Tomik

I turned orrery into car (medium category)

I must say I am not big fan of current LEGO Technic assortment that consists mostly of cars but when I found out that new orrery (set 42179) contains four wheels I had to turn it into another car. It is loosely inspired by Citroën 2CV. It features front axle steering, inline 4-cylinder fake engine with moving pistons driven by rear axle, brick-built differential at rear axle and opening doors.

Thank you all for your comments. Yes, you are right. Once you lift plane from surface direction of spinning changes but it is almost not noticeable. ;-)

I rebuilt pullback formula into push ahead propeller plane (medium category)

It took me some time to realize that all my pullback planes (both can be found here) are wrong. They work like cars but they should work like planes - I explain you what I mean. Main purpose of pullback motor in my pullback planes is in spinning propeller and not moving plane forward. So until now you had to pull them back and then lift up to swoosh. Is this really the way how real planes take off? NO! To fix this issue I developed new "push ahead" system. It works simply like this: push plane to any surface (table, wall, floor etc.), push it ahead and lift it from this surface to get propeller spinning. And you can do this each time when propeller stops spinning without need to pull plane back. This model built out of set 42169 (McLaren Formula E) is actually the second push ahead plane I built so far. You can find the first one here.

Thank you for your comment. Shell assembly is pretty close to flower of piranha plant. I just had to make it little bit eliptic with white rim going all the way around. By the way, when I was playing with those 45° macaroni pieces I found out they don't fit into LEGO grid. I mean if you build circle out of them it will have diameter slightly bigger then 7 studs.

I also rebuilt piranha plant into scary turtle (medium category)

I thought set 71426 - Piranha Plant is great set for building alternative models but I was terribly wrong. This set is full of curved bricks and SNOT bricks and it contains almost no basic bricks and larger plates so building anything else from it is pretty difficult. Originally I wanted to build frog but I had to give up after several failed attempts... Later I noticed that flower of Piranha Plant looks like shell so I tried to build turtle. Originally it was supposed to be funny turtle with big eyes but it turned out to be pretty scary turtle instead. The only moving parts of turtle are head and tail. Since legs are bit fragile, I don't recommend this model for playing. Building instructions are available here.

I turned dogs from set 31137 into attractive woman in white dress (small category)

Set 31137 - Adorable Dogs contains plenty of different curved bricks so I tried to reuse them for model of woman. I was not the first who had same idea - for example pluTOMium from rebrickable built this model. Unlike him I wanted to make her bigger with higher detail. It was difficult challenge and when I was about to give up I found the way how to finish this model. The most complex part is brest area where I had to switch from 6 studs wide dress to 5 studs wide chest and back to 6 studs wide shoulders. She features cute face, very long hair and articulated arms.

When I was child I built every B-model of all Technic sets I owned many time. Since I was not able to build anything without building instructions in my childhood, my playing with LEGO looked like this: I built A-model, then I took it apart and built B-model, then I took it apart and built A-model again and so on. Now when I can build my own C-models I don't have time for building official B-models. Anyway I appreciated them at least like good inspiration.

Thank you for your comment.

When I was in Billund last time I talked with one LEGO designer (he asked me to conceal his name) about new sets from LEGO Marvel theme. I was surprised by information that LEGO is planning to re-release set 76191 this year because it was originally released in 2021 and is still available at lego.com. Here is part of our conversation about it: Tomik: Do you work on any interesting model now? Designer: Actually I work on new version of set 76191 that is planned to be re-released in 2023. Tomik: I own this set. It is Infinity Gauntlet! Designer: Not any more. It's gonna be re-released as Infinity Toilet also known as "Golden Throne of Thanos". Tomik: I haven't heard about Infinity Toilet in any movie from MCU. Can you tell me more about it? Designer: It is no surprise to me. I haven't heard about it either before I started working on this set. It was not shown in any movie but it played an important part behind the scenes. Tomik: Does it have any super power in MCU? Designer: Yes, it can remove all your bad things (you name them) with just one flush. Tomik: It is interesting feature. And what about new LEGO model? Will it feature any interesting functions? Designer: Model will feature opening cover, moving cistern lever, two brown "bad things" and it will be compatible with Thanos Mech from set 76141. It is also interesting that it will be built out of bricks from original set 76191 so re-released set needs just new box design and building instructions. Tomik: It sounds promissing but I still wonder why LEGO wanna re-release this set while it was originally released in 2021 and is still available for sale? Designer: They want to celebrate great success of Infinity Saga and bright future of MCU movies with this set. Designer also showed me this model on his smartphone so I was able to reverse-engineer it for you. Although I tried my best it can be slightly different from final product.

Thank you all for your comments. This looks like very good concept. It should be doable because you need just two motors, no gearbox and I've already found good solution for manual operation of cargo door. Yes, battery box is already in place right behind cockpit. And yes, there is space for the smallest motor over it (it is the place where it should sit in original model). Free space between walls of fuselage in its central part is 7 studs wide so Mindstorms motor would fit there easier than XL-motor. I didn't know about this attempt. Has this guy shown any progress? It looks like 42082 has more suitable parts and twice as many of them as Volvo.

When the first pictures of set 42113: Bell-Boeing V-22 Osprey appeared on internet two years ago I was not fascinated by them at all. Things changed when LEGO announced cancellation of this set just few weeks before its official release. My new interest in set 42113 wasn't big enough to convince me to buy one of overpriced original sets that were sold before their cancellation. So instead of buying new set I've got idea to build Osprey out of Volvo hauler (set 42114) that was released in same time. It is interesting that no one else got this idea too and haven't made it come true. Initially it looked like good and easy job because Volvo has about 500 pieces more than Osprey and it contains a lot of panels and liftarms. Then I began building and found out that I need even more liftarms (especially shorter ones) and I can't use many panels due to their large size... So let's take a look at where I am now. I built as much as I could by following original building instructions and changing just parts of model where I was missing correct parts. I had to rebuild engines with propellers and wings completely plus tail was modified to use less liftarms and more available panels. I also had to omit inclination of wings because Volvo doesn't contain enough universal joints (it contains only one and inclined wings need 4). You can see current state of model with wings and tail connected provisionally to fuselage at pictures below. I skipped assembly of gearbox intentionally because it must be totally different. It is also part of model where I am stuck right now. I am dealing with these questions: Should I keep all 4 main functions of plane (spinning propellers, tilting engines, lowering landing gear and opening cargo door)? Which functions should be motorized and which should be manual? Volvo features 3 motors. Two of them are large and they hardly fit in free space inside fuselage. If I keep all functions how will I distribute motors for them? Combination of one motor for powering and another for switching gearbox is not ideal because you can't run two functions at the same time (for example spinning propellers and tilting engines). There is not enough room for all three motors and gearbox inside fuselage and I already have problems with stability - plane is too rear heavy. Should I use linear actuators for lowering landing gear, opening cargo door and tilting engines or other mechanism? Original Osprey uses small linear actuators and one worm gear but Volvo has only the biggest actuators and no worm gears. If you have any suggestion or idea how to overcome issues I am dealing with I'll appreciate them. The last picture shows plane with available motors and linear actuators for size comparison.