The Reg builds official Lego Artemis and Milky Way sets Lego has added plastic brick representations of NASA's Space Launch System and the Milky Way Galaxy to its range. We had a go at building both to see if they merit a holiday investment. lego milky way and artemis As seen in the brochure – click to enlarge (Image courtesy: Lego) The Artemis Space Launch System is part of …
Not the Playmobil of older El Reg, but I very much appreciate such an article. Interesting to see how the SLS literally stacks up against the mighty Saturn V.
The Milky Way set also seems to have tipped my brain into the Lego as art view (opposed to just a model on display). I like the attention to detail pointing out it would be a bugger to dust!
I solve that using a very soft bristled large make up brush... I use it along with a little blower to clean all of my computers and other tech stuff. It's great for cleaning fan blades and getting into nooks and crannies... It's also good for dealing with delicate lego builds. I brush to lift the dust into the air whilst holding the vacuum a decent amount away on the lowest setting.
Sort of agree with the point .... but the greater 'fun' was taking the original set and making 'something else' with all the custom pieces + extras from the 'Big box of lego bits', you of course, also had !!!
Predefined sets are LEGOs ... 'Here is what I did !!!' ..... your challenge was to 'improve on it' !!!
:)
《Meccano etc. was (to the best of my knowledge) supposed to be toys that inspire originality and creativity.》
A vivid memory from childhood was the meccano set from my father's (pre-war) childhood augmented with newer additions (all were red or green.) Learnt a lot about basic geometry, statics and mechanics. The clockwork motor had a centrifugal governor which was fascinating in itself. Pulleys, belt drives, gears, worm screws all still found in modern machinery.
The labour of fastening literally hundreds of tiny nuts and bolts taught perserverance and was character building. :)
I don't remember any construction manual for models apart from some simple examples on the inside of the box lid - you had to use your imagination and then work out how to realize your concept.
As we talking about originality, I am firmly of the belief, that if space-faring craft are to be built of Lego, then first amongst equals has to be the Lego Friends Death Star.
It is creation of Steve Price with some inspiration from a Mr. Lucas of Medesto, California and Mr. Christiansen of Filskov, Denmark.
It can be seen in all of its glory here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/pricey73/sets/72157652349325815
When I was a kid I got several Hering Rasti block sets. I guess just a few countries outside Brazil and Argentina got those.
Each had instructions and pieces to create variations of vehicles, houses, etc.
Having mastered the basic instructions and variations the pieces were tossed into a Big Box o' Pieces, which I used to build whatever I fancied. The kits were nicely built, some had gears, plastic chains, wheels, and motors that ate lots of AA batteries. That was in the 70s...
"The only custom pieces in my Big Bag of Lego were wheels (fun), roof tiles (not fun), and windows (also not fun)."
I remember loads of custom parts in my old Lego boxes. Doors, minifigure body parts, propellors, gears (not technic, just regular Lego offset gears at the correct angle for enabling vehicle steering wheels on a single specific kit), windscreens, dumper truck shovels and buckets. I remember having a small dumper truck kit where the whole chassis was specific to that kit.
I've made my fair share of custom Lego kits as an adult with lots of parts that I would consider custom. But when my kids break them down and play with them, it turns out they aren't as custom as I thought, it's my lack of imagination that has grown over time, more than the proportion of custom Lego parts.
To my mind, Lego pre-1970s, with basically just rectangular bricks, was just a small step up from wooden building blocks. The only difference is that Lego bricks would stay attached to each other.
It wasn't until the mid 1970's when they started introducing the dreaded 'custom pieces' that it actually became a fun toy. For me, co-opting the custom pieces to build new things was where I found my entertainment.
eg, Part 6021197 (released in 1974) might have been intended as a crane bucket, but for me it made a great mouth for a monster.
But hey, you can still get buckets of just Lego bricks if that's what you prefer. They never stopped making them after all.
mid 1970's when they started introducing the dreaded 'custom pieces'
I suppose it depends what you mean by 'custom'. I definitely wouldn't count the angled 'roof' pieces as custom as someone upthread does, and in the late 1970s I inherited lattice fences, windows and a very custom 'garage base and door' from my (much older) brother's 1960s collection. He also had Lego 'people' with bodies made from 2x2 bricks, one of which had connections for articulated arms. I note an official Lego history page which says these were launched in 1974 but somehow I can't see my 16 year old brother buying a Lego family. Hmmm. Might have to have a word with him.
M.
I have an Airfix "Quickbuild" Spitfire that looks more Lego than Airfix.
Meanwhile we first got Lego Builder software tools, then plastic Lego Minecraft sets.
Run a Windows VM in a Linux environment will you? Right you bastards, now you can spin up a Linux VM in a Windows environment!
And my car is something marketed as a "crossover," while I dine on "fusion" cooking.
Even Barbie is getting the educational play value that used to be reserved for My Little Pony.
Is nothing sacred for all eternity any more?
Lego have had a very "Artemis" like rocket in their range a couple of years now - Lego City Rocket Launch 60351 - so it seems a little strange that the new one's design was compromised at all to make it more playable?
https://www.lego.com/en-gb/product/rocket-launch-centre-60351
And I also miss the Playmobil re-enactments too - but note the Playmobil rocket is very much based on ESA designs, and so would not really fit in an Artemis story. Done a quick check and it's available in various shops but not in their current catalogue
https://www.smythstoys.com/uk/en-gb/toys/construction-and-cars/playmobil/playmobil-9488-space-mars-mission-rocket-with-launch-site-with-lights-and-sound/p/8023308
Probably should declare that I have both of these rocket sets - both great fun, but if you don't like putting stickers on bits don't buy playmobil (stickers on control panels and other fiddly bits), but then this is normal for their sets. And for me the playbobil wins, having a bi-lingual choice of cool sounds....
