Whether or not you are a fan of the first installment of the Star Wars prequels, you have to see what [Lorenz Lnggrtnr] and [Renee Hoffmeister] have put together for the movie’s 3D debut.
In an attempt to capture the essence of Star Wars in a new fashion, they constructed a large barrel organ from Lego bricks that plays the movie’s legendary opening theme when turned. The barrel is separated into four parts, each representing one of the series’ iconic settings in plastic block form.
Hoth, the Death Star, Tatooine, and Endor are all featured on the organ, with each environment’s structures playing specific notes from the song. As the barrel turns each Lego structure toggles a note to be played on the attached organ, via a “reading” mechanism built from metal arms and Lego tires.
It looks fantastic, and sounds pretty decent too. Be sure to stick around for a short video that shows off the barrel organ in action.
[via Wired]
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g5Lgcen-PGI&w=470]
I don’t know if that girl is just not cranking at a steady tempo or if the design just sucks, but that sounded awful!
I think about half of it was the weird speed at which it plays, and the other half was that the sound they chose was pretty awful and not very clear or staccato sounding.
I think there were also some sour notes.
Still very cool.
who gives a flying fk about a few notes being off or sour? Nevermind.. you apparently do. enjoy it for what it is a really cool barrel organ Star Wars Themed.
Some of us have a musical background. I’m sure you have silly, tiny things that drive you crazy as well.
The coolness level due to the combination of Star Wars and Lego and the attention to detail is already exceptionally high, we just think it would be even higher if all the notes sounded right.
A momentous occasion here folks, note this date as LEGO has finally jumped the shark.
i thought is was cool my jaw is still hanging open
Lego jumped that sharked a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away.
On a related note, I didn’t wake up before accidentally clicking Report instead of Reply. My bad.
Now THIS is “really friggin’ complex”
That sounds awful!
Come on, it’s amazing! The build is tremendous, and the mechanism is ingenious in how straightforward it is, and yet reliable, even tho it’s reading frickin’ lego!
The tempo is off, but that’s because the girl wasn’t cranking it quite fast enough. Someone with stronger arms would have it sounding great!
I’m with you here. The sound was neither particularly pleasant not faithful to the theme, but the whole thing is completely delightful and awesome.
Yep love the way the terrain plays the tune, but next time get a wookie to crank it. (HA, just thought of a wookie “Crankin’ it”, what a mental picture!)
I agree, I agree!
Ugh. You’re ugly. Your face – It’s a severe waste of time. Looking at it I’m reminded of little pieces of broken plastic burned by a soldering iron. You should consider getting it checked out.
Oh, I’m sorry. Was I being inconsiderate? Am I commenting where the saying, “If you have nothing nice to say, don’t say anything at all?” comes into play? Maybe I’m ignoring the advice your mother gave to you as you have done.
Hard work is reason unto itself. The lessons that were learned here can be applied other places. If you haven’t understood that after however long you’ve read Hack-A-Day, you should consider learning it now.
That doesn’t explain why it’s out of key…
She’s cranking it in reverse ?
HAN SHOT FIRST!
I was expecting so much more… sorry, I wanted to like it.
Same here. I should never have listened to the video. It just didn’t live up to what I’d imagined in my mind based on the article and picture.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7LWEohTQ930
“Professional LEGO player” … Now that’s a job title that makes me envious.
*I meant to type “professional LEGO builder”. But really what’s the difference ? 😛
Pretty cool. Given the comments and the hokey actuation scheme, the sound is actually better than I anticipated. As a whole, more entertaining than Episode I.
What are you looking for? Some kindd of grand operatic Perfection? For shame. Get off your duff and do a better one if ya don’t like it! I’m just dying to see your version! Then you can claim the right to b***h about it!
I’m with you here bud. Please don’t complain about something as epic as this.
Sure it’s not at the height of Star Wars theme music perfection but that’s not the point. Did we bitch when the guys who made Star Wars floppy disk drive got the tempo wrong…noooo! So why bitch about something as cool as this!
Because the floppy version actually sounded somewhat like the real song.
It’s impressive yes, but it seems like it wouldn’t have been hard to get it sounding a LOT better.
In the event I had a Lego set as I kid I can’t recall them, as I can the erector set Lincoln Logs and Tinker Toys. With no youthful reference please excuse me, I don’t get excited over project that use them.
Some people will find any reason they can to be negative.
This barrel is AWESOME.
It’s not the tempo. It’s slop in the barrel drive, lots of backlash. They should have brushed up on the half a millennium of progress on drum memory. Worm drive! Gear trains have slop. Some of the finest examples came out of Germany.
Interesting. I like it. Personally I would have reversed the drum, so that the Lego’s come up from under the key activators. Thus the drum would rotate clockwise from the prospective of the camera in the video and the key activators would have been in such a way that the Lego’s would have come up from under the activator, the end that comes in contact with the Lego’s would go up, and the other end would go down, thus pressing the key.
http://hackaday.com/2011/10/02/star-wars-imperial-march-played-by-dual-floppy-drives/
^favorite
cool. that’s it. just kewl
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HS0_UYjl79Q&feature=relmfu
This one sounded a little better to me
Do a barrel roll ?
Cool!
I think its in Munich in the Cinemaxx Cinema.