Little Coloured Bricks

Ingmar Spijkoven is an authority in Lego Technics. He does not only collect sets but he makes his own mocs using existing parts from other Lego Technic Sets. The latest addition to his long list of creations is his fusion of the Mack Vision and Mack Granite trucks.

Alhtough he admits to be inspired by the mentioned American trucks, he believes his truck is still the product of his own work -and what a stunning work he has done! After researching in the internet for information on his project, he proceeded in making his truck’s cabin in orange bricks. White bricks made up for the roof and mud flaps, and the bluish gray for the frame and axles.

In this build, Ingmar’s love for detail and function is evident. A rear window opened up at the back of the truck’s sleeper. This is a minor addition to the truck but contributes much to the uniqueness of his appropriately-named Heavy Duty Truck.

Like real trucks, it comes fully loaded with features like a push axle that turns with the front wheel and can be retracted up for convenience, a sliding fifth wheel, and a winch to load a specially-made trailer for the truck. Also inspired by a local television show about trucks, the winch loader for the trailer was added at the back of the truck and adds to the realism of this heavy duty truck.

Spijkhoven admits he has never seen a Mack truck in person, and confesses that he is not a truck driver himself. But that doesn’t mean he can’t build trucks, does it? The reason for building the truck was because Spijkhoven planned on making a lowboy trailer. And since all trailers need something to pull them, it would then be an obvious step to make the truck for the trailer.

If you are into challenging Lego builds, then the Lego Technic line is the one for you. The Lego Technic is not just bricks and pieces like your ordinary Lego set. It incorporates to your Lego set quite a few more surprising and technical pieces. With the Lego Technic, you have motors, gears and pneumatics to put together in the set. This makes the Technic a great challenge for any builder.

Stud-less construction replaces the iconic Lego studs. But although studded pieces can still be joined with the Lego Technic pieces, it is the builder’s choice to add to the set using his extra Lego bricks. The stud-less constructions allows for smoother stud-less edges and sides and a more realistic feel.

One of the latest to come out of the Lego Technic line is the 8043-1 Motorized Excavator. Dubbed as one of the best set to ever come out of the line, it has gained quite a good fan base. The Excavator comes with two Power Function remotes to control driving the Excavator and the other one for controlling the boom arm and cabin. Just like a real excavator, the 8043-1 is fully-functional. The cabin can spin 360 degrees, and of course, dig like it was meant to dig.

Two receivers, 4 motors, and 4 linear actuators makes this Excavator a great building challenge. As for its playability, it proves to be a fun toy too. The tracks are great and can easily manage obstacles like someone’s flip-flops, and small Lego bricks. The excavator can also dig and lift and can be converted into a pay-loader.

Although with a rather steep price compared to other Lego sets, you will find it justified with all the functionality and its realism. Lego Technic line is designed to be as close to scale and realistic in functions.

What has six wheels, is yellow, can lift minifigs high up in the air, remote controlled, and is made of Lego? The answer is Lego Technic’s 8292 Cherry Picker! With the addition of and innovation brought to us by the Lego Technic line, there has been a surge of a new breed of Lego sets to come into the market.

It is such a far cry from what the earlier Lego generations are used to -just putting together studded bricks. Now, with the Lego Technic, Lego building becomes more technical in certain aspects.

Like the other Lego Technic sets, the Cherry Picker is an engineering challenge and a Lego collector’s delight. Putting together bricks has become more challenging with the integration of motors, drive-shafts, suspension, and other movable parts. It’s really just like building a miniature vehicle, albeit it is much easier than putting together the real truck itself.

The Cherry Picker is functional -a trademark of the Technic line. It is fully movable just like the real truck. You can control its movements (forward, reverse, left and right) just like any RC vehicle. It’s added surprise, however, is that its boom arm can also be controlled with the remote. Prop a minifig on the Cherry Picker’s bucket, and watch it rise up, go around and come back down just like a real Cherry Picker would.

Once put together, the Cherry Picker measures a over 12 inches long and the boom arm can reach about 16 inches high. It also comes with instructions on how to convert your Cherry Picker into a dump truck.

Fun and challenging at the same time, the Cherry Picker is a great addition to any Lego collection. Any serious builder would also have a blast putting together the pieces of the Cherry Picker and watch it go about cherry-picking!

Lego’s Technic line was first introduced as the Expert Builder in 1977 as part of a line of more technical pieces and sets. It consisted of plastic rods and arms which allowed the advanced Lego builder more flexibility in his designs. Later on, in 1984, it was renamed Technic.

Characterized by certain pieces such as pins, beams, axles and gears, the Technic allowed for a more radical recreation or creations of moving parts for vehicles, mechs, and robots.

Technic brings out every Lego builder’s technical and mechanical side. With the addition of electric motors and pneumatic pieces, it was now possible to make machines that move on their own.

Lego’s Technic line continued to evolve around year 2000 with the introduction of stud-less construction pieces. Instead of the iconic studs on top of every piece, it was replaced with holes on the vertical sides to allow for shafts or pins to pass through. This allowed for a sleeker look and for a more balanced design.

The Lego Technic also paved the way for the Lego’s Mindstorn. Even more advanced than the Technic, it allowed the builder more control on his design’s mobility. The Mindstorm uses a lot of its parts from the Technic except for the sensors that it uses. The Mindstorm is a programmable lego set which any builder can program through a bundled computer software or a third-party program language such as Java and C.

The Lego Technic continues to evolve up until the present. The introduction of IR remote now allows the builder to control the movement of his creation. And in the internet, we see how this is used in recreating vehicles. Lego builders have been putting up their designs and recreations of heavy machinery and large vehicles that have full functionality and movement. With this addition, we see the Lego community growing in their art of Lego building.

There is no getting over Lego mechs today, and that is for sure! Mechs are very impressive fictional vehicles and battle suits, and what makes them more fascinating is that people in the Lego community are making some of the best 3D creations of mechs using pieces from other Lego sets! Amazing!

This mech by Fredoichi from Flickr will really make you wonder how seemingly small Lego bricks are combined to make such a beautiful piece of work. Like something straight out of the pages of a manga, this mech, the FHF S07 “Ujio” looks as sinister as can be in black and grey. If looks could kill, then this would be a total massacre.

This quadruped, although slightly similar in color Transformers’ Bumblebee is an original work on its own. The brainchild of someone who is very familiar to creating mechs out of Lego pieces. Bermudafreze of flickr isn’t new to the art. He is actually quite famous in this genre of Lego building. And this four-legged mech right here is a testament to the kind of detail he is used to put into his mechs.

Although quite simple than the first two, mondayn00dle’s Hawkeye Hardsuit still packs weight. The strategic use of small parts really gives this hardsuit a good amount of detail -especially the contrast of the neon green bits under the black ones.

Perhaps this one is the more radically-designed among them all. This exo-suit, though may arguably belong to a separate genre than the mech, is not something you just pass over in a review. Peter Reid, aptly nicknamed legoloverman, is a legend. In this piece, you can see all of the great use of parts. The hands are constructed very differently than most mechs makes this exo-suit a great thing to look at. And notice that welding/plasma arm propped from the back -great contrast to the exo-suit!