Rebrickable

From the “I wish I’d thought of that” cabinet, a website that allows you to combine your LEGO sets to create other sets.

The industrious folks at Rebrickable have catalogued whole swathes of the LEGO toy-line and created a searchable database, so all you have to do is type in which sets you own, and Rebrickable tells you what you can do with them.

It’s bit like typing cookery ingredients into Google to get a recipe, except that cooking and eating a plate of coloured plastic bricks isn’t part of the deal.

The blog makes interesting reading too, where they cover subjects like LEGO Part Normalisation and provide a reverse-engineered insight into the evolution of LEGO. For example, the imperceptible evolution of a claw shape that address weaknesses in the mold design. That brick that snapped in your hands when you were a three-year old toddler? Not your fault.

The site isn’t affiliated with Lego in any way, and I’m guessing that eventually the floor will be thrown open to crowd-sourcing, so people can submit their own whacky creations.

More ideas like this on the interwebs are certainly welcome. Maybe it’s time to kickstart that long-awaited Mecanno revival?