02:42,383 --> 01:02:46,136
a material that everybody
worldwide has the same feeling on it.

1182
01:02:47,764 --> 01:02:50,474
Some people call this type of art
"LEGO bombing,"

1183
01:02:50,558 --> 01:02:53,143
but Jan prefers to call it "patchwork,"

1184
01:02:53,227 --> 01:02:56,772
and he's bringing the patchwork project
around the world.

1185
01:03:02,904 --> 01:03:05,113
For me,
it's a kind of hopeful thing

1186
01:03:05,198 --> 01:03:08,408
to see that we actually share
this common culture.

1187
01:03:13,790 --> 01:03:15,707
Whoa...

1188
01:03:15,792 --> 01:03:19,211
Okay. What happens when
the thing you want to build

1189
01:03:19,295 --> 01:03:21,129
isn't the thing that you
want to build but rather

1190
01:03:21,214 --> 01:03:23,882
a representation of the thing
that you want to build?

1191
01:03:23,966 --> 01:03:26,218
Okay, I think I just confused myself.

1192
01:03:26,302 --> 01:03:30,222
What if the thing you
want to build is just an idea?

1193
01:03:30,306 --> 01:03:32,474
Could LEGO bricks be used for that?

1194
01:03:33,726 --> 01:03:37,813
In Denmark, when a rising architect wanted
to submit for a major commission,

1195
01:03:37,897 --> 01:03:39,940
he looked at how modular
building techniques

1196
01:03:40,024 --> 01:03:41,900
had become in his home country

1197
01:03:41,984 --> 01:03:44,402
and thought of his favorite toy
as a child.

1198
01:03:44,487 --> 01:03:46,154
In Denmark,
because of the labor wages

1199
01:03:46,239 --> 01:03:48,323
and because of the bad weather,

1200
01:03:48,407 --> 01:03:50,450
you want to minimize the time
at the construction site.

1201
01:03:50,535 --> 01:03:52,953
So everything has to be

1202
01:03:53,037 --> 01:03:55,789
like prefabricated elements,
put together in interesting ways.

1203
01:03:55,873 --> 01:03:59,334
So in a manner of speaking,
Denmark has become

1204
01:03:59,418 --> 01:04:01,127
a country entirely built out of LEGO.

1205
01:04:02,672 --> 01:04:04,840
So, we thought, like,
if that's the truth,

1206
01:04:04,924 --> 01:04:07,384
why don't we make
this project an homage,

1207
01:04:07,468 --> 01:04:09,219
so we nicknamed the project
the LEGO Towers

1208
01:04:09,303 --> 01:04:10,846
and thought the best way
to communicate it

1209
01:04:10,930 --> 01:04:13,014
would be to build it out of LEGO.

1210
01:04:15,393 --> 01:04:18,812
And the idea became almost
like doing manmade mountains

1211
01:04:18,896 --> 01:04:20,522
that are pixilated,

1212
01:04:20,606 --> 01:04:24,860
like a sort of low resolution
alpine architecture.

1213
01:04:24,944 --> 01:04:27,612
To show the developer how easy
it was to build the project,

1214
01:04:27,697 --> 01:04:28,822
when we presented the project,

1215
01:04:28,906 --> 01:04:31,157
we also presented
this LEGO model and sort of,

1216
01:04:31,242 --> 01:04:34,327
if you can build it out of LEGO,
it can't be that difficult, can it?

1217
01:04:34,412 --> 01:04:36,288
And sort of he--

1218
01:04:36,372 --> 01:04:39,207
he passed the LEGO
model on to his son,

1219
01:04:39,292 --> 01:04:41,501
and we got the commission.

1220
01:04:41,586 --> 01:04:44,629
The project earned Bjarke's group
a lot of critical acclaim

1221
01:04:44,714 --> 01:04:47,841
and helped put him
on the international architecture map.

1222
01:04:47,925 --> 01:04:50,594
So, when the LEGO company
was looking for someone to design

1223
01:04:50,678 --> 01:04:52,178
their LEGO house in Billund,

1224
01:04:52,263 --> 01:04:54,264
Bjarke was the perfect choice.

1225
01:04:54,348 --> 01:04:56,892
Of course, we were incredibly
excited to get the job.

1226
01:04:56,976 --> 01:05:01,146
As all Danes know,
LEGO is a Danish product.

1227
01:05:01,230 --> 01:05:05,025
If BIG had been founded
with a single purpose,

1228
01:05:05,109 --> 01:05:08,445
it would be to be
the architects of the LEGO house.

1229
01:05:09,488 --> 01:05:12,866
In Cambridge, at MIT,
they're using LEGO elements

1230
01:05:12,950 --> 01:05:14,993
to visualize more than just buildings.

1231
01:05:15,077 --> 01:05:17,329
They're looking at how
entire cities work.

1232
01:05:17,413 --> 01:05:21,958
So, we're looking at a LEGO model
that has been constructed

1233
01:05:22,043 --> 01:05:25,337
to represent a square kilometer
of Kendall Square.

1234
01:05:25,421 --> 01:05:27,339
We're actually
in this building right here,

1235
01:05:27,423 --> 01:05:31,009
in the MIT Media Lab,
and overlaid on this,

1236
01:05:31,093 --> 01:05:34,054
you're actually seeing
a projection map of Google streets.

1237
01:05:34,138 --> 01:05:36,681
The MIT City Science Initiative

1238
01:05:36,766 --> 01:05:39,476
is using LEGO elements
to visualize wind patterns,

1239
01:05:39,560 --> 01:05:44,022
heat maps,
light studies, and traffic flow.

