Tag Archives: power functions

Flexin’

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Longstanding readers of the stupidest Lego site on the internet may be wondering if our mythical little workers, TLCB Elves, have abandoned their famed violence and adopted a more peaceful outlook towards one-another.

Nope.

Today TLCB Staff were back to prising squashed Elves from the floor and glueing Elf-bits back on thanks to Horcik Designs, and this rather excellent looking remotely controlled off-roader.

Powered by twin L Motors, one for each axle, with Servo steering, and suspension achieved through engineered-in chassis-flex, Horcik’s creation is simultaneously simple yet remarkably effective. Rather like a spatula used to separate a smushed Elf from the office carpet.

With limited specialist parts used, Horcik’s 4×4 is easily buildable at home too, and building instructions are available so you can do just that. Head to Eurobricks to find out more, or visit Bricksafe for the complete image gallery and further links.

Brick Space

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Here at The Lego Car Blog we are fairly useless when it comes to science fiction builds. Still, they do feature from time to time, despite TLCB Team understanding literally nothing whatsoever about the source material.

With such elaborate fictional spacey contraptions it can be easy to forget that space travel exists today, and is not simply reserved for science fiction. In fact from 1981, it was almost routine.

Such normality was the result of this; the NASA Space Shuttle, a reusable low-orbital air/spacecraft able to deliver people and things to and from space. Five shuttles were constructed and operated 135 missions between them, before the three surviving units were retired in 2011.

This fantastic Technic recreation of the Shuttle pays homage to the design that normalised space travel, and comes from previous bloggee Jeroen Ottens who has packed his model with a suite of Power Functions motors to bring it to life.

The landing gear, cargo-bay doors, robotic arm lift and rotation, satellite solar cell unfolding, and aircraft pitch/roll surfaces can all be controlled remotely, thanks to some very clever packaging and a gearbox to multiply functions, with more to see at both Flickr and the Eurobricks forum.

Click the links above to head on a routine mission into space, plus you can click here to read our review of LEGO’s official Technic 8480 Space Shuttle set from 1996 that shares many of this model’s working features.

Flying Across New York

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Many Marvely-type superheros have flown across New York. Or run. Or swung on spiderwebs. Or been propelled by their supersuit/hammer/insertmagicspaceitemhere.

The real heroes of New York however, take the bus.

Nurses, firefighters, police officers, teachers… the people that keep NYC’s engine running, whilst simultaneously not being able to afford to live in it.

Cue the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s New Flyer XD40 buses, transporting hundreds of unsung heroes across New York City every day.

This superb brick-built recreation of true hero transport comes from previous bloggee JLui15, who has not only captured the New Flyer and its MTA livery beautifully, he’s packed it with working functions, including motorised drive, steering, and opening doors controlled via an SBrick.

There’s much more of the New Flyer XD40 to see at Flickr, Eurobricks, and in the video below, and you can join the everyday heroes transiting New York on board via the links in the text above.

YouTube Video

 

Liquid Gold

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Thanks to the combination of a worldwide pandemic, the scumbaggery of Putin, and the greed of energy companies, petrol prices peaked in the TLCB’s home nation at over £2 per litre. For those in the States, that’s around $6 per gallon. Which made TLCB staff very much ponder hijacking a petrol tanker.

Cue today’s creation, which is a Scania P-Series tanker truck, as constructed by previous bloggee damjan97PL. Unfortunately for the impoverished staff here at The Lego Car Blog, there is no liquid gold inside, but the model is packed with other goodness, including remote control drive and steering, a six-cylinder piston engine under the tilting cab, and a lifting third axle.

Building instructions and a video of the model in action are available, and you can see more of damjan’s Scania tanker at the Eurobricks forum with the complete image gallery hosted via Bricksafe.

Land of the Rising Fun

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This TLCB Writer would very much like an FJ40 series Toyota Land Cruiser. Because if there’s one classic off-roader cooler than the Land Rover Defenders we see every day around TLCB Towers, Japan’s answer is it.

With LEGO now having a licensing partnership with Toyota (and having released two Land Rover Defender sets), we’re super hopeful that an official Land Cruiser set may be on the cards, but until then the online Lego Community is filling the void admirably.

This is the latest fan-built Land Cruiser found by our Elves, and not only is it an orange FJ40 (an excellent start), it’s also fully remote controlled for maximum fun.

Built by gyenesvi, a suite of Power Functions components deliver motorised drive and steering, plus there’s live-axle suspension, a high/low gearbox, opening doors, hood and tailgate, and a folding windshield.

Building instructions are available and full details and images can be found at both Eurobricks and Bricksafe; click the links above for more classic off-road fun.

The Best a Man Can Get

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There seems to be only one measure when it comes to marketing razors; The More Blades the Better. “You have three, well we have four.” “Well now we have five.” “Alright then, six.” It’ll only end when razors have a different blade for each individual hair on your face.

Trucks are much like razors, being marketed primarily as masculine tools, and where – at least according to Flickr’s Martin Nespor – more is more.

