Pawel Kmiec, better known as Sariel, has been busy…

Thumping onto the doormat at the TLCB Portakabin this week, has been a copy of his second Lego Technic book. It’s called Incredible Lego Technic and it’s clearly intended to show us just how incredible Lego Technic can be. 36 different builders, most of whom have graced these hallowed halls before, show you how. It showcases more than 70 of the very best Technic models out there and it’s designed to inspire.

It does. Running to 280 pages and printed on thick, glossy paper, it gives each model 2-4 pages of very high quality photographs, some accompanying text that gives details of the models’ various functions and a bit of background info about the prototypes. It’s a lot like flicking through the greatest hits of MOCpages, in a parallel universe where the photo resolution is high, and everyone presents their models faultlessly. And there’s no-one saying ‘come an chek out mi awsum tuner’…. although to be fair, that doesn’t seem to happen as much as it used to.

Anyhoo, this makes it the best kind of coffee table book; one you can dip into when the mood takes and probably refer back to many times when looking for inspiration. There are no instructions or building tips here (Sariel covered that in his previous book) but experienced builders will find the diagrams that highlight the motors and gears on a lot of the models quite helpful.

(Spoiler Alert!)

To whet your appetite, I’ve chosen two of my favourite models from the book:

Nice, yes? It’s Francisco Hartley’s Lamborghini Aventador and, like many of the builds here, it’s quite recent. The author admits that this book may date quickly due to ever more brilliant models being produced, but there’s also a smattering of truly timeless classics, such as this gorgeous MAN truck built by Jennifer Clark in 2003:

Brilliance on this scale doesn’t date. It’s motorized as well, using old 9V motors to do everything the real thing does. Impressive stuff and all the better for showing da studs.

There’s a lot more than cars and trucks here, with Aircraft, Watercraft and Farm and Construction equipment represented also, as well as half a dozen real oddballs that show amazing ingenuity – buy it and find out what they are!

Incredible Lego Technic is published by No Starch Press, and will be available from Amazon in the next week or so as I write. It’s fairly expensive at $29.95 (US) but you are definitely getting what you pay for.

Recommended.