1240
01:05:44,106 --> 01:05:47,067
Want to see what happens
if this block gets more light?

1241
01:05:47,151 --> 01:05:50,028
Just pick that 10-story
building up and move it.

1242
01:05:50,112 --> 01:05:52,072
It all kind of highlights the complexity

1243
01:05:52,156 --> 01:05:54,115
of the organism that is the city.

1244
01:05:54,200 --> 01:05:55,992
You know, the city isn't just roads.

1245
01:05:56,077 --> 01:05:57,869
It's not just access to sun.

1246
01:05:57,954 --> 01:06:01,456
It's not just people moving,
within the transportation networks.

1247
01:06:01,540 --> 01:06:03,667
It's all of these things,
in the same place,

1248
01:06:03,751 --> 01:06:05,502
and that's incredibly hard to see.

1249
01:06:05,586 --> 01:06:09,047
It allows everyone, let's say,
non-expert and expert alike

1250
01:06:09,131 --> 01:06:12,217
to come together
on a simple platform, you know,

1251
01:06:12,301 --> 01:06:14,970
that's inviting,
to be for engagement,

1252
01:06:15,054 --> 01:06:16,513
you know,
in a meaningful conversation.

1253
01:06:17,974 --> 01:06:19,015
Huh, wow.

1254
01:06:19,100 --> 01:06:22,519
Turns out LEGO bricks might
solve our traffic problems.

1255
01:06:22,603 --> 01:06:24,896
In the favelas of Sao Paulo, Brazil,

1256
01:06:24,981 --> 01:06:27,524
they've taken this visualization tool
to the next level

1257
01:06:27,608 --> 01:06:29,901
by using it to discuss ideas,

1258
01:06:29,986 --> 01:06:33,238
abstract ideas
about community and class.

1259
01:06:34,407 --> 01:06:38,368
We challenged them to build
model cities in LEGOs,

1260
01:06:38,452 --> 01:06:42,205
and these constructions arise out of

1261
01:06:42,289 --> 01:06:48,128
the children's search for solutions
in the community in which they're living.

1262
01:06:48,212 --> 01:06:51,840
This is our community.
Our space.

1263
01:06:51,924 --> 01:06:55,218
Every rotten thing that you can imagine
is in these rivers.

1264
01:06:55,302 --> 01:06:59,055
It was our friend who had the idea
to build a bridge

1265
01:06:59,140 --> 01:07:01,599
to show the difference in our society,

1266
01:07:01,684 --> 01:07:03,852
and it made us take
a bigger view of things.

1267
01:07:03,936 --> 01:07:08,106
It's showing them
that the power of change,

1268
01:07:08,190 --> 01:07:13,111
the power of an idea that begins small,
can sometimes have a large effect.

1269
01:07:14,196 --> 01:07:17,615
There's another way the LEGO
system is being used as a tool,

1270
01:07:17,700 --> 01:07:20,410
and perhaps the most profound of all.

1271
01:07:21,454 --> 01:07:23,705
Can a toy be therapeutic?

1272
01:07:27,043 --> 01:07:29,586
At the Yale School
in Cherry Hill, New Jersey,

1273
01:07:29,670 --> 01:07:32,547
kids are interacting with each other,
playing with LEGO bricks.

1274
01:07:34,050 --> 01:07:37,302
What seems ordinary
is actually quite extraordinary.

1275
01:07:37,386 --> 01:07:39,971
This school is for kids with autism,

1276
01:07:40,056 --> 01:07:45,435
and all of these kids have significant
neurodevelopmental disabilities.

1277
01:07:45,519 --> 01:07:50,273
They're part of a therapy developed
two decades ago by Dr. Dan Legoff.

1278
01:07:50,357 --> 01:07:52,358
And, yeah, that's his real name.

1279
01:07:52,443 --> 01:07:54,235
I was looking for something else.

1280
01:07:54,320 --> 01:07:57,614
I wasn't happy with the outcomes
I was getting using standard methods.

1281
01:07:57,698 --> 01:08:01,409
And so I had, you know,
different stations in my playroom.

1282
01:08:01,494 --> 01:08:03,828
One of them, um, was LEGO.

1283
01:08:03,913 --> 01:08:06,623
And a lot of the kids, especially,

1284
01:08:06,707 --> 01:08:08,625
socially anxious, inhibited,

1285
01:08:08,709 --> 01:08:12,295
quiet, mildly autistic kind of kids,

1286
01:08:12,379 --> 01:08:14,297
gravitated to the LEGO area.

1287
01:08:14,381 --> 01:08:18,718
And it seemed like an anxiety-free zone.

1288
01:08:18,803 --> 01:08:22,347
The "a-ha" moment came one day
when I came out to the waiting room

1289
01:08:22,431 --> 01:08:24,349
and two kids that I had been seeing,

1290
01:08:24,433 --> 01:08:26,643
very similar personalities...

1291
01:08:26,727 --> 01:08:29,604
they were both bringing
LEGOs from home to show me.

1292
01:08:29,688 --> 01:08:33,191
And they had met in the waiting room,
and they were showing each other.

1293
01:08:33,275 --> 01:08:36,361
And their parents were excited.

1294
01:08:36,445 --> 01:08:38,947
You could tell, they were like,
"Whoa. Look at that.

1295
01:08:39,031 --> 01:08:41,282
They're communicating.
They're interacting. This is cool."

