Tag Archives: lego technic

LEGO and NASA collaborated to design this stunningly realistic and functional Perseverance Mars Rover replica

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I’m not sure what’s more impressive – whether the fact that the Perseverance Rover mission cost NASA a whopping $1.08 billion dollars, or whether LEGO Technic managed to make a functional version of the rover with just 1,132 bricks, and a price tag of $99.99. Launched (not literally) in collaboration with NASA, the LEGO® Technic™ NASA Mars Rover Perseverance model measures a little over 12 inches long, and features 360° steering, a movable arm, and a fully articulated suspension system that lets the rover travel across uneven surfaces on all 6 wheels. Designed as a STEM toy to help children get excited about the prospect of space engineering and travel, the rover also comes with an AR experience that lets kids explore the rover and its red-planet home in full detail.

Designer: LEGO

Just like most LEGO Technic builds, the Mars Rover Perseverance model is a pretty well-detailed build, featuring precisely designed pieces that come together to make the rover’s intricate design. Standing at 9-inches tall, the Rover is adjustable, can move on any sort of terrain (making it perfect for playing around on a desk), and even comes with the miniature Ingenuity helicopter, which accompanied the rover to Mars.

“Working on this model has been both challenging and exciting” said Luke Cragin, Designer at the LEGO Group. “I’ve always felt passionate about space, and the design process let me explore my interest as I recreated the incredible engineering developed by the pioneering team at NASA. We hope the model’s features and functions will help introduce young space lovers to the world of engineering and encourage them to reach for the stars in the future.”

The brick-based rover model will also be accompanied by a holistic AR experience on the Technic app, where you’ll have the opportunity to explore fascinating and informative material that delves into the actual rover and its purpose on the red planet. “Through the app it’s also possible to pull an overview of the weather on Mars on demand or learn about the environment and the rover’s mission,” LEGO says. The LEGO® Technic™ NASA Mars Rover Perseverance model goes on sale starting June 1st, with a $99.99 price tag.

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LEGO’s most detailed Land Rover Defender comes with swappable engines, functional steering, and even a toolbox

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Easily one of the most intricately detailed models you’ll find of the classic Defender 90, this might just be LEGO’s most brilliant build kit yet. A treat for Land Rover lovers and LEGO fans alike, the model comes with 2336 pieces to it, and when fully assembled, features active steering, real suspension, a functional hood underneath which you’ve got swappable engine models, a working winch on the front, and an entire kit of accessories including a functional jack as well as a tiny yet somehow openable toolbox. The only thing it doesn’t come with at this point is the new car smell…

Designer: LEGO

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This LEGO Icons build represents 75 years of classic Land Rover design, capturing all the iconic elements from the silhouette to the details, the front end, and the Land Rover’s anywhere-anytime attitude. The LEGO model is highly authentic and modular, with three different versions available (featuring two hood types), and varying features including off-road accessories and a top rack for transportation.

Unlike other LEGO builds, especially from the Ideas community, the LEGO Icons series requires great amounts of research and work from LEGO’s team. For the classic Defender, LEGO’s Design Masters went to Land Rover’s manufacturing centers to study how each automobile was built. This construction process helped inform the end-result’s design, allowing LEGO to understand the chassis shape, how the steering connects to the wheels, and how the suspensions are factored into the automobile. The brick-based result wonderfully mimics the original, with iconic detailing including even the headlights which capture the Land Rover aesthetic, and the minimal overhang on the hood, which results in the front wheels practically being located inches behind the headlights. To help realize this build, LEGO even designed a new part in the form of a squarish wheel-arch, to match the arch seen on Land Rover models.

In fact, the car’s build is so realistic that people apparently began referring to the actual car as a bigger version of the LEGO model. The 2336-brick model comes with a stunning amount of realism, including opening doors, an opening hood, functional steering, responsive suspension, and the choice between two incredibly realistic engine models – a V8 engine and a 5-cylinder turbo diesel. You’ve even got a working winch on the front, making the LEGO Land Rover as authentic as it gets.

But that isn’t all. Builders can completely max out their model with the complete off-roader adventure kit. This includes even more bits and bobs, like a complete set of outdoor tools including a pickaxe, shovel, hammer, and axe, along with a smaller red tool-box (with opening doors), two Jerry cans, a functional car-jack, and finally a fire extinguisher… all of which sit either on the car’s body or on top of its detachable roof tray. I’d be tempted to take this bad-boy out for a spin, but I’d be afraid of getting even a speck of dirt on this beautiful build!

Click Here to Buy Now

The post LEGO’s most detailed Land Rover Defender comes with swappable engines, functional steering, and even a toolbox first appeared on Yanko Design.

