Begging Apple to let another company make Macs for the first time since the '90s.
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Lego iMac G3 concept is unlikely to go anywhere, but it is very cute
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It's also called 'fingertip grip', but I think claw grip is the technical term.
Of course, the thought occurs: who gets to decide what's the technical term? I'm pretty sure that's what it's called, but I don't remember who had the authority to park that data in my head.
I always use claw grip. If I had to use a mouse with palm grip, I think my wrists would start hurting within hours.
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Mostly Ignorant
Ars Centurion
I do not now nor have I ever owned an Apple device of any kind. (this isn't a judgement of those who do, just a choice) That said, this is a major callback to my high school years and I'd buy this the second it was available.
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Citation needed. Did they really? One place I worked at used a security company named “Apple Security”. No problem.
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No. Thats a real product from a company selling the Mac, a PlayStation, a Walkman, a ghetto blaster, and some other classical products for less than £7 each. Photo taken at my home. You can pull the front off and it is filled with “electronics” inside. Half the size of Lego bricks. Buy quickly before Trump adds 100% or 200% tariffs.
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To be fair ... the only person that stopped 3rd party "Macs" from being produced has come and gone.
And the fact that the current leadership is not adhering to that former person's criteria makes a good case for this becoming plausible under the right conditions.
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Well, yes and no.
The iMac was a redesign of Apple's all in one Mac Classics. Nothing more.
The guts; although modernized between the mid 80s and the late 90s; were in roughly similar configurations and the main difference was a larger display with transparent/translucent plastics instead of drab grey, and they curve the backside like a giant jellybean.
The innovations came in the form of USB only (with no older SCSI or PS/2 or AT ports), no floppy disk drives (CD only for external data). Forcing the computer indudstry to move away from outdated tech a few years later.
Which was more the "first step" than the iMac physical appearance.
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For when you want to find an IP that will cost more than a Disney IP, look to Apple.
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I'm still looking for the reference to that one.
They do have a history of going after anyone with an apple for a logo, even when it's not an apple.
They also went after a company with a pear as a logo because "people could get confused". They also went after Swiss farmers because their decades old logo was an apple. A small movie theater company called Apple Cinemas was told to stop using "Apple" in their name (they originated in the Apple Valley Mall, hence the name).
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If this ever ships, how many minutes before someone has made a drop in screen + raspberry Pi + MacintoshPi emulator mod?
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What’s your start point? Set announcement? Instruction availability? Or shipment?
If the last, 1 day (shipping) 2 hours (assembly, test, and posting).
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The irony of which is all the legal trouble Apple Computer ran into because of the similarity of their name and trademark logo to Apple Corps/Apple Records (the music company set up by The Beatles), and subsequently breach of contract when Apple launched the iTunes store. (It all got resolved eventually.)
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macosandlinux
Ars Praefectus
In other news, Trump take Lego - custom brick orders no more available to US/Canada.
https://www.404media.co/lego-stops-shipping-individual-bricks-to-united-states-after-trumps-tariffs/
https://www.404media.co/lego-stops-shipping-individual-bricks-to-united-states-after-trumps-tariffs/
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Neither are Lego. That's why it probably won't even get off the starting blocks. They had to rationalise their entire catalog of brick types at one point because it got utterly crazy and was driving them to bankruptcy.
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Fuuuuck. I shouldn't be surprised, but that's still a huge bummer. Trump just hates fun. And poor Canada has been contaminated by our stench.
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Lego would have no problem making this using regular pieces and a billion stickers.
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Well you’re one person closer to reality, since I’m part of that LEGO community and just cast my vote lol!
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That's not true at all - Apple is perfectly willing to look back at design highlights
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Designed_by_Apple_in_California
This would be very likely to go ahead, not least because a lot of Apple execs and former execs would want it.
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The creator of this would make more money, if all of us that want one of these would pay him $3 for a part list and assembly instructions, than he would ever make if LEGO did make this kit (which they won’t both because there isn’t enough demand and because Apple probably has a cease and desist letter ready to print).
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Please explain why Apple would have a cease and desist letter ready. Do you think customers might confuse this model with a real Mac?
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TheWerewolf
Ars Scholae Palatinae
I'm glad they replicated literally the single worst mouse ever designed for it.
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TheWerewolf
Ars Scholae Palatinae
Seriously, tech readers really have to take 5 minutes and learn about trademark law.
That is an industrial design - which is part of trademark (and copyright) law. Under trademark law, a company that owns a trademark has a legal obligation to defend their trademarks. If they don't they can (and do) lose ownership of said trademark. That's why Xerox worked so hard to get people to stop calling photocopying "xeroxing" and Proctor-Gamble worked to get us to stop referring to tissues as "Kleenex".
If Apple didn't issue a C&D, they would be ceding permission for anyone to use that design, which could end up with them, also losing the "iMac" name and all sorts of other knock-on effects.
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It’s probably due to ending the “de minimis” exemption that did it. Good riddance, though, considering the exemption was originally made for the convenience of Americans buying occasional mail order items from abroad, where the total lost tariff revenue was also de minimis, and it recently turned into a way for multi-billion-dollar foreign retailers to sell stuff to Americans in bulk while avoiding the the tariffs that retailers who fulfill orders from domestic locations have to pay.
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Xerox and Kleenex were avoiding the terms becoming generic. Is someone using the term “Apple” for the name of a movie theater really creating a danger of the term Apple becoming the generic term for a computing device?
If you’re going to lecture people about educating themselves, maybe you should bother knowing wtf you’re talking about.
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It is not that simple. Plus, all Apple would have to do is provide a license agreement that had very little cost to Lego or to e.g. 1-bit rainbow and let them continue.