1296
01:08:41,367 --> 01:08:43,993
Dr. Legoff allowed the kids
to play with LEGO toys,

1297
01:08:44,078 --> 01:08:46,871
but only if they built together.

1298
01:08:46,956 --> 01:08:49,499
Working in groups of three,
one is the engineer,

1299
01:08:49,583 --> 01:08:52,877
one is the parts supplier,
and one is the builder.

1300
01:08:52,962 --> 01:08:56,756
Only by communicating
can they get to a finished product.

1301
01:08:58,300 --> 01:08:59,134
Good.

1302
01:08:59,218 --> 01:09:00,343
This is a good time to switch.

1303
01:09:00,427 --> 01:09:04,180
Anybody who hasn't done building yet
should take a turn now.

1304
01:09:04,306 --> 01:09:05,807
It's coming along real nice.

1305
01:09:05,891 --> 01:09:08,143
Making them do a systematic thing

1306
01:09:08,227 --> 01:09:10,812
in a social context is the trick.

1307
01:09:10,896 --> 01:09:12,856
Building LEGOs is cool,
but you know what's even better

1308
01:09:12,940 --> 01:09:14,566
is to do it with my friends.

1309
01:09:14,650 --> 01:09:16,401
It is so exciting
to see this thing working.

1310
01:09:16,485 --> 01:09:19,404
So I have one student
who interacts with other kids

1311
01:09:19,488 --> 01:09:22,866
in the LEGO club
much more just in that one day,

1312
01:09:22,950 --> 01:09:24,909
than he has interacted
with kids outside of LEGO club

1313
01:09:24,994 --> 01:09:26,244
for the whole summer.

1314
01:09:26,328 --> 01:09:28,037
- Right.
- So that's a pretty big deal.

1315
01:09:28,122 --> 01:09:30,707
Parents were saying,
"Oh, my kid loves going to see Dr. Dan.

1316
01:09:30,791 --> 01:09:33,418
Isn't that great?
He finally has a therapy that he enjoys.

1317
01:09:33,502 --> 01:09:35,461
He seems to be getting better socially."

1318
01:09:35,546 --> 01:09:37,630
But there was no data on it.

1319
01:09:37,715 --> 01:09:40,175
Dr. Legoff conducted a scientific study

1320
01:09:40,259 --> 01:09:42,260
comparing the behavioral improvements

1321
01:09:42,344 --> 01:09:44,971
from his therapy
versus traditional therapy.

1322
01:09:45,055 --> 01:09:47,098
Now those kids did get better.

1323
01:09:47,183 --> 01:09:51,186
But the LEGO kids got
significantly better than they did.

1324
01:09:55,274 --> 01:09:57,233
One of the many kids who has benefitted

1325
01:09:57,318 --> 01:10:00,528
from this kind of therapy
is Adrian Pitt, of New York City.

1326
01:10:14,793 --> 01:10:17,212
LEGOs are usually
all about concentration.

1327
01:10:17,296 --> 01:10:20,506
And I need to concentrate
on something a bit more.

1328
01:10:20,591 --> 01:10:23,092
It helps me, like, focus.

1329
01:10:23,177 --> 01:10:24,552
Why don't you take off...

1330
01:10:24,637 --> 01:10:28,598
Adrian is...
He's just a real nice kid

1331
01:10:28,682 --> 01:10:30,683
who wants to make friends
and wants to play.

1332
01:10:30,768 --> 01:10:33,728
He has speech and language delays,

1333
01:10:33,812 --> 01:10:36,481
and he has been in speech
and language therapy

1334
01:10:36,565 --> 01:10:39,275
since he was about three years old.

1335
01:10:39,360 --> 01:10:41,736
The great thing about LEGO,
and the reason

1336
01:10:41,820 --> 01:10:46,324
that I love it for him so much
is there's no words.

1337
01:10:46,408 --> 01:10:47,992
The instructions are the pictures.

1338
01:10:48,077 --> 01:10:51,246
So if you can see,

1339
01:10:51,330 --> 01:10:54,582
you know, you can follow directions
and you can complete LEGOs.

1340
01:10:54,667 --> 01:10:56,834
Some of these pieces
need to have measurements,

1341
01:10:56,919 --> 01:11:00,838
so this one needs to be
exactly seven millimeters.

1342
01:11:00,923 --> 01:11:02,924
This is how we measure.

1343
01:11:03,008 --> 01:11:06,177
Adrian's very proud
of what he built.

1344
01:11:06,262 --> 01:11:08,012
There's a real sense
of accomplishment

1345
01:11:08,097 --> 01:11:12,684
once he's finished something,
and that's a big deal for him.

1346
01:11:15,354 --> 01:11:18,231
I'm having a bit of trouble
attaching this part.

1347
01:11:18,315 --> 01:11:20,858
If I don't get it right,
then it's not going to work.

1348
01:11:24,863 --> 01:11:26,906
In a secret location in Long Island,

1349
01:11:26,991 --> 01:11:29,617
the components
of the life-size X-Wing model

1350
01:11:29,702 --> 01:11:32,453
have arrived via freighter
from the Czech Republic.

1351
01:11:32,538 --> 01:11:33,913
The X-Wing must be fully assembled,

1352
01:11:33,998 --> 01:11:36,457
then broken up
into five transportable pieces

1353
01:11:36,542 --> 01:11:40,295
to be brought to New York City
for its unveiling in Times Square.

1354
01:11:40,379 --> 01:11:41,629
There isn't much time.

1355
01:11:41,714 --> 01:11:43,840
We are finally in New York.

