Legos

[Zelgadis 638]

Yeah yeah, I'm 33 years old and I still play with Legos.  

I managed to combine two things I'm interested many years ago, Legos and unlimited hydroplane racing.   

First of all, for those of you unfamiliar with hydroplane racing, a little primer:

Tri Cities Gold Cup Heat 2A race from 1984.  This is the era in which I built what follows and it's a fantastic video for great boat shots.  

The first boat I ever built:

This is based on the Miller American boat which raced from 1985 to 1988.  It's the same hull as the blue Atlas boat in the above video.

This is the original Miller American.  Yes, my boat is slightly different, but hey, I was 10 years old and this is what I had to work with. 

The second boat I ever built:

This boat went through a lot of configurations over the years, and I finally ended it with a classic, front engine, picklefork style from the 1970's.  Don't ask me why I made the engine blue.  I cannot remember at all.  

This is the original boat it's based on, which raced until around 1987, I think.

The third and final boat I built:

For the moment, this one is not based on any real boat, rather it's what I came up with using what I had left in my lego boxes.  Right now, it's in a turbine engine configuration.  I'm strongly considering changing it to a Rolls Royce Merlin engine configuration the next time I have access to my lego boxes.  

I pulled the Merlin I built for the black and yellow boat pictured above and put it into this boat as a sort of mock up, to get a basic idea of how it would look with the new engine.  I intend on making the new engine black, rather than using this blue one.  Here is the mock-up:

Which do you think looks better?  The turbine config or the Merlin mock-up?

The idea of using this little lego Merlin engine is to make it look more like this boat:

The above is a much, much newer boat.  It has an enclosed cockpit, which I cannot make with the tools at my disposal, unfortunately, but you get the idea.  That boat runs under a GM Allison V12 powerplant and I'm thinking of making my third boat look more like that.  

What's that?  The video didn't have a nice, juicy crash for you?  Okay, okay.  Here's a big hydroplane crash for you.  Enjoy.

Satisfied now?  

So, two things here:

Should I alter the third boat and give it a Merlin powerplant?

and

Show us your lego creations if you have them!  I have lots, but these are the ones that I still enjoy.  

ISF

[astronelson 339]

Lego! I like lego, but I don't have any creations to show right now. An unfortunate side-effect of my sister having all of it.

Maybe I'll get some more and build some stuff.

[A Nonny Moose 8,262]

I used to have Minibrix, but it all went to my sister's kids years ago. My son had a box of Construx, and I think they are still out in the shed.

I am into sail racing and not running about in modified cigarette boats. Did anyone notice the spectacular failure of the team trying to exceed the 50 Knot limit with the sail-rocket? All their instrumentation failed as well, so they don't really know what knocked the boat down.

If by Merlin, you mean an engine build by Rolls Royce, is there any reason to doubt using it?

[Duke87 1,070]

Must... resist... temptation... to take... old Legos... out of the attic...

[Streetwise 3]

Originally posted by: Duke87

Must... resist... temptation... to take... old Legos... out of the attic...

quote>

Go for it, Duke!

You know you want to...

[Muck308 55]

I prefer the first one, Zel. My legos are long gone. I have no idea where to. I prefer the first one, Zel. My uncle used to race boats like these back in the late 80's and early 90's. Good stuff!

I still have a very small amount of Construx.

I all but bathed in a sea of K'Nex when they sponsored a robot challenge at my school. That was fun. Must find pics.

[Meg 368]

Do they still sell freestyle Legos? Everything I've seen lately is a kit with step by step instructions. Kinda misses the whole creativity aspect.

In other news, did you know that Lego kits are very popular on ebay?

[Larks2242 251]

Originally posted by: Duke87

Must... resist... temptation... to take... old Legos... out of the attic...

quote>

Uh oh, here we go i can just imagine how many you have

[One Rincon Hill 0]

Originally posted by: Meg

Do they still sell freestyle Legos? Everything I've seen lately is a kit with step by step instructions. Kinda misses the whole creativity aspect.

In other news, did you know that Lego kits are very popular on ebay?quote>

They do, but nowhere near as many as the older sets of just the plain bricks in a bucket. I miss those too.

