Lego Fusion

Ron DMC

Finally, this could be the step needed to merge digital and real world lego.

Looks decent, and pretty good value.



Full story over on engadget

syklops

"For most kids, if you simply give them a pile of bricks and tell them to build something, they go blank," says Pedersen. By pairing a game objective with the bricks, it gives them a prompt to actually get something started. "The games are used to facilitate creativity," she says.

Kids nowadays must be very jaded if they go blank when given a pile of bricks. My only problem was not enough bricks.

I like this idea though. I wonder can I download the app and play around with it with the few pricks I have at my disposal currently. I currently have about 8 clone troopers. Could I use this to replicate them into legions on my tablet?

Mr Bloat

syklops wrote: »

Kids nowadays must be very jaded if they go blank when given a pile of bricks. My only problem was not enough bricks.

I like this idea though. I wonder can I download the app and play around with it with the few pricks I have at my disposal currently. I currently have about 8 clone troopers. Could I use this to replicate them into legions on my tablet?

I don't know what kids he is basing his quote on but I can assure you, my kids and their friends have no trouble coming up with something if plonked in front of a pile of random lego.

According to the article, you need a particular base plate piece to build the model on. I presume this base plate is what the app centres on to get the dimensions of the model.

syklops

I don't know what the base plate does. It looks very complex from the pictures.

buildings can be up to 16 bricks high and 16 bricks wide)

I wonder if by using 16x16 the structure basically becomes a large QR code, which the app reads and turns into a digital object. Still a mystery what the base plate does though.

shedweller

Well my kids have a ton of lego and they just dont want to play with it anymore.
Maybe this might get them to do something with it.
The main problem for me is that they only want screens. Tablets and telly, thats it. We dont let them have unlimited use of them (far from it!!) but they are like weeds when off them and spend most of their non screen time killing each other! My eldest lad when made do something off screen goes and stands at the lovely worktop i built for lego and says "i dont know what to build!" Every 30 seconds and after a few minutes banging plates around he walks off looking to watch tv. Which means i have to hide the remotes and take power leads off pc's and lock them away. Then make the dinner while listening to the wailing!
Back in my time, i tell ya!!
What i have discerned from them is that there are too many different pieces and in too many different colours. When they go build something they always never have enough of a certain colour and so their project ends looking all multicoloured which annoys them. Video games you see have everything looking good but with lego youd need a container load of lego to build things that looked good! That said, i have gone off and bought a load of grey bricks for example and there was a bit of a building spree for a while. But you wouldnt see €20 worth of grey bricks in a project. Then the other lads wants them and hey, we have another row!!

Maybe i should spend time with them on the lego? Well my dad never played lego with me and i would build for hours on end! But i didnt have videogames...

syklops

What i have discerned from them is that there are too many different pieces and in too many different colours. When they go build something they always never have enough of a certain colour and so their project ends looking all multicoloured which annoys them. Video games you see have everything looking good but with lego youd need a container load of lego to build things that looked good! That said, i have gone off and bought a load of grey bricks for example and there was a bit of a building spree for a while. But you wouldnt see €20 worth of grey bricks in a project. Then the other lads wants them and hey, we have another row!!

I always had that problem too, but you figure out a way around it. I was always very happy with my castles. I didnt have enough grey pieces so I used yellow which I had lots of(its a castle somewhere hot). Still didn't have enough yellow so I had a foundation of black bricks for the first few rows which were the foundations, then yellow on top. Still not enough. So I built in arrow slits for the archers, which saved a few bricks, the drawbridge took a lot of room etc. More and more innovative ways of building bigger and better castles, with what I had.

I would agree to some extent that many of the pieces you get now have one use and one use only(The star wars sets are guilty of this), and don't integrate well with other themes. However you can buy bags of lego bricks online of all one colour very cheaply. If lack of color of one bricks is the issue you can try that, but to be honest, it sounds like an excuse to me.

Maybe i should spend time with them on the lego? Well my dad never played lego with me and i would build for hours on end! But i didnt have videogames...

Definitely spend sometime with them building something. My dad didn't play with me and I also spent hours but when I was older and got into technic he got more interested. If anything they might settle into playing Lego again if you play with them simply for the attention.

shedweller

syklops wrote: »

Definitely spend sometime with them building something. My dad didn't play with me and I also spent hours but when I was older and got into technic he got more interested. If anything they might settle into playing Lego again if you play with them simply for the attention.

On this point. I have in the past played with them but i have three boys and they all want me time at the same time. It escalates into an unpleasant situation within 5 minutes and they all bugger off! It kills me to see all this wonderful stuff sitting there while they sit watching spongebob do his adhd nonsense on tv! I despair!
But maybe this fusion malarkey might change things. I'll have to lock out all other apps while they play it though...

prospect

shedweller wrote: »

Well my kids have a ton of lego and they just dont want to play with it anymore.

Pack it up, put it away till the end of summer, then one day produce it one day unannounced.
Guaranteed they will play with it for hours on end because you will have re-introduced the novelty of it.

shedweller

prospect wrote: »

Pack it up, put it away till the end of summer, then one day produce it one day unannounced.
Guaranteed they will play with it for hours on end because you will have re-introduced the novelty of it.

Not to mention reclaiming half my kitchen!

syklops

shedweller wrote: »

On this point. I have in the past played with them but i have three boys and they all want me time at the same time. It escalates into an unpleasant situation within 5 minutes and they all bugger off! It kills me to see all this wonderful stuff sitting there while they sit watching spongebob do his adhd nonsense on tv! I despair!
But maybe this fusion malarkey might change things. I'll have to lock out all other apps while they play it though...

Well Im sure lego isn't the only thing where this situation is going to rare its head. Might be worth your while figuring out how to cope with it now when its something like playing with lego rather than waiting to deal with it when its something more important like homework.

Also be aware fusion requires a tablet of some form. In your case it could well mean you need to buy three tablets and three Fusion base sets which means it will be expensive getting started.