allanp

Well I have just got back from the event. I have taken some pictures but there really isn't much to see (deffinately no house). We were just building big bricks out of small ones. isning only 2x4 bricks the big bricks were 48 studs x 24 studs x 8 bricks high (272 bricks). There were hollow with only a single wall with no top or bottom. Whilst each big brick is made of only one colour there were many different colored bricks (red, yellow, black, white, green, blue and grey). This is not the best way to build this house but it is the most economical use of bricks so 3,000,000 might be mostly enough. I managed to build 5 bricks and re-build 2 others that had been made the wrong size in my 1 hour sitting. 7 bricks really won't go far will it but I tried anyway. James May was a very pleasent chap and surprisingly tall BTW.

I'll try my best. I'm gonna go into a frenzy and build James a double garage weather he wanted one ot not!

If I can take some pics I diffinately will. There is nothing in the e-mail to say that I can't take pics. The invitaiton was open to everyone but in my opinion I don't think it was in a place that any normal child would have visited on the net, being a boring kinda news website where I found it. So averyone averaged 2000 bricks per hour. That's fast. My time is much slower as I mainly build with lego technic , I kinda guessed at how many bricks per hour the average person could build. So for the 600 person hours for the house that would be 1,200,000 bricks. Still under a half of 3,000,000. IM GONNA BUILD LIKE THE WIND!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Maybe they intend on using more than one size of brick I will be attending the event and have received an e-mail with some details. Due to the HUGE amount of interest from fans there will be 5 building sessions, each ONE hour long and each with 120 people. However IF weather is good then more people may be accomodated outdoors. This is now a ticketed event (tickets are free) and are available from 9.00 with the first build session starting at 10.00. then 11:30, 13:00, 14:30 and 16:00. Ok so 120 people over 5 hours equals 600 man hours (or should I say person hours ) If one person can assemble 1000 bricks an hour (1000?) Thats 600,000. Hmmm. This could take a while! ON WITH THE BUILD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I would love to work on the technic line creating all sorts of things like a totally new supercar, sea king rescue helicopter, monster truck, forklift truck, etc. But My dream is a 2500-3000 peice UCS backhoe like the 8455, but at least twice the size. It would include: An xl motor (with less gearing down for a higher output speed) Inline 4 engine Motor driven air compressor with airtank Motor driven 4 wheel drive and gearbox pneumatic steering and pendular front suspention Longer pneumatics Rear arm would have all the usual functions plus a pneumatically powered telescopic boom and lateral (side to side) sliding movement Stableizers Front bucket would have all the usual functions plus pneumatically powered opening/closing feature Basically the real thing, just smaller. If I was to create a new theme then maybe something like Rollercoaster tycoon (like coasterdynamix but better, cheaper and more detailed with add-on's such as stations, kiosks, shops, gentle rides, thrill rides, etc)

Aren't you all missing something? I live in the west mids but will hopefully be going to Surrey for a particular Lego building event on August 1st, hosted by a fellow lover of pies! Is that you captain?

I suppose if Lego wished to produce a PF valve they could make theirs much some compact as they woulden't have to worry about pressures much above 60psi, bispoke vent ports, 1/4 or 3/8 bsp treaded holes on the three remaining ports or the capability of indutrial amounts of air flow. They could be made much cheaper too by having all the parts made of injection moulded plastic instead of precision machined steel. Sorry iv'e gone a bit off the original topic now The video posted by Supercow is brilliant! Outstanding!

About 60,000 from about 100 sets (my peeron listing is a little out of date so i'm estimating), about 95% is Technic.

Rocky Balboa (ending my Rocky marathon whatchnig every movie over two weeks) Rocky 4 is still my favorite.

The Ideal thing would be a three port (not counting vents)/three way solenoid with a spring return to the central position when the power is off. Could a variable valve based on PWM be really that workable? If so then that would be better than great. If not then it's still really great!

ooh nice topic! I predict the 8258 crane truck will be in this list but I don't own it yet so don't know exactly where it should go until I build it. So Hears my list for now. =1) 8480 space shuttle =1) 8880 supercar =1) 8868 Air tech claw rig 4) 8865 test car 5) 8466 4x4 Off Roader 6) 8448 8448 Super Street Sensation / Super Car Mk II 7) 8856 Whirlwind Rescue 8) 8485 Control Center / Control II 9) 8455 Backhoe Loader 10) 8862 Backhoe Grader 11) 8094 Technic Control Center 12) 8421 Mobile Crane / Crane Truck 13) 5571 Giant Truck / Black Cat 14) 8460 Pneumatic Crane Truck / Mobile Crane 15) 6286 Skull's Eye Schooner 16) 8439 Front End Loader 17) 8275 Motorized Bulldozer 18) 8858 Rebel Wrecker 19) 8064 Motorized Universal Building Set 20) 8851 Excavator So thats 13 or 14 technic flagships, 7 models with pneumatics, 4 out of the top six having a gearbox (5 if you count 8480s transmission), and a partridge in a lego store!

Yes I am seriously suggesting that. The priciple behind it is similar to building a brick wall. You don't stack the bricks directly on top of each other. You interlace them because in doing so, you give it more strength. The more you interlace the bricks together, the stronger the structure is. In the mythbusters video I can deffinately see it breaking into the big blocks causing a huge loss of structural integrity which in turn caused it to break into smaller blocks almost immediately afterwards so you might have missed that

I remember starting a thread on lugnet called "technic. What happened to the good old days?" Check it out (the whole thread) as there are many many many many great ideas there for new parts.