A LEGO-Powered Water Vortex Machine

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Because there are very few things you can’t create with LEGO, YouTuber Brick Technology has constructed a collection of transparent, spherical LEGO machines capable of spinning their orbs fast enough to produce water vortices inside. How about that! I wonder what the liquid inside tastes like. My guess is water. Disappointingly, it’s almost always just colored water.

One of the LEGO Technic machines is operated by a Playstation controller, can spin the orb in any direction, and in the video creates a very impressive water vortex, as well as a water band (seen above) by spinning the orb vertically like a car tire. Centripetal force! Science! Or dark magic?

I really want one of these as a executive desk toy, that way everyone who enters my office immediately knows I’m high-level management. Granted I’m not high-level management, and the only people who come into my office are my dogs and cat, but still, maybe I can convince myself that I’m high-level management.

[via The Awesomer]

LEGO Technic unveils a pretty impressive 1432-brick McLaren Formula 1 set

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Designed in partnership with McLaren, LEGO Group has just revealed the LEGO Technic McLaren Formula 1 Race Car #42141 set, a 25.5-inch long, 10.5-inch wide F1 replica made from a staggering 1432 bricks. The set celebrates McLaren’s iconic papaya livery carried on the MCL35M race cars throughout the 2021 F1 season and comes with some pretty nifty details, including an actual V6-engine made from LEGO bricks, complete with moving pistons!

Designers: LEGO & McLaren Racing

The LEGO Technic McLaren Formula 1 Race Car is a collaborative design effort between LEGO and McLaren Racing’s design team. Built to vividly realistic detail, the car comes with its own LEGO V6 engine with moving pistons, steering activated from the cockpit, suspension, and a differential lock. For added realism, the automobile even sports the logos of the partner and sponsor brands across the car’s bodywork, and even the half-open cockpit that’s now a standard in the Formula 1!

“We are excited to unveil the unique LEGO Technic model of our McLaren F1 car, a fun and engaging product that celebrates our 2021 season livery while giving fans a hands-on interpretation of the new 2022 F1 car design,” said James Key, Technical Director of McLaren Racing. “The final product looks fantastic, and we cannot wait to make this available to our fans.”

The LEGO Technic McLaren Formula 1 Race Car #42141 set will be made available starting March 1st, 2022, at a price of $179.99.

The post LEGO Technic unveils a pretty impressive 1432-brick McLaren Formula 1 set first appeared on Yanko Design.

LEGO DeLorean is a stunning replica of the classic with glowing lights and opening gullwing doors!

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Designed and built by LEGO creator Mr. Platinum using 2800 LEGO Technic pieces, this absolutely delightful mini replica of the DMC DeLorean from Back To The Future comes complete with a detailed exterior as well as interior, functioning doors, glowing lights, and a Bluetooth controller that lets you remotely drive the little car around!

The video above is a mashup of scenes from the original Back To The Future movie showing the DeLorean’s reveal, combined with video snippets of Mr. Platinum’s highly detailed build. The LEGO DeLorean is a stunning MOC (My Own Creation) that boasts of functioning headlights and taillights, glowing pipes around the car’s periphery as well as on the inside, motorized doors that open on command to reveal the detailed interiors, and for good measure, repositionable tires that become horizontal to resemble the car flying through space and time. If there ever was a near-perfect LEGO DeLorean build, this 2800-brick masterpiece is clearly it.

Designer: Mr. Platinum

I know I sound like an absolute broken record, but I honestly can’t get enough of how perfectly executed this build is, and how its creator threw in some unexpectedly surprising details to really make this piece stand out. “It all started in March”, mentions Mr. Platinum, whose journey to build the perfect DeLorean replica took him nearly 10 months to complete. “The Idea was there, began with determining the scale using the wheels. Realized the complexity, the challenge, wanted to implement all the functions”, he added. The overall build required detailing every single aspect of the vintage car, from the suspension to the bodywork, gearbox, lifting system, lights, and the special LEGO Fiber Optic pieces that were only available in bulk. (You can see them come to life in the image below)

Moving onto smaller details, Mr. Platinum didn’t just stop at making a realistic car. Switches on the dashboard actually power the headlights, taillights, and indicators, and if you stop to look closer, he’s even built out the DMC logo on the front using just LEGO pieces. A DeLorean sticker on the back may be the only visible non-lego piece in this entire build. Mr. Platinum pointed out the arduous journey this dream-build took him on. Most of the car’s parts were regularly available as a part of standard sets, although there were a few parts that had to be sourced from vintage collections dating back to the late 80s, and the mudguards (which Mr. Platinum couldn’t find in the right color) had to be sourced from China.

Although you can’t really buy this DeLorean, Mr. Platinum’s been more than kind to make the schematics available (be warned… the instructions span 3 different PDF files with a total of 1200 pages of instructions). The Bluetooth-operated car runs on a rear-wheel-mounted RC motor that’s powered by a single AAA battery.

