Blog 'o Lego

PuzzLego: Chinese Cross small

2010-06-16T23:30:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago I purchased some wooden puzzles from Goodwill. However, as things often are at Goodwill, not all of the parts were in the box. Looking at the instructions, I had the idea of trying to make Lego versions of the puzzles. I decided to start with the simplest. Looking online, this is the Chinese Cross.

Picture of the box and the four puzzles.

The three pieces that I had for the Chinese Cross puzzle.

Lego prototype to see if it was possible. Each piece is 5 plates high, 2 studs wide, and 10 studs long.

The six pieces in the prototype.

Prototype 2: changed so the tiles are on the "outside" and provide a more uniform look when the puzzle is assembled.

Prototype 2 pieces.

Comparison of the two prototypes and final "small" version in red.

Foam Brick Mosaic

2010-01-02T23:23:00.000-08:00

I saw the iPhone Lego App a few days ago and downloaded. It is an okay app. It lets you take a picture (or use an existing one) and create a Lego mosaic of the image. You can tap the screen to change the color scale.

I thought that I would try to recreate one of the mosaics with real Legos, and this is my first result. I took a photo of one of the large foam Lego bricks.

Next, I used the Lego app to create a mosaic.

Then, for "fun," I recreated it in the Lego Digital Designer, thinking it would help me figure out what pieces, etc. Although, I largely just used 1x1 plates in the digital version.

I used the LDD version to build the final one, using a variety of plates that would fit the mosaic. I was lazy and decided to just leave the background gray rather than filling it in with white. I also just did the main brick and shadows.

Sphere

2009-06-09T06:16:00.000-07:00

Ever since I got the "The Ultimate LEGO Book," I have wanted to make a sphere like the one shown by master builders.

A few years ago I tried to make a small one but it did not turn out that well (if I can find photos of it I will try to post it sometime). A few days ago I went online to see if I could find instructions for one.

I cam up empty handed since most of the ones I found online where not as detailed or required angle plates to achieve a sphere like shape. Nothing using just "normal" plates and bricks.

Over the weekend I pulled out the book and examined the photo that was included and created my own version. After about 13 hours (over 3 days) of building it was finished.

Weighs around 4.7 pounds
32 studs across
26.33 bricks high (79 plates)

Photo of sphere from The Ultimate LEGO Book

Progress #1, bottom

Progress #1, top

Progress #2, bottom

Progress #2, top

Progress #3, bottom

Progress #3, top

The two parts, ready to be combined to form the final sphere

Finished sphere

View of the bottom

View of the side

Comparison of sphere with 2x2 brick

Comparison of sphere with a minifig

Koem DD

2009-05-13T21:37:00.000-07:00

Here is a modified version of my first microbot in the digital designer.

Cost: $1.87
Part Count: 11

Wedged Cube DD

2009-05-13T20:56:00.000-07:00

I created the wedged cube model in the digital designer. Getting it would cost $5.54. Seems a little expensive for 22 pieces. I'll have to try getting one sometime.

Click on the LEGO Factory Creations on the side to view it and the other models I have uploaded. (NOTE: not yet approved as of this posting, so this will not be listed)

Wedged Cube

2009-05-12T21:26:00.000-07:00

I initially created 8 corners using some wedge plates thinking of making a large cube. I was trying to come up with a way to connect them nicely and stumbled upon the smaller cube below that uses just 4.

A closeup of the corner's "inside." The build pictures below create the cube differently since it seemed easier to construct it that way rather than trying to connect four of these corner pieces together.

All the pieces used for this model, just three types.

Two wedges and a 2x2 plate make up each side of the cube.

Place a wedge on the 2x2 plate as shown.

Put the other wedge next to the first.

Make 5 more of these for a total of 6.

Turn over three of the sides and place connector bricks as shown.

Assembly these three sides to form half of the cube.

Carefully add two more. It might be slightly tricky to get good, solid connections between the bricks. If you take your time and make adjustments it will eventually work out.

The final cube using "wedges."

Twisted Column

2009-05-01T23:02:00.000-07:00

The twisted column was originally created as a way to organize my 1x2 jumper plates by color.

