bricks'n'gears - Lego. Technic. Blog.

Super Car history from Eric Albrecht

2012-02-09T20:21:00.000+01:00

We have covered the history of Technic cars a long time ago (see part I, part II and part III). Now Eric Albrecht (also known as Blakbird, author of Technicopedia) did the same on the in the guest post of the official LEGO Technic blog: The history of LEGO "Super Cars" is even longer than the Technic line itself, beginning in 1977 and running right up to the present day. There is no official definition of Super Car and therefore different fans might include different models on their own...

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LDD Pov-Ray Rendering tutorial

2012-02-05T23:33:00.000+01:00

Several people asked me to provide more details on rendering LEGO models like the Trabi or the MiG-15. Until the surprise is built, let me entertain you with a tutorial on how to render LEGO models. Before we start, let me underline that this is by no means a straightforward process. You should start only if you are ready to edit programming-language-like text files and download, unzip and manually organize files. It needs several hours, some debugging and tweaking, and possibly more hours...

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Something is about to happen...

2012-01-12T10:17:00.000+01:00

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21011 Brandenburg Gate

2012-01-10T20:45:00.001+01:00

I have built my Brandenburg Gate. I have always liked the Architecture theme and this is the first set that I have bought. It is clearly for adults. Compared to Creator sets is a bit on the expensive side, but the result is very nice and I like it very much. Many photos about the building process in the album.

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bltools

2012-01-02T22:46:00.000+01:00

New year it is, so let's start with something new. New software for hardcore Lego builders: bltools. http://code.google.com/p/bltools With bltools you can process a Lego Digital Designer file and convert it into BrickLink orders. It may be especially useful since Lego will stop DesignByMe (the service to order bricks from within LDD) as of January 16. bltools fetches the list of shops from Bricklink, optimizes the orders and exports them in BrickLink wanted list XML format. Some...

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2012

2012-01-01T22:01:00.000+01:00

There is nothing to be proud of: 2011 was not particularly fruitful in the life of the blog. Yes, we have new design and I have also fixed the old links and even more, we got a new MiG-15. But I did not provide a lot of new content. It is not because I don't have anything to write about. I don't promise daily updates in 2012 either, but I will go after some of the hotness. Some hints of what will follow: It's not a secret that I am a big fan of cars from Mad Physicist....

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Notes from the machine room

2011-10-30T01:51:00.002+02:00

I have realized that many links on the blog were broken. I hope I have managed to fix all of them now.

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MiG-15 details

2011-09-12T11:18:00.000+02:00

There is a new rendering in the MiG-15 album that shows how the wing is attached to the body: This render shows the internals of the body, with the outer shell removed. The bricks that are not normally visible are in blue. The real MiG-15 has a sweep angle of 35 degrees. I approximated that with the typical LEGO Pythagoras layout at 3-4-5 stud offsets. This gives an angle of atan(3/4) = 36.8 degrees. You can see the triangle at the wing root (large yellow). The studs marked with...

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Silver MiG

2011-06-23T22:30:00.005+02:00

I have two piece of news. First of all, we have the results of the LegoMilitary Build Competition. And I got second prize in the "Warsaw Pact Aircraft" category! I am very happy, I never managed to achieve anything like that in a competition. Mad Physicist was the judge and it was quite competitive... The other finalists are quite impressive too. The An-225 is quite a beast even at 1:100 scale. The Su-9 from John Lamarck is also very nice, for example it has a retractable...

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MiG-15

2011-05-15T13:40:00.003+02:00

Around Easter I have managed to have some rest and even more importantly, away from my other hobbies. As this year's Lego Military Build Competition is currently running I thought I could give it a try. The announcement of the competition As I am a big fan of flying things I have tried the "Soviet Cold War Aircraft" category. I chose a MiG-15 as not many LEGO versions exist. The type has served in almost all Warsaw Pact countries including the Hungarian Air Force. Amongst all Soviet types...

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New year, new set: 8853 Excavator

2011-01-09T23:14:00.000+01:00

And 2011 begun, so Happy New Year. But let's go on to something interesting: today we take a look at an excavator from 1988, more specifically a front loader. I have to admit that even though I was a big Technic fan around that time, I could easily walk past this set. If I deep dive into my memories, I cannot really find anything even though Technicopedia thinks that this set has really existed.. But now I had a chance to learn it much better. I was in a second hand toy fair when I found...

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East Block begins - Trabant

2010-11-28T06:50:00.001+01:00

I am a big fan of small LEGO cars, especially the creations of Mad Physicst. For a long time I have planned to build cars that were prominent during my childhood. Of course in 1/22 scale. Not surprisingly, these cars are from the Eastern Block: Trabant, Wartburg, "Small Polski", Škoda and the others. This is the first part of the series, a Trabant 601 from the 80s. I have rendered this on a computer for a start, I hope you like it. I plan to build it from real bricks as well. The...

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Mad Physicist Interview, part II.

2010-10-21T06:19:00.003+02:00

And here comes the second part of the interview we started last week. You can read it in Hungarian on lego.blog.hu. Bricksngears: Do you have to wait often for bricks to arrive before you continue building or do you have everything on stock? How many bricks do you have on stock? RS: Because I always have a list of things I want to build and because I start planning long before I put bricks together, I usually have all the parts I need by the time I start building. There are also parts that I...