There seems little point in it being Lego if it can only be assembled one way to create only one model. Yet another example of the provision of a 'sense of achievement' rather than a real achievement itself. But it's not a new phenomenon. As far back as 2009 Matthew Crawford1 described a service called Build-a-Bear, whereby children could choose wanted attributes of a bear on a computer screen, the bear then being made on their behalf. So a somewhat misleading service name.
I'm also reminded of a supposedly 'instructional' kit for an electronic Theremin (musical instrument) that consisted of a proto board, a bunch of analogue components, a layout diagram and a pre-programmed microcontroller that did all the work, but no code listing. The 'instructional' element was thus no more than the application of manual dexterity in pushing wires into the board in the right places, rather than any understanding gained of how it worked.
The underlying drive in all these cases seems to be to gain satisfaction without expending significant effort. This was brought home to me when a few years back I designed a PIC breakout board that could accommodate practically any current 40 pin PIC 16F or 18F microcontroller using any clock speed and source with any comms option simply by adjusting onboard links. Its aim was to allow maximum versatility for experimentation, but it never got off the ground, being swamped by elementary (often pre-populated) breakout boards supporting just one device at one (low) clock speed and serial comms only. Nobody, it seems, was interested in going beyond the absolute basics.
Sadly, the shallow 'sense of achievement' resulting from having the 'hard work' done on one's behalf is much less satisfying than a the feeling derived from actual achievement predicated on successful application of one's own ingenuity and initiative, but of course the former is much easier to sell.
1: Matthew Crawford, Shop Class as Soulcraft, Penguin Books New York 2009 [p 69]
.
that's not how lego works. All the bits stick to each other.
What these kits do is show people one way to arrange a certain set of blocks and demonstrate techniques for building various mechanisms. Enterprising builders can then applly those techniques in their own builds, or use them to extend these pre-designed models in their own ways.
People who just like to follow the instructions and build what they're told get a nice display piece to put on a shelf after a couple of hours of pleasant entertainment.
As a small example of how Lego parts can be re-used in a completely different way, the engine nozzles on the Saturn V kit were the 'crows nest' from a Lego pirates kit, but made in grey and used upside-down.
If you think a Lego part can only be used in one particular way, that's your imagination letting you down.
"Kids today are playing with Legos wrong."
Dear Lord, get over yourselves. There is nothing precluding using the Lego kits to build something else, and perhaps other people find it *gasp* fun to build something large, intricate, and representational which would not otherwise be possible without a custom design.
And yes, I said "Legos." You'll get over it.
I have this, and indeed, it required over a hundred stickers to complete, but it sits proudly on a bedroom credenza. (edit: fortunately the really hard ones, like the saucer logos, are preprinted)
The stickers did turn out to be exceptionally easy to apply, even for a hamhanded spastic git like me. The bridge main screen and some others are the "3D holographic style" which is nice.
It used to make noises and lights via a phone app, but they screwed up the Bluetooth permissions on the last release. You have to disassemble (unzip) the apk and add a BT scanning permission to the manifest, IIRC.
It comes with 7 crew figures, including Kirk, Spock, McCoy, Scotty, Chekov, Sulu, and Uhura.
The display stand is one of the best designs I've seen.
(edit: and it's quite large, roughly 39" in length)
Lego spacecraft models?
In my day it was Ray Malmstrom's "Eagle Book of Spacecraft Models" — https://www.amazon.co.uk/Eagle-Spacecraft-Models-Inside-Tomorrows/dp/B001373QMI — together with assorted blocks and sheets of balsa wood, plywood, fretsaws, glue, sandpaper, paint, dope (don't sniff), etc., —and Jetex rocket motors. OK, the Jetex motors removed the need for a lot of the skill and creativity of building your own rocket engines, but one could have fun augmenting their thrust by boring holes in the solid fuel pellets (slowly, in order not to ignite them) to increase the surface area and hence burn rate.
Lead (to make weights for balancing the flying models) came from melting-down the little lead seals that used to accumulate in the bottom of the electricity meter enclosure after the meter man called to empty the coins, clipping-off the seals and replacing them in the process.
Life was just a breeze in those days.
I've had the Saturn V for 2yrs now... can't build it yet. Was moving home a few months after buying it, so left it boxed... Now 20 months later, still doing building work and DIY on the new house, so my current home office isn't big enough and I have to concentrate on stuff like a garage conversion, 3 bathrooms and 4 bedrooms before I get to do my main lounge... at least the kitchen, utility are complete, as are a load of replacement doors and windows.
I keep looking at the launch tower MOC for it.... itching to pull the trigger and get that... But also wanting to get a display case and do a launch effect with supports, cotton wool and LED's.
My super star destroyer is also still in bubble wrap on top of the wardrobes waiting to be freed... But at least my large X, B, A & Y Wings are out, as are my smaller Tie & Tie Bomber... Just need to add the Tie Interceptor and Tie Advanced to complete the set of original trilogy fighters.
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