1356
01:11:43,924 --> 01:11:46,175
We are really near to final stage.

1357
01:11:46,260 --> 01:11:49,721
And it's just a couple of weeks more,
and that's it.

1358
01:11:49,805 --> 01:11:52,724
You can imagine this being
a giant kid's bedroom,

1359
01:11:52,808 --> 01:11:55,393
and we've just opened up
the box of bricks,

1360
01:11:55,477 --> 01:11:58,104
and we've organized our parts
and now we're assembling it,

1361
01:11:58,188 --> 01:11:59,731
a lot like you would at home.

1362
01:11:59,815 --> 01:12:02,275
Except we're just doing it
on a massive scale here.

1363
01:12:08,324 --> 01:12:09,782
How is this project different

1364
01:12:09,867 --> 01:12:12,160
from maybe the one that
you build in your bedroom?

1365
01:12:12,244 --> 01:12:14,287
Here we have heavy equipment
for lifting

1366
01:12:14,371 --> 01:12:17,707
5,000-pound pieces
and 8,000-pound pieces.

1367
01:12:17,791 --> 01:12:21,085
And you probably don't have steel
inside your models at home.

1368
01:12:27,176 --> 01:12:30,970
We are on schedule, but it's--
even just unpacking the pieces,

1369
01:12:31,055 --> 01:12:34,974
it's not like in five minutes.
It takes like half a day.

1370
01:12:35,851 --> 01:12:39,145
It takes time.
We need a couple of days for everything.

1371
01:12:48,364 --> 01:12:50,615
All right, I think we got it now.

1372
01:12:53,369 --> 01:12:55,453
This first, it stays where it is.

1373
01:12:55,537 --> 01:12:59,082
Second, the engine.
And then the rest of the wing.

1374
01:13:02,086 --> 01:13:03,127
It's cool.

1375
01:13:04,213 --> 01:13:06,714
Behold, the X-Wing star fighter.

1376
01:13:07,716 --> 01:13:09,926
With the assembly complete,

1377
01:13:10,010 --> 01:13:12,345
now comes the biggest challenge of all,

1378
01:13:12,429 --> 01:13:14,055
bringing a life-size X-Wing

1379
01:13:14,139 --> 01:13:17,058
into the busiest block in America
without detection.

1380
01:13:18,769 --> 01:13:22,480
Today is Wednesday.
It might not be that bad.

1381
01:13:22,564 --> 01:13:25,108
But we're going to the heart
of New York, so...

1382
01:13:47,047 --> 01:13:49,507
There are still challenges in front of us

1383
01:13:49,591 --> 01:13:52,343
because we have only night until morning.

1384
01:13:56,890 --> 01:13:59,434
Well, our plan
is to spend the whole night

1385
01:13:59,518 --> 01:14:01,519
assembling it,
putting it together,

1386
01:14:01,603 --> 01:14:03,980
and at 6 A.M., roll it back
and hide it inside the box.

1387
01:14:40,851 --> 01:14:45,688
It's seven in the morning,
and it's done.

1388
01:14:50,694 --> 01:14:53,988
Adrian's father is bringing him
into Midtown Manhattan

1389
01:14:54,072 --> 01:14:55,781
for a special surprise.

1390
01:14:59,536 --> 01:15:01,245
What does it say?

1391
01:15:01,330 --> 01:15:02,747
Secret model.
Indestructible box.

1392
01:15:05,959 --> 01:15:09,962
Do we have any LEGO fans here?

1393
01:15:11,298 --> 01:15:13,382
Does anyone here want to know
what's inside that box?

1394
01:15:13,467 --> 01:15:15,801
- Yes!
- I can't hear you!

1395
01:15:15,886 --> 01:15:18,596
I said, "Do you want to know
what's inside that box?"

1396
01:15:18,680 --> 01:15:20,932
Yes!

1397
01:15:21,016 --> 01:15:23,851
I want you guys to stretch
your arms out all the way

1398
01:15:23,936 --> 01:15:27,563
to harness the power of the Force
along with Yoda to open up this box.

1399
01:15:27,648 --> 01:15:30,650
Ready?
One... two... three!

1400
01:15:41,912 --> 01:15:43,746
X-Wing!

1401
01:15:52,172 --> 01:15:56,092
This X-Wing Starfighter
is the largest LEGO model

1402
01:15:56,176 --> 01:15:57,593
that has ever been built.

1403
01:15:57,678 --> 01:16:01,180
I'm talking
over five million LEGO bricks.

1404
01:16:01,265 --> 01:16:03,516
Five million, three hundred,
thirty-five thousand,

1405
01:16:03,600 --> 01:16:05,268
two hundred pieces,

1406
01:16:05,352 --> 01:16:08,145
and 45,000 pounds.

1407
01:16:08,230 --> 01:16:11,065
This is the coolest thing
I've ever seen.

1408
01:16:20,909 --> 01:16:23,327
Three, two, one.

1409
01:16:32,212 --> 01:16:36,007
Also in New York, Nathan Sawaya
is making last-minute preparations

1410
01:16:36,091 --> 01:16:39,594
on his one-man show,
The Art of the Brick.

1411
01:16:39,678 --> 01:16:41,220
It finally opens tonight.

1412
01:16:42,097 --> 01:16:44,098
I am very nervous,

1413
01:16:44,182 --> 01:16:46,225
but also very excited to see those folks

1414
01:16:46,310 --> 01:16:48,769
walk through the door
for the first time tonight.

1415
01:16:50,314 --> 01:16:52,315
This is The Art of the Brick.

