Synopses & Reviews
The LEGO® Technic Idea Book: Fantastic Contraptions is a collection of hundreds of working examples of simple yet fascinating Technic models that you can build based on their pictures alone. Each project uses color-coded pieces and is photographed from multiple angles, making it easy to see how the models are assembled without the need for step-by-step instructions. Every model illustrates a different principle, concept, or mechanism that will inspire your own original creations. You're encouraged to use these elements as building blocks to create your own masterpieces.
The Technic models in Fantastic Contraptions include working catapults, crawling spiders, and bipedal walkers, as well as gadgets powered by fans, propellers, springs, magnets, and vibration. You'll even learn how to add lights, pneumatics, and solar panels to your own models.
This visual guide, the third in the three-volume LEGO Technic Idea Book series, is the brainchild of master builder Yoshihito Isogawa of Tokyo, Japan. Each title is filled with photos of Isogawa's unique models, all of which are designed to fire the imaginations of LEGO builders young and old.
Imagine. Create. Invent. Now, what will you build?
NOTE: The LEGO Technic Idea Book series uses parts from various Technic sets. If you don't have some of the pieces shown in a particular model, experiment by substituting your own parts or visit the No Starch Press website for a list of the special parts used in the book.
Synopsis
LEGO Technic is designed to allow builders to create more advanced models with moving parts, like those built with LEGO MINDSTORMS. The LEGO Technic Idea Book: Fantastic Contraptions offers hundreds of ideas for combining LEGO Technic propellers, motors, weights, magnets, and other parts to make creations that walk. The book is color throughout, with little to no text accompanying its diagrams. Expert builder Isogawa Yoshihito begins with basic four-legged walkers, including an ant, a spider, and a dog. He then goes on to show you how to do more complex things with LEGO Technic, like how to use propellers, wind, weights, and vibration to make creations move; utilize springs to make a rocket launcher and a tennis ball pitching machine; employ pumps, cylinders, and the air to make creations move; and more. The LEGO Technic Idea Books are for anyone who wants to create a moving masterpiece, as well as those who want to make original robots with MINDSTORMS. It can also be used to demonstrate how machines work and to experience the fun of mechanics.
Synopsis
"Walkers" begins with basic four-legged walkers, including an ant, a spider, and a dog. It then shows how to do more complex things with LEGO TECHNIC, like how to use propellers, wind, weights, and vibration to make creations move.
Synopsis
What exactly is a slope? What's the difference between a tile and a plate? Why is it bad to simply stack bricks in columns to make a wall? The Unofficial LEGO Builder's Guide is here to answer your questions.
Focusing on building actual models with real bricks, The Unofficial LEGO Builder's Guide comes with complete instructions to build several cool models but also encourages you to use your imagination to create your own fantastic creations.
Inside, you'll learn:
- The best ways to connect bricks and creative uses for those patterns
- Tricks for calculating and using scale (it's not as hard as you think)
- The step-by-step plans to create a train station on the scale of LEGO people (a.k.a. "minifigs")
- How to build spheres, jumbo-sized LEGO bricks, micro-scaled models, and a mini space shuttle
- Tips for sorting and storing all of your LEGO pieces
The Unofficial LEGO Builder's Guide also includes the Brickopedia, a visual guide to nearly 300 of the most useful and reusable elements of the LEGO system, with historical notes, common uses, part numbers, and the year each piece first appeared in a LEGO set.
The firm foundation for your LEGO hobby starts here!
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About the Author
Allan Bedford is a lifelong LEGO fan and builder whose most ambitious model to date is a 5,000 piece replica of Toronto's famed CN Tower. He is active in the online LEGO community, having contributed ideas and discussions for several years. Bedford works as a computer programmer analyst by day and spends his spare time cycling, designing board games and, of course, building with LEGO bricks.