[Streetwise 3]

I like the freestyle ones the best, as you can use them in a much wider variety of ways.

[Zelgadis 638]

@astronelson:  Go, tie your sister up, get your legos back.  Problem solved.  

@N_O_Body:  I used to have Construx too!  Lots and lots of them.  I liked building modern houses with them.    These boats are not, btw, modified cigarette boats.  Hydroplanes are really hardly even boats at all.  They skim on top of the water  as basically a large wing connected to pontoons.  Anyway, yes, the Merlin in question is the Rolls Royce Merlin.  They made the best sound.  Back then, many hydroplanes also used the Rolls Royce Griffon engine as well, which were heavier but had more horsepower.  Nowadays, the preferred engine is the Lycoming T-55 L7 turbine from the Chinook helicopters.  Fast, light, reliable, and boring.  They only make a wooshy noise.  The U-3 is the only active boat using an old WWII aircraft engine, the GM Allison V12.  

@Duke87:  Do it!  Mwa ha ha ha!  

@Streetwise:  Agreed.  

@Muck308:  I think I'm going to try it anyway, just to see what a finished product will look like.  

@Meg:  They haven't sold "freesyle Legos" for decades, I'm afraid.  Not even when I was a kid.  Best you could do was order small packs of extra parts from the backs of the catalogs.   Only ones available were the kits.  At least, back then, they weren't licensed Star Wars products or anything.  They were entirely of their own design.  I still have the Galaxy Commander spaceship, which was one of the first big ships in their space series.  

Okay, I admit, I'm no fan of wikipedia at all, but I'm finding Brickipedia very amusing.    Some other space sets I still own and are still built up in a box somewhere:

^I even still have the box for that one.  

I have a picture of many of these set up on the rec room floor from when I was a kid.  (Complete with orange carpet!  )  I'll hunt it down and post it when I can. 

@Larks2242:  I can't.  

ISF

[A Nonny Moose 8,262]

Ian, I was only kidding about the cigarette boats, hoping to get a bite. Ouch! I realize that you are running high-speed hydrofoils with aircraft engines. Is the Merlin engine you reference the same as the one fitted to the Supermarine Spitfire? If so, when was it built?

And I also remembered that I used to have lots and lots of Mecchano when I was a kid up to about the middle of high-school, then the whole business went to a cousin when I lost interest and started making messes in the darkroom.

[Zelgadis 638]

N_O_Body:  I don't know what specific aircraft the Merlins were used in, but it's common knowledge amongst hydroplane fans that they are WWII aircraft engines.  Sadly, nobody uses them anymore as they're much harder to come by these days.

I do know, at least, that the Allison, still in use, was used in the P-51 Mustang and P-38 Lightning airplanes.

ISF 

[hamsterTK 93]

I have two plastic boxes with legos in them, or at my parent's house I do.

[beebs 129]

Originally posted by: Meg

Do they still sell freestyle Legos? Everything I've seen lately is a kit with step by step instructions. Kinda misses the whole creativity aspect.

In other news, did you know that Lego kits are very popular on ebay?quote>

I almost enjoyed the sets more.. When I was about 3, my brother and I got 2 of those big tubs of generic pieces.. after that all sets. The set pieces added waaay more variety to what we could build after, and those "custom" pieces can be used in all sorts of ways.

Sometimes I almost wish we still had that Lego, but we gave it to my younger cousins to muck around with.

[Zelgadis 638]

Epic.  Wish I could do this.

 

ISF

[Larks2242 251]

Whoa that must have took a long time to build, also looks heavy

[DazzaDazza 29]

My legos long gone, but Lego pirates, where my favorite

[Boggy1 45]

Somewhere in my attic I have three large boxes of assorted lego pieces. I don't even want to think how much my parents spent on buying lego over the years...