Cue Martin’s excellent fully remote controlled cab-over dumper, with not two, nor three, but five axles. It’s the Gillette razor of trucks.

All five axles are suspended, axles three and four are powered, whilst axles one, two and five are steered. There’s also a huge tipping dumper, operated via a linear actuator, with a self opening and closing bucket door cleverly linked to the tipping mechanism.

Well presented on-location in a sandpit, there’s more to see of Martin’s razor… er, truck at his photostream, and you can take a look via the link in the text above before someone builds one with six axles to beat him.

More ‘Mog

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Ever since LEGO released the incredible 8110 Mercedes-Benz Unimog U400 set over a decade ago, the internet has been awash with home-made ‘mogs. Dozens of the best have appeared here over the years, countless Elves have been run-over by the remote control ones, and the online Lego Community is showing no sign of slowing up on the ‘mog-making. Which we’re totally OK with, because Unimogs are cool.

They’re also interesting from an engineering perspective, and offer plenty of scope for the recreation of real-world mechanics in brick form. Cue the latest Mercedes-Benz Unimog to appear here, this excellent flat-bed U5000 built by Teo LEGO Technic.

With a third-party BuWizz bluetooth battery remotely controlling the twin Power Functions XL Motor four-wheel-drive, M Motor steering, pneumatic differential locks, and a high/low gearbox, plus some serious suspension, Teo’s U5000 looks to be as good off-road as the real deal.

There’s more to see, including a video of the model in action, at the Eurobricks forum, plus a complete image gallery with mechanical break-downs can be found at Bricksafe. Click the links to take a look, and you can see all the many ‘mogs that have appeared here over the last eleven years via the search function in the sidebar or footer.

Wheelie Big

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Nothing makes our smelly little workers happier than flattening one another with a remote control find. Cue much excitement from the Elf that found this enormous fully remote controlled Komatsu WD900-3 wheel dozer as it entered TLCB Towers, high on the expectation that it could smush any number of its colleagues into the office carpet.

Fortunately for us, that number was zero, seeing as Beat Felber‘s 1:28.5 scale replica of the 100-ton dozer is much too slow to catch any of them. But whilst it is indeed slow, it’s also incredible, with remotely operable all-wheel-drive, articulated linear-actuator controlled steering, a fully adjustable blade positionable via three pneumatic cylinders, each equipped with their own Servo-actuated valve, and an on-board pneumatic compressor.

That enormous blade can lift, lower, pitch fore and aft, and tilt left to right courtesy of the compressor, valves and pneumatic cylinders, all of which can be controlled remotely via bluetooth thanks to two third-party SBricks and an on-board rechargeable Power functions battery.

A work of engineering brilliance, there’s lots more to see of Beat’s Komatsu WD900-3 replica at his album of the same name, where twenty stunning images can be found along with further build details and a link to a video of the model in action.

Click the first link in the text above to make the jump, whilst we cheer up a despondent TLCB Elf with a well-deserved yellow Smartie.

Litronic Liebherr

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From one 300-ton machine to another, only this one is real. The Liebherr R 944 B Litronic is the smaller brother of the 800-ton Liebherr R9800 that LEGO used to create the largest Technic set ever released, working to load 100-ton mining trucks in the world’s open-cast mines.

Taking the tracks, sprockets, XL linear actuators and clamshell bucket from the 42100 Technic set, previous bloggee Beat Felber has recreated the smaller R 944 B Litronic, only in a much larger 1:28.5 scale.

Ten motors, two third-party SBricks, three sets of LED lights, and two rechargeable battery boxes bring Beat’s incredible creation to life, with accurate crawler movement, structure slewing, boom, stick, and bucket cylinders, a retractable motorised access ladder and opening service flap.

An extensive gallery of imagery is available to view, and you can take a closer look at this astonishing mining machine at Beat’s ‘Liebherr R 994 B Litronic’ album on Flickr via the link above.

Big Tow

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Mining trucks are slow. But even slower are the tracked vehicles that fill them, designed as they are to move very heavy things very short distances.

Which means if you need to relocate an enormous bulldozer or tracked excavator to the other end of the mine, you’d better clear your schedule for the next few weeks.

Which is where this curious machine comes in. Effectively a Komatsu mining truck with a gooseneck hitch in place of the dump body, it can tow the aforementioned mining machines to their new location aboard a specially-designed single-axle TowHaul Lowboy trailer, capable of transporting 250 tons. We bet parking isn’t fun.

This spectacular fully remote controlled recreation of the world’s biggest vehicular trailer comes from previous bloggee Beat Felber, whose converted Komatsu HD785-5 mining truck features motorised drive, steering, and gooseneck hitch, enabling the model to load and tow a huge TowHaul Lowboy trailer and its Komatsu D575A-3 ‘Super Dozer’ load.

There’s loads more to see of the both the Komatsu HD785-5 truck and the TowHaul Lowboy 250 ton trailer behind it at Beat’s Flickr album, and you can watch the whole rig in action courtesy of the video below.

