Let’s face it. We couldn’t ALWAYS play video games, right? I mean, growing up, we all had to have some other hobby that didn’t involve mashing buttons while staring at a television set, right? Like a lot of people out there, I also grew up making incredible creations with the popular Lego blocks. (Actually, I had to play with those gigantic buckets of Tyco Super Blocks. As Betty White used to say, “They’ll call you picky too!”) Well one man from Lancaster, Pennsylvania, took his passion for both video games as well as Legos, and created one fantastic, fully operational, and frankly, humongous NES controller, made entirely out of the famous building blocks.

While we have all seen extra-large NES controllers made into things like coffee tables in the past, with a total completion time of about four months, Baron von Brunk created this totally original, five foot long, 100% compatible NES controller, totally out of Legos. Even 64 years after the popular building block brand was created (way back in 1949), people all over the world still manage to create original worlds and toys with them. So mixing the two pastimes together, brought us this incredible creation. He started the project this past July, to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the release of the original “Legend Of Zelda” cartridge for the Nintendo Entertainment System.

Directly from Baron von Brunk’s official webpage:

“This titanic brute has been gradually worked on since the past months and finally completed towards the end of 2012. Various issues, such as work-related and/or financial problems halted its production, but nonetheless I managed to complete this giant controller, in both its LEGO structure as well as electrical functionality.”

The controller is built mostly from light grey Lego brick walls, and has removable plates for the top. He created custom glossy style stickers for the labels to make it look more authentic. The inside of the massive creation is for the most part hollowed out, which allows support for the buttons, which are in themselves spring loaded, using Lego Technic pieces to allow the buttons to function. (These also help prevent the large buttons from sticking.) There are smaller push buttons soldered to the physical circuit boards of an original Nintendo controller, which by the use of a USB converter, links to a computer which is set up to play ROM images on a computer system.

Baron von Brunk has on his website, a huge story about the history of the device, which I simply cannot compete with, so I have included a link so you can continue to read the full story. It’s quite an amazing feat, and shows that anyone with a huge passion for anything can seriously accomplish anything. He’s also put a video up on Youtube, showing this masterpiece in action. Now if you will excuse me, I’m going to have to play a round of Super Mario Brothers, but using my tiny NES Advantage. (And for those that didn’t get the Betty White reference, I threw in a video clip of the commercial she did for Tyco back in 1986. Is there anything she can’t sell?)

Baron von Brunk’s Lego NES Controller Page:

http://vonbrunk.tumblr.com/post/39417748814/nes

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ocjNqbiUacU]

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ERmj3SbNLw]