[Maze] Cat B - Avengers Tower

[Oky]

And there came a day unlike any other, when Earth's Mightiest Heroes were united against a common threat! On that day the Avengers were born! -- To fight the foes no single hero could withstand!

And with every mighty superhero team comes a mighty headquarters! Located in the heart of Manhattan, the tall building that used to be Stark Tower until the Battle of New York stands as a symbol of hope and serves as a base of operations for the Avengers. Here, they can train, strategize, create new tech, or just hang out, and sometimes build evil robots that want to kill all humans.

Based on its appearance in Avengers: Age of Ultron, this tower is not just a great display piece, but also functions as both a UCS-style playset and a tilt system for the Lego Ideas Maze. It even features an automated ball return mechanism that is designed to work with mazes that have actual holes in them, so that if your ball falls through, you can watch it roll down the tower, floor by floor, and get lifted back up to the top where it is dropped back into the maze. And the best part is that you don't even need a table to play the maze as the tower doubles as a stand for the tilt system!

Here it is without any of the fancy graphics. It took 3 days to render that first image, so please excuse me if I use low-quality screenshots for the rest of this post.

Some profile shots of the building. Thanks to the hinges, the rounded back wall can be opened like double-doors. The third picture shows the opened backside. As you can see, there are stairs connecting each floor in addition to the ball-elevator, along with the obligatory fire extinguisher on every floor.

A shot of the North side of the building. I'm actually not sure if this side is accurate to the movies since I couldn't find any reference pictures of this side of the tower. If it isn't, please leave your barrage of nerdy complaints in the comments down below.

A top view of the tower. It was quite a challenge to get the curvature of the platforms at the top right.

As mentioned before, the ball return mechanism only works with mazes that have holes for the ball to go through, but of course you can use mazes without holes as well. Here is how it looks with an example maze which is the official maze from the set with a new color scheme and modified to have real holes. Please note that this maze is just for demonstration purposes and not part of the entry.

There is a slightly tilted platform below the maze so that if your ball falls through the maze, it will be guided down to a chute through which it rolls down to the hangar below.

Once in the hangar, the ball rolls down the channel on the left, around the outside of the landing platform (which features a working turntable), and back towards the rear of the hangar through the channel on the right.

The ball then rolls down a ramp that leads to the front of the building where it then zig-zags down the slanted windows.

Once it gets to the bottom, the ball enters the building through an open window and rolls down a channel that leads to the elevator chain in the back.

When it gets to the chain, the ball gets picked up by two prongs and lifted up to the top by Jarvis (i.e. a Power Functions motor). That much is clear. The only question is: If you put Thor's hammer on the ball elevator and it goes up, is the elevator worthy?

Once it gets to the top, the ball is dropped onto the rails that lead out of the building and back into the maze. The cycle is complete and the fun can continue forever and ever until Infinity War.

Now let's take a look at the interior of the tower. The front face of the building can be opened to access the inside as shown in the following image:

The first floor features a lobby with the Avengers logo painted on the floor, a reception desk, and a waiting area.

The second floor is where the Iron Legion is stored and repaired. Three fully posable robot arms with different tools hang from the ceiling and there is a rack of spare parts and other tools in the back. Counting the spare parts, there are two dozen legionaries here. Clearly they haven't been painted yet at this stage of the assembly.

The third floor is a laboratory where the Science Bros, Tony Stark and Bruce Banner, can do some science together and foolishly create maniacal A.I.s. There are many computers, holograms, and tools, as well as a medical bay in the back.

I based the look of the lab on this concept art:

On the fourth floor there is a large training room where the Avengers can hone their skills by sparring each other and dodging fire from several turrets.

After training, they can relax in the living room on the fifth floor. Here, they can throw a party, have some drinks, and play a friendly game of Who Can Lift Thor's Hammer.

The tower also includes living quarters for each of the six Avengers. The sixth floor houses Hulk and Thor's rooms. Hulk's room is expectedly messy and has food strewn about, a Hulk-sized weight lifting bar, a plant, and a TV. Thor's room on the other hand is decked out in Asgardian gold and looks nice and shiny. It features a golden statue with the winged helmet that Thor refuses to wear in the movies for some reason, a large banner, and a small desk with quills where he can write letters to Jane Foster and his friends back in Asgard.

The seventh floor is where Steve Rogers and Tony Stark live. Steve's room is filled with old-timey things like wooden furniture and a phonograph, as well as the American flag of course, and a hanger for his shield. And yes, that newspaper on his desk is the Old Times. Tony's room reflects his egotistical playboy lifestyle as it features a large painting of his alter ego, a hi-tech stereo, and a bed large enough for one or more lady friends to spend the night with him. Note the contrast between Steve's giant old phone and Tony's little smartphone on the other side of the wall.

Black Widow and Hawkeye's rooms take up the eighth floor. Both feature a simple bed and a wall where they can hang up their weapons. Additionally, Natasha's room also has a closet and a make-up table (a girl's gotta look good while saving the world! ) while Clint's room has a dart board and a desk where he crafts his arrows.

You can click the images for higher resolution and you can download the LXF file here: Avengers Tilt System.lxf

Feel free to open it in LDD and explore the tower as I have spent a lot of time building it and putting in more details than I probably should have.

I hope you like it and look forward to your feedback.

Excelsior!

[BrickCurve]

What an impressive take on the category! I like how the entire from of the tower hinges out.

Dos you think this would have been possible to build with real bricks?

[CM4Sci]

Honestly probably the best Avengers Tower MOC I've seen, but holy crap, this is huge! Way way huge! That's cool!

[soccerkid6]

Not only is this a stunning display model, and tilt system, it also looks tall enough to serve as the table/stand for the maze The nicely detailed interiors are well done and each character's room is quite fitting

Sweet that it has an automated ball return too

[Artanis I]

You are crazy. Now you have to build it!