The end result is nothing short of fantastic and measures 21.8 inches in length, weighing in at a staggering 6.8 pounds all included. You can buy Mr. Platinum’s schematics from ReBrickable for $22.8 (€19.95), although be prepared to shell out a couple of grands if you’re really serious about building this retrofuturistic beauty.

The post LEGO DeLorean is a stunning replica of the classic with glowing lights and opening gullwing doors! first appeared on Yanko Design.

This Creepy LEGO Technic Vehicle Is Coming to Get You

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The brainchild of imaginative LEGO builder Yoshihito Isogawa, this is the Creepy Vehicle, assembled entirely out of LEGO and LEGO Technic pieces. The vehicle rolls forward thanks to a LEGO Power Functions motor, constantly opening and closing its toothed aperture in the process. It kind of reminds me of the Demogorgon from Stranger Things. But is it the creepiest vehicle I’ve seen? Not by a long shot.

Just replace those plastic LEGO teeth with some metal blades and you’ve just created what can only be described as ‘Not a chance of ever being produced as an official LEGO set.’ And that’s probably for the best.

The movement of the opening and closing aperture reminds me of a camera shutter. Is that what Yoshihito was going for? I assume that, or a really fancy hot dog slicer. Me? I still slice hot dogs the old-fashioned way: asking my wife nicely while holding my hand up to remind her what happened the last time I tried to do it myself.

The Five Tilted Rings LEGO GBC Looks Like a Fun Amusement Park Ride

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Constructed entirely of LEGO Technic pieces by builder Akiyuki, this is ‘Five Titled Rings,’ an incredibly impressive LEGO Great Ball Contraption (GBC) consisting of five tilted rings that continuously pass balls up from one ring to the next higher one in the tower. My mind is blown. Granted it doesn’t take much, but still.

In the video, Akiyuki slowly builds the two bottom rings of the tower and adds balls to demonstrate the movement of the rings and the mechanics of their ball-passing, then finishing constructing the rest of the tower. The amount of ingenuity it must have taken to build something so impressive – I can’t even imagine. For reference, I still struggle with the LEGO sets sold in the little plastic bags in the checkout lanes at Target.

Nicely done, Akiyuki. If only passing basketballs was so soothing to watch in the actual game of basketball, then maybe I could take a nice relaxing nap while watching a game instead of yelling at the television and foaming at the mouth. My doctor says sports could kill me. Watching them, not playing them, just to be clear.

[via The Awesomer]

This Spinning 3-Axis LEGO Thrill Ride Makes Minifigs Dizzy

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As further evidence that you can make anything with LEGO, we are now making minifigures puke their guts out on tiny amusement park rides. Check out this 3-axis LEGO Technic thrill ride made by LEGO enthusiast Shadow Elenter.

The ride is called 3D Dizzy, and I have to say the details in this motorized build are impressive. The creativity and engineering skills it took to build this thing are amazing, even if all it does it torture LEGO people. It even has safety lap restraints that automatically engage before the access ramps fold down and the ride begins. Though if I made a ride like this, I’d include little piles of LEGO vomit that the minifigs coughed up.

The minifigs all have their arms up, the safety bars close, and then the ride begins. You can’t help but feel sorry for these poor helpless little plastic people. After it does its thing, the ride slows and the safety bars open up again, but the LEGO peeps don’t get off. Oh no. The torture is eternal. They stay to ride again… and again… and again.

[via The Awesomer]

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This Life-size LEGO Bugatti Chiron Looks Incredible, and Really Can Drive

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Recently LEGO Technic released a scale model of the Bugatti Chiron, and I thought that was pretty darned impressive in its own right. But now, a team of ingenious and talented designers and engineers have gone above the call of duty, creating a full-size replica of the Chiron, made almost entirely from LEGO Technic parts. Oh, and it actually holds a full-size human and can be driven.

It took the team at LEGO Technic’s Kladno factory in the Czech Republic over 13,000 hours to design and build this incredible vehicle. Over 1 million individual LEGO components went into the build, including over 2,300 individual LEGO Power Functions motors, ganged together to produce enough power to move this 3,300 pound replica. Incredibly, no glue was used to hold the parts together either, a rarity even for large-scale static LEGO models, let alone one that can be driven.

It tops out at just 12 mph, and its motors generate a total of 5.3 horsepower, a far cry from the 1,479 horses that an actual Chiron makes, but I don’t care. This thing is simply amazing on every level. Just look at this thing. It lives at the perfect intersection of three of my favorite things – cars, technology, and toys.

Every detail is impeccable, from the clusters of LED headlamps, wrapped in new transparent Technic bricks, to the retractable rear spoiler out back. LEGO, you have truly outdone yourselves with this build.

Now check out the LEGO Chiron in action in the video below, as it takes its inaugural ride with championship race driver Andy Wallace behind the wheel. Then take a gander at the gallery below for some behind-the-scenes photos of the car’s construction.

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