The Lego Build-It Book: Amazing Vehicles - Review

[SlyOwl]

Review: The Lego Build-It Book

Book Information

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Name:

The Lego Build-It Book: Amazing Vehicles

Author: Nathanael Kuipers, Mattia Zamboni

Publisher:

No Starch Press

Release: July

2013

Pages: 136

ISBN:

9781593275037

Price:

US $19.95

|

US $15.95 (E-Book)

Links: Amazon ~ No Starch Press ~ 5867 - Super Speedster

The Book

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To put it bluntly, the book is a glorified alternate-model instruction book. But it's good at what it does. It gives instructions for 10 different models, all created using the same parts, which are listed at the beginning. These all come from the Creator set 5867 - a red car - so, inevitably, all the models are red wheeled vehicles! It goes to show the versatility of the bricks and the designers' imaginations.

One author, Nathanael, is a former Lego Technic designer - and the other, Mattia, is a graphic designer - and have collaborated extremely well to produce this excellent-looking book. The graphics are genuinely flawless. I'm not sure what program the instruction images were created in; some of the parts don't seem entirely right on closer inspection (missing friction ridges etc - nothing major at all!). I really struggled to work out whether the pictures were renders or photos; though I'm leaning towards excellent renders.

The book is as high quality as I've come to expect from No-Starch-Press. The cover is matt, soft-backed - and is showing a few signs of wear and tear after having it in my rucksack for a week's holiday... just like the BrickGun book - don't know what it is with me and doing that! The book is very clear throughout, mainly white text on a blue background with "blueprints" of the model watermarked on.

There's a brief introduction to the book, followed by a set of helpful building tips. A bit is about the basics of being creative with parts - the whole range of things you could use a 1x1 round brick for, for example. It then goes on to introduce SNOT techniques, why certain pieces have been designed like they have; and there is another section on "advanced" building techniques in the middle of the book - reinforcement, some more SNOT, hinges and so on. There's nothing ground-breaking here for an AFOL, but it is a very good basis if you're new to higher level building.

There is also a parts list for 5867 - I found I had 90% of the parts straight away (being Creator, it's mainly bricks, plates and slopes) - and could improvise the rest. It's largely red, with black filler and grey/white trim.

The rest of the book is simply ten sets of instructions for the models:

Off-Roader

Go-Kart

Muscle Car

Stroller

Multi-Purpose Truck

Historic Racer

Classic Car

Wheel-Loader

Street Rod

Rescue Truck

Each is introduced with a cover page showing a variety of angles/details, a wireframe/blueprint view, and a brief info box containing dimensions, features, design notes etc. There is also a rating box (similar to in a computer game) for Complexity, Functions and Pieces, 1-3; it looks nice, but I didn't pay any attention to it when picking which models to build!

The Instructions

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These are very clear, and similar to official Lego instructions (as you'd expect). The graphics are slightly more jazzy - it has a nice header and shadows on the parts-call-out boxes. I had some issues distinguishing between tan and white, though - particularly as some of the same parts are used in both colours. There is no individual parts list for each model; so I picked out all the parts at the front and went from there.

The Build

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I built the Multi-Purpose Truck first, and then the Classic Car. They came together much as you'd expect from a Lego set - though as the techniques were considerably more advanced (the whole underside of the Classic Car is built upside down!), you need to concentrate a bit more.

One thing I didn't like - which is a result of using a limited parts selection - was that it felt parts were being used to fill gaps - or weren't the best solution. I fully understand why they chose to use just the parts from one set, but it made me a bit frustrated when building, as you couldn't always work out what you were building at that moment/what it was going to attach to. It also made the models quite physically weak, I felt - parts are cantilevered no end, bits fall off - there's no heft to the models. But given some more bricks, I'm sure they'd be fine.

Judge for yourself; but I think the models do look really good. And I am very impressed with the broad range of vehicles at different scales (some are roughly minifig scale, others much larger, others slightly smaller) - the designers did a good job. Whatsmore, there's a sequel coming out - 10 more models, using the same parts!

Multi-Purpose Truck

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Where better to start than a meaty truck; what sold me to start with was the "logo" on the front grill.

The back tips up; it's a fairly sturdy joint.

This pic probably expresses my thoughts on the book best: there's some nice detail going on in the cab and under the tipper, but it feels a bit unrefined and slap-dash.

Classic Car

The stripe down the middle is built sideways, with the top and bottom sandwiching it neatly - so the bottom is built upside down! It's quite squidgy if you press down on it, and I've found the wheels tend to rub rather. But it looks very good.

Doors open, neat continuation of the stripe through them. Note the cleverly-built-but-a-bit-too-tight arches.

The seat backs sit on Technic pins, so tend to flop around a bit!

Final Thoughts...

This is a book I would have enjoyed as a kid - sure, I'd have been frustrated with not having the right parts, but the way it gradually teaches the techniques is great. I think if you own the set 5867, it would be great to have - something to take on holiday, say. Unfortunately, 5867 is no longer produced (and, it seems, not hugely available online either) - so it'll be a case of make-do. Idea for the future? Get official endorsement and sell similar books alongside the set. Not sure this would ever happen!

The book, presentation and instructions are all top notch - kudos to No Starch Press.

Barney