Start by placing two jumper plates side by side to make a 2x2 square.

Place another jumper plate across the studs formed by the 2x2 square.

Place two more to build up the column.

Continue placing additional plates in twos to create the column.

Hinged Cube

2009-04-24T21:49:00.000-07:00

Here is a simple cube that I created with some hinge plates. Not sure how I might use this, will probably try some different variations.

Pieces that make up the model, just 3 unique parts. Arranged as they should be assembled.

Parts put together except for one connection.

Completed cube.

Wasalisk DD

2009-04-18T23:17:00.000-07:00

Using the digital designer (DD), I created a modified version of my wasalisk model.

This is not as nice as the first version since the designer does not have as many different pieces and colors available. The limitation seems to be because you can purchase your creations, so you can only use pieces that they have available. This version would cost $3.60.

Digital Designer

2009-04-18T23:08:00.000-07:00

I downloaded the LEGO Digital Designer today and started to play around with it.

I tried to create some of my models in it, but it is rather limited on the pieces and colors available.

It also took me some time to figure out how to orient pieces the way I wanted them. You have to select a piece and "bind" it to the mouse so as you move the mouse around the piece follows it. Four arrows will appear, like in the following screen shot.

When the piece has the four arrows, you can use the arrows on the keyboard (apparently not the numberpad ones though) to rotate the piece in that direction. I could not find this in the help file. I originally thought the arrows represented the fact that you could move the piece in those directions, not that using the keyboard keys would do something.

Phant

2008-06-28T22:43:00.000-07:00

I was playing around with a few pieces and stumbled upon the following little creation that reminded me of an elephant.

Rocket

2008-06-08T12:20:00.000-07:00

Dr. Mario - Concept

2008-05-08T20:48:00.000-07:00

Similar to my earlier Donkey Kong concept work, here is an idea for a Lego-ized Dr. Mario. The layout is much simpler than in the game.

View of the Dr. Mario title done with some 1 bump wide plates.

Dr. Mario minifig. I do not have a Doctor torso, so I just used a white one.

The three viruses.

Full concept image of Lego-ized Dr. Mario.

Waves - 4 and 6

2008-04-27T10:15:00.000-07:00

I was playing around with some pieces that are used in one of the airplane sets to create a "wavy" looking enclosed structure. Have not really thought of anything more complex to do with this model yet.

4 waves joined together to make a square.

6 waves form a rectangle.

Adjust the waves, and get more of a circle.

Portal: Signs

2008-04-19T15:09:00.000-07:00

Here are some interpretations of the signs that appear at the start of each level in the video game Portal. I was originally going to use a black minifig but it would require a lot of post processing to generating the images. The below use plates and other pieces instead.

Screen shot from in game (demo copy)

"pow" made with a Lego chain.

Portals also made with Lego chains.

Wasalisk

2008-04-13T20:49:00.001-07:00

View of the various parts.

Start of the head.

Attach some round 1x1 plates for eyes.

The base for the body.

Flip this over and attach some "feet."

Add some hinge bricks.

Another hinge brick and "tail."

Add some wings.

Attach the head.

Tilt the wings and head, and your done!

Triship

2008-04-07T21:47:00.001-07:00

Here is the evolution of the triship model from basic concept to final creation.

Basic idea was to use a bunch of these hinge-like pieces.

Four of them together, create a box.

From this, I added some "fins"...

... and created a rocket like model. The cone is not actually attached.

However, I was not sure how to attached the "nose" so I turned the box inside-out and was able to create the model.

I thought that the cone looked odd, so I changed one to a cockpit to make a space ship.

Thinking that it was too short, I expanded the base.

Here is a basic idea of the ship at first.

Played around with some variations of the ship structure, added some wings, and we get the final "triship" model.

Hexa-base

2008-03-24T21:18:00.000-07:00

I was looking at some different pieces and noticed that I could combine six of R2-D2's legs to make a hexagon type structure. Using this as a base, I made a few different structures.

The base hexagon structure.

A box.

Change around the box, and you get a snow flake.

