Celebrating when EVs went to the Moon with a Lego Lunar Roving Vehicle build

The original Apollo Lunar Roving Vehicle had the look of something that had been strung together from an oversized Meccano set. It should, therefore, not come as a surprise to find a LEGO variant built from the company's Technic pieces. Lego Lunar Roving Vehicle (pic: Lego) Lego Lunar Roving Vehicle (pic credit: Lego) – click …

[Gene Cash]

Pics of it folded?

Can you add an image of it folded? That would be interesting. I'm really thinking of buying one, which is rare because I'm a Playmobil man.

So far the best Lunar Rover book I've read is "Across the Airless Wilds" by Earl Swift.

The "main boffin" was a Hungarian named Ferenc Pavlics. He figured out the folding and the wire wheels, built a remote control one sized for his son's GI Joe astronaut figure, and drove it into von Braun's office as a stunt to get it approved.

There's a good interview at Ferenc Pavlics To the Moon

He still has that model 50 years later, and he also talks about, as a Hungarian, the sweetness of helping America beat the Russians to the Moon. He had narrowly escaped the 1956 revolution that the Russians so brutally put down.

He died February 13th last year at 96 years old.

[MiguelC]

Re: Pics of it folded?

https://www.lego.com/en-pt/product/nasa-apollo-lunar-roving-vehicle-lrv-42182

[Giles C]

Parts count

They should have included another 60 pieces so it was 1971 parts then it matches the year it was deployed

[John Brown (no body)]

Glaring omission?

I didn't even notice the dish omission at first, my eyes immediately went to the wheels to see how they managed that impossibility :-)

[David 132]

"We asked Lego why it did not create a custom part for the dish"

Noooo!

There are more than enough "custom parts" already. I miss the days when Technic Lego (and the other ranges) worked their wizardry with a comparatively limited stock of infinitely-repurposeable standard parts.

An example: the model of Shackleton's Endurance that was reviewed here recently. I noticed, and approved of, the fact that the designers used rack-and-pinion toothed pieces as "staircases" between the decks. The usual modern Lego way seems to be "let's mould a special staircase piece just for this one kit".

I still have my original 8860 Car Chassis model from 1980 - perched on a stand right behind me as I type this, in fact, although I admit I've had to replace the elastic bands that control the seat-recline and fanbelt mechanisms a few times over the decades.

Am I just being an old curmudgeon, or does anyone else agree?

[Blue Pumpkin]

Re: "We asked Lego why it did not create a custom part for the dish"

Yes you are being an old curmudgeon, but so am I and so is my significant other... have an upvote

[David 132]

Re: "We asked Lego why it did not create a custom part for the dish"

Fair point. It wasn't an Exclusive or, was it?

[A. Coatsworth]

Re: "We asked Lego why it did not create a custom part for the dish"

It comes with the territory: you are posting at El Reg and are arguing against custom parts in a Lego set. Ergo, you are an old curmudgeon.

You are also damn right!!

[I am David Jones]

Re: "We asked Lego why it did not create a custom part for the dish"

I’ll disagree. The “specially moulded’ parts of modern Lego cars are basically the bodywork, and the 8860 simply has none. I continue to be impressed by the ingenuity of modern technic sets.

But… thanks to you I am now going to have to delve into my collection and rebuild the 8860, my first ever “big” Lego set that I received way back when. So an upvote for that, curse you

[David 132]

Re: "We asked Lego why it did not create a custom part for the dish"

Should I mention that I also have in my home office my 8865 kit, bought when it was first released?

[Dan 55]

Re: "We asked Lego why it did not create a custom part for the dish"

I have no idea where my old Car Chassis is now, but stop tempting me to find one on ebay.

That said it doesn't have any special pieces so I guess it could be made from other sets.

[AIBailey]

Re: "We asked Lego why it did not create a custom part for the dish"

I miss the days when Technic Lego (and the other ranges) worked their wizardry with a comparatively limited stock of infinitely-repurposeable standard parts.

I completely agree. I had the car chassis kit myself, and was always impressed by the fact that the "spark plugs" were actually repurposed taps from Lego kits that featured kitchens!

[imanidiot]

Re: "We asked Lego why it did not create a custom part for the dish"

I don't see the problem in being an old curmudgeon.

It's kind of pointless on the topic of "custom Lego pieces though imho, because there's still plenty of fan models that get use out of those "custom, one purpose" pieces in all sorts of other applications. Weird pieces have been around for a very long time and re-purposing those pieces in other sets has too. I don't always agree with the choice of using more special bricks but a lot of the time if they do it's because doing it any other way would have required complicated specialty building techniques that just don't fit the target demographic of the set. It's all fine and dandy to make something difficult to build in the sets targeted at adults, but it's annoying if kids aged 6 need to find a parent to finish a step in the instructions.

[MrBanana]

Re: "We asked Lego why it did not create a custom part for the dish"

I'm fully onboard with the reuse of specialist parts in completely unrelated models. Though tricky to see uses for some of the bigger parts like the aircraft nosecones. And I do hate the stickers.

[imanidiot]

Re: "We asked Lego why it did not create a custom part for the dish"

On the one hand I too hate the stickers, on the other hand it could be argued that having custom printed bricks for sets is potentially even worse than having custom bricks, since it would mean that printed bricks are super specific to that one specific set (and nothing else basically).Most of the time, I just leave the stickers off the sets I build and store them in the box. A lot of the time, sets look fine without them.

[Winkypop]

Not a Lego guy, but

That actually looks very good.

Squint a bit and it’s a faithful model.

Pity about the outrageous price.

[Scott 53]

Not disinterested participants

They would be uninterested. </pet_peeve>

[TheProf]

Dish

Would it be too much cheating to glue some gold foil between the arms of the dish?

It's a shame LEGO couldn't produce something. After all Batman earned himself a flexible cape.

[Tiweh]

Re: Dish

When I get around to building mine (Xmas present from my wife) I was planning to explore the sort of photo-etched meshes available for scale models. The real mesh was very thin and appears semi-transparent in some photographs.

I may even replace the support ribs with something a bit more realistic. I'm not a 100% Lego purist...

[Yet Another Anonymous coward]

Custom part

Isn't this the one with the "mud"guards made from instruction manual covers and duct tape ?

[msage]

Antenna "fixes"

I have this set and would be interested to know of any "mods" that people have done, I read in the article that there have been some modifications for the antenna, but my google fu has failed me and I can't seem to find any modification suggestions... any reg readers found any good one?