Angels

One of the kids on my FLL team decided it'd be a cool idea to replicate on of my favorite MOCS in blue - then well i couldnt resist to make it in red.

The yellow one is the original Battle Angel, first introduced in a BZPower BBC Contest. And the red and blue are the new ones

They all have a similar construction, minor differences in the chest area and also the hair.

I love how the red one really feels like one of the Ferrari models, and for once a blue model actually looks female. And i'm loving this color scheme, a hint of filipino in it. Gallery to come soon.

New Projects

I wonder why i even start new projects when some of the older ones havnt even really gotten that much feet off the ground. 

anyway, as a compliment to the 4 legged monstrosity i've been working on.  (Which i havent blogged about) i'm working on a biped with similar leg design but this time, instead of worm gearing the knee joints, i'm using the new fangled linear actuators at the rear of the leg.  

I havent seen anyone do it yet, and by the looks of my initial sketches and moc ups it looks to be huge.   I've always wanted to have as much of the controls within the body as possible and with the linear actuators its much easier to do so.  Could i be ambitious enough to make it with the Power Functions? now only if there was a way to get the ankle controls all the way back up to the main body.  So we'll see how it works. 

Recap and the coming season

The summer was full of NXT goodness, all sorts of ideas we had this time 

from wearable armor to booby traps, remote controls and a huge F'n Y made out of LEGO. 

The ideas were pretty grand, with just 3 real days to build the project i had to come up with new and exciting stuff, my favorite was the remote controls though.   i had 20 robots running in 10 pairs and only one died because of the battery.  The controller itself was pretty dang durable if i say so myself . 

A nice looking dual forward/back stick made out of the retail kit and the resource kit and program to boot.  This badboy is on its way to being published and its been tried and true. 

It was a great event to get the whole camp involved as well, we were all excited about it.  In the end i modified it so that i had the touch sensors by the thumbs, they felt a little more like fighter jets then. 

The robots themselves were modified versions of the retail tribot with a simplified claw attachment. As it was just strong enough to hold the ball  it made it hard to do anything with it.  It would work really well autonomosly, but not with the controller.  It was nice to see.

This coming season i'm looking to use the task bot built in the LEGO Engineering curriculum, i hope it turns out well, looks like you can do a lot of stuff with it but eventually i'll have my own robot.  Still, cant go wrong with what's been tried and true as well as supported. 

Y signs up

Some work at the YMCA
More to come later

AS-ST's!

as promised, i've got some pix..wish they were higher quality but hey ..
thanks to Daniele Benedettelli for the work and inspiration.


there were 5 in this picture and a sixth being built since one of the kids had to catch up ..he missed a class. I was able to download the pre-written program into all of them, and we had a great time watching them walk around. After all that, i tried getting the kids to write the program using NXT-G, man this was tough. It was hard to get the 'magic built in limit switch' working right. The theory was there, but i hadnt had enough time to test it before giving it to the students. It should've been easier than what it was, but you can definitely see the speed limitations of NXT G under the speed of NXC.

heres some more small thumbnails of the robots, which all got some custom treatment from each kid.




















As you can see, i've got some imaginative kids. Most had enough to build the full model, but some had the retail kit limitation. Others had the educational kit and the resource kit together so all their beams were grey instead of white. what a great project.

Is this for real?

'shelf user dsvelte recently uploaded this badboy. Set 10188, and i definitely have room for this one. but again, i'm afraid the pricetag might border on another vacation.

Set Review - 4993 Cool Convertible

As a side note, i'd like to say that i was building during game 4 of the celtics vs lakers game..and was quite entertained!

Here's the first of (hopefully) many detailed set reviews and I'll try to get a steady format at it as I get more going. So here it is.

Set 4993, the Cool Convertible is in a long line of LEGO creator sets dealing with pretty nice looking cars starting with Land Busters 4403 and the most recent Roaring Roadster 4896. At 44.95 ( i bought mine at 49.99 from TRU about a week before it was released officially by LEGO), its 15$ cheaper than its previous relatives. Can it compare to such great sets?

