Building block iPod speakers swear they're not Legos

Generally speaking, we leave the Lego posts to Joel, but with him flying off to Costa Rica for the next week, we're missing our in-house expert on interconnecting, brightly colored plastic bricks.

So you'll have to take this Lego post without Joel's superlative ability to illuminate the latest Star Wars Lego set with a profound quote from Sartre. Perpetual Kid is selling a series of iPod Building Block Speakers. They aren't Legos legally speaking — Lego's attorneys have fervently fought the good fight against brand dilution for thirty years — and the speakers aren't powered, which probably means they sound pretty terrible, but at $25 each, they are almost as expensive per brick as real Legos, which should count for something.

iPod Building Block Speakers [Perpetual Kid via DVICE]

[#1 posted by celia , April 28, 2008 12:40 PM]

I actually bought one for a friend for Xmas simply because it's lego-like, and it was a total success as a gag gift, but it also apparently works fairly well too. Well enough that they actually get used from time to time, which is really all I can ask for.

[#2 posted by Joel Johnson , April 28, 2008 1:12 PM]

I'm stuck in the airport. There is no such word as "Legos."

[#3 posted by george57l , April 28, 2008 2:23 PM]

Hurrah for Joel. Make them write it out 100 times each! :-)

[#4 posted by koichan , April 28, 2008 3:31 PM]

*cringe* at reading this.

Like joel said, Legos is not a word and has never been a word.

It's as valid as a field full of sheeps, a yard full of gooses or a school full of childs.

[#5 posted by Rob Beschizza , April 28, 2008 3:34 PM]

Wankers.

[#6 posted by fylateri , April 28, 2008 3:51 PM]

LEGO you violating mutilator.

[#7 posted by John Brownlee , April 29, 2008 5:52 AM]

Maybe if you're a douche you spell it "LEGO" but I'm not in the habit of letting PR departments dictate the rules of capitalization in the English language.

[#8 posted by aluxeterna , April 29, 2008 7:09 AM]

hellz yeah you go John! And don't worry about the pluralization, either--All but the fanboys refer to the blocks themselves as legos. The evolution of language has always depended on common usage variations, and no PR dept is going to stem that tide...especially not this PR dept. LEGGO®™© can weepity weep their salty brand-dilution tears all they want, but they're waging a losing battle, because their prefered usage of their name is just so damn awkward. "Hey Timmy, would you like to play with my plastic bricks, by the LEGO Group, a privately held company based in Denmark?" It's worse than those sponsored recipe books insisting that you make a screwdriver with Tropicana Medium Pulp 100% Juice Not From Concentrate Enriched with Extra Vitamin C by Tropicana™.

[#9 posted by fylateri , April 29, 2008 12:28 PM]

>> Maybe if you're a douche you spell it "LEGO"

No, a Dane. It's an acronym of 'LEg GOdt', or 'play well'.

And I wasn't making a typographically pedantic point, I was shouting. I hope that clarifies the situation for you.