King of LEGO

I'm member #317 of the International LEGO Users Group

Eagle Lunar Lander

Ok, this is an early lego set, I'm holding the instructions and the completed model on right. This LEGO stuff has an extremely long shelf life.

Table Top Droid

My first MindStorm Robot! This will scuttle backwards and forwards over a table top, avoiding falling over the edge by sensors that reverse motor direction when it finds the edge. This is always a favourite when someone rushes over to stop it falling, when they see it for the first time. I found I needed to check the timer when reversing direction, otherwise I would sometimes get 2 reversals in a row (causing to to fall off!) when the driod hit the edge, stopped, then jerked into reverse. See my LEGO Invention submission here
Or check out this RADAR made out of 100% LEGO well its not actually based on radio waves, rather light
I found a visit to the LegLab at MIT inspirational for design ideas.

Lunar Rover

A Compact, steerable lunar rover. This is very difficult to steer as both wheels steer in unison.

Sky Scraper

This is my victory headstand as a I win the tallest structure competition with Mike. Note the decorative King Kong and the bi-plane suspended strategically from the ceiling. Note: I have been professionally trained in the art of building tall lego structures: a work sponsored training course had a small group of us building a tower, however there were constraints put on us, such as time to build, unit cost of each brick and a height payback ratio.
Give me your box of lego (any set, plain/technic) and I will build a tower that reaches your roof. I have been 100% successful so far.

Hot Rod Dragster

Here is a construct of my idea of a lego 2-stroke piston engine.

Advice to the LEGO builder, Young & Old
Girls tend to make little houses instead of groovy machines and collect all the little lego people I think the LEGO sets with lots of pre-fabricated pieces (no longer blocks) are detrimental to the imagination. The models should be built from the smaller primitives (blocks/flats etc) not just clip a few pre-fab bits to form some completed thing. Also the pre-fab bits are harder to re-use as they had only one purpose in mind. Get a big box of 'generic technic' pieces Get into Gears Get a big 50x50 baseplate Get a big square of plywood to put your baseplate on, this makes it easy to lift up and move or store Keep all those old square blocks and maybe even DUPLO, since they can be used to build a tall tower Follow the recommended AGE classification on your LEGO sets, a complex machine will confuse and frustrate if is used by someone in a lower AGE bracket. If you can, Don't follow the instructions It takes at least 1/3 to twice as long to redesign a hardened version of your model. A long long time ago at School we would go jousting with lego cars. First to get smashed in a head-on collision was the loser! Computer heads get a MindStorm! The purely computer generated lego construction sets should be avoided. You need to get your hands dirty. (Unless you a geek doing design modelling, in which case LEGO is a very easy topic)

Advice to the LEGO builder, Young & Old

Girls tend to make little houses instead of groovy machines and collect all the little lego people

I think the LEGO sets with lots of pre-fabricated pieces (no longer blocks) are detrimental to the imagination. The models should be built from the smaller primitives (blocks/flats etc) not just clip a few pre-fab bits to form some completed thing. Also the pre-fab bits are harder to re-use as they had only one purpose in mind.

Get a big box of 'generic technic' pieces

Get into Gears

Get a big 50x50 baseplate

Get a big square of plywood to put your baseplate on, this makes it easy to lift up and move or store

Keep all those old square blocks and maybe even DUPLO, since they can be used to build a tall tower

Follow the recommended AGE classification on your LEGO sets, a complex machine will confuse and frustrate if is used by someone in a lower AGE bracket.

If you can, Don't follow the instructions

It takes at least 1/3 to twice as long to redesign a hardened version of your model. A long long time ago at School we would go jousting with lego cars. First to get smashed in a head-on collision was the loser!

Computer heads get a MindStorm!

The purely computer generated lego construction sets should be avoided. You need to get your hands dirty. (Unless you a geek doing design modelling, in which case LEGO is a very easy topic)

Here's what happens when you combine LEGO and rockets:

paulgun