First look
The box is in the standard creator layout with main model on the front and some interesting alternate models in the back, a truck cab (surprise surprise) and a working skid steer loader. Although i'm not a fan of the new fangled cereal box style box design, i can appreciate it as a form of cutting costs and what not. One of the first things i noticed from the box was the use of lego katanas for windshield wipers, man i couldnt wait to get my hands on those. I also noticed that each one of the models had some sort of working mechanism, instead of just straight gears- pretty exciting. Lastly, i like the white and dark red color scheme, a nice contrast to the yellow and black from the previous sets. I hope they do green next, but its probably never going to happen.

Parts and pieces
At 648 pieces and much like all creator sets, its a great piece to price value, making this, at retail, a 200 piece value. The list of parts on the box doesn't disappoint either. As a mech/space builder I like having a nice assortment of slopes and curved parts there are ample structural parts and for the castle or architectural builders a nice set of arches. There are a few new pieces in here, first seen (at least by me) in the Speed Racer series. I'm a fan the 2x4 studless curve as well as the 1x4 studless curve but i've never seen a 4x4x3 convex curve thats got 2 technic holes, quite a nice piece i'm sure i could use for a cockpit or something. The rest is a nice standard of creator parts which is never a bad thing.

The Experience
Popping the box open, I was greeted with 4, yes 4 books - the main model, the loader, and two for the truck. I'm saddened by the decision to lower the quality on the instruction booklets, but again, a compromise we'll have to deal with. I really liked having the bags without numbers on them, giving this model (again like the creator series of sets) a sandbox feel like LEGO should be. I didnt bother counting bags, but they're divided up as usual, large parts in a few bags, smaller parts in other bags, and wheels, rims and larger bricks loose in the box. Its always a nice layout, and helps with finding parts later.
Diving into the main model was pretty straight forward, a nice rhythm of 2-3 pieces in a step to well constructed sub models to be attached to the main model. I liked that you go almost right into building the convertible mechanism and its a nice mix of technic to system building. Its a simple crank rocker mechanism that allows the top of the car to be dropped into the bottom of the trunk. They leave it pretty open for modification (I think) if you want the trunk to open at all. There are quite a few snot techniques, but most of the studs stay on top with studless slopes to smooth out the model. The doors on this model are the most stable doors i've seen in all of the previous car incarnations. This one uses a 2x2 turn table WITH a 1x4/2x2 hinge plate. It feels so much more solid than just the hinge connections i'm used to with these sets. Again its pretty straight forward to build but its still fun with a good set of techniques that many users may find useful for their own mocs.

Overall
I must say that i'm more impressed with the model built physically than on the pictures on the box. I dont think the digital images do it justice as the model has a nice feel and has an amazing real life profile. The convertible mechanism is just great and i could play with it for hours, and am already thinking of ways to use it for my own creations. I love the stability of the doors giving it a nice solid feel to open and close. In comparison to Roaring roadsters, it definitely feels a little shorter and much lighter. Although I would like to have the steering built in, I dont mind it (but still plan to add it) to the cool lever convertible.
Sadly the model feels a little hollow. Its the first creator car i've built that doesnt have a solid bottom and its even got a nice void behind the seats. Although i like it for the customiz-ablility, it just doesnt feel right. The windshield (with the super cool katana wipers) is a little looser than i'd like, but it gives the model a nice sleek look.

Still, the model itself is great, something i can leave on the shelf or most likely cannibalize for some great parts. its really playable, despite not having steering, and it just feels like it'll just go from under your hands. There are some great building techniques and pieces to throw around and at 15$ under the older sets in this caliber, is a must buy and build for everyone.

A room full of ATSTs

My robotics classes are winding down, but i thought i'd share an experience

For my BYOB (Bring your own bot) Advanced Robotics class, I decided to use Daniele Benedettelli's 'Creating Cool Mindstorms NXT Robots for the second half of the class. For the first half i wanted to touch on structural building and touch on making state machines using NXT-G. The kids came up with some great robots and i really wish i took some photos before those robots got taken apart (save for one that was built using my parts). And despite some technical issues with Version 1.0 of NXT-G, we were able to get some basic SUMO programs using a finite state machine.

