It's been a good week for … Lego

It's been a good week for … Lego

I've always been a bit sniffy about new-fangled Lego, with its themes, characters and moving bits; entire sets that fit together like a jigsaw rather than constructions dictated by which blocks are available and fuelled by imagination.

In bygone days, the most dynamic Lego got was when one of the wee bits was hoovered up. You had to be a really keen Lego builder to venture into the dust bag to retrieve the unfortunate block. Nowadays, Lego is such big business that it has its own shops dedicated to the little coloured blocks (including one in Glasgow).

And last Friday, parents were dragged kicking and screaming to watch the first Lego film to be released in the cinema. Modern Lego must be good stuff after all, then.

The new movie, however, is facing stiff competition … from a Scottish schoolboy who has made his own Lego film. Morgan Spence, 14, from Kilbarchan in Renfrewshire, has made an interactive movie in his bedroom using a webcam, a laptop and Lego.

Called Disaster Island, Morgan's film was inspired by the flooding in England as well as natural disasters across the world. Tomorrow, it goes live on the British Red Cross website as the centrepiece of a campaign to help people understand the importance of resilience and the ability to withstand and recover from disasters at home and abroad.

It's sure to be a worthy blockbuster.

It's been a bad week for … Shanghai lovebirds

Chinese couples hoping to canoodle at the cinema on Valentine's Day were thwarted because of a campaign launched by a single man.

The unnamed killjoy started buying up odd-numbered seats at a Shanghai cinema to stop couples sitting together. It seems it was an act of revenge after his girlfriend chucked him.

However, other people joined his online campaign and eventually there were no two seats together for the main showing of Beijing Love Story on Friday.

The man who started it all said it was just a joke, but hoped people watching the Valentine's Day show might find themselves sitting next to individuals they did not know, sparking new relationships.

Or perhaps they went to see the Lego movie instead. They say it's a good way to build a solid relationship.