For comparison:

[Bricktease]

Nonprofit organization Stop Street Harassment (SSH) picked up the story and spread it on social media, pointing out that street harassment does not just come from construction workers and that it can often be more serious than a simple “hey babe!” From the SSH blog post:

Street harassment is normalized in our society, in part because it is regularly portrayed as a compliment, a joke, or no big deal in kids’ cartoons, television shows, comedy routines, movies, commercials, product packaging, and even in kids toys, like these stickers by Lego that are aimed at kids, particularly boys.

Now, LEGO has responded to Stearns’ cat-calling criticism, distancing itself from the content seen on the stickers. In an email sent to the journalist, a LEGO PR rep stated that the stickers were actually designed by Creative Imagination, a company that shut down at the end of 2012. It is also revealed that the stickers in question were discontinued in 2010.

Though the stickers may have been discontinued, they can still be found for purchase online, including through Amazon.

Stearns found LEGO’s response to be rather bland, and followed up with the company. His concerns finally got some real attention late last week as LEGO’s head of Outbound Licensing contacted Stearns, stating that LEGO “would not approve such a product again.”

LEGO has recently been designing and marketing toy sets specifically to girls. The company’s ‘LEGO Friends’ playsets have become a big hit, causing the company to focus more on girls as LEGO customers.

In all seriousness, this is way cool. Love those LEGO games, love Breaking Bad even more. I totally want to control little LEGO Mike Ehrmantraut. Damn, now I really want to play something that doesn’t exist…yet.

“I have no affiliation with Traveller’s Tales, LEGO, or AMC. I’m just a huge fan of the stuff they make. But seriously, if they all got together and made this game, for real, I’d buy it and play the crap out of it,” says creator Brian Anderson.

Hell yeah, Who wouldn’t?

Today, Marvel and LEGO released the first teaser trailer for Marvel Super Heroes. It shows fan-favorite Marvel heroes such as Spider-Man, Thor, Wolverine, the Hulk, Black Widow, Captain America, Deadpool and Iron Man. In addition to the Avengers lineup, the game’s creators have announced that the title will feature over 100 different playable characters from Marvel comics. The trailer also teases Galactus as the main villain of the title, meaning Marvel is placing the stakes pretty high for its LEGO-ized super heroes.

Beyond a few tired movie references, LEGO City Undercover still looks charming as ever. The game has also been getting mostly positive reviews with a few middling scores thrown throughout.

LEGO City Undercover will launch exclusively for Wii U on March 18.

LEGO City: Undercover has received multiple online trailers to date, but none of them are going to have much mainstream impact. For that, Nintendo needs to make sure its first new TV ad in two months does a good job of selling the console’s unique qualities.

The ad doesn’t exactly scream system seller to me, but preexisting Wii U owners will probably buy the game as they’ve been starved for content the past few months. LEGO City: Undercover isn’t alone in March, however, as Capcom will be releasing the highly anticipated Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate on the Wii U and 3DS later this month.

LEGO City: Undercover will be available exclusively on March 18 exclusively for Wii U.

The play sets, branded as “LEGO Friends,” star a group of named girls (Mia, Emma, Andrea, Stephanie, and Olivia) who live in a highly pink-themed world and interact with animal friends and each other. It’s Barbie-like, but with a definite LEGO aesthetic. One set in particular, called “Olivia’s House,” became LEGO’s best-selling set last year.

“We entered 2012 with high expectations for LEGO Friends but also with a lot of anxiety as we have historically never been very successful attracting girls to our play offers,” said Mads Nipper, CMO of LEGO. “That is why it has been amazing to experience the enthusiastic welcome, which consumers have given the new range, as well as know that we through LEGO Friends have managed to introduce LEGO play to millions of girls who had never received a LEGO product before.”

LEGO reported that demand for LEGO Friends sets was so high that the company had trouble shipping enough of the products. This is despite LEGO doubling the production for LEGO Friends sets last year.

LEGO stated that the Friends product line was developed over four years with the help of over 3,500 girls and mothers. The goal was to learn why girls had not, in the past, been compelled to play with modern LEGOs.

“The girls we talked to let us understand that they really wanted a LEGO offering that mirrors what the boys experience, but in a way that fulfills their unique desire for redesign and details and combined with realistic themes in community and friendship,” said Nanna Gundum, LEGO VP in charge of LEGO Friends development.

LEGO Batman 2 builds on the classic LEGO Batman by allowing players to take on the role of other D.C. Comics super heroes, such as Green Lantern, Wonder Woman, and Superman. It was also the first LEGO game to feature voice acting for the characters, instead of using mime routines and movie references to get the story across.

The Wii U port of LEGO Batman 2 will be using the Wii U GamePad to display an interactive map of Gotham City, and players will also be able to select characters on the GamePad. Players can also play the entire game on the tablet controller alone, or with another player that can have the TV to themselves. That’s a nice feature for everyone who knows one of the most frustrating things about LEGO video games is sharing same screen with a partner.

Even if LEGO Batman 2 is nearly one year old, its release on the Wii U is good news for Nintendo, which has had trouble convincing customers to buy its new console with its existing lineup of games.

The Chase Begins is the 3DS version of the upcoming Wii U exclusive title LEGO City Undercover. Rather than port an inferior version of the Wii U game, however, TT Games has created an entirely new game for Nintendo‘s handheld console. The Chase Begins will follow the protagonist of LEGO City Undercover, Chase McCain, as he begins journey toward undercover work as a rookie cop.

If the new trailer is any indication, the 3DS prequel had the same writing team as LEGO City Undercover did. Players can look forward to silly humor, cops-and-robbers movie cliches, and fetching donuts for the deputy.

The game is currently scheduled for an April 21 release, around one month after the Wii U LEGO title is released.

Marios Papachristou, a high school student from Greece, is working on an open source 3D printer made completely out of LEGO bricks. As expected, the machine is being built with LEGO Mindstorm parts. Here’s some additional details on the project:

This is a project aims to develop a special 3D printer made of LEGO Mindstorms(R) pieces. Inspired by the GNU RepRap Printer (open-source based 3D printer) and Arthur Sacek’s Milling Machine, this project combines both techniques resulting in a machine that, even though resembles the RepRap design, it drills floral foam so as to make three dimensional objects. The chosen programming language is about to be LeJOS NXJ (GNU). Currently in development stage (designing and building)….

Here’s a video of an early digital prototype:

Of course, the video only features a 3D model of the printer. Here’s what the actual LEGO printer looks like in its current, unfinished form:

According to the Google Code page for the printer, Papachristou’s plans for his LEGO 3D printer is to first complete it, and then build software to operate it. After that, he’ll write some documentation so that anybody can build their own.

If you want to follow the project, check out its Google Code and Google+ pages.

[h/t: 3ders]