Synopses & Reviews
The LEGO® Technic Idea Book: Wheeled Wonders is a collection of hundreds of mechanisms for cars, trucks, motorcycles, and other vehicles 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 Wheeled Wonders spin or move things, drag race, haul heavy gear, bump off walls, wind up and go, and much more. You'll discover how to build differential gears, implement steering and suspension, and design clutch and transmission systems to use in your own vehicles.
This visual guide, the second 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 (nostarch.com) for a list of the special parts used in the book.
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!
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: Wheeled Wonders offers hundreds of ideas and examples for building mechanisms with Technic. This volume focuses on vehicles that can drive, turn, move things, and go backwards. The book is color throughout, with little to no text accompanying its diagrams. The book's illustrations demonstrate various ways to build Technic vehicles, which you'll use as a starting point for your own creations. Wheeled Wonders begins by teaching readers about tires, rotation speed, and how to build a simple car with a motor, then demonstrates more complex actions, like how to use differential gears; make a car turn or move items; add car suspension with rubber bands or springs; and go backwards and forwards and switch rotational directions. 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
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
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 (nostarch.com) for a list of the special parts used in the book.
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.
Table of Contents
What the LEGO Community is Saying about the Unofficial LEGO Builder's Guide; Preface; Acknowledgments; Introduction; Chapter 1: The LEGO System: Endless Possibilities; 1.1 A Brick Vocabulary; 1.2 Precision, Geometry, and Color; 1.3 Review: The LEGO System; Chapter 2: Back to Basics: Tips and Techniques; 2.1 Decisions, Decisions: The Best Ways to Connect Bricks; 2.2 Building Walls; 2.3 Bracing: Unseen but Not Forgotten; 2.4 Review: Basic Building Principles; Chapter 3: Minifig Scale: Oh, What a Wonderful Minifig World It Is!; 3.1 Scale: It's All Relative; 3.2 From the Ground Up: Creating a Minifig-Scale Building; 3.3 Substitution: When Other Parts Will Do; 3.4 Review: Building Techniques and Alternatives; Chapter 4: Miniland Scale: The Whole World in Miniature; 4.1 Miniland Scale: Bigger but Still Small; 4.2 Creating a Basic Miniland Figure; 4.3 The Best Bits: Useful Pieces for Miniland People; 4.4 Basic Miniland Figure; 4.5 Miniland Buildings; 4.6 Review: Miniland Scale, Big Possibilities; Chapter 5: Jumbo Elements: Building Bigger Bricks; 5.1 Scaling Up: How It's Done; 5.2 Other Scales: What Scales Work, and Why; 5.3 Review: Jumbo Bricks Are Just the Start; Chapter 6: Microscale Building: More Than Meets the Eye; 6.1 Microscale: Small Scale with Big Possibilities; 6.2 Getting Started: Ignore the Details; 6.3 Translating Ideas into Bricks; 6.4 How Do I Know What Scale I'm Using?; 6.5 Replacing Full-Size Parts with Microscale Stand-Ins; 6.6 Review and Suggested Subject Matter; Chapter 7: Sculptures: The Shape of Things to Build; 7.1 Spheres: Round and Round They Go; 7.2 Divide and Build: Two Sections Means Twice the Fun; 7.3 Beyond Spheres: Sculpting Other Subjects; 7.4 Review: Sculptures--In the Eye of the Builder; Chapter 8: Mosaics: Patterns and Pictures in Bricks; 8.1 Two Types of Mosaics; 8.2 What Can You Do with Mosaics?; 8.3 What You Need to Make a Mosaic; 8.4 Designing a Studs-Out Mosaic; 8.5 Designing a Studs-Up Mosaic; 8.6 Design Grids for the Studs-Up Technique; 8.7 Mosaics on Edge; 8.8 Review: Mosaics of All Sizes and Shapes; Chapter 9: Technic: Not as Technical as It May Seem; 9.1 Technic: A System Within a System; 9.2 Technic Pieces: An Overview; 9.3 Getting Started with Technic: Assembly Notes; 9.4 Technic Meets Basic Elements; 9.5 Putting It All Together: Building a Technic Model; 9.6 Review: What Is Technic?; Chapter 10: Putting It All Together: Where Ideas Meet Bricks; 10.1 Thinking Like a Model Designer; 10.2 Bringing It All Together: The Final Design; 10.3 Review: Taking On the Role of Model Designer; Chapter 11: Beyond Just Bricks: Other Things to Do Besides Building; 11.1 "I Give It a Nine Out of Ten": Writing Reviews of LEGO Sets; 11.2 How It's Made: Creating Instructions for Your LEGO Models; 11.3 Having Fun: Making and Playing Games with LEGO Pieces; 11.4 Review: Enjoying Every Aspect of LEGO; Chapter 12: Sorting, Storage, and Sitting Down to Build Something; 12.1 Sorting vs. Storing: What's the Difference?; 12.2 Sorting Bricks: Divide and Conquer; 12.3 Storing Bricks; 12.4 Setting Up a Building Area; 12.5 Review: Unique Solutions for Every Builder; Chapter 13: Making and Using Tools for LEGO Projects; 13.1 Presser Tool; 13.2 The Ruler; 13.3 Pin Stand Tool; 13.4 Brick Separator; 13.5 Non-LEGO Tools; 13.6 Other Useful Items; 13.7 Review: The Right Tools for the Job; Brickopedia; Brickopedia Breakdown; Review: Bricks, Plates, and So Much More; Design Grids: Building Better by Planning Ahead; Downloading the Grids; About the Grids; Using the Grids Effectively; Review: From Grids to Bricks; Companion Website; Updates; Colophon;