Kakapo Lego (plus Tweets)

by | Jun 18, 2018 | Lego, New Zealand | 25 comments

Regular readers will be aware I’m a Lego fan. I didn’t have any when I was a kid, but I’ve bought some as an adult. Nieces and nephews coming along was really cool, because it gave me an excuse to buy a lot more. It’s amazing how much of it stays at my place … (For when they visit, you understand. ) Now I’m hoping I’ll have a new reason to buy Lego – a Lego kakapo.

I’m a member of the Lego ideas website, on which people present their own ideas for new Lego sets. I must admit I usually delete the weekly e-mails because I’m busy with this website. If I hadn’t, I might have come across this really cool idea more quickly. It came up in May, but I only saw it a couple of days ago on a NZ Lego fans Facebook group.

It’s a Lego Kakapo and the maker, who goes by the name “FlancrestEnterprises”, has done a b£ood¥ fantastic job. As you can imagine, it’s getting a lot of publicity and support in New Zealand, such as from Newshub, but that’s not going to be enough to get it over the line. I’m hoping I can persuade a few of you lovely readers, who are mostly from outside New Zealand, to give this project your support too. Here’s a bigger pic of the beast in question:

Lego kakapo

 

If you’re not already a member of Lego Ideas, you will have to become a member to vote. It costs nothing, but of course I will understand that many of you may not want to do that. You can still check out the Lego kakapo’s page though, which is here. That’s also where you go to vote.

There has been a lot of Twitter support recently too. Of course, I sent a tweet to my 7,200+ wonderful followers. Much better was Sirocco, who has almost 17,000 followers. He’s the Spokesbird for the New Zealand Department of Conservation. In a wonderful coincidence, he just happens to be a kakapo himself. Here’s his tweet:

“FlancrestEnterprises”, the Lego kakapo designer reports the following about the set:

• weighs 251 grams (8.85 ozs)
• 473 pieces
• 10 cm high x 22 cm long x 9 cm wide (22 cm wide when wings are extended)
• (4 inches x 8½ inches x 3½ inches)
• wings and tail feather posable
• free-standing

I’ve already got a fantasy that Lego will get together with this designer and produce the kakapo set. It will be so successful, Lego will cooperate with the Department of Conservation and Tourism New Zealand to go on to do a whole range of our native birds like the kiwi, kea, tui, fantail (piwakawaka), morepork (ruru), and kereru.

Please consider helping the cause!

 

Political Tweets

 

It’s not just the bit that the tweet below points out. Listen to Bannon at the end. He calls those people that he wants to motivate for Trump by treating the DACA kids badly “deplorables”.

 

Hillary wouldn’t have done it. Further, she says that what Trump was proposing would rip the country apart, and that’s just what it’s doing.

 

I’ve begun on post on this. As so often, whether it comes into a form fit for public consumption is another matter. But at least I can bring a few tweets to your attention.

 

 

Political Tweets: North Korea Summit

 

 

 

 

 

 

Gun Safety Tweets

And there are a$$hole$ out there who say Sandy Hook was a false flag operation. The right to freedom of speech is the most important we have as a society, but it’d be nice if Alex Jones and his ilk just shut up.

 

Racism Tweets

Where do these people come from?

 

Again, where do these people come from. How do they find each other? Why are there so many of them? How can so many be filled with such hate, ignorance, and fear? WTF is wrong with them? One question we can answer: “What who makes them feel they can be so open about their racism?”

 

Aunt Crabby gets it right again.

 

This is why I put up that Aunt Crabby tweet about Steven Miller. I think there might be one problem with this video though – someone please tell me in the comments – didn’t the Duke lacrosse players turn out to be not guilty? Or am I getting them mixed up with something else?

 

Human Rights Tweets

A couple more tweets in the ongoing story of the brave Iranian women trying to make wearing the hijab (headscarf) a choice in their country.

 

This video is really important. Please watch it!

 

(More) #KeepFamiliesTogether Tweets

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Religion Tweets

This is one of the sickest things I have seen in my life! Because of the teachings of the Catholic Church, this poor kid is worried that his dead father isn’t in heaven. At least Pope Francis tells him that his father is probably in heaven because the fact he had his kids baptized shows he’s a good man.

This pope is one of the good ones. He has always been prepared to say that good people, even atheists, can get into heaven. But most of the senior clerics don’t agree, and no previous pope would have said that. But this situation says everything about why religion is a scourge of humanity. It truly poisons everything.

 

The video in this article is about 10 minutes long iirc, but it’s worth the time.

 

Art Tweets

Staying with the Lego theme.
(Via Ann German.)

 

I love this portrait.

 

Very cool.

 

Fathers’ Day Tweets

It’s not Fathers’ Day in New Zealand. (We have it in September) It’s not even Sunday. But I know it is for most of you, so here you go.
(Via Ann German,)

 

Great dad! (I think this was up last year too? There must be some more great dads since then?)