[sneakeypete 16]

I think i have 4 large boxes, including one of the old style of lego trains. Parents bought most of it off some other kid who'd turned 18 and wanted a guitar, this was back in the mid/late 90's, so basically most of my legos are from the late 80's, makes those spaceships zel posted look new! I might go dig through old photo's if i can find them.

best i can do for now is a completely freestyle truck i made (and lego backhoe that i never bought the kit for, made it using parts i had and looking at its picture in the catalouge)

[PhilsCafe 8]

Originally posted by: Meg

Do they still sell freestyle Legos? Everything I've seen lately is a kit with step by step instructions. Kinda misses the whole creativity aspect.

In other news, did you know that Lego kits are very popular on ebay?quote>

I used to take all my lego kits apart and used those "freestyle". Only because there are insructions doesn't mean you need to use them

[Zelgadis 638]

Originally posted by: sneakeypete

Parents bought most of it off some other kid who'd turned 18 and wanted a guitar, this was back in the mid/late 90's, so basically most of my legos are from the late 80's, makes those spaceships zel posted look new! I might go dig through old photo's if i can find them.

 best i can do for now is a completely freestyle truck i made (and lego backhoe that i never bought the kit for, made it using parts i had and looking at its picture in the catalouge)

quote>

Nice truck.  I like it.  

And I got news for ya, all those spaceships I posted were from the mid to late 80's.    The newest one is the big Space Police one, and that was discontinued in 1988.  

ISF

[crazychickensc12 84]

I absolutely love legos! And I still want to get the collectors Star Wars lego's the ones with like a super huge amount of pieces.

[Duke87 1,070]

Originally posted by: Meg

Do they still sell freestyle Legos? Everything I've seen lately is a kit with step by step instructions. Kinda misses the whole creativity aspect.quote>

They absolutely still sell boxes of assorted pieces without any particular thing to build in mind. My "collection" had a couple of those contributed to it. But yes, most of the stuff is the kits, and those do always seem to be a lot more popular. Especially since they started cutting deals with Hollywood for them. Star Wars Lego in particular - huge.

The issue, really, is that the stuff a set is designed for is prettier and fancier than anything any child is going to create themselves. So, kids want that stuff to build. Especially when it's the big stuff. The Tantive IV, for instance:

Some collectors like to put this stuff together and then put it on display. Personally, I'd put them together, play with them for a bit, and then take them apart and do my own things with the pieces. From about 2002-2006, that meant this monstrosity (seen here as in November 2004):

I like the perspective on this shot:

January 2006:

And, believe it or not, there were plenty of pieces not involved in this. My sisters both played with Legos as well and so they had their own things they built. We'd fight over the use (and ownership!) of pieces all the time...

It's all thrown together in one set of bins in the attic, though - it'd be impossible to properly demarcate one collection from another, so we didn't bother trying.

[PhilsCafe 8]

this so reminds me of my family... we always fought over pieces when I was little. Lol.

I still have all our Legos stored in a box which serves as a bench in my room. Never use them anymore though. But looks like I won

Btw, that monster reminds me a little of the Burj Khalifa (Dubai)

[1ajs 49]

epic a lego thread

first off www.bricklink.com is a great site to get lego off new and used its 18 and over only though as its all adult fans of lego on the hobby

behold my creation a work in progress

and a shot i need to update....

[Slashback 136]

Lego is awesome! I have played with Lego for my whole life (but i'm having a break because i don't have the time and the same fascination of Lego anymore), and i remember me and one of my very good friends building a gondola. Very cool, took us an evening+the next morning to build.

- And it worked!

I have so many good memories with Lego, and i'm lucky to live only an hour from the original Legoland

But as said before, i'm taking a break now, but who knows when i'll be fascinated of Lego again?

[Zezug 6]

Legos were the best when I was growing up. The first one I remember having was some black car that had a boat and trailer with it... one of the few that remained together as the kit intsructed. Most me and my brother would build then they'd end up being used for something completely different soon after.

Edit: found it

[Barbarossa 51]

.

  Edited September 8, 2012 by Barbarossa  

[Duke87 1,070]

By the way, I found a couple older pictures of my tower. These are scanned from film prints, not digital, so there's no date on them... but judging from the design with parts of the tower not "filled in" and the spire made partially of duplo, they would have to be from before Christmans 2003, when a new influx of pieces resulting in those things being revised.