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Mad Physicist Interview

2010-10-14T06:19:00.044+02:00

It is a great pleasure to introduce one of my favorite Lego builder today, he was kind enough to answer all my questions. I did the interview for lego.blog.hu but since I have the original questions and answers I though why not post it herer, so here it comes: Bricksngears: How can we find you online? Ralph Savelsberg: I’m known as Mad Physicist on flickr and use the name Ralph_S on a few other sites, such as Eurobricks. I’m mostly active on flickr though. BG: And how about real...

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Breaking news: First photo of the 8070 Super Car for 2011

2010-09-23T17:05:00.001+02:00

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Lead Sled

2010-07-01T20:47:00.001+02:00

The Lead Sled got as ready as it could ever be (ok, I did not realize the missing piece on the front bumper when I took the photos). There is a longer story in Hungarian on lego.blog.hu. And there are new photos too.

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Technicopedia: 1995

2010-06-25T11:58:00.001+02:00

The awesomest site on the internet is Technicopedia. So far it contained models only between 1977-1994, but now it got a whole new year 1995: Some of the finest:8280 fire engine with a boom that can be raised.The 8422 motorbike was already covered on this blog.8412 helicopter with a fully tiltable rotor.8460 pneumatic crane truck.But coolest is the 8485 Control Center where we can control a helicopter, a dinosaur or a boat.There is also a new section...

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Review: 854 Go-kart

2010-06-24T06:34:00.004+02:00

When I read RÁJEN's blog post (in Hungarian) about his 854 Technic gokart I became nostalgic. Just like him it was my first ever Technic set and unlike I him I still have the majority of the parts. So I have decided to put it together. I. Data sheet Neve: Go-kart Number: 854, also known as 948 (they are the same set) Theme: originally Expert Builder, later Technic Year: 1978 Number of pieces: 206 Price: about 20 USD originally, now about the same on Bricklink B-Models: Tire...

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Review: 8045 Mini Telehandler

2010-06-12T13:52:00.002+02:00

A Lego maniac like me cannot go on without getting random Lego sets from time to time, even if he buys enough stuff for himself :) I got this set as an anniversary surprise from my spouse, I was very happy. I. Data sheet Name: Mini Telehandler Number: 8045 Theme: Technic Year: 2010 Number of pieces: 117 Price: EUR 9.99 (Germany), USD 10.99 B-Model: Motorcycle II. What is in the box? This is a truly modern Technic set. We can hardly find any real bricks - only the lights and the pallet has...

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Breaking news

2010-06-02T22:37:00.001+02:00

I finally got it! I have the 8860, the last missing Big Car. So far only online but soon in real life too. It is 66CHF (47 EUR, 57 USD) even though it has a box too.

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Technic motorized excavator

2010-05-27T06:35:00.003+02:00

By now a lot of details are available about the new sets for the second half of the year. We will have a new motorbike (8051), a container truck (8052), a new crane (8053), but the biggest thing of the year will be certainly the motorized excavator (8043) ígérkezik. Recently the French site setechnic.com published a detailed review (Google Translate is our friend). But even without any French knowledge one can figure out what Lés photos" and "La video" means. There are four motors, all...

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Keep it in good condition

2010-05-19T09:46:00.002+02:00

Over the weekend I have visited the German Legoland with my family. Their brick store was as good as usual (I think it is the second best after Bricklink). 100 grams cost 8 Euros and they have many special parts too. Since a good owner cares about his vehicles I used the opportunity to get some new parts for the set that deserves it most. I have already replaced many parts on my 8422 racing bike but the yellowish wheels were still original. Fortunately the Lego brick store had just the part...

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More steam!

2010-05-13T06:35:00.001+02:00

If you cannot decide between model railroads and Lego, then you are in a lucky situation. Why? Because you can do both. Lego bricks can be used to build almost anything - including locomotives. (And since the fall of the GDR it may be cheaper, too.) Reinhard Beneke has come to the same conclusion and started building the most famous locomotives of Germany. Baureihe 23 is only one of the many great locomotives he has built. But this one is very special because one of his...

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Universe mode in Lego Digital Designer

2010-04-22T07:39:00.005+02:00

There are many people out there who build from virtual bricks. The feeling is different but it has some pros: you never run out of bricks and spend less time searching for that brick too. If you would like to design your model on a computer you can choose from several programs. Nevertheless, the alpha and omega is Lego Digital Designer (LDD), the official free designer tootl from the Lego Group. It has many advantages but its biggest limitation was that the available bricks and colors...

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Off road

2010-04-15T21:34:00.003+02:00

Nice weather is coming, builders feel inspired to build something for outside - it is tempting to build new truck trial vehicles. The first truck for today is the "TT10" from Nagy Abonyi Attila. He took a Kraz 255 as sample for his newest creation. It got so famous that even TechnicBRICKs has covered it. It uses 3 XL motors as well as working suspension and military camouflage. More images in the Brickshelf gallery of Attila and this video: The second creation...

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