I get that this is a family title, and blood or gore would be inappropriate, gratuitous or otherwise. But seriously, the wrathful spirit makes the Nazis line-dance? Really? They got permission for cartoon violence in the rating, can’t it just, I dunno, blast them into several pieces? Maybe a ginormous Lego spirit who comically stomps them flat? Do something funnier than this? Wow. Some payoff.

Lego Indiana Jones 2 [CBS News.com via VG247]

The Brandford Rant Institute of Cosmic Kinesis was founded in 1984 by inter-dimensional theorist Bradford Rant to study the possibility of intersecting alternate universes, and they may have finally hit pay dirt. They’ve been tracking mysterious LEGO pods that have been falling to Earth from origins unknown, apparently drawn to locations that contain a significant number of LEGO bricks and large amounts of imagination.

The scientists who maintain the Institute have set up a website to track the progress of their discoveries, having already posted a video documenting the discovery of the first pod, found in LEGOLAND Park in Denmark. That discovery only led to more questions. What are the mysterious words on the side of the pod? Why are the pilots so damn cheery? What does it all mean?

The next Pod is somewhere in North America. Can you help them find it?

This is obviously some sort of alternate reality game for some sort of LEGO product, and we’ve got a hunch that it could be for LEGO Universe, Net Devil’s upcoming MMO. When you start talking LEGO and parallel universes, it’s the logical conclusion to come to.

Visit the Bradford Rant Institute website yourself to see if you can help solve the mystery of the LEGO pod people.

I kid. That guy to the left is “Enemy Mechanic,” aka the Von Kaiser/Bald Bull hybrid who duked it out with Indy under the flying wing in Raiders of the Lost Ark. According to Video Games Blogger, the rest of the characters are:

1. Cairo Digger
2. Crystal Skull
3. Enemy Mechanic (pictured)
4. Indiana Jones
5. Lao Che
6. Major Arnold Toht
7. Marion Ravenwood
8. Mola Ram
9. Mutt
10. Native
11. Professor Henry Jones Senior
12. Rene Belloq
13. Short Round
14. Spalko
15. Willie Scott

I’m not sure why the Crystal Skull is listed as a playable character if in fact it’s just an “object” in the game. “Native” is self explanatory, and Lao Che was the gangster from the opening sequence in Shanghai from “Temple of Doom.”

LEGO Indiana Jones 2 Characters List [Video Games Blogger]

“So why did I decide to build an NES?,” writes Dave Sterling. “I think mainly just to see if I could. I’ve never done something I would consider ‘art’ or ‘sculpture’ in LEGO and I really wanted to give it a try and see if I could recreate something directly to scale.”

His creation is 1/16th of an inch of the actual dimensions — bravo!

MOCOlympics Round #6: Dave Sterling vs. Crimso Giger in Atari: A LEGO® creation by Dave Sterling [MOCpages.com via Brothers Brick via Gizmodo]

That’s it! People build Gradius ships out of LEGO for the whole month, post them on Flickr, we all applaud and say together “what a brilliant idea this was, thank you”.

Vic Vipers @ Flickr [via Game Informer]

Revealed during LEGO World Fair this past October, the statue is made from over 40,000 LEGO bricks, is 175cm tall and weighs over 50kg. The statue was sold on eBay for over $US5000 with all the profits going to the Ronald McDonald House Charity in The Netherlands.

4万ピースを使った巨大マリオのレゴがオークションに出品される！ [アタシ的ゲーム情報]

Odd choice. Batman has already had a Lego head.

Thanks to reader Davis who spotted this in Brooklyn’s High Street station.

Lego Batman [Flickr]

This begins with the standard demo sequence of NES Bionic Commando, but hang in there. Not only do you get the final level but – after the credits – Master D’s exploding cranium, rendered in Lego brick.

Bionic Commando: Lego Armed [Capcom-Unity]

The opening moments of this trailer for Lego Indiana Jones 2: The Adventure Continues portray a dance party concept I find much more intriguing than the actual game.

The Lego series lost me after the first Star Wars game was released. Batman was interesting and nostalgic, but not that much fun to play. I own the first Lego Indiana Jones game but haven’t been able to force myself to play for more than an hour. I guess the charm of the concept just came and went too quickly for me. Seeing classic scenes recreated in Lego form is novel, but when the core gameplay is more or less the same, it just isn’t enough for me.

Now, if they did a Lego Indiana Jones Dance Party game…