A Lego enthusiast and electronic music fan has built a stunning full-sized Moog Minimoog from the toy bricks, and impressed Lego so much that the company might – just might – put it into production. We applaud the builder's efforts, but wonder if it might have been simpler to recreate a real Mini…
We get Lego, OK? We spent decades buying it for our kids and pretending we were doing them a favour. We spent days, weeks and months building scenes from Star Wars and Indiana Jones films, paid our taxes to the Lego über lords in Scandinavia, bought enough plastic to sink the world, and endured so much 'Lego foot' – that stinging pain of Lego underfoot at 2am in the pitch darkness of your Lego strewn home – that we now have permanent scars.
We get it, right? But sometimes you put so much effort into building Lego models that you wonder – just a little – if you might just as well have built the real thing. That Lego Millennium Falcon? We spent months on it and, sure, Han, Chewie and us could have knocked up the real thing in half the time.
Take this full-sized Lego Minimoog as another example. So much effort has gone into it, so much detail, and so many hours – just look at the photos for goodness sake – that its builder could probably have created a real Minimoog instead, and had enough cash left for parts for an ARP Odyssey.
Yet we have to doff our Lego caps to builder Elliot O' Brien who built and submitted the full-sized Moog as a concept for production over at Lego Ideas. He explains how important the Minimoog is to electronic music there, detailing the impact of the 1970 instrument, the first commercially available synth, and one made famous by legendary bands including Kraftwerk and Pink Floyd.
"It became a cultural icon," Elliot says, "and transformed how music was produced and performed, leaving its mark across a huge variety of genres: prog rock, jazz, funk, pop and disco are but to name a few.
"This project submission serves to honour the legacy of one of music history's most iconic instruments. Captured at 1:1 scale, this faithful recreation replicates the look and feel of this legendary synthesizer inside and out.
"With rotating knobs and pitch wheels, pushable keys and a rotating control panel. The rear of the control panel is even removable, revealing the collection of circuits and electronics inside that truly bring this model to life!"
Indeed, the inside is almost as impressive as the outside.
Lego model designs are submitted through the Lego Ideas website to the Danish toy company, with 10,000 supporters required for a project to be considered. Elliot's is already at the half way stage and has even earned plaudits from the company.
"The Lego Ideas Team would like to send you virtual high fives and a big congratulations, as your Lego Ideas project Minimoog Analog Synthesizer has been selected as today's Staff Pick!" the company says.
As good news as that is for Elliot, it doesn't mean Lego is ready to roll with full production just yet, but that the project has 'wowed' it enough to grant it a time extension.
So, if you fancy getting your hands on some plastic Moog parts, spending an inordinate amount of time building something that doesn't work, and then blaming your children when your partner complains, head on over to Lego Ideas and add your support. We'll be first in the queue for it, along with Ralf Hütter and Gary Numan.
