LEGO Heroes book now available
Posted by Huw,
There are dozens of books published about LEGO every year about all aspects of the products and our hobby, so it's unusual for one to come along that covers something that's not already been documented.
LEGO Heroes by Graham E. Hancock, editor of Blocks Magazine, is such a book. Subtitled LEGO builders changing our world - one brick at a time, it contains a series of chapters explaining how people are using LEGO to solve real-life problems, such as brick-built wheelchair ramps to provide access to shops in Germany, enabling a turtle to move while its shell heals, helping neurodivergent children to learn, encouraging seniors in retirement homes to socialise and collaborate, and also LEGO's own initiatives, Replay and braille bricks.
The officially endorsed book is well written and assumes no prior knowledge of LEGO. It's an easy uplifting read that will encourage thought about how you could use the brick to change the world around you.
It's just been published and is now available in digital and physical formats at Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk.
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14 comments on this article
Interesting!
The book has a Kindle edition - does anybody know if it's readable (I expect lots of photographs in the book)?
They need wheelchair ramps to cross an elevation change of just twelve plates? That’s not even two inches. I’m really curious about that one. In the US, the American Disabilities Act would make it impossible to get approved for new construction if the business isn’t wheelchair accessible, and any building permit for modifications to existing structures would require bringing the entire building up to code*. Even excluding that whole issue, such a small elevation change seems like it would be a tripping hazard for everybody else. Is this because these buildings and sidewalks predate the modern concept of handicap accessibility?
* My dad runs an all-volunteer maintenance crew at the Redford Theatre in Detroit, which was built in 1927, and has been playing movies since 1928 (yes, even during the pandemic, they were able to work within the restrictions imposed by our governor). When they resealed the parking lot and had to paint new lines, they had to change the layout to meet current rules (and ended up adding more van-accessible handicap spaces than required, at my suggestion, because they had a few extra feet that was otherwise unusable).
They also relocated their manager’s office to a fairly inconvenient location because the old space was the only real option for adding a proper ADA-compliant restroom (the original restrooms are each located down a short flight of about three steps, so in the past they had a metal ramp they could place over either set of steps, and then a few people would still need to assist the patron getting safely down and back up the ramp, which wasn’t fun for anyone involved).
Yeah, I do love this stuff. In my line of work I've met some prosthetics-wearers who were determined to own their situation (or: for whom it became easier to deal with their situation) by customizing their prosthetics. I've met people who started collecting additional prosthetics for different situations. Some coverered in tattoos, some carefully hollowed out to look like filligree, some all blinged up with gold-foil and gemstones (one person rebuilding their prosthetic into an Infinity Gauntlet), and yes, several prosthetics covered in Lego-studs or built out of Lego-bricks so they could customize their limbs even more.
I didn't give Autumn a drill-arm out of cruelty. I was just inspired by the people I've met. Autumn is my favourite Friend.
@PurpleDave : every new building here that wants to do business has to offer wheelchair accessibility nowadays.
But most shops and premises, especially the countless small ones in our many little old towns were built a long time ago when accessibility wasn't on people's minds.
Such shops often have small steps you need to master in order to enter. I don't think many people would consider those any more a tripping hazard than any other set of steps in public places. And for such shops these wheelchair ramps made of LEGO can be very helpful.
Very interesting!
@Ridgeheart:
I have no idea now what I was watching, but I remember seeing something with a rock climber who had some sort of accident and needed to have his legs amputated below the knee. When asked if he regrets their loss, he said no. He was more than a little reckless, and this sobered him up to his mortality, and he believes that if he hadn’t had that happen, there’s a good chance he would have had something worse happen that took his life. Anyways, he has special rock-climbing prosthetics. The “feet” are shaped down to the size of an infant’s, which allows him to wedge them into very small crevices that would be difficult for any other climber to get their foot into. The trade off, of course, is that he can’t feel the rock with them.
And of course, there are companies that produce special running blades for amputees who want to run track. I don’t know if there are different designs for running cross-country, but I know cross-country spikes are longer than track spikes, so it seems likely. Cycling could probably be done with a standard cycling shoe over a prosthetic foot, or with a special foot that directly locks into the pedal.
And then there’s Paul Degelder, my favorite shark conservationist, who lost his right hand and foot to a hull shark during a training exercise when he was in the Australian special forces. He has a molded prosthetic hand that’s useful for shaking hands and putting people at ease, but probably not much else. For diving, he switches to a pincer hook and a prosthetic swim fin.
When you get right down to it, it’s not unlike having multiple pairs of shoes for various occasions, except they tend to be a lot more expensive, and you aren’t likely to have to worry about a roommate or relative always borrowing them.
@AustinPowers:
Okay, that’s kinda what I figured. Retain the historical structure as much as possible, while still making sure you’re still able to accommodate everyone.
@PurpleDave said:
"…hull shark…"
*sigh* “Bull shark”.
@PurpleDave said:
" @PurpleDave said:
"…hull shark…"
*sigh* “Bull shark”."
Don't worry about the typo... B and H are very close to each other on a QWERTY keyboard. It's a mistake anybody could have made... and I at least knew what you meant!
@Murdoch17:
Nope, Apple’s autoincorrect at play. I did type “bull”, but it changed to “hull”. And it even did it again as I was typing the correction, but I caught it as it was happening that time.
@Trebla777 said:
"The book has a Kindle edition - does anybody know if it's readable (I expect lots of photographs in the book)?"
Don't know about the Kindle version. The hardcover has lots of photos, most of them adding to my enjoyment of the book.
Where can I get those Braille bricks? My sister would love them.
@legopete said:
"Where can I get those Braille bricks? My sister would love them."
Contact CNIB.
@legopete said:
"Where can I get those Braille bricks? My sister would love them."
The Braille bricks are a non-profit product line. They stated that they will not be made available for sale, but that they are donated. However, to receive a donation, you need to be approved. Someone who just wants them because they’re unique won’t be approved. A school for the blind, however, shouldn’t have any trouble making the cut.
I don’t have any interest in them in general (too few colors, some of the stud patterns may even be color-locked to one color, and they have characters printed on the end), but there are four I wouldn’t mind owning. These are the characters for Ch, Er, R, and Y. About a year after the Fukushima disaster, NOVA ran an episode on it. People were describing watching homes slide into the ocean, friends they’ve had since childhood getting swept away by the floodwaters, and just the general destruction of local communities. They talked about losing all hope in life. And then the cherry trees bloomed. Cherry blossoms hold a place of immense significance in Japanese culture (parts of Washington DC are even lined with cherry trees that were gifted to us by the Japanese government), and all these people who had just been describing how all joy in life was gone shifted to talking about how they knew everything would be okay the instant they saw cherry blossoms out again.
So, I ended up building a vignette I’d been thinking about for a while. It depicts a sepukku ceremony with two CMF samurai on a bluff overlooking water. Off to one side is a cherry tree in full bloom. In the water below are a few cherry petals. The petals form the negative space in the four Braille characters that spell the word “cherry”, such that if the water was rebuilt with plates instead of tiles, it would be possible for someone to read the word by touch. Having those four bricks to go with it would provide a nice visual aid.