Robotics Monday: Bionicle Zamor Sphere Mindstorms NXT Machine Gun

Name of Model: ZMG—Zamor Machine-Gun

Created by: isketch93

Found at: http://mindstorms.lego.com/nxtlog/ProjectDisplay.aspx?id=d28d68d0-4e42-4264-86f8-6a3482ebf706

Details: While discussing the upcoming NXT 2.0 kit this past weekend with a friend who went to Toy Fair, I heard what must be the real reason that the new kit includes a large amount of Bionicle parts: it's a machine gun kit. As a general rule, I don't blog gun related things here (and if I do, they're clearly only fantasy items - this is the same rule the LEGO company has used in the past) - but who am I to argue with the only obvious use for the parts in the new NXT kit? Besides, what other possible reason could there be for cutting over a hundred Technic parts from the kit (compared to the version in stores now) and including Bionicle Zamor spheres and launchers instead? (strike-outs are there to correct my mistake: I confused the NXT kit's piece count with the RIS kit's piece count) Of course, you don't actually need a new NXT kit to build a machine gun that launches Bionicle Zamor spheres - all those parts are already available. Today's model is one implementation based on parts that are already out (and this builder's created a few similar guns advancing the concept as well). Still, questions remain - should we still be worried about taking somebody's eyes out? Will any of these parts actually be in the Educational release of the NXT 2.0? Is there some other interesting thing to do with these parts besides make machine guns? Can we hook these things up to a Great Ball Contraption to build shoot-em-up duel games?