The official UK LittleBigPlanet YouTube page is a celebration of user created content, with a section for favorites and featured users, where particularly inventive folks will have their creations showcased. Along with the chance for creators to shine, the page will also play host to tutorials from Media Molecule, cultural collaborations, the latest news, and other exclusive content, such as the Around the World in 80 Sackboys contest.

Residents of the UK can create a LittleBigPlanet level based on a real-world location and enter it in the competition of a chance to win a trip around the world for two, complete with £1,000 spending money, which at this rate might buy you a couple of coffees once the winner is announced. Contestants have between now and May 29th to enter their creations, which leaves you plenty of time to sit around procrastinating before getting to work.

The Official UK LittleBigPlanet YouTube Page [YouTube]

Least, that's what's inside them according to these brilliant illustrations from NY artist and toy designer Jason Freeney, which in a continuation of his series of similar pics for Lego minifigs and Gummi Bears show terribly scientific cut-outs of a Sackboy's insides.

Squeamish? You may wish to do what we're doing about now, which is covering our eyes and trying to remember the days when we thought all they were made of was fluff, cotton and love.

[thanks Jeff!]

Words are nice, but numbers speak volumes. Nearly 2 million users have joined the LittleBigPlanet community since the game was launched back in November of 2008. Of course many of those users aren't actively creating, with only around 725,000 user-generated accounted for, but they certainly are a talky bunch, having left over four million comments on game levels, many of which are requests for more. Mark Hardy, Sony's European Marketing Director for Content and platforms, is understandably jubilant.

"LittleBigPlanet is giving people from every walk of life the opportunity to express themselves creatively. The game is just the start. This is Creative Gaming; never ending experiences that take on lives of their own through their players.

Wow. And here I just wanted to make my Sackboy look like a space bunny. I didn't realize I was part of a movement!

You'll remember Maggie Wang from that last batch, and she's also the lady responsible for this Prince here, who's notable not just because he's a lot less annoying than his in-game counterpart, but for the little touches, like his dainty little claw-hands.

Sack Prince of Persia [Caustic Musings]

Sony has revealed, via its PlayStation.blog, that it has partnered with Mezco Toyz [sic] to manufacture wee plastic Sackboys, with an assortment of 4-inch toys debuting at the 2009 International Toy Fair in New York. The toys will be available "at select mass market, specialty and online stores across North America beginning this Spring" according to Sony.

Expect to have Sackboys shoved down your throat in many sizes, shapes and paint schemes, as Mezco will release a series of "retailer exclusives, variants and limited-edition Sackboys throughout the year."

Don't worry, Sony says it's still working on giving you those plush, huggable Sackboys it hinted at around the time of LittleBigPlanet's release. It just needs a little more time to get 'em right.

For an extended peek at Mezco's Sackboy line-up, hit up the PlayStation.blog.

Sack it to Me (Love is in the Air Edition) [PlayStation.blog]

Maggie started off just wanting to make her own basic brown sackboy, but soon found herself branching out, creating sackboys that channel Star Trek's Mr. Spock, Hellboy, and Daft Wullie from Terry Pratchett's Discworld series. Each sackboy takes her between 4 to 8 hours to complete, and when finished stands approximately 8 to 9 inches tall.

She does amazing work, and she's also willing to do amazing work for you, charging $30 for a standard sackboy to $50 and up for custom characters, depending on the complexity. How long before a custom-Crecente sackboy is born? *checks wallet* Oh it'll be a bit.

Custom Crochet Sackboys Galore [Caustic Musings]

Not exactly the sort of content one would expect from The Sun. Though, the article's intro seems laced with typical Sun sexual innuendo: "STUCK for something to do over the New Year break before you head back to work? Well, how about getting stuck in with those needles and creating your very own gaming superstar out of some balls of wool."

Maybe we're reading too much into that! We are sensitive, you know. The Sun teamed up with Simply Knitting for this simply cute LittleBigPlanet tie-up we've seen before. Just not from The Sun.

Knit your own little Sackboy [The Sun via Wonderland]

The adowable girl is reader Landon's niece. Landon and his brother are life long gamers, and his brother made some flash cards of famous game characters. He showed them to his daughter over the course of about three days, and the darling child was able to memorize them all and dazzle us all. Bravo!

*applause*

The "Metal Gear Solid 4 Costume Pack" - as first spotted the other day - will be available to Japanese PlayStation 3 owners with working internet connections and the patience to have actually set up a PlayStation Network account on next Thursday, December 25th, 2008.

The four costumes in the pack are Old Snake, Raiden (aka "The Original Sack Boy"), Meryl, and Screaming Mantis.

The costumes can be purchased in a pack for 600 yen, or individually for 200 yen each. Hey, this calculator must be broken, because it's telling me that a Japanese company is giving me a bargain.

That's not all — for just 800 yen more, you can get a "Metal Gear Solid 4 Stage Pack", containing "more than 60" stickers, "more than 10" objects, "more than 10" create materials, and "3" (no "more than") BGM tracks.

Hey, that's not bad! Now you can make a Metal Gear Solid 4-themed LittleBigPlanet level, turn your Imagination Hat on, and pretend that you're playing Metal Gear Solid 4 instead of LittleBigPlanet! Just make sure to not include any of the award-winning Metal Gear Solid 4 dialogue in your text boxes, because that could get you moderated into oblivion.

Cynical as I may be re: all this, man, I kinda want that Old Snake. I mean, not as "DLC" — I kinda want him for real. I'd sit him on my lap and ride the bus all the way around town.

[Dengeki Online]

The magazine was kind enough to send over some images from their shoot to Kotaku to show off some of the things they're doing. It sort of looks like they're going for the art, culture aspect of gaming, which is a HUGE plus in my book.

More pics on the jump.

Amusement

I have serious thoughts about doing one of these for Halloween. Pirate Sackboy!!!

How to Make Your Own Sackboy Costume

To take part you need to hit up the site, download their template, slap on your own design and send it to the email address listed. You need to be at least 13 to enter.

Entries need to be received by Sept. 30. The team will select a winning design from Europe, Japan and America within six weeks of the contest wrapping up.

While that design gets a free trip to the PSN down the line, the winner gets only the fame of having their character show up in the game. What? No free copy of the game, no LittleBigPlanet schwag? Seems a little cheap.

LittleBigChallenge [Pic of reader Brett's entry]

Kind of hard to tell how good the figures look. As NCS points out, advertising brown things on a dark background is not a good idea, no matter how much outer glow you apply. Still, they are living, breathing SackBoy toys, and that's exactly what we wanted. Yum.

SackBoy Plushie Pre-Order Page [National Console Support]

Adventures of Sackboy Trailer [Gametrailers, thanks PsychE]