Sunday 10 December 2006

IN THE BEGINNING WAS THE BRICK

Yesterday: The world of M C Escher rebuilt in LEGO Bricks. Today: The Gospel of Jesus Christ According to LEGO…



You can experience the whole story (complete with kings, shepherds, animals and angels) at...


The Brick Testament is the work of the self-styled ‘Reverend’ Brendan Powell Smith, who is (among other things) an atheist, “a closet heterosexual” and “the most trusted name in eschatology”. The 'Rev' is dedicated to the curious (yet curiously fascinating) project of illustrating the entire Bible using LEGO bricks.

Many of the most famous stories have already been built…



And the Reverend thoughtfully adds a ‘rating guide’ to each story utilising the letters N S V & C (for Nudity, Sexual Content, Violence and Cursing) which, one way or another, pretty much feature in every story…


And proving that we never outgrow our love of the plastic brick is the latest 250GB USB2 hard-drive from LaCie with that all-too familiar shape (available in three colours) and called The Brick Stack & Play hard disk.


And, if you want to know how it all started, and what happened along the way, well there’s ‘stacks’ of information on the Official LEGO site.

2 comments:

Brian Sibley said...

Clarification: The Brick Testament is NOT a "kit" - it's just one man doing the same stuff as the guy who made Escher pictures in LEGO, although he does seem to use bits from other genuine LEGO kits such as those featuring pirates, cowboys, space men, romans and, probably, countrymen...

Some figures look as if they've been specially decorated or amended "in the style of", but they really aren't selling Bible LEGO kits... Honest!!

In fact, the founder of LEGO, Danish carpenter, Ole Kirk Christiansen, was a devoutly religious man and probably wouldn't be at all amused by this exercise...

Your comments on uses of toys like LEGO (I grew up with Bako Building Outfits) to expand rather than limit the creative imagination are, of course, absolutely spot on...

How many times have we all been amused by the very young child casting a toy aside in order to play with the box? Or is that only a memory from our impoverished childhoods when the box may well have been more interesting than the toy? Or, indeed, when the box may have actually BEEN the present! ;-)

Anonymous said...

I completely agree with Schooge. Whilst these scenes from the Bible are amusing in an anecdotal sort of way, they do defeat the object of Lego as I see it: appealing to the creative ability of kids (young & old!) to build the most amazing stuff with just the BRICKS.
Remember the wonderful creations in department store windows such as Debenhams & Handleys in the 1960's? They were all done with bricks of various shapes & colours and were mind boggling... I used to spend hours drooling over them as a child.