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