 

He can’t help lying, especially in the service of making himself look better.

 

Scenic Tweets

As the tweet says: imposing.

 

I always think of lava as something that goes slow and you can move away from it easily. But this is amazing, and it’s real footage. It apparently hasn’t been sped up or anything!

 

Science Tweets

Remember that machine that patched the road? Here’s a similar one for railway sleepers. Science is cool.

 

Very cool indeed!

 

Interesting. I didn’t know this, though a knowledgeable friend tells me he’s know about it for a while, so I’m probably just ignorant. Anyway, just in case some of you didn’t know either.

 

Flora Tweets

Lovely.

 

Marine Tweets

Cute!

 

Creepy Crawlies Tweets

As long as it leave me alone, I’m good.

 

Other Animals Tweets

A good Australian!

 

How cute is this?!!!

 

 

Bird Tweets

Another tweet from Sirocco. Isn’t this wee white kiwi gorgeous?

 

Very sad.

 

This happens in New Zealand with sheep and cattle. But this is a new one on me!

 

Wow! Absolutely gorgeous!

 

Makes me laugh!

 

Dog Tweets

Short dogs got no reason to live! (You remember that song about short people? Well, you do if you’re short and as old as me anyway!)

 

Beautiful dog, but she really doesn’t want anyone playing with her pup!

 

Cat Tweets

Sweet guy, but there’s a sad moment.

 

Another cute kitten.

 

Gorgeous animal!

 

Big, brave hunter!

 

We have to have a kittens tweet with a dad today I suppose …

 

Lovely kitteh!

 

This is a cat with mana! (NZ version of mojo.)

 

It’s all in the eyes!

 

Don’t wait for it. It’s a GIF.

 

I sent this to Jerry Coyne (WEIT) and he used it this morning. But now I want it back!

 

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25 Comments

  1. Thomas Sutcliffe
    Thomas Sutcliffe on 18th June 2018 at 6:45 pm

    A great creation, and your idea of using it as a starting point for a range devoted to New Zealand birds is even better.

    Reply
    • Heather Hastie
      Heather Hastie on 19th June 2018 at 6:06 am

      I hope Lego agrees with you. I worry they might worry about creating a precedent with other countries. Imo, that might be a good thing to get going into the future, but it might not be where they want to go as well.

      Reply
  2. Andrea
    Andrea on 18th June 2018 at 10:38 pm

    Voted! I loved the kitty videos you found!

    Reply
  3. Randall Schenck
    Randall Schenck on 19th June 2018 at 12:21 am

    Lego, who knew. Looks like a great hobby.

    Regarding the criminal activity down at the boarder by the Trump followers, at least the main stream news media has gotten off their asses and are down there reporting. This morning I see the CBS news has sent people down. I was down in south Texas once but it was the middle of winter. This time of year it is normally 2 degrees hotter than hell.

    Reply
  4. Lee Knuth
    Lee Knuth on 19th June 2018 at 4:17 am

    Another great post. Love the Kakapo Lego. Great idea. Amazing what can be done with those little bricks.

    Reply
    • Heather Hastie
      Heather Hastie on 19th June 2018 at 6:14 am

      Cheers Lee. (Sorry about the name before – not sure what I was thinking!!!)

      Reply
  5. nicky
    nicky on 19th June 2018 at 4:56 am

    This is a huge (yuge?) post.
    I’ll start with Lego (a Danish invention). I had Lego as a child.
    – The Oatmeal made a nice pie diagram of Lego:
    5%: starting to build something and finishing it,
    25%: Starting a project and not finishing it because you don’t have the pieces you need, 70% cursing, because you stepped full weight with your bare foot on a lego-brick! I recognise that, very painful, those little bricks fight back!
    – There was this great Darwin and the Beagle project, did that ever materialise?
    – The Kakapo and other NZ birds projects is brilliant. What a nice idea!

    Reply
    • Heather Hastie
      Heather Hastie on 19th June 2018 at 6:29 am

      Yeah, that Darwin/Beagle thing was really cool. It got the numbers but never eventuated. I suspect it would have been a very expensive model and Lego were worried they wouldn’t sell enough to make it worthwhile. That shouldn’t be a problem with the kakapo because it would be much less expensive. It would be quite a difficult model to build though, making it tough for younger kids.

      Reply
      • nicky
        nicky on 19th June 2018 at 9:04 am

        Very disappointed about the Darwin and Beagle project, would have been great. I would certainly have bought it for my children (and myself, of course) . Let us hope the ‘Kakapo project’ will materialise.

        Reply
  6. nicky
    nicky on 19th June 2018 at 5:00 am

    Mr Robespierre is not really someone I hold in high esteem, because of his predilection for guillotining his opponents (officially: The Terror), I rate him even more evil than Mr Trump, but that quote is great.

