Details: Yes, I know there are a bunch of great specialized parts for building dinosaurs. I know that there are plenty of interesting ways to use Bionicle parts to get that organic effect. I think it's a bit more impressive, though, when someone manages to use a variety of common parts to build a realistic creature. This one isn't just beautifully textured with its clever use of various slope parts - it also has functional joints. Mecha builders have used all these techniques before - it's not exactly a shocker that pneumatic T elements and other pieces with a "bar" attached to them connect to the various parts with clips on them. Here, though, the effect is surprisingly organic, even though it usually looks more mechanical (and thus perfect for your average evil killer robot from the future). Another nifty trick is the way plates with an extra hole are used to construct the leg joints. Between the use of more conventional parts (even the horns are built out of smaller parts!) and the functional element of this model, this model is easily one of the most interesting dinosaurs I've seen built out of LEGO elements in a long while.
Details: This doesn't really count as robotics (there goes my "robotics Monday" theme), but it's some interesting food for thought that I think appeals to the same sort of Technic and Mindstorms sensibilities. We now have proof that it's possible to build a fully-functional orbital gearbox. Building gearboxes (also known as transmissions - they're primarily used in vehicles as transmissions even though they're now widely seen outside of complete cars) is one of the classic projects of LEGO Technic building - we first saw a linear transmission in a kit in the 1970's, and there have been countless improvements on the linear transmission concept over the years as well. Gearbox enthusiasts tinker for hours to determine just how many gears can be crammed into various set-ups, and a number of styles of transmission have appeared over the years. There have even been attempts at building automatic gearboxes and continuously variable transmissions. Sariel has previously built a 2-speed orbital gearbox, but there's a big difference between making a 2-speed model and making one that contains a decent selection of gears. The main appeal of using an orbital gearbox is the ability to shift gears without worrying about gears gnashing together in a potentially part-damaging way, so more gears makes the set-up more valuable. It's not quite as clear how this one works (not all of us document our creations as well as Sariel does), but I believe you can figure it out after going through the photos. A clutch mechanism allows the gears to be shifted, and the reverse is achieved by using a 16-tooth gear that's not firm on the axle to reverse the 16-tooth output gear's speed. I suspect that there might be a slightly less bulky way of getting 6 gear ratios into an orbital gearbox, but I'm impressed with the ingenuity of this construction already - it's an excellent use of those belt wheels with 6 pin holes. Now if only we could get more builders thinking of ways to construct things with exciting angles - it unlocks all sorts of new possibilities.
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There aren't enough enormous DUPLO layouts out there. It's very strange - green is a far more common color in DUPLO than in the smaller LEGO bricks, and you can even buy (at fairly reasonable prices) a variety of shades of green in DUPLO. Bright green, lime green, and even the very rare medium lime color are plentiful in the DUPLO world (Little known fact: the piece LEGO makes in the most colors is the 2x2 DUPLO brick). The various rare colors that are readily available in DUPLO make DUPLO a natural choice for landscaping, but surprisingly few people take advantage of that. The DUPLO world also includes more animals (perfect for farms and medieval livestock) and as many specialized parts for Castle sets as you'll find in the "normal" kits. In terms of building techniques, I don't believe there's much here that we haven't seen before - but there's something to be said for having the ambition to take on a Castle layout properly (and with bricks in colors that allow for some truly accurate landscaping without breaking the bank).
Details: This model of the Governor's Palace in Williamsburg, Virginia is so full of exciting techniques that it is difficult to get a proper sense of scale looking at these photos. There's a very realistic brick texture visible here that is achieved by mixing 1x2 plates of various colors (with dark red and reddish brown going together very well). Of course, once you realize how small the "bricks" in the walls really are, the next question is "What's really in those windows?" The answer (clearer if you zoom in) is that they're the newer 1x2x3 and 1x2x2 windows, but instead of glass in the windows, there are 1x2 grill tiles mounted sideways behind them. The effect is spectacular - these really little windows really look like they have very tiny shutters behind them. That's not the only interesting parts use that makes it hard to tell what size this is - roofs are built out of cheese slopes, and the "grass" is actually made of leaf elements. Even the front door is an interesting trick - that's made with stacked hinge bricks. The rotunda makes use of the more well-known technique of using plate hinges to angle some of the windows.
