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Lego Model of the Day
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2:12 PM
| Name of Model: unknown | | Created by: bhamilto1 | | Found at: http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=46437 | Details:
 If you're like me at all, you've spent some time recently complaining about Lego's new "Aquaraiders" line because it very obviously rips off their older Aquazone line, but this time the bad guys (the raiders) are now the good guys (who were called "Aquanauts" and later "Hydronauts" in the original line).
But if you're not like me, that all sounded like gibberish. In any case, we don't see enough underwater castles made of Lego. Even when we do see underwater castles, it's not often that we see them in the proper color scheme for the original 1995 Lego Aquazone series, and we almost never see them done by people with the funds to track down all the specialized pieces used in that line.
Oh, and sorry the post's up late today. I'm still working out the kinks of this thing, but I would like to keep the updates regular. |
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Posted by
Lego Model of the Day
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1:06 AM
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Posted by
Dan
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3:00 AM
| Name of Model: Bridging Sydney | | Created by: Ross Crawford | | Found at: http://www.br-eng.info/about/lego/displays/bridging_sydney.htm | Details:
 This LEGO reproduction of the Sydney Harbour Bridge was built to celebrate the bridge's 75th anniversary. The assembly was part of the lead-in to the Museum of Sydney's Australia Day event. Someone at the museum somehow heard that Ross Crawford had made such a model in the past and made arrangements with LEGO Australia to have parts provided for a new model (the first attempt at the bridge had since been dismantled). The bridge is made primarily out of large LEGO Technic pieces, but a bit of complex angle work was done to make the long and straight beams look like the curved bridge. The use of such large beams and difficult construction techniques also makes the bridge extremely sturdy. This model's impressive size and use of somewhat hard-to-find parts set it apart. You can see this model in person at the Museum of Sydney's "Bridging Sydney" exhibition through 29th April 2007. Additional photos are available at this model's Brickshelf page and the Brickshelf directory documenting the building process further. |
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Posted by
Dan
at
3:00 AM
| Name of Model: Rubik's Cube Solver |
| Created by: JP Brown |
| Found at: http://jpbrown.i8.com/cubesolver.html |
Details:
 One of the more famous Lego Mindstorms robots out there is this 'bot that solves Rubik's cubes. Truth be told, this is actually fairly simple - it's just a few Lego Technic arm assemblies with a limited range of motion hooked up to a Lego Vision command set (link coming soon (or in 2010 when I realize that this still says "link coming soon" - oops!)). Maybe it's the beauty of the simple design that makes it so exciting, but it might also be the fact that so few of us have three Lego Technic turntables. Granted, it takes a certain amount of computing skill and perseverance to get the program going, and it can be hard to track down the proper parts for this sort of thing, but the mechanics and building-related part of the deal isn't that difficult. The programming was done in Visual Basic. Let's be honest though - most people can't solve Rubik's cubes easily and are fascinated by the robot's ability to solve them.
Sadly, some cheating was used to make the Rubik's cube easier to manipulate. However, this wouldn't have been required if older (read: worn-in) cubes had been used.
If you want to know more, thorough documentation of this cool 'bot is available at its webpage. |
| Just a quick housekeeping note: today's post was titled "Robotics Monday" because I plan on only featuring Lego Mindstorms-based material on Mondays. So if you don't like Lego robotics, you can skip this blog on Monday, or if you only like robotics, you can make a point to only read on Mondays. I'm hoping to feature a variety of models here, and this is just a way of making sure that this blog doesn't get overrun with Lego Mindstorms stuff. Feel free to let me know what you think of this in the comments, or you can send an e-mail to legomodeloftheday@gmail.com |
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Posted by
Dan
at
11:32 PM
| Name of Model: Entrance to the Caves | | Created by: Nathan Todd | | Found at: http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=219536 | Details:
 Every once in a while, you see a model with a seemingly impossible level of details. That's the case with Nathan Todd's breathtaking Entrance to the Caves. The thumbnail image here doesn't do it justice - the building on top of the hill is just the tip of the iceberg. The cliff and cave are built entirely out of Lego, with a good deal of slopes and sculpted effects to give it a realistic shape. Closer up, you can see all sorts of plants and architectural details. A bridge has been built from scratch out of brown hinges, and the bridge spans a waterfall made from clear and translucent blue LEGO bricks. A staircase with quite a few odd angles in it leads up to the top of the hill. Inside, the end of a brawl can be seen around a broken table in a dining room.  Chains and skeletons sit in a jail, and rafters grace the top of most of the rooms. A walkway outside is complete with undergrowth and loose stones, and matching knights can be seen standing watch throughout. There's even a hidden treasure room deep inside of the caves. There are 33 pictures of this one, and they're all worth a look.
I'm not sure that I even want to know how much time and money went into gathering up the pieces for this one. |
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Posted by
Lego Model of the Day
at
3:00 AM
| Name of Model: Micro Notre Dame | | Created by: turgugick | | Found at: http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=229840 | Details:
 Remember when you first took a Lego roofing element, stuck it on to of a Lego brick, and called it a house? Believe it or not, there's now an entire field of Lego building devoted to such "microscale" building. Creating distinctive landmarks, houses, spaceships, etc in extremely small scales requires using pieces in unusual ways. It also allows Lego fans to build things that would be incredibly large and difficut to make in a larger size. This Lego version of Notre Dame Cathedral, for example, fits on a common 15 inch square baseplate. Note the clever use of fences, goblets, and gears as archetectural elements! |
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Posted by
Lego Model of the Day
at
3:00 AM
| Name of Model: CitroenDS | | Created by: MisterZumbi | | Found at: http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=235435 | Details:
 This Thursday, we bring you a Lego model that is perhaps a bit more in-reach for the modern young builder. Let's face it, not everybody has a seemingly endless supply of Lego parts, and it can be hard to find uses for some of the specialized parts found in today's Lego sets. MisterZumbi's CitroenDS uses new slopes and smooth elements that you're likely to see in the Lego collections of today's kids but not in older Lego collections.
Note the way that curved slopes are used for the car's roof and hood. The grill is made of carefully placed "knives" made for Lego people. A closer look also reveals that offset elements were used to give the base of the car a width that is difficult to create with Lego - and still connect that to a common windshield element. Although not all of us can build larger-than-life Lego models, we can all try using the parts we can get our hands on in unusual ways to make detailed models of our own.
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