Techies taken
with latest Legos
Copyright © 2000 Nando Media
Copyright © 2000 Associated Press
By MARTHA MENDOZA, Associated Press
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. (March 27, 2000
6:52 a.m. EST http://www.nandotimes.com) - Tom Stangl
looks up from his narrow cubicle and admires the dozens
of colorful creations he built from his collection of
about a quarter-million Lego building blocks.
"As a grown man, this is good
stress relief and it keeps my imagination going,"
said Stangl, a 34-year-old technical support engineer
for Sun-Netscape Alliance and one of thousands of
techies taken with this children's toy.
The Silicon Valley's fascination with
the famed Danish interlocking plastic blocks took off in
the fall of 1998, when Lego launched Lego Mindstorms - a
new generation of Legos that could be manipulated using
microcomputers, light and touch sensors, an infrared
transmitter and CD ROMs.
Computer programmers quickly hacked
the Mindstorms' code and began devising ever-more
complex creations: a miniature photocopier, a coin
sorter and a variety of robots that can bark like dogs,
climb stairs or carry the morning paper.
Programmers have figured out how to
control them with everything from their CD players to
Palm handheld devices.
"A lot of kids get rid of their
Legos when they're teenagers. But a friend got me back
into them and I'm really having a good time," said
Stangl, a member of the Bay Area Lego Users Group, which
corresponds online and meets monthly for building
sessions.
Lego Mindstorms Vice President Linda
Dalton, who works with master builders at the company's
colorful Novato, Calif., headquarters, said adult buyers
boosted sales 300 percent last year.
"We thought these were going to
be for kids, but what we're seeing is a huge amount of
interest from the high-tech community," she said.
Engineering teachers around the
country are introducing the toys to their students for
projects.
"There is something very exciting
about making physical objects come alive," said
Mitchel Resnick, an assistant professor at the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he uses
Mindstorms to teach students in his media laboratory.
"In the past, you had to be a
technical wizard, buying parts from Radio Shack, to
build your own robot, or to add a sensor to the door of
your room. Lego Mindstorms makes it possible for a much
larger community of people to create their own
computerized contraptions - and the sales figures
demonstrate that many adults are interested."
Indeed, Lego officials in Copenhagen
credit the Mindstorms line with the company's financial
recovery.
Last month, Lego chief executive Kjeld
Kirk Kristiansen - grandson of the company's founder -
said 1999 "began in insecurity and nervousness but
ended with progress and belief in the future."
The company said it lost money in 1998
for the first time since it was founded in the 1930s
because of increasing competition from electronic toys
and computer games.
But about 80,000 of the $200
Mindstorms kits sold in the first three months they were
on the market, and their continued success has pulled
the company back into the black. The company hasn't
released Lego sales figures since.
"We still have a long way to go
before our cultural transformation is complete, but the
trend has been reversed and the clouds are
lifting," Kirk Kristiansen said.
TOP
