[TC14] The Whip

[Seasider]

So here’s my work in progress as I managed to get a couple of hours of brainstorming time.

Everyone else is going modern theme park rides, I thought I’d go old school. May I present “The Whip”, the reason I’ve gone for this is the seaside town I grew up in had a small amusement park and I used to love going on this ride. However the original is from 1914 and was at Coney Island, New York, a few thousand miles from my home town.

So the first thing to work out was the basic mechanism attached to each cart. Here’s the fruits of my labour after many discussions with Pythagoras to get the main triangle right.

The orange beams behind the track are to hold the track straight while building this module.

And here’s a basic profile I’ve been working on for how the thrill-seekers will sit.

not sure when my next build time will be. But next task will be to build up the cart. Then the small task of working out how many they will be on the ride. I’m thinking 10 might be a good number.

 

Enjoy

[mocbuild101]

Hmm, not quite sure how it's supposed to work, but it sounds interesting...

Edit: I found this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Whip_(ride)

(don't know why I didn't find it when I first looked it up...)

 

Edited July 9, 2018 by mocbuild101

[Seasider]

Here’s one in action

 

[pagicence]

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Edited June 5, 2025 by pagicence

[Berthil]

Looks like the European Swing only the Swing needs own work, can't lay back lazy :)
But good opportunity to show off your strength to the girlfriend next to you :)

 

BTW, judging on your prototype it will be BIG. Good luck.

Edited July 9, 2018 by Berthil

[Marxpek]

Good to see a video on the real ride, i had a hard time imagining it, I am looking forward to see this come alive, but i must admit; i do hope you will push up the speed compared to the real thing, it seems really slow, except for the whipping motion of course, anyway, nice choice of attraction, i never saw or rode one.

[Seasider]

Some updates from me. I thought I better work out the overall size of the ride so today I’ve been working on the frame to hold the drive.

first of all I had the idea of 10 cars but when I realised I have 20 track pieces per car I suddenly saw how massive this was going to get. So I’ve gone for the 7 car option. This means the track is a decent amount shorter and also it will alternate between which end is whipping a car.

So first of all I started with this 

this then got reworked to this

some of the structure is WIP and I need to look at the springs as they’re flexing slightly.

if I get a chance tomorrow I’ll work on the floor the cars roll on and work out how many grey 5x11 panels I’ll be getting from BrickLink

in the meantime I decided I needed a few more figures so here are the motley line up

 

[Seasider]

I did an hour or so on this last night and after a few iterations managed to work out a track width for the straight run and also the lower part of the guide for the “drive belt”. Looking at this I realise this is going to be huge even with 7 cars but then the ride needs a decent straight between the bends to be realistic of the real rides.

Next task is to either work out an end curve or do some more on the drive belt guide and central structure

Edited July 18, 2018 by Seasider

[Jim]

I love the Technic Figures line-up. Can't wait to see them in action. Nice work!

[mortenm]

They have a similar ride in Legoland, Billund: 

It's quite fun!

[Erik Leppen]

That's a huge amount of panels you'd be needing

Just in case you didn't think about alternatives: have you considered to use, instead of panels,

• baseplates turned upside down, or
• 8x16 tiles?

The former option uses fewer parts, and the latter may give you a smoother surface than the panels with all their holes. Personally I often find these large surfaces made of 5x11 panels to look ugly, because of the holes and lines of the panels.

Also, you might consider downscaling a bit. If you could downsize the cars and make the link shorter, you may be able to get a smaller ride. If that's what you want of course, but personally I'd find a smaller build more elegant if it has the same functions, even if it might be slightly out of scale with the figures.

Edited July 18, 2018 by Erik Leppen

[Seasider]

Thanks for the comments.

the scale of the build has been driven by the size of a Technic shock and good old Pythagoras. I wanted the mechanism to work as per the real ride and so that gave it a certain scale.

i then thought making it Technic figure size would be good.

As to using base plates or tiles I don’t have any MOC stock of normal  System Lego so it would all be add to me and I want to try and do 100% Technic or as near to it as possible.

as to the amount of final panels ... haven’t worked that out yet but if anyone runs short in future competitions of light grey panels they know who to ask :)

[Seasider]

An update from me. Haven’t had a lot of building time before today as I’ve been busy with work and away at weekends. But today I had the day off to recover from watching the Spa 24hr Race.

So what have I done ...

first I worked out the curve for the end with a good old fashioned pencil and paper.

Then today I converted the shape into this.

The good news is I like the shape I’ve got. The bad news is I need a lot more grey panels!

[Jim]

Just now, Seasider said:

The good news is I like the shape I’ve got. The bad news is I need a lot more grey panels!

Hehe.

What I like are simple things....the yellow line you have created. I like details like that.

[Seasider]

18 minutes ago, Jim said:

Hehe.

What I like are simple things....the yellow line you have created. I like details like that.

That’s the danger do not cross line for the riders

[kieran]

I agree that the simple colour scheme with the yellow accent  works very well

[pagicence]

/

Edited June 5, 2025 by pagicence

[doug72]

16 x 8 tiles might be more economic for the track outside of the yellow line on the straight sections.

[Corrado]

Colours what you use are great. Also idea is very intresting. Good luck! 

[Seasider]

7 hours ago, pagicence said:

That is a lot of panels. Did you rob a store?

No just BrickLink :)

6 hours ago, Doug72 said:

16 x 8 tiles might be more economic for the track outside of the yellow line on the straight sections.

Someone before mentioned using System tiles or baseboards, but I want to keep the model Technic.

 

another 64 5x11 panels ordered ... if anyone in Europe runs short in years to come you know who to ask :)

[pagicence]

/

Edited June 5, 2025 by pagicence

[conceitedguy]

He could use half of them to build a bin to store the other half in.

[Seasider]

7 hours ago, pagicence said:

Question: What are you going to doo (build) with ~150 (probably more) panels after this contest ends?

Build a big grey box for TC15 - hint for @Jim

 

[mocbuild101]

You could probably build a few of these: https://rebrickable.com/mocs/MOC-1389/Madoca1977/wing-body-truck/#

[Seasider]

4 hours ago, mocbuild101 said:

You could probably build a few of these: https://rebrickable.com/mocs/MOC-1389/Madoca1977/wing-body-truck/#

Thats a good suggestion, always fancied building one of those RC trucks. Either that or build a reach stacker and a load of containers