Using some "wings," create a cone. I had to use 3 pairs since I did not have 6 of one side.

Again, flip around the wings and make a star. This is my favorite of these models. I have been trying to figure out a larger creation to integrate this in, but so far have not come up with anything.

Donkey Kong - Concept

2008-03-22T17:11:00.000-07:00

I have been kicking around the idea of recreating a classic scene from the Donkey Kong video game in Legos. I could not really come up with a good representation of Donkey Kong himself with the pieces I have.

Here is some concept work of Mario, or Jumpman as he was initially referred to in the game. The mini-fig pieces are not the correct colors, so I tried to change them with GIMP.

Concept of Mario (Jumpman) versus a barrel.

Quick re-coloring of Mario.

Turtloy

2008-03-19T21:52:00.000-07:00

One of my favorite animals are turtles, and I have had an idea in my head for creating a simple turtle model out of Legos. Unfortunately, I could not figure out how to get my original idea to work but I did end up making a sea turtle.

My original idea was to use a few "wing" like pieces and a dish.

I could not find a good way to put the pieces together, so I decided to try a larger dish. However, I still could not figure out a good solution.

Here is the inspiration for the final sea turtle modle, a magnet from one of my trips to Hawaii.

I ended up creating a much larger model but using the same basic ideas. Here is the body and shell.

A close up of the body. The four round 1x1 plates are used to attach the shell to the body.

Another zoomed in view.

The shell attached to the body. However, it felt like there was still something missing.

I added a few yellow 1x1 round plates to add more details.

Clip Ship

2008-03-13T21:05:00.001-07:00

Here are some building photos for my clip ship. It is sort of like a micro X-Wing from Star Wars and uses a single Lego part type: "1x1 modified plate with clip light."

8 Lego pieces.

The basic build works by combining the pieces like in this first step.

Two more pieces form the top "wings."

One piece in fron to finish the "nose" and two more on the bottom to complete the model.

A few various colors.

Scorpud

2008-01-31T20:40:00.000-08:00

Here are some building photos for Scorpud, a scorpion like model.

View of the various parts.

Attach the hinges in series to two "headlight" bricks.

Place more "headlight" bricks as shown to finish the body.

This shows how the eyes / claws are assembled.

Attach the eyes / claws to the body.

Add some small "triple" slopes as scales on top of the body.

Flip it over, and attach the feet.

Curve the tail around, and you're done!

G.I.R.

2008-01-29T20:56:00.001-08:00

Earlier, I created a model of G.I.R. from the Invader Zim cartoon. It did not turn out that well, so I decided to call it a prototype.

Here is an updated version to the model. The head is basically the same, except I changed the eyes a little bit. The rest of the model is smaller to be more proportionate and realistic to the character.

Here is an original shot of GIR from the first episode of Invader Zim, during his introduction.

A close-up of the model's body.

The finished Lego model.

Google Logo

2008-01-28T21:42:00.000-08:00

Today is Lego's 50th birthday. There has been a little bit of coverage and Google even "brickified" their logo in celebration.

After seeing it, I thought it would be fun to make their logo actually out of Legos. I did not have exactly all the right bricks, but I was able to create it with some small changes (mainly using some 1 x 6 bricks in place of some 2 x 6).

A screen shot of the Google brickified logo.

A photo of my creation, before being cleaned up. The minifig's torso is actually blue, but I was able to make it red with some post-processing.

Final image.

Portal - Cube

2008-01-15T19:10:00.000-08:00

Here is a quick model that I made of the cube from Portal.

Started out with a basic skeleton. This ended up being a little too large so I had to find a way to "shrink" it.

I discovered that if I flipped the round bricks, I could get a smaller skeleton that would be more suitable for the small cube.

Added a bunch of 1x2 plates to make up the edges along each side. I actually think this skeleton looks better than the final cube.

A little creativity to hold the 2x2 plates that would make up each corner.

Top down view of the finished cube.

Another view of the cube. Overall, it took about an hour from conception to completion.

Black Minifig

2008-01-14T20:08:00.000-08:00

In order to create some more Lego creations for the game Portal, I needed an all black minifig. However, I did not have a "body" that had black arms and a solid black torso. I did have different bodies that had these two requirements and I figured I could just take them apart.