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This human-size arm is an extremely unusual feat. Done entirely with off-the-shelf LEGO Technic parts, it holds it's own weight and can maneuver well enough to pick up objects. You can get an idea of the strain on the parts by looking at the overhead view - extra battery packs are acting as a counterweight, and you can see how just one linear actuator holds the weight of the arm. The video is what really makes this model so dramatic - you can see that the parts have little problem handling the loads. Frankly, as nice of a model as this is, it almost feels like an advertisement for the newer Power Functions motors, linear actuators, and pneumatic parts. The older pneumatic parts show up in the hand itself, used as a way of closing fingers while limiting the amount of force used to grip. While the claim that this was built in one weekend might appear suspect, I'd argue that this is clearly an example of what you can do quickly if you've built up a decent collection of parts and have a good idea of each how to appropriate us the various elements. The use of the strong linear actuators in certain places allowed this arm to be much more stable and powerful than it would have been with geared joints or pneumatic actuators in the upper arm. Using pneumatics to limit the amount of force for the grip was a pretty clever trick, but not one quite as intuitive as using torque-limiting gears.
The important skill that allows people to build models like this quickly is knowing the strengths of each part. There's really no replacement for just messing around with elements you're not familiar with and seeing what they can do. That, kids, is what you should tell your parents when they ask why you never did finish building that big Technic kit.
No, seriously - I learned how to use pneumatic parts in the first place by "failing" to "correctly" assemble an 8868 Air Tech Claw Rig. Ironically, my parents weren't convinced it was a good idea until I built my first large mechanical arm - which couldn't be mounted in a human manner because pneumatics wouldn't be able to handle that much weight.
I apparently picked the AC Cobra 427 Sports Car as the model of the day just a few hours too soon to properly feature the roundup of entries into that LUGNuts building challenge. The official Animal Kingdom roundup is now live on the LUGNuts blog. There are, as always, plenty of interesting cars to be seen here, but for the sake of my arbitrary rules for how often to post here and how quickly I should repeat themes, I won't be featuring any others from this challenge.
Not that it'll pose any issue - next month they'll have another round of cars. I've featuredsome of their challenges here before, and there have been other great entries (that I haven't featured) in these monthly challenges as well.
Details: LUGnuts is wrapping up another challenge. Fittingly, this "Animal Kingdom" theme has brought out some of the most organic car models we've seen yet. This 10-wide car is a model of the ShelbyAC Cobra. The curvature came out strikingly realistic. Naturally, some studs-not-on-top trickery was required to get the shape just right - just in this front view we can see a section built sideways and another built upside-down. Some stickers were used to get the look just right - but it worked. There's even a model of the V8 engine under the hood! Pneumatic tubing rounds out the look of the driver's seat, and even the dashboard is properly detailed. Now if only it were motorized...
Details: Here's one last Olympic model for this year's games. While I had previously blogged the mascot/logo of the games in LEGO form, I haven't even mentioned the athletes. Apparently this whole juncture is some sort of athletic competition. This model, based on Polish skier Justyna Kowalczyk is a simply a fantastic miniland-scale figure. The Technic-scale skis (which also appeared in the 1993 "Ice Planet 2002" line) work beautifully here, as do the antennae as ski poles. The real coup, though, is how well the click hinges allow the figure to be posed. She actually looks like she's skiing downhill! While click-hinges are often dismissed as "juniorization" (something to make LEGO kits easier for very young children to assemble that doesn't add value to the creative building process) by long-time LEGO hobbyists (these hinges were new roughly 10 years ago), their ability to lock in place makes them perfect for creating sturdy angles. In this case, we see the click-hinges used for the legs and the older "finger" hinges used for the feet. The effect works perfectly here. It's a shame that we won't be seeing "finger" hinges manufactured again in the future - Steve Witt confirmed at BrickFair 2009 that they are permanently discontinued, and he cited quality control as the reason for change to the newer hinges. That is completely understandable - most of us who grew up in the 90's (when "finger" hinges were easy to come by) have seen a few break over the years. It's increasingly becoming clear now that adult resentment at their "juniorization" was misplaced - LEGO wasn't trying to make the part easier for children to use, and as we've seen with today's model, there are new things coming out of the adult LEGO fan community that couldn't have been built with the older hinges.