    Reply
    • Heather Hastie
      Heather Hastie on 19th June 2018 at 6:32 am

      Same here. I like the quote, but Robespierre himself was a complete a$$hole. Up there with history’s biggest monsters. I was in two minds about using it because of that.

      Reply
  7. Mark R.
    Mark R. on 19th June 2018 at 6:43 am

    I signed up at the Lego site when Jerry found they were thinking about doing a Darwin/Beagle kit. I’ll vote for the Kakapo.

    Many adorable animal tweets today…ahhh.

    Good trump/kim tweets…I read an article about Rob Rogers getting fired for making fun of trump. How could a comic resist? It’s almost too easy.

    Reply
    • Heather Hastie
      Heather Hastie on 19th June 2018 at 6:52 am

      Thanks Mark!

      It’s disgusting about Rogers. He’s a great cartoonist and has produced some of the best about Trump. I’ve used a lot of his. And there are a lot of cartoonists out there producing the same stuff on a regular basis – you just have to go through my Twitter account to see that. Or get a look at my computer. There are even more there. I have c. 2000 in my collection about Trump starting in 2016. Not one is complimentary.

      Reply
      • Mark R.
        Mark R. on 19th June 2018 at 11:08 am

        2000 since 2016…not one is complimentary. ‘Nuff said.

        Reply
  8. nicky
    nicky on 19th June 2018 at 8:53 am

    For some reason or other none of the videos appear to work. probably a bug in my computer.
    Yes, lava flows are relatively slow. They can generally be outrun or outflanked.
    Compare it to the ‘Nuée ardente’ (glowing cloud) aka pyroclastic flow, the ground-hugging clouds of 6 -700 °C, speeding at 300 to 400 km/h found in Peleean eruptions (named after Mount Pelée in Martinique). Try to outrun or outdrive that. Pyroclastic flows are not the main killers though.
    To my surprise (my first wife was a vulcanologist, who pointed this out to me) most deaths occur when after volcanic eruptions, sometimes quite a while later, rains cause mud flows from now unstable mountains. They can cover surprisingly large areas and overwhelm whole villages or cities.

    Reply
    • Heather Hastie
      Heather Hastie on 19th June 2018 at 9:09 am

      In NZ most, maybe all, of the deaths in relation to volcanic activity on mountains relate to lahars which I think of as a secondary effect.

      Not sure why the videos won’t play. I had that problem on Jerry’s site recently. Restarting my computer fixed the problem.

      Reply
      • Randall Schenck
        Randall Schenck on 19th June 2018 at 9:41 am

        Speaking of volcano eruptions I was going to mention the other day, 15 June 1991, the anniversary of Mount Pinatubu. Not sure if you recall this one but probably do since it was in your part of the world. I see it was the 2nd largest of the 20th century and I remember it well. It caused great changes to the area for miles around. One being the U.S. military simply left the Philippines, closing down Clark AFB and Subic Bay Navel Base. It seemed strange to me that we just abandoned these places but that is what happened. I had been to the Philippines 3 or 4 times in the 80s and thought this a great lose.

        Reply
        • Heather Hastie
          Heather Hastie on 19th June 2018 at 11:25 am

          I do remember it, though not that well as there are a few in the Ring of Fire that we’re part of. But that one does stick out as being a particularly big one. I remember the climate was affected quite badly for a least a year because of all the dust in the atmosphere, making it much cooler. Plants etc didn’t grow as well, which affected food availability, especially closer to the region.

          Reply
    • Mark R.
      Mark R. on 19th June 2018 at 11:18 am

      There is a cool book by Craig Childs titled Apocalyptic Planet. Each chapter is about a certain way the planet has in the past and will in the future become “apocalyptic”. Boiling seas, expanding deserts, mass extinctions, ice-ages/melts etc. One of the chapters deals with volcanoes and orbital strikes. Some of the descriptions of ancient and especially prehistoric volcanic eruptions were truly apocalyptic.

      Reply
  9. Jenny Haniver
    Jenny Haniver on 19th June 2018 at 3:20 pm

    My thoughts on some of the tweets:

    – The lego bird definitely looks like a Kakapo.
    – That red-capped manakin is crazeee and really does the moonwalk. I thought it was a manipulated video at first, but no!

    – Steven Miller is one scary guy, the kind of person one might imagine pulls the wings off butterflies for idle fun.

    – That arithmetical construction, whatever-it’s-called, is very nice; I find it quite mwnrLLY satisfying to contemplate, but I don’t know why.

    – I’d heard about the flaws in Zimbardo’s experiment quite a while ago, too; it bears investigating. The study is still frequently cited without caveat.

    – It was touching watching that kangaroo nuzzle the man, crazy for hugs. I assume it was a kangaroo, and not a wallaby or wallaroo.

    Reply

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