1416
01:16:52,399 --> 01:16:54,567
This is my largest exhibition
I've ever done,

1417
01:16:54,651 --> 01:16:58,779
and it just happens to be the largest
solo LEGO art exhibition ever.

1418
01:17:04,661 --> 01:17:08,247
I had a goal of taking LEGO
into the contemporary art world,

1419
01:17:08,332 --> 01:17:11,083
and to do so,
it had to be done in a way

1420
01:17:11,168 --> 01:17:15,546
where I was really putting myself
and my soul into the work.

1421
01:17:29,144 --> 01:17:31,395
You know, part of me wants
to just be a fly on the wall

1422
01:17:31,480 --> 01:17:33,397
and listen to people's reaction.

1423
01:17:33,482 --> 01:17:35,524
And I'm going to try and do that
as much as possible.

1424
01:17:35,609 --> 01:17:39,320
So, um, we'll see what happens.

1425
01:17:42,366 --> 01:17:44,950
There it is, thank you.

1426
01:17:45,035 --> 01:17:47,870
First impression,
I just got blown away.

1427
01:17:47,954 --> 01:17:51,832
I didn't expect to feel
this much inspiration.

1428
01:17:51,917 --> 01:17:54,418
Amazing. I worked
with LEGO when I was a kid,

1429
01:17:54,503 --> 01:17:56,462
but I always built things
off the back of the packet,

1430
01:17:56,546 --> 01:17:58,673
and I can't believe that
someone's actually turned around

1431
01:17:58,757 --> 01:18:01,717
and turned it into something
from their imagination.

1432
01:18:01,802 --> 01:18:04,720
This is something
that is delightful and playful,

1433
01:18:04,805 --> 01:18:06,639
and it's something that can really

1434
01:18:06,723 --> 01:18:09,433
spark the imagination
in children and adults.

1435
01:18:10,811 --> 01:18:13,062
We have had a few art critics
walk through already,

1436
01:18:13,146 --> 01:18:15,898
and of course I'm nervous
to see what they say,

1437
01:18:15,982 --> 01:18:18,359
but I think it's almost a compliment

1438
01:18:18,443 --> 01:18:20,695
just to have a serious
art critic from some

1439
01:18:20,779 --> 01:18:23,447
major newspapers
in this country walking through.

1440
01:18:23,532 --> 01:18:26,158
They were not dismissing it
as just a toy display.

1441
01:18:26,243 --> 01:18:28,953
It's not just a gimmick.
This was art.

1442
01:18:29,037 --> 01:18:30,788
What do you guys think?

1443
01:18:30,872 --> 01:18:32,748
- I think it's good.
- Yeah?

1444
01:18:32,833 --> 01:18:35,418
- Did you make that?
- I did, I made all of these.

1445
01:18:35,502 --> 01:18:37,795
This type of exhibition
is going to draw in folks

1446
01:18:37,879 --> 01:18:40,923
who have never been
to an art museum before in their life.

1447
01:18:41,007 --> 01:18:44,135
And they're coming because
they have a familiarity with the toy.

1448
01:18:44,219 --> 01:18:45,636
And if that opens them up

1449
01:18:45,721 --> 01:18:48,889
to the art world for the first time,
then I've done my job.

1450
01:18:53,854 --> 01:18:57,231
LEGO Designer Jamie Berard
is headed to BrickCon in Seattle

1451
01:18:57,315 --> 01:19:00,109
to unveil his new Parisian Cafe set.

1452
01:19:00,193 --> 01:19:02,153
But while he's there,
he's got another mission.

1453
01:19:02,237 --> 01:19:05,030
These are our happy boxes.
Now, we don't know what's in this.

1454
01:19:05,115 --> 01:19:06,824
He's convinced his fellow designers

1455
01:19:06,908 --> 01:19:10,703
to compete against the public
in the master build contest.

1456
01:19:10,787 --> 01:19:11,829
Okay, teams.

1457
01:19:11,913 --> 01:19:14,498
These are the same products
that will be given to LEGO fans

1458
01:19:14,583 --> 01:19:16,709
at BrickCon in Seattle, Washington.

1459
01:19:16,793 --> 01:19:19,920
And what we want to do
is actually participate more in the event

1460
01:19:20,005 --> 01:19:23,424
by doing the challenge they will be
doing there, we'll be doing it here.

1461
01:19:25,594 --> 01:19:26,594
Welcome!

1462
01:19:27,804 --> 01:19:31,515
Okay, you notice
there are only 25 stations.

1463
01:19:31,600 --> 01:19:33,517
Pick a teammate and go sit down.

1464
01:19:33,602 --> 01:19:36,645
I think it's going to be a lot
of fun at the BrickCon convention,

1465
01:19:36,730 --> 01:19:39,190
because when you have
a head-to-head with designers,

1466
01:19:39,274 --> 01:19:41,484
of course you want to beat them.

1467
01:19:41,568 --> 01:19:43,277
All right, so what do we got here?

1468
01:19:43,361 --> 01:19:45,488
- Okay, that's cool.
- What is our angle going to be?

1469
01:19:45,572 --> 01:19:48,240
The reason that you can see
we have pig and cow heads,

1470
01:19:48,325 --> 01:19:51,327
is because the theme for this year's
BrickCon is Pigs Versus Cows.

1471
01:19:52,829 --> 01:19:56,165
Does everyone have two pig heads
and two cow heads?

1472
01:19:57,375 --> 01:19:58,834
Are there any questions?

