Nostalgia Strikes: We'd Love To Play the Racing Classics on This LEGO Ideas PlayStation

The year is 1994, and if you could process conscious thought by that time, you surely remember the craze sparked by the appearance of the PlayStation 1 (PS1), a gaming console that was found in just about any home where the N64 wasn't. Thirty years later, the PlayStation name is still very much alive and cranking out some of the world's best gaming experiences.

As for just how iconic this console is, let's check out this amazing LEGO Ideas recreation of the timeless system, achieved by none other than GoofySwan099, a LEGO playset creator whose work I stumbled upon by sheer accident and how glad am I that I did; I was thrown back to a time when the cares of adulthood were inexistent. Let's see what GoofySwan has achieved here today.

Now, if you regularly follow autoevolution, then you've surely heard of LEGO Ideas. If you haven't, all you really need to know is that it's a platform where souls and minds like you and me can submit our very own LEGO creations. From here, those projects are then voted upon by other users, and some go on to be chosen by LEGO themselves to be put onto store shelves, the ultimate goal.

Well, GoofySwan's PS1 project has actually been up since October 2023, and since then, it has grown in such popularity that it's even gone on to be a "Staff Pick," meaning it has extreme potential to make its way all the way up the LEGO Ideas ladder. In all, 7,430 current supporters are engaging in this project (at the time of writing), and with 649 days left, the 10,000 supporter mark is looking very achievable. The question is, what makes this project so special?

For that, I invite you to take a moment out of your day and think of the good old days when you and the 'homies' or 'homettes' would gather at one another's house and, with just two controllers, eagerly wait their turn for the next race or level.

As you do, try and remember the way the controller looked and felt, play around with those memory cards we'd always end up misplacing, pop the lid on the console, but only once the disc has stopped spinning; better yet, pick up the whole thing, inspect it, and then compare it to what we see here today.

Sure, some clear differences exist between a PS1 and GoofySwan's project - it's a LEGO, after all - but the images in the gallery clearly show us why this project is as praised as it is. Heck, even the lid pops up on this one, showing us an image most of us can recall: the CD tray.

Even the ROM drive is in place on this one, and if I'm not mistaken, that lens most of us have stared into is also represented, not to mention an actual disc made of LEGO. I wonder what game GoofySwam thought about while creating this feature.

As we close the lid on this PS1, we'll pick it up and connect it to our TV. To do so, we have to turn it around, much like the real thing, and pretend to plug in the audio jacks, depicted in classic red and white, and yellow for video. Even the power port is seen on this model, along with that other bit (parallel I/O port), the one whose use no one knew. All these are clear reasons why this project is where it is today.

But there's one other important feature that GoofySwan has incorporated into this project, the controller. Sure, the proportions may not be spot on with this one; after all, it's a LEGO, but the layout of square, triangle, circle, X, and D-pad all correspond to the real deal. I do know what you're thinking: where are the joysticks? Those came in a tad later. Did you happen to see the memory cards, too? I recommend putting a number or letter on your card to know whose games are saved and where.

Yet, what I like most about this setup is that if you were to figure out a way to incorporate actual PlayStation hardware into that LEGO shell, you could be looking at one of the coolest projects in your house. With some superglue and working out the wiring and air-cooling, I feel it can be done.

Now, if you miss the good old days of carefree childhood, I have bad news for you: they're never coming back. However, with little projects like these, you can relive the nostalgia of what those times brought with them. So, if you like what you see, be sure to check out GoofySwan's page and give it some "support."