I was initially worried I might break something while removing the arms. I did a quick search online and found a modder's website that described how to do this safely. I was able to get most of the arms off without issues, but I did end up slightly damaging one.

Here are some pictures to help others safely remove the arms and hopefully not repeat my mistake.

First, found two minifig bodies that I wanted to disassemble to create an all black body.

Rotate the arms so they appear like the above image with the slots inside visible.

Holding onto the arm, gently pull outward. Do not pull the hand, but the arm instead. I damage one of the arms slightly be pulling on the hand. You might want to remove the hands to prevent this, but I found leaving the hand in made it a little easier to grasp.

All the parts of my minifig. To insert the arms into the torso, just push the arm into the torso. It should go in easily.

The finished product; an all black minifig.

Portal - Graphic

2008-01-13T18:56:00.000-08:00

I have heard a lot about the game Portal and I got a chance to play it thanks to a the demo Portal: First Slice which is free to "NVIDIA customers."

Some nice Lego creations have already been done for Portal, but I thought I would try to make something. I decided to start with the splash screen that accompanied the free demo.

Here is a screenshot of the original graphic for Portal.

Decided I would use a dish for the portal. I had to resize it in order to get the dimensions correct.

A few pieces make up an arrow.

An all white minifig. Body is from a ghost, head from the International Space Station set.

Using GIMP, put the pieces together to make a simple Lego Portal graphic.

Legoami - Crane

2008-01-13T18:29:00.000-08:00

Another of my hobbies is origami, the Japanese art of folding paper. I recently thought that it might be fun to try and recreate some origami models with Legos. I have decided to call these creations Legoami.

Here is what I consider the classic origami model, the crane.

Started off by folding an origami crane.

Discovered that the crane's body is close in size to a 4x4 plate.

Some pieces on top of a wing to get a close approximation.

The main pieces all laid out.

Finished Lego origami model.

A comparison between the Lego and origami crane models.

G.I.R. [prototype]

2008-01-13T17:33:00.000-08:00

One of the television shows that I enjoy is the cartoon Invader Zim. I have wanted to try and create a Lego model of Zim's ship for some time, but I figured I did not have the correct pieces in appropriate colors.

I then had an idea to try and make a Lego model of the robot G.I.R. It did not end up turning out that well, but I think this is a good prototype for future models and I learned some new building techniques.

Raised arms. The head should be much bigger compared to the body, arms, and leg.

Side view. I'll probably keep the head the same size, just make the rest of it smaller.

From the top.

GIR's head. Eyes are not as big as they probably should be.

Close up of the back.

Legs and feet. I really like the way these turned out.

Pixelego - Dr. Mario - Blue Virus

2008-01-11T21:59:00.000-08:00

My next pixelized Lego creation is of the Blue Virus from Dr. Mario to go along with red created earlier.

Here is a picture of the Blue Virus from the micro-game in the first WarioWare game.

On the computer, I created a cleaner and easier to view version with some guide-lines to make it easier to see the different "pixels."

A basic Lego model where the side of a 1x1 plate represents a single pixel.

Final version of the Lego model.

The model can even stand on its own.

Pixelego - Dr. Mario - Red Virus

2008-01-02T19:06:00.000-08:00

I was thinking of making some "pixelized" creations out of Legos for some video game characters. Originally I was hoping to do the old-school Mario, but I did not think I had enough bricks in the appropriate colors. Instead, I went with a simpler pallet with the Red Virus from Dr. Mario.

I have been a long time fan of the puzzle game Dr. Mario. I have the original version for the NES and a few years ago purchased the Gameboy version. I was very surprised to see that the Nintendo DS game Brain Age 2 even has it's own version, although it is titled Virus Buster.

First, I took a picture of the Red Virus from the micro-game in the first WarioWare game.

Then, I created a cleaner and easier to view version on the computer.

A basic Lego model where the side of a 1x1 plate represents a single pixel.

The Lego model seemed too short, so I expanded it. Here is a work in progress photo.

Final version of the Lego model.