1473
01:19:58,919 --> 01:20:00,544
- Yes.
- It's one MOC?

1474
01:20:00,629 --> 01:20:02,713
It's one MOC, but it can be
how many buildings you want.

1475
01:20:02,798 --> 01:20:04,548
Make up the story as much as you want,

1476
01:20:04,633 --> 01:20:06,300
and then have a lot of fun with it.

1477
01:20:06,384 --> 01:20:09,595
Use all the pieces,
use all the set, as much as you like.

1478
01:20:09,679 --> 01:20:13,641
You'll have one and one half hours
to build. Are we ready?

1479
01:20:13,725 --> 01:20:15,226
Yeah!

1480
01:20:15,310 --> 01:20:16,560
Go!

1481
01:20:31,868 --> 01:20:34,995
So, the idea behind this is that
they should be fighting for something.

1482
01:20:35,080 --> 01:20:37,957
It's a battle or some type
of pigs versus cows.

1483
01:20:38,041 --> 01:20:41,961
See, this is always like, you know,
why does it always have to be battles?

1484
01:20:42,045 --> 01:20:44,255
Maybe whoever wins stays alive.

1485
01:20:44,339 --> 01:20:45,381
- Stays alive.
- Yeah.

1486
01:20:50,303 --> 01:20:52,429
Contestants, you now have

1487
01:20:52,514 --> 01:20:55,766
fifty-nine minutes
and fifty-one seconds left!

1488
01:20:55,851 --> 01:20:57,268
Pressure!

1489
01:20:57,352 --> 01:20:59,520
Oh, stress!
I hate building under stress.

1490
01:21:03,650 --> 01:21:05,526
How are things going,
what's your process here?

1491
01:21:05,610 --> 01:21:07,111
You can build anything
with anything.

1492
01:21:07,195 --> 01:21:08,237
Right, right.

1493
01:21:08,321 --> 01:21:09,780
So, come up
with a good story first,

1494
01:21:09,865 --> 01:21:11,824
and then make the pieces do
what you need them to do.

1495
01:21:11,908 --> 01:21:13,701
- Interesting.
- Build a story.

1496
01:21:13,785 --> 01:21:16,161
This is the first time we've heard
someone talking about story,

1497
01:21:16,246 --> 01:21:18,414
which I know was very important
in this contest.

1498
01:21:18,498 --> 01:21:20,666
He's like a cyborg.
So he's half-cow, half-robot.

1499
01:21:20,750 --> 01:21:21,917
- Yeah.
- Yes.

1500
01:21:22,002 --> 01:21:24,503
- It's a "cowborg."
- Oh, that's a good idea.

1501
01:21:24,588 --> 01:21:27,965
- Do I need bigger horns?
- Yeah, much more horny.

1502
01:21:28,049 --> 01:21:29,216
You pig.

1503
01:21:30,302 --> 01:21:33,596
Some of the stories at some point
just got really ridiculous and crazy.

1504
01:21:33,680 --> 01:21:35,973
And yet, because we were
going to a fan event,

1505
01:21:36,057 --> 01:21:37,933
it was kinda fun to let it
almost progress

1506
01:21:38,018 --> 01:21:40,227
a little bit further
than we normally would.

1507
01:21:40,312 --> 01:21:42,187
It's a "cow-tapult."

1508
01:21:44,983 --> 01:21:47,943
Dave, Stacy,
how's the competition going so far?

1509
01:21:48,028 --> 01:21:50,404
We have a lot of pieces,
but I think we're on the right track.

1510
01:21:50,488 --> 01:21:52,615
Josh, why don't you tell us
what you guys are working on?

1511
01:21:52,699 --> 01:21:55,284
We have a little house
of ill repute going on here.

1512
01:21:55,368 --> 01:21:57,828
It's a cow club,
but the pigs have come in.

1513
01:21:57,913 --> 01:21:59,788
He's relieving himself
in the bush right here.

1514
01:22:01,124 --> 01:22:02,583
Yeah, he's super-fast.

1515
01:22:02,667 --> 01:22:05,002
He's turning round,
round this guy.

1516
01:22:05,086 --> 01:22:07,212
I'm expecting some people
to look at them and go...

1517
01:22:07,297 --> 01:22:10,132
Really? Is this the best you got?

1518
01:22:10,216 --> 01:22:13,594
The LEGO fans don't know they'll be
competing against LEGO designers

1519
01:22:13,678 --> 01:22:15,512
until Jamie shows up.

1520
01:22:15,597 --> 01:22:17,097
I just have to look at your animal

1521
01:22:17,182 --> 01:22:20,559
because we were trying
to see how you did it.

1522
01:22:20,644 --> 01:22:23,145
He's making us look bad.

1523
01:22:24,147 --> 01:22:25,940
Time's up!

1524
01:22:26,024 --> 01:22:27,066
We finished.

1525
01:22:28,985 --> 01:22:33,113
Make sure your MOC is arranged
the way you want it to be seen.

1526
01:22:33,198 --> 01:22:35,991
Step outside and come back
in ten minutes.

1527
01:22:57,180 --> 01:22:58,472
Congratulations!

1528
01:22:58,556 --> 01:23:00,432
Let's bring them in,
let them know what's going on.

1529
01:23:01,977 --> 01:23:03,519
You guys did such a great job,

1530
01:23:03,603 --> 01:23:07,564
it was really hard to tell
who was our champion.

1531
01:23:07,649 --> 01:23:11,610
So, Number 8, won't you
stand by your MOC, please?

