Barrel Organ Made of 20,000 Lego Bricks Plays Star Wars Theme

Ok, I’ll admit that I didn’t even know what a barrel organ is until I watched the video below.

Via wired.com

In one of the better promotional stunts in recent memory, a German company has built a barrel organ out of 20,000 Lego bricks that plays theStar Warstheme song.

The surface of the giant, spinning musical contraption is divided into several sections depicting scenes from the sci-fi saga, including the Death Star,Tatooine, the snowy surface ofHothand anEndor forest.

The hand-cranked organ, created by Serviceplan with the help of Lego professional Rene Hoffmeister, works by having Lego figures on the barrel’s surface hit levers as the device spins around. The levers press keys on an attached keyboard, playing John Williams’ classic composition.

Pics of 7879 Hoth Echo Base

Stared at the pics for a while, but not sure if I should be excited… think I would much rather have some sort of Jabba or Cloud city release that my SW collection is sadly/sorely lacking in…

What do you think?

Via Brickset, originally from Lego.com Germany

Exclusive keychain with new edition of LEGO Collector’s Guide

Got an email today all in German, but here’s the Google translated text, with the paragraph about the exclusive keychain bolded:

LEGO Collector – 2 Edition – with exclusive key ring – Pre-order now

We are delighted you to the upcoming second edition of the successful LEGO announce Collector’s Guide.

The new, improved and expanded catalog offers the new, have appeared since the previous edition, sets many new information. Content was discussed in more detail the early years of the LEGO story of how the stone of the LEGO was that now every child knows. With over 900 pages of the catalog holds information and images available to more than 9,000 Lego sets.

Each LEGO Collector’s Guide is an exclusive LEGO key chain, which is available only in this way. The sophisticated packaging of the key fob makes the product a real eye-catcher.

Here are the facts of the new catalog:

– LEGO ® Collector second Edition – Catalog of all LEGO ® kits – from the beginning till today
– Release date: end of April 2011
– Compact Edition A5 Soft Cover
– Approximately 9,000 objects collected on more than 900 pages;

With exclusive, strictly limited edition key chain in fine packaging.

Note: If you wish to purchase only this article, you order it directly and most delivery charges to free http://www.fantasiaverlag.de

ISBN: 978-3-935976-64-0

Expected to be available from 04.29.2011

Order now, delivery of complete order will be immediately upon publication of the article.

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UPDATE:  It took a while to load, but here is the link to the pre-order site:  http://www.fantasia-design.de/shop/index.php?cat=c32_Lego.html – since shipping to Singapore is a prohibitively expensive EUR36, I’ll wait for it to be available on Amazon or Book Depository.

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Since I liked the 1st edition, I will probably get this as well.  Plus I collect keychains anyway, and can always make room for a new exclusive keychain, though I have no idea what it’ll look like.

Here’s the German text:

2011 Summer Set Pics from German Toy Fair

UPDATED: Toysnbricks feature the 2011 LEGO Kingdoms, Aliens Conquest, Ninjago and Collectible Minifig Series 5 set pictures without confidential markings from Spieletest, thanks to kevin1990. I’ll update more details and pics later when I’m home but the pics look so good I just have to share immediately.

Many more pics and videos are available, but I won’t steal the thunder by putting them all here.  Just click on this link to Spieletest to see all of them k?  Just to list, they have Star Wars, Ninjago, Aliens Conquest, Heroica (board games), Pharaoh’s Quest, Kingdoms, Atlantis, Collectible Minifig Series 5 & Atlantis pics and/or videos!

  

Close-ups of Minifig series 5 and Aliens Conquest start at 1:37 into this clip:

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