Fun & Games

The latest DIY ideas, techniques and tools for bikes, rockets, R/C vehicles, toys and other diversions.

Lego Mindstorms NXT 2.0 giveaway

Lego Mindstorms NXT 2.0 giveaway

Build your dream, then make it move! Lego Mindstorms NXT 2.0 is the latest version of the robotic building set that launched First Lego League and inspired thousands of kids. People have used Mindstorms to make everything from robotic animals to Rubik’s cube solvers. Today, in association with The Lego Group, we’re giving away a […]

Virtual Nautilus

Virtual Nautilus

While the renders look a little dated, it’s hard not to appreciate the passion put into this recreation of Jules Verne’s iconic submarine. Even the boring rooms are mapped out and recreated in 3D! I began the effort to develop a complete set of detailed source files for the Nautilus in 2001, when I acquired […]

Pneumatic Lego robotic arm

Polish Lego builder Paul “Sarial” Kmiec built this fantastic robotic arm using Technic Power Functions elements combined with an external pneumatic compressor! Just another weekend build – this is basically a late realization of an idea I had back when I was a kid. The goal was to build a model of an entire human […]

Fiction science:  Aliens, Predator, and Mega Shark infographics

Fiction science: Aliens, Predator, and Mega Shark infographics

The second graphic explains the physics behind what Boing-Boinger Jimmy Guterman has described as “the greatest scene ever in the greatest movie of all time,” viz. the destruction of a cruising jetliner by the eponymous “Mega Shark” from Mega Shark vs. Giant Octopus. You may be interested to know, for instance, that Mega Shark’s air attack requires that it break the surface of the water with a velocity of 710 km/hr, which is faster than a bullet train but not quite so fast as a Tomahawk missile.

Lego conference table

Lego conference table

This 4×9′ boardroom table was created for Ireland’s Boys and Girls advertising agency by fellow Dubliners agbc architects. It is, essentially, a 7-stud thick slab of random Lego bricks topped with a piece of tempered glass. More details and photos are available here. A timelapse video of its construction, (inevitably set to the not-so-soothing sounds of the William Tell Overture), is available on YouTube. [via Dude Craft]