I love LEGO. It’s totally awesome and a collector’s edition AT-ST (of Star Wars fame - explained for those who have no idea) proudly sits on one of the bookshelves in my living room. I have always been fascinated by LEGO and fear I always will be.

There have been LEGO graphics apps available for years. Point your browsers at LDraw.org if you want to see the grandaddy of all LEGO design sites. Everything you could want, from applications through extensions to custom piece libraries, can all be found here. And believe me when I say there are a wealth of model editors out there. Bricksmith was the best editor I found.

So it was with a great deal of anticipation that I downloaded the LEGO Digital Designer. This is the editing app that LEGO provides for interaction with it’s Official Factory web site. With respect to functionality, I found Digital Designer rather awkward to use: when I wanted to place a piece on top of another, the program wanted to put it underneath. Exact mousework seems to be required. I was also quite disappointed with the parts library: given the number of models LEGO boasts at any one time, I should have access to a full range of pieces and colours. Goddamit! I want to build my own Star Wars vehicle!

If LEGO can sort out these (IMHO) inconveniences, I will happily use the feature that grabbed me the most: upload your model to the LEGO Factory site and then order it!

Now that is cool! And pricing can be done from within the app itself, so you don’t even need to go to the site.

So get cracking readers. If we ask the Queen Bee nicely, perhaps she might be kind enough to allocate some room on the house for a creations gallery! Or, maybe not…