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Here is a transcript of the review of Lego & Spielberg MovieMaker Set in
this month's UK edition
of PC Format. Any errors are the result of my OCR program. (see a scan of
the article here
http://www.geocities.com/nicholas_allan/lego/pcf_lego_moviemaker.jpg )
Lego & Spielberg
MovieMaker Set
We love Lego. And we like movies. Lights, camera and action, then, for this
capersome kit.
WE'D FORGOTTEN THAT Lego comes in kits. Although it's sold as airports, moon
bases and police stations, the bricks always get mixed up in your
higgledy-piggledy Lego box before your mum's taken your birthday cards down
off the windowsill. As kids it didn't matter how many sets our parents gave
us, Lego was less of a toy and more of a commodity, like rice or copper.
Which is why, tearing open the Lego ft Steven Spielberg MovieMaker Set, we
were determined to look after the pieces.
It's a Lego movie set that comes with a Lego Web camera and instructions on
making your own films. You build the set, write your script and film your
movie with the help of the kit's simple video-editing package. The set is
made of 400 pieces and takes three-quarters of an hour to build. It's an
elaborate
earthquake-stricken street, featuring special effects such as a buckling
road, toppling tower block and stomping dinosaur foot to name just a few.
These are triggered by hand, with the help of sliding levers and clever
mechanisms that make you smile as you notice them while you're putting the
kit together.
The software is simple enough for kids to use, but powerful enough to
satisfy anyone wanting to make a watchable and amusing decent movie. You
capture live video or work with stop-frame animation, dragging the pieces
off the storyboard on to a timeline. Special effects range from simple
titling to advanced masking features and a great morph facility for melting
Lego characters into one another. The program also comes with different
sounds, such as roaring and screeching tyres, and the facility to record more.
At £160, though, the Lego & Steven Spielberg MovieMaker Set is too expensive
to buy for yourself, and you get the feeling it's just wasted on the kids
it's aimed at. The solution? Buy it for them, then steal it for you. Just
make sure they don't lose the bits first.
Nicholas Allan
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