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Yes, I know it's been just two weeks since I last featured an awesome cube solver. Sometimes you just need to find machines that can handle the rest of the Rubik's cube collection, though. The one can handle my 4x4x4 Rubik's cubes (except, of course, for the one rigged to explode, but isn't safety from that the main reason to let a machine solve this simple puzzle instead of solving it for yourself?). This machine can do more than just solve 3x3x3 and 4x4x4 cubes, though - it can also solve (as shown in the video) 5x5x5 Rubik's Cubes! You can see in the video the mechanism for allowing this - the cube is lifted to various heights to turn specific groups of layers, as compared to the simple twists of one-third of the cube that we're used to seeing. The design works for those three sizes of Rubik's cube without any modifications (minor modifications will allow it to solve 2x2x2 and 6x6x6 cubes as well). All of that, while amazing, is within the realm of things you could probably figure out how to build, given enough time and parts. This creation goes beyond that, though - much like the CubeStormer from two weeks ago, this is a purist creation that even uses the LEGO-branded Logitech QuickCam from the 9731 Vision Command set. Don't be fooled by the fact that we're seeing these put to good use now - the tech involved in that camera is now ten years old, and the SDK (Software Development Kit) used to program it outside of the graphical environment has not been maintained and is no longer supported. While putting the branded QuickCam to good use is increasingly becoming a difficult challenge (and an academic one, as so few people are big enough LEGO nerds to care if your LEGO robot is truly 100% LEGO down to the camera, and LEGO is yet to release a LEGO PC to truly finish the job), this model actually one-up's that too. The CubeStormer still communicated with the RCX. Now, the software challenge has been increased a bit - the computer interacts directly with the NXT based on the QuickCam input (the magic here is handled by C++). Successful projects that combine Vision Command and the NXT are few and far between, but this one is a clear winner.
Yes, I know there are a bunch of great specialized parts for building dinosaurs. I know that there are plenty of interesting ways to use Bionicle parts to get that organic effect. I think it's a bit more impressive, though, when someone manages to use a variety of common parts to build a realistic creature. This one isn't just beautifully textured with its clever use of various slope parts - it also has functional joints. Mecha builders have used all these techniques before - it's not exactly a shocker that pneumatic T elements and other pieces with a "bar" attached to them connect to the various parts with clips on them. Here, though, the effect is surprisingly organic, even though it usually looks more mechanical (and thus perfect for your average evil killer robot from the future). Another nifty trick is the way plates with an extra hole are used to construct the leg joints. Between the use of more conventional parts (even the horns are built out of smaller parts!) and the functional element of this model, this model is easily one of the most interesting dinosaurs I've seen built out of LEGO elements in a long while.
collection, though. The one can handle my 
(except, of course, for the one rigged to explode, but isn't safety from that the main reason to let a machine solve this simple puzzle instead of solving it for yourself?). This machine can do more than just solve 3x3x3 and 4x4x4 cubes, though - it can also solve (as shown in the video) 
! You can see in the video the mechanism for allowing this - the cube is lifted to various heights to turn specific groups of layers, as compared to the simple twists of one-third of the cube that we're used to seeing. The design works for those three sizes of Rubik's cube without any modifications (minor modifications will allow it to solve 2x2x2 and 6x6x6 cubes as well). All of that, while amazing, is within the realm of things you could probably figure out how to build, given enough time and parts. This creation goes beyond that, though - much like the 