YouTube Video

Six in the Sand

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Much like sandwiches and body crevices, LEGO Technic gears do not like sand. Sand however, as per the aforementioned lucheon staple and your belly button, loves to get all up in there, first causing horrible noises, then a jamming drivetrain, and finally broken pieces. But not today, as this simple yet superbly engineered 6×6 trial truck can withstand not just sand, but snow, mud, and 8cm of water!

Built by Eurobricks’ keymaker there’s 6×6 drive via three Power Functions L Motors, Servo steering, all-wheel suspension, and – crucially – complete underbody protection thanks to some strategically placed curved Technic panels.

It’s such a simple solution we’re amazed it a) hasn’t been done before and b) expect it will soon be fitted to every remotely controlled off-road Lego creation, particularly as keymaker has published instructions for his creation that are available for free. We don’t normally link directly to instructions but if you release them free of charge we will!

There’s more to see of keymaker’s sand-proof truck at the Eurobricks forum, and you can take your truck trial to the beach via the link above.

YouTube Video

Tank Hunter

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Does anyone else remember that fiendishly addictive early computer game in which the player was tasked with manoeuvring around a seeming infinite plain populated by the outlines of various 3D shapes, hunting and destroying enemy tanks? Just us? OK.

Anyway, perfect cubes and prisms aside, the concept of hunting tanks was based on reality, with specific machines (themselves looking rather like tanks) designed for their destroy enemy counterparts.

This is one such device, the Sturmgeschütz III tank-hunting assault gun, as deployed by Germany during the Second World War (and Syria until 1973).

Handily known as the STuG III, it saw service on almost every front, from Russia to Europe to Africa, and proved very successful at destroying Allied armour.

This excellent fully remote controlled Lego version of the STuG III comes from TLCB favourite Sariel, who – despite the model measuring just 32cm in length and weighing under 1kg – has packed in drive and steering, fully suspended tracks, and an oscillating and slewing gun barrel, all powered by a LEGO battery and controlled via bluetooth courtesy of a third-party SBrick.

There’s more to see of Sariel’s STuG III at his Flickr album of the same name, plus you can watch the model in action via the video below. Go tank hunting across a plain of cubes via the links!

YouTube Video

Weekend in Drag

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This a dragline crawler crane, used in open-cast mining for digging really big holes. Built by previous bloggee Beat Felber, this incredible creation is a fully-working replica of one the world’s largest; the 700-ton P&H 2355 diesel-electric dragline that worked the Rix Creek Mine in Australia.

Remotely controlled by three SBricks, Beat’s creation can hoist and drag the bucket, rotate the superstructure, raise the boom, drive and skid-steer, and even raise the two access ladders thanks to seven Power Functions and two Micro Motors.

Four pairs of LEGO LEDs illuminate the floodlights and interior, whilst removable panels give access to the motors and winches within.

It’s a spectacular build, with a fully detailed machine room and interior to match the astonishing working mechanisms, and you can head to the mine via Beat’s ‘P&H 2355’ album to get in drag.

Big Reach

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Reach. It’s a word we hear a lot in the running of a world-famous top-quality Lego site. OK, a mildly-known bottom-of-the-barrel Lego site. But nevertheless, we still hear it a lot. Countless messages offering great value reach improvement services are deleted with alarming frequency.

Anyway, today we have great reach, courtesy of TLCB favourite and Lego-building legend Sariel, and this incredible fully remote controlled Liebherr LTC 1045-3.1 mobile crane.

Powered by fourteen motors and three SBricks, Sariel’s crane can extend its reach to well over a meter, with a further half-meter boom extension possible on top of that.

Four Power Functions motors drive the boom’s elevation, extension and winch, another three the cabin boom elevation, extension and tilt, one rotates the superstructure, another folds the mirrors, two more the outriggers, and finally three power the drive and steering.

Over five meters of wires are hidden inside to link the motors, LED lights, LEGO battery, and SBricks, with the total model weighing almost 5kgs and able to lift ¾ kg.

There’s much more of Sariel’s superbly presented creation to see at his Liebherr LTM 1045-3.1 album, you can read how Sariel turned his hobby into revenue via our ‘Become a Lego Professional‘ series, and you can watch this amazing model in action in the video below. Click the links to reach the full content.

YouTube Video

Power(ed-Up) is Nothing Without Control(+)

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Yes, we have nerdily butchered the marketing tagline for tyres for today’s title.

Because these are the ‘Universal Vehicle Controls’; part mechanical, part electronic twin joysticks with four degrees of movement, twin triggers, and a dashboard with a working needle, that allow Control+ LEGO sets and creations to be, er… controlled, with real feedback, all built solely from off-the-shelf LEGO pieces. It’s like the Control+ app, BuWizz, or SBrick we’re familiar with on our phone screen, but made physical.

Tobi WanKenobi owns the brain behind this rather interesting idea, and if you think it’s interesting too you can find out more on LEGO Ideas, at the Eurobricks forum here, or take a look at the ‘Universal Vehicle Controls’ in action via the video below.

YouTube Video