Very impressive, did you eat or sleep at all last month?

[Oky]

What an impressive take on the category! I like how the entire from of the tower hinges out.

Dos you think this would have been possible to build with real bricks?

Thanks! Yes, I dos! However, I don't have nearly enough windows, slopes, and hinges to pull it off. If someone wants to take a crack at it, you can use the LXF to create instructions and build it.

Honestly probably the best Avengers Tower MOC I've seen, but holy crap, this is huge! Way way huge! That's cool!

Thanks! I tried to make it as big and accurate as possible.

Not only is this a stunning display model, and tilt system, it also looks tall enough to serve as the table/stand for the maze The nicely detailed interiors are well done and each character's room is quite fitting

Sweet that it has an automated ball return too

Yes, that was actually one of the main ideas behind this entry! I just forgot to mention it in the first post. Thanks for reminding me.

You are crazy. Now you have to build it!

Again, I wish I could. This would be amazing to have and play with in real life.

Very impressive, did you eat or sleep at all last month?

Thanks. As a matter of fact, I had to stay up quite late a few times the last couple of weeks in order to finish this build and I'm starting to feel some sleep deficit. Good thing I'm leaving for a relaxing weekend near Las Vegas tomorrow.

[Yatkuu]

Man, you literally took this one up to the next level! A 3 day render?!

Congrats on the outside the box thinking and dedication!

[rollermonkey]

This is AMAZING. Do you have a CAT A that goes with it?

[rodiziorobs]

Wow! That is massive!

The attention to the interiors is a really nice touch, and makes it more than just a maze stand.

..how long to you think it would take to get the ball back up to the top?

[KamalMYafi]

..how long to you think it would take to get the ball back up to the top?

If i count correctly, it's about 27.5 second.

EDIT: Changed the result because the rpm on sariel's chart and philo different. Now i use philo's chart. And i has some counting error.

Edited June 6, 2016 by KamalMYafi

[Oky]

Man, you literally took this one up to the next level! A 3 day render?!

Congrats on the outside the box thinking and dedication!

Thanks! Yes, I was surprised how long it took too. Must be because of all the translucent pieces.

This is AMAZING. Do you have a CAT A that goes with it?

I didn't enter one for the contest, but I might still build one.

Wow! That is massive!

The attention to the interiors is a really nice touch, and makes it more than just a maze stand.

..how long to you think it would take to get the ball back up to the top?

Thank you. Hm... Hard to tell. It might take a minute or so for the ball to go all the way down and back up, but it's not supposed to go fast. That's kind of the point, that you get to watch the ball travel up and down the tower in between maze rounds. I guess if you have the same amount of patience as the Hulk, this tilt system is not for you.

If i count correctly, it's about: 17-19 second.

Interesting! May I ask how you came to this conclusion?

[Foton]

Unbelievable!

When I first see the pictures, I think "Hey man, wrong category, this is Maze contest."

But first picture of tilting with maze, show me how wrong I was!

I hope, that somebody will build this beast and make a video.

[KamalMYafi]

Interesting! May I ask how you came to this conclusion?

M Motor speed= 405 rpm (from philohome.com)= 6.75 rps= 42.39 rad/s= 1.6x42.39= 67.824 m/s

Tread needed from bottom to top= 103 x 2.4 cm (the length of each tread)= 2.472 m (distance)

Time= distance:speed

= 67.824 : 2.472

= 27.4368932039 second or about 27.5 second.

---

Feel free to anyone to correct me, if i'm wrong.

[Jhayechan]

awesome sir, would like to make one in the future

will try to figure out how you made the windows from top to bottom and going for the uneven ones

but cant download the ldd,

something wrong with the link I guess

Edited June 11, 2016 by Jhayechan

[Oky]

M Motor speed= 405 rpm (from philohome.com)= 6.75 rps= 42.39 rad/s= 1.6x42.39= 67.824 m/s

Tread needed from bottom to top= 103 x 2.4 cm (the length of each tread)= 2.472 m (distance)

Time= distance:speed

= 67.824 : 2.472

= 27.4368932039 second or about 27.5 second.

---

Feel free to anyone to correct me, if i'm wrong.

Cool, thanks! Now we just need a physicist to figure out for us how long it would take for gravity to bring the ball from the top to the bottom floor to calculate the complete cycle.

awesome sir, would like to make one in the future

will try to figure out how you made the windows from top to bottom and going for the uneven ones

but cant download the ldd,

something wrong with the link I guess

Thank you! Ugh, this is so annoying. Why did all my download links stop working? Anyway, it should be fixed now.

[Jhayechan]

Cool, thanks! Now we just need a physicist to figure out for us how long it would take for gravity to bring the ball from the top to the bottom floor to calculate the complete cycle.

Thank you! Ugh, this is so annoying. Why did all my download links stop working? Anyway, it should be fixed now.

hi sir, thanks for replying, but still cant download the ldd :(

[Oky]

hi sir, thanks for replying, but still cant download the ldd :(

Again?? How does this keep happening?

I fixed it again, so download it quick before the link breaks again!

[Jhayechan]

Again?? How does this keep happening?

I fixed it again, so download it quick before the link breaks again!

thank you for reposting! got the ldd at last!

[Bricky Dee Williams]

This is the essence of amazing. Truly worthy of housing the Earth's Mightiest Heroes. Wow, this is by far the best Avengers Tower MOC I've seen. I love the bedrooms so much!

[HyperOnion]

Thiiiiis is awesome. Makes me wish I'd built my MOD Avenger's Tower with higher floors--would love to steal your lab, but it wouldn't remotely fit.

Anyway, awesome job.