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I have most of the LEGO from when I was a kid, which includes roof pieces including peaks, windows and these flat trees whose base will attach to the standard LEGO blocks even though they don't have the standard look to them. There's also a bunch of base plates, that are sizes I don't think they've made in decades.
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Bricklink is becoming part of LEGO. The accounts are merging shortly. I don't know exactly when, but LEGO acquired the company.
(Edit) Also, Bricklink has been essentially a market place for people to sell LEGO they have to others.
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Trademark is also tied specifically to the industry being trademarked. (aka their market) Which is one reason why this exploration will not get a C&D as LEGO bricks are not computers. Also, this is a single rendering and not a marketed product, (Non-commercial use) so there are at least 2 good defenses against a trademark lawsuit right there. (Maybe you need to take that 5 minutes you mentioned since it took less than that for me to look up the wording for the defenses listed here.) If LEGO were to decide they might make this as a kit, they would probably either get buy-in from Apple or not make the product anyway.
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I think if Lego were to decide to go for it, Apple would most likely jump on board.
This is pure marketing, promoting Apple as a brand. Not a competing product.
Just like the Harry Potter franchise.
Incidentally, afaik the only permission Lego would require is to put the Apple logo on the box and set.
Fingers crossed.
This is pure marketing, promoting Apple as a brand. Not a competing product.
Just like the Harry Potter franchise.
Incidentally, afaik the only permission Lego would require is to put the Apple logo on the box and set.
Fingers crossed.
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Yep. It's not some random accessory, it's a known, relatively prestigious and high-quality product that gives some marketing shine to Apple with no potential to dilute Apple's first-party products or give users a bad product experience. Hard to see any reason for them not to get on board.
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Nazonohito
Ars Praetorian
With the way Lego has been pricing things recently, it'd probably be cheaper to buy a functional iMac. Of course if there's one segment of consumers used to being royally ripped-off, it'd be Apple customers.
And before y'all grab your pitchforks and torches, I'm just a bit salty because last week my "swimproof" Apple watch died while doing some light swimming,... And - despite being advertised as "swimproof" and "suitable for swimming and snorkeling" - because it was water damaged the repair quote was almost as much as buying a new one.
So, being an Apple customer, of course I bought a new one... A better one... A more expensive one...
Fuck... Yeah, give me that Lego set!
And before y'all grab your pitchforks and torches, I'm just a bit salty because last week my "swimproof" Apple watch died while doing some light swimming,... And - despite being advertised as "swimproof" and "suitable for swimming and snorkeling" - because it was water damaged the repair quote was almost as much as buying a new one.
So, being an Apple customer, of course I bought a new one... A better one... A more expensive one...
Fuck... Yeah, give me that Lego set!
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The biggest sets are getting bigger and there are a few more license deals to account for, but Lego prices per piece have been remarkably consistent over the years. If anything, System and Technic sets are a bit below the long-term inflation-adjusted average.
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3 days later, this design has almost 8000 votes! I won’t be surprised if it gets to 10000 soon.
Edit a bit later it is at #30 on the most-votes list. I won’t be surprised if it makes it over the line in the next few days, this article has to have helped a lot
Edit a bit later it is at #30 on the most-votes list. I won’t be surprised if it makes it over the line in the next few days, this article has to have helped a lot
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I hope not. It was an awful business decision. It was based on a fundamental misunderstanding of how the PC market worked.
Apple are much better off controlling the whole stack, and I would argue the end user experience is better for it as well.
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Yeah, I was thinking about that. Microsoft didn't sell PCs, its health came from selling copies of the OS to everyone, so the stronger the ecosystem is, the more money they make.
With Apple, they'd be directly competing with their own customers, so the incentives are wrong. To the degree that third parties became prosperous, Apple would be selling fewer Macs. The better the ecosystem got, the worse Apple itself would do.
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It's not quite what you want but Lego did recently release the Pixar lamp:
https://www.lego.com/en-us/product/disney-pixar-luxo-jr-21357
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Nazonohito
Ars Praetorian
As an AFOL whose living room (much to the annoyance of his wife) is lined with shelves full of Lego, I am acutely aware of how Lego has been priced over the years. And yes, historically, the prices have remained relatively consistent once factored for inflation - until recently.
(I have my own issues using price-per-piece as a metric since - for example - an 8x12 plate, a 1x1 stud, and a Technic shock absorber are hardly equal in production cost or value. So I prefer evaluating value on a price-per-gram basis, as it tends to be a bit more balanced. But I do recognize that price-per-piece is the most common metric used among Lego collectors, so will use that here.)
For a long time, 10₵/piece was considered a fair average value. But, while prices have been edging up slightly over the past few years (with many sets coming in at @11~13₵/piece), this summer was a sea change moment.
A not insignificant number of the summer 2025 sets are pushing 15~20₵/piece! And many of the sets which are based on licensed IPs are smaller than older sets from the same IP - using fewer pieces and smaller pieces (many of these sets also have a pretty significant number of 1x1 and 1x2 elements in them, and sticker sheets rather than prints, further skewing the price-per-piece metric).
While you could argue the licensing is to blame, many of these sets are based on existing licenses that aren't due to be renegotiated for several more years. Tariffs could also be a factor, but it wouldn't explain such significant price increases - we're not talking 10~15% increases, we're talking many sets being priced 30~50% higher than they normally would/should be. (These price increases are also happening in multiple regions, and not limited to countries that are imposing tariffs - so that further undermines the tariff justification.)
It's so bad that many Lego fans are even review-bombing certain sets on Lego because of the current prices.
So yeah, to quote the bard, "Something is rotten in the state of Denmark."
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