1532
01:23:12,612 --> 01:23:14,154
Winner is Number 8!

1533
01:23:15,240 --> 01:23:17,241
We basically split off.
We each built a mech.

1534
01:23:17,325 --> 01:23:20,160
So I built the pig mech,
and Chris built the cow mech.

1535
01:23:20,245 --> 01:23:22,162
So they're kind of like
Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robots?

1536
01:23:22,247 --> 01:23:24,289
Yeah, I think what
we really liked about the MOC,

1537
01:23:24,374 --> 01:23:26,458
and what made it really win,
was the fact that

1538
01:23:26,543 --> 01:23:29,545
not only did you use
the small pig and cow heads here,

1539
01:23:29,629 --> 01:23:32,339
but you also constructed
robotic ones from scratch

1540
01:23:32,424 --> 01:23:34,008
with the bricks you were provided.

1541
01:23:34,092 --> 01:23:37,094
The winner was, I definitely agree--
was really a standout.

1542
01:23:37,178 --> 01:23:40,431
I knew we'd have tough competition.
These are some really amazing builders.

1543
01:23:40,515 --> 01:23:44,351
I mean, I'd like to think that we came
in the top 28, which was pretty good.

1544
01:23:47,105 --> 01:23:49,023
Shortly after the master build,

1545
01:23:49,107 --> 01:23:52,693
Jamie introduces the new
Parisian Cafe set to much fanfare.

1546
01:23:55,363 --> 01:23:59,158
Then participants gather in the main hall
for the annual award ceremony.

1547
01:23:59,242 --> 01:24:02,244
Alice Finch's Rivendell build
is being considered

1548
01:24:02,328 --> 01:24:04,371
for the coveted People's Choice Award.

1549
01:24:06,750 --> 01:24:09,960
The People's Choice Awards
are those voted upon by the public.

1550
01:24:10,045 --> 01:24:12,337
We counted all those up,
and we came up with

1551
01:24:12,422 --> 01:24:13,922
Winners of People's Choice.

1552
01:24:14,007 --> 01:24:15,049
And the winner is...

1553
01:24:16,718 --> 01:24:18,177
Rivendell!

1554
01:24:24,392 --> 01:24:27,144
It's a pretty amazing feeling to have

1555
01:24:27,228 --> 01:24:29,480
10,000 people say
that they like what you build.

1556
01:24:29,564 --> 01:24:32,649
To have a woman win
is pretty unusual.

1557
01:24:32,734 --> 01:24:36,695
To have the same person win
three years in a row is unheard of.

1558
01:24:44,537 --> 01:24:47,664
One of the fundamental ways
we know about humans

1559
01:24:47,749 --> 01:24:49,958
and our history
is by the things that they build.

1560
01:24:50,043 --> 01:24:54,046
Maybe little plastic bricks
are a modern adaptation of that,

1561
01:24:54,130 --> 01:24:57,591
but really it's about
creating something.

1562
01:24:57,675 --> 01:25:02,638
We are definitely at the core
of what is human,

1563
01:25:02,722 --> 01:25:04,473
is the capacity to build.

1564
01:25:05,183 --> 01:25:09,228
In the big picture, life on Earth
has evolved through millennia

1565
01:25:09,312 --> 01:25:11,814
by adapting to the surroundings,

1566
01:25:11,898 --> 01:25:15,901
until the point where
we invent tools, technology.

1567
01:25:15,985 --> 01:25:21,865
We suddenly get the capacity
to adapt our surroundings to life.

1568
01:25:21,950 --> 01:25:23,951
So we now no longer have to suffice

1569
01:25:24,035 --> 01:25:27,246
with a cave we can find
or a tree we can climb into.

1570
01:25:27,330 --> 01:25:29,123
We can actually build our own cave,

1571
01:25:29,207 --> 01:25:31,208
and we can build our own tree house.

1572
01:25:31,668 --> 01:25:33,836
The moment
where we really became human

1573
01:25:33,920 --> 01:25:36,004
was the moment where we got this power.

1574
01:25:36,089 --> 01:25:37,506
It's also a mindset somehow.

1575
01:25:37,590 --> 01:25:39,383
It's believing that anything is possible

1576
01:25:39,467 --> 01:25:41,260
if you have the right tools
in front of you.

1577
01:25:41,344 --> 01:25:44,471
Sometimes we don't have
an opportunity to just be free,

1578
01:25:44,556 --> 01:25:47,224
and everything
that we have inside of us,

1579
01:25:47,308 --> 01:25:49,518
we never have
an opportunity to let it out.

1580
01:25:49,602 --> 01:25:53,272
And we're always looking
for something to inspire us

1581
01:25:53,356 --> 01:25:55,691
or to just give us some joy.

1582
01:25:55,775 --> 01:25:59,319
Being able to take your dreams
and take your thoughts

1583
01:25:59,404 --> 01:26:01,280
and materialize into something,

1584
01:26:01,364 --> 01:26:02,906
it's just a wonderful gift,

1585
01:26:02,991 --> 01:26:05,492
and I think the LEGO brick
has given that to the world.

1586
01:26:10,373 --> 01:26:13,292
In Idaho, Jonathan and Matt
are nearly finished editing

1587
01:26:13,376 --> 01:26:15,878
their masterpiece, Melting Point.

1588
01:26:15,962 --> 01:26:19,923
The X-Wing has landed permanently
in Frankfurt, Germany.

1589
01:26:20,008 --> 01:26:22,718
In Copenhagen,
Soren is still trying to figure out

1590
01:26:22,802 --> 01:26:25,637
just how infinite the possibilities are.