So on to the second half, I really wanted to keep the theme of getting a strong structure and have them program using state machines and such. We built the ATST out of the book and it took about 1 and 3/4 classes to build verbally. While very difficult, this can be quite rewarding. Since my kids were at a level where they all understood the parts, speaking in LEGO was really easy and i didnt have to backtrack to explain parts. But man, what a great feeling to have 7 NXT at st's walking around at the end of the class. The kids had promised to take their creations home and seriously modify them. I cant wait to get some shots of possibly modified Atsts.

The challenge now is to convert Danielle's NXC program to an NXT g Program. There's already a nice 'servomotor automagic built-in limit switch' already made by LEGO in their Education NXT (software) set. And i think i can manage some of the walking machines, but since there's no real support for array's, a lot of the number plugging will be manual. I'll see about posting when i get that ready (preferably before class next Tuesday).

So next week..watch out endor..atsts are coming

new LEGO Sets

Gotta love toys r us...
if you're lucky enough to find one that throws new lego sets on the shelf

i picked up a new creator set,

set 4993 'cool convertible'
I havent opened it yet, but just from the box you can see a few cool things. First, katana's for windshield wipers, and a bunch of those new slopes seen in the speed racer sets. Theres a nice helping of snot techniques and for once all three models have some sort of mechanism. The main model has the convertible top, but it did sacrifice steering (although i'm sure someone will remedy that situation). The secondary truck model has a lever to lift the cab, and theres a third model, a skidsteer forklift that uses a fancy mechanism for lifting. I'll be building it for sure this week and see how it stands up with the previous cars in the creator series. I know for sure i'm absolutely going to enjoy it, and at 50$ its dropped 10$ from the previous car set.. great value for 674 pieces.

LEGO Classes (round 2 for the year)

Well, i'm still trying to figure out what i wanna do with this blog, hence not adding anything in a while but here's an idea

Monday began the 2nd round of Creations classes for 2008 at LHVCC.
for the first session i'm using Maxilos and Spinax, LEGO Bionicle -- what a great set. You can really build quite a bit with it. Its got one of the best piece/price ratio for a bionicle set out there. With what's inside you should be able to build at least 2 figures and add some great detail or make it pretty functional. The set itself is built pretty well. With the piston construction not only for the back part of the legs but also for the shoulder. It gives this set a nice organic and muscular feel.

My kids had a great time with the set. There's a little bit of a learning curve with Bionicle parts, but they can get it. I introduced the socket joint first, it just seemed the easiest thing and one of the most identifying parts to bionicle, coupled with the right angle ball joint in red ( I love that piece..made loci ..(and another idea comes to mind) ). Some of the kids had trouble socketing in, but once they got it it was easy to let them go. I had them do the same to a 2 ball, hip type joint to start making legs .or torso if they desired. I led them to axles by putting a socket joint, axle connector side in to the hip joint - simple, and most of them got it. Lastly were pins and axle/pins and i let them go from there.

Veterans in my class went right at it, but on monday i had mostly new kids. They're pretty good, i'd like to see them finish off their figures in the next week . Pix coming within the week. And i guess i should start thinking about sets for the next class. Indy maybe?

Toy Fair exclusive!

So the first year i didnt try to get into toy fair they gave out a pretty cool set

an indiana jones magic morph to han solo...now if you got this autographed by the big mr. ford himself...

check it out...

via cooltoyreview

An ambitious contest

The very cool folks at NXTLOG put up a rather ambitious contest this month.
they want us to build bipeds

Nxtlog Biped challenge

I've tackled this idea before twice and its pretty complex. At least the way I tried. 6 motors, 2 Nxt Bricks..12 batteries and I even cracked a motor (had it sent back and all that ...go Customer service!). But there have been those who have put up some great robots, single motor up to only 3 motor bipeds. Lets see what the community can do with this one!

another LEGO BLOG?!

really now,
there's so many out there already!
the brothers brick, technic bricks, nxtstep, nxtasy, to name a few (namely the ones i browse through on a daily basis) not including the many hours spent on brickshelf, youtube, bzpower, lego.com and mindstorms.com and so many others.

I'll have my take on what i find, and do my best to give credit where its due. What i'd really like is to post stuff that hasn't been up before, but there will definitely be overlap, especially with noteable things.

its all coming ....

thinkbrick

Joining the Brick Blogosphere

I've realized that it takes too much time to do it myself via html..
so here it is..

reminding all my readers..
to think brick