Robotics Monday: Continuously Variable Pneumatic Control

Name of Model: Continuously Variable Pneumatic Control

Created by: mbellis

Found at: http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=405269

Details: Ever wanted to precisely control pneumatic actuators without using up extra sensors? Here's a technique for how. It does take two of the pneumatic valves, but it's a clever (and well-documented) design. There are some other goodies hidden elsewhere in the builder's Brickshelf gallery as well. It's well worth a look in there for other building techniques and ideas (Technic and otherwise). The pneumatic system in particular is a gem, and I can't wait to see a renaissance of pneumatics-enhanced creations following the new commercial release of pneumatics elements next year (they've been available in the past, but they were discontinued for a few years - the one set currently featuring pneumatic parts is only available to the educational market).

XKCD Comics in Minifig Form

Name of Model: Parking (also below: Grownups)

Created by: Azaghal Gabilzaramul (the second one is by Chris Doyle)

Found at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/mooseteg/4108022884/ and http://www.reasonablyclever.com/bh/bonus1.html

Details: XKCD has recently made some waves in the LEGO fan community due to a comic strip that uses LEGO as a metaphor. While the XKCD webcomic can be a bit racier than most of the things I link to here, I personally find it to be brilliant. Unlike most of the people just discovering it, I'm well aware that there are also extra punchlines hidden in the title attribute (that's my polite way of saying that if you saw that strip on another LEGO blog, you've not read the entire comic). You should be able to hold your cursor over the image to make the title appear - you can try it out on the images below in this post. Although that one strip has been getting all of the attention, there are a few other classic XKCD comic strips that have actually been rendered into LEGO form, one of which is today's model of the day. Here's the minifig version of #562, "Parking": (zoom in) Another strip was made by Chris Doyle of Reasonably Clever fame (Reasonably Clever is a webcomic entirely populated by minifgs). He took on #150, "Grownups":

I was all set to go with posting this as Tuesday's model of the day, but since it's only two clicks from this post to something I figure most people don't want their kids to see, I've decided to bury it a little by running it for the weekend. Consider Doyle's strip to be Saturday's LMOTD and the one featured more prominently above to be Sunday's. Oh, and if you are reading this and under the age of 18, just skip the more provocative comics and instead try to teach yourself perl, because the man making the comics is completely right.

Breakfast Television

Breakfast Television show

Featuring Janey Red Brick

Found at: http://news.lugnet.com/loc/ca/?n=2373 and http://www.flickr.com/photos/janeyredbrick/sets/72157622664755567/

Details: Prominent Canadian AFOL (Adult Fan of LEGO) Janey Red Brick made an appearance earlier this week on a television show called "Breakfast Television". Her report and more photos from the event can be found at the links above.

LEGOLAND California honors Vietnam Veterans in Miniland

Name of Model: Vietnam War Memorial

Created by LEGOLAND California Master Builders

Found at: http://modelbuildingsecrets.wordpress.com/2009/11/11/legoland-california-honors-vietnam-veterans-in-miniland/

Details: Mariann Asanuma brings news that LEGOLAND California has updated Miniland Washington DC to feature a miniature version of the Vietnam War Memorial. It appears that this will be a permanent part of miniland from here on out, but it was brought in yesterday to celebrate Veteran's Day / Armistice Day. The "technique" here is surprisingly simple - the "names" on this version of the wall are an optical illusion caused by light hitting stacks of black plates - it's a bit more parts-intensive than most of us would try, but it works surprisingly well.

Nintendo Entertainment System

Name of Model: MOCOlympics Round #6: Dave Sterling vs. Crimso Giger in Atari

Created by: Dave Sterling

Found at: http://new.mocpages.com/moc.php/162930

Details: I'm well aware that there are newer "gaming consoles" out there, but to me, the original NES (Nintendo Entertainment System) will always be the best. Tetris remains a favorite of mine (on those rare occasions when I do partake in gaming, I usually grab Tetris for Gameboy - in black and white, of course). While the mosaic of a game of Tetris in progress isn't quite perfect, the rest of this LEGO-based rendition of the classic game set-up is very accurate, including the controllers and game cartridge. Did I mention that the buttons on the console are actually spring-loaded or that you can really load the cartridge into the console? Forget game console cases, this is how video-game themed LEGO sculptures should be done.

An Explanation (and two models)

A brief word to explain my absence this past week - I got sick and was unable to finish a LEGO project with a deadline on time. In the interest of getting that project finished and installed, I decided to let the blog slide. My new creation, which I suppose we should treat as this Tuesday's model of the day, can now be found on my personal projects blog. It will be on display at the LEGO store in Raleigh, NC through the end of the month. I had not intended to let things get so far behind - in fact, there was a phenomenal YouTube video by superbird28 that I've been meaning to share in a "Robotics Monday" post for a few weeks now - but TechnicBricks covered it Sunday and exhausted everything left to be said about it (to be fair, we both found out about the video from the same source - Tinkernology - which is quickly becoming a must-read blog for Technic fans. It was just a matter of time before somebody pointed out how fantastic this was). Please check out those sites and consider it Monday's model of the day.

All Souls' Day

Name of Model: grave

Created by: Piglet

Found at: http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=407894

Details: All Souls' Day is today, November 2nd. All Souls' Day is not to be confused with All Saints Day (which is really on November 1st) or Halloween (October 31st). In line with the Polish tradition of Zaduszki, "candles" have been placed on this gravestone in prayer for the deceased. The candles here are actually very well placed Power Functions lights - a pretty clever technique that scales very well in this model. Although I'm hesitant to distract from the sombre tone of this model, I'm also impressed by how the tree and plants turned out - it's not a particularly difficult technique to stack things in this way, but it's very effective and organic looking. As a sidenote, we know that we skipped Halloween, but considering that people from all over the world visit this blog, we are intentionally trying to shake up which holidays we commemorate.

Fire Brigade Modification

Name of Model: Fire Brigade Modification

Created by: a-corb (unconfirmed, this model was part of a group layout)

Found at: Flickr

Details: It's amazing what a few simple modifications can do to the overall appearance of a building. Here we see two modified Fire Brigade sets. This modification consists of two second floors of the proper set and a bottom floor that has had the window arrangement tossed up somewhat so that it gets away from the 'firehouse' look. What is achieved in the end is a very classical and elegant looking building, worthy of any city. So, if you were wondering what to do with those extra copies of 10197 lying around (a problem we all wish we could have); wonder no more! (As a sidenote, look what someone did with three copies of the Fire Brigade!)

Production Stops for Set 10179-1: Millennium Falcon

The production line has stopped for the largest Star Wars set to date, 10179-1: Millennium Falcon. So if you don't have one, and you were thinking of buying one 'in the near future'; the future has come.

Somewhat sad to see the Falcon go, but that's the cycle of things. Hopefully we'll get something equally nice in its place.

Snooker Table

Name of Model: Snooker table

Created by: lego_mancer

Found at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/28507435@N07/4036026327/

Details: Snooker is a game similar to pool. It requires a table like this one, which happens to be perfectly scaled for miniland-sized people. The details come out well here thanks to the wise decision to construct the walls and buffers sideways. Besides the obvious "needs players!" critique, that's really all there is to say.