image(s) (The LEGO Group)
There are moments in life that we have have experienced that put all the other moments to shame. These are moments when suddenly everything seems to come together at once. An idea is formed, a solution is realized, a problems is solved. At the pinnacle of these moments, there is a sub-moment. A sliver of time where everything just seems to click into place. LEGO recognizes that moment, and wants to help everyone who ever yells “eureka” to share that moment with the world and each other. So LEGO created a new portal to bring every inventor, artist, innovator, and creative person to one place. This place is called LEGO CLICK.
LEGO CLICK promises a rich community of collaboration on new ideas relating to toys, products and technology. The site itself is a social media sandbox. After the site loads, bricks come flying down from the top of the screen, stacking on top of each other. Each one a different piece of featured content from a different section. The bricks stack on the factory floor and last time I checked, are stacked into the sky being circled by LEGO choppers and planes. By the time you read this however, the bricks will most likely be through the atmosphere and into space.
The sections of LEGO CLICK are self explanatory, one pulls tweets from a Twitter feed with the hashtag #legoclick, one shows uploaded photos while another shows uploaded videos. The posts feed appears to be pulling in an RSS feed of anything mentioning LEGO. That seems a bit limiting, but then again - it is their house. Then there is a featured feed, which appears to be in house articles on LEGO.
The options for sharing and modifying the main page are plentiful and fun. If you choose to remove a LEGO brick from view, it doesn’t just disappear. A mini-fig on a jet pack races up and smashes it into smaller blocks. Want to share one of the messages on the blocks with the world? Simply drag the block to the social networking sites linked on the side bar. LEGO CLICK is all about sharing ideas, even if they aren’t yours.
The criticism on a site like this is clear, “another networking or social media website. Whoopie doo.” Except for one thing, it’s LEGO. LEGO could create a site dedicated to the design and manufacturing of thimbles and it would be cool. LEGO could make a site that does nothing but sling insults at you, but it would be LEGO and would probably be pretty awesome. A LEGO insult generator… hmmm. I have to give LEGO some credit on this one though. They are managing to bridge their physical world of toys with the virtual one pretty seamlessly. With the LEGO Universe MMOG coming soon and their very successful video games, it was only a matter of time before LEGO invaded the social media space as well.
image (LEGO Group)
In addition, they have created a free iPhone app for those times you have a click moment and want to capture it, then turn it into a LEGO CLICK moment with LEGO Photo. The app takes whatever picture you just took and turns it into LEGO, then you can upload directly to LEGO CLICK. Really, I think we all saw that coming when I said iPhone app in an article about LEGO. I can’t imagine it doing anything else. Perhaps blending your face with that of a mini-fig? That’d be pretty cool. Disclaimer: that doesn’t actually exist on the app.
Last but not least, check out this pretty sweet video promoting the LEGO CLICK community. It was created by people who do weird music videos for groups like Chemical Brothers, Coldplay & New Order. I know, that’s all they told me on the release. One word can explain this video: whimsical.
To share personal CLICK moments, email LEGOCLICK@gmail.com, post a comment to the LEGO CLICK fan page on Facebook or send a tweet with the hashtag #legoclick.