I don't think they hav finished filming yet. They may not have even started building the house. The bottom link I gave suggests that he is looking for people to help out in the build

Thankyou for sharing this looks pretty cool. And complicated too. You've even got a pivot about the vertical axis in the main boom. Well done!

BSB for the win. It's got more cannons and looks more menacing. BB just makes me wanna go awwwww bless! But oh wait what's this! SES blasts BSB out the water!

YEY i'm an original technic supplimentary set released in 1977! http://guide.lugnet.com/set/961

Woops sorry mate I did do a quick search but obviousley I didn't look hard enough. My apologies. Back on topic. Would be interesting to see what solusions people hear have to some of the various problems that may face the designers of this house. First thing I would do is to build a beam 15 feet long out of 8x16 base plates to see how thick it would have to be to support a persons full body weight if standing in the middle. If that could be done then it should be possible to build a two story house. Then I would work out how many 8x16 baseplates would be needed to build the whole house. Then I would contact lego and ask if they could produce such a vast quantity and seeing as I would be ording such a vast quantity, what other colours could they produce them in that are not already available (ie orange for brickwork, various other colours for the inner walls, etc). Even finding out what to do with the house after it's finished will be daunting. Would be cool if it was a display at Legoland Windsor because then we could all step inside the house that James (and 100 helpers) built!

That's when he's in top gear mode. I think this will be different. It can be done the only real issue I can see is getting enough parts to do it.

In technic, I would like to see a return to pneumatics instead of liniar actuators. I also think the pneumatics line should be expanded to include longer cylinders, a more efficient motor pump and a PF valve. What would also be cool is a double ended pneumatic and/or suitable valve for use in power steering. On the whole I like the new PF motors but the one thing I would change is the amount of gearing down in them. There is too much. Where is the fun in having most of the gearing down done for you?!

This is going to be fantastic I can't wait for this. I've often wondered how I would go about such a challenge myself. http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/pressrele...ch/12/toy.shtml http://www.nce.co.uk/bbc-in-need-of-struct...1975023.article I would probably not like the use of glue as this would be too easy. But then the prospect of a full size lego house (10's of tonnes in plastic) collapsing in on you is not that appealing. I wonder If they will make it a two story house? How would you make the upper floor strong enough to hold the weight of James May and a full camera crew without using glue? BTW i hope they don't make the mistake of building big blocks out of small blocks. Anyone remember the mythbusters episode where they made a giant ball and rolled it down a hill? Edit: Well seeing as James is looking for volunteers to help with the build on Saturday 1st August in Surrey, I have voluteered! If you would like to volunteer then please send your contact details to lego@plumpictures.co.uk

Agreed. They are just sooo cool Ah yes but when you consider the amount of peices required for an LA (gear trains, possibly motors, etc) I think pneumatics work out cheaper, especially if you want to use more than one. This is very true. Many people seem to be impressed with the pneumatics whilst LAs just seem a little boring compared to pneumatics (even more so when using a motor/compessor pump) And isn't that what Technic is supposed to be all about, working like the real thing! Yeah, imagine trying to do that with LA's Yeah, imagine trying to do that with LA's No but i'm sure they can lift more than 1.5 kgs. Iv'e done so in the past. Iv'e measured the pressure and using only technic parts (no third party elements) in a fairly typical setup, you can easily get pressures of over 30 psi (60 is about the limit ) The surface area of which this pressure acts (depending on weather it's going in or out) is approximately 3/8 inch square. This gives you a force equilent of over 5 kgs operating at 30psi, which sounds about right. I havent seen a video but i'm sure they can lift more than 1.5 kgs as I have done so in the past. Iv'e measure the pressure and using only lego in a typical set up it's quite easy go get 30psi of pressure (60 seems to be about the limit!) The surface upon which this pressre acts within a pneumatic cylinder (depending on which way it's going) is about 3/8 of an inch. The gives the equivolent force of about 5 kgs, which seems to be about right. I havent seen a video but i'm sure they can lift more than 1.5 kgs as I have done so in the past. Iv'e measure the pressure and using only lego in a typical set up it's quite easy go get 30psi of pressure (60 seems to be about the limit!) The surface upon which this pressre acts within a pneumatic cylinder (depending on which way it's going) is about 3/8 of an inch. The gives the equivolent force of about 5 kgs, which seems to be about right. Ah poo! Sorry for posting the same think three times Yes I really really really really want longer pneumatics too. And much more efficient motor pump would also be nice. You couldn't really make a motor small, reliable and powerfull enough to do anything useful with an LA in this regard. Flexible axles are not really a practical option and yes, it is a pain in the to get torque to them in awkwad places (imagine trying to do the air tech claw rig or the newer back hoe with LAs) I suppose LAs are good for some things but they are just too limiting in where you can use them and besides, pneumatics are just way cooler

I believe it is a medium motor driving two functions (selectable via driving ring). One function is the winch and the other function is raising/lowering the suspention. The pole switch will change the direction of the motor as required. A assume the headlights stay on all the time.

Thank you very much for these pictures I have been very eager to see them. However now that I have seen them I am quite dissapointed and I can't see me buying any of them. It is very good to see them investing in new part designs but this is such a cop out. If they had longer pneumatics (powered by air) then that would have been great but instead they have these stupid linear actuater things, each one requiring it's own drive train. They may have some limited uses but I really hope this is the last time we see them where there should be a pneumatic cylinder. I can't see them being as powerful as pneumatics and motorising them will be very awkward as you have to get drive to the end of every actuator (most likely through universal joints making them even weaker). Imagine trying to get drive to a third actuator on the excavator to power the shovel. They would also be more expensive to produce unless they have plastic workings inside, which would make them even more crappy. The off roader has some lights and a pole revearser switch. Nice but i'm not gonna spend about