1591
01:26:25,722 --> 01:26:29,433
And in the Czech Republic,
Stephen's Curiosity Rover

1592
01:26:29,517 --> 01:26:31,393
is finally rolling off the assembly line.

1593
01:26:33,354 --> 01:26:35,272
Oh wow, that's a lot of rovers.
Awesome.

1594
01:26:35,356 --> 01:26:37,149
That's really nice-looking box art.

1595
01:26:37,233 --> 01:26:39,776
Oh, yeah, that's the great thing
about Cuusoo sets,

1596
01:26:39,861 --> 01:26:41,236
they have the best boxes.

1597
01:26:41,321 --> 01:26:43,572
- Oh, there I am. It's me.
- There you are.

1598
01:26:43,656 --> 01:26:45,115
"It's my hope that this model

1599
01:26:45,200 --> 01:26:46,700
encourages the public support

1600
01:26:46,784 --> 01:26:48,744
that is integral
to the continued development

1601
01:26:48,828 --> 01:26:51,163
and exploration of outer space." Yeah.

1602
01:26:52,999 --> 01:26:55,500
I'm glad Stephen mentioned space.

1603
01:26:55,585 --> 01:26:57,836
Didn't we start this film out there?

1604
01:26:57,921 --> 01:27:02,174
I promised we'd explain that, and seeing
how this is the end of the movie,

1605
01:27:02,258 --> 01:27:04,259
now is the time.
For that story,

1606
01:27:04,344 --> 01:27:06,345
we go to Pasadena, California,

1607
01:27:06,429 --> 01:27:10,307
and NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratories,
or JPL for short.

1608
01:27:11,684 --> 01:27:16,438
As engineers and scientists are
developing space craft ideas and missions

1609
01:27:16,522 --> 01:27:19,358
to go out and explore
and learn about the universe,

1610
01:27:19,442 --> 01:27:22,444
we sometimes use LEGOs
to kinda put together a concept

1611
01:27:22,528 --> 01:27:24,154
and see if it makes sense.

1612
01:27:24,239 --> 01:27:26,907
So there's a room here
at JPL called the Left Field,

1613
01:27:26,991 --> 01:27:29,743
and it actually has these toys,
sort of a kid's dream.

1614
01:27:29,827 --> 01:27:32,496
Has big boxes of LEGOs,
and scientists and engineers

1615
01:27:32,580 --> 01:27:34,623
get together and actually
construct something

1616
01:27:34,707 --> 01:27:37,417
that looks a little bit
like the spacecraft they want.

1617
01:27:40,630 --> 01:27:46,260
Lift off of the Atlas 5 with Juno
on a trek to Jupiter.

1618
01:27:46,344 --> 01:27:49,054
The Juno project is a NASA mission

1619
01:27:49,138 --> 01:27:51,890
that was launched in August of 2011
to go to Jupiter,

1620
01:27:51,975 --> 01:27:56,311
and we will use our instruments
to learn about Jupiter's formation

1621
01:27:56,396 --> 01:27:58,897
and other solar systems
around other stars.

1622
01:28:00,608 --> 01:28:04,194
But the LEGO system was not just
a part of the design process.

1623
01:28:04,279 --> 01:28:05,946
We're onboard!

1624
01:28:06,030 --> 01:28:09,032
NASA engineers have mounted
three aluminum friends of mine

1625
01:28:09,117 --> 01:28:11,285
to the hull of the Juno spacecraft.

1626
01:28:11,369 --> 01:28:14,705
The three minifigures are modeled
after Galileo the scientist,

1627
01:28:14,789 --> 01:28:17,958
Jupiter the god,
and the goddess Juno.

1628
01:28:18,042 --> 01:28:20,669
They're attached
to the main deck of the spacecraft.

1629
01:28:20,753 --> 01:28:24,548
They were made by the LEGO company,
to NASA specifications,

1630
01:28:24,632 --> 01:28:27,759
of a special spacecraft-grade aluminum.

1631
01:28:28,845 --> 01:28:30,887
Sometimes I imagine,

1632
01:28:30,972 --> 01:28:33,557
what are they seeing in their voyage?

1633
01:28:35,810 --> 01:28:38,020
They're able to see
this incredible view.

1634
01:28:38,104 --> 01:28:40,814
In fact, they're seeing the view
that we all want to see.

1635
01:28:42,483 --> 01:28:45,235
We're living vicariously
through these LEGO minifigures.

1636
01:28:45,320 --> 01:28:47,863
They represent
humanity in many ways.

1637
01:28:53,453 --> 01:28:56,371
Almost everything in the universe
is built from something else,

1638
01:28:56,456 --> 01:29:00,334
some fundamental building block
like an atom or a molecule,

1639
01:29:00,418 --> 01:29:04,129
and for me, LEGO represents one
of those fundamental building blocks.

1640
01:29:04,213 --> 01:29:07,341
And look how many things
we've built from this simple toy.

1641
01:29:25,109 --> 01:29:26,526
- Action.
- Action.

1642
01:29:30,239 --> 01:29:31,281
Cut!

1643
01:29:51,177 --> 01:29:53,136
Release the hounds!

1644
01:29:53,221 --> 01:29:55,055
Now, was that--
was this a joke?

1645
01:29:55,139 --> 01:29:57,307
Was this supposed to be funny?
'Cause I don't know if I...

1646
01:29:57,392 --> 01:29:59,309
I certainly don't get this.
Who wrote this?