Making Trains Move: The History of LEGO Trains, Track, Motors and More

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Making Trains Move: The History of LEGO Trains, Track, Motors and More

For better or worse, LEGO trains have changed significantly over time. Today we look at the history of powered LEGO trains to see what makes them move—from electrified track and motors to controllers and more.

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Everything You Want to Know About Fighting LEGO Robots

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Everything You Want to Know About Fighting LEGO Robots

What is more entertaining than pure LEGO destruction in a fight to the death!? Find out what LEGO combat robots are all about, where to watch some of the best bouts, and how to start building your own.

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A Tribute To Trebek

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A Tribute To Trebek

With the tragic loss of Alex Trebek last year, I wanted to build a meaningful tribute to the man and his legacy of knowledge. So I built a moving kinetic sculpture of the “Greatest of All Time” tournament and discovered that building LEGO is not too dissimilar to Jeopardy. I knew the answer of where I wanted to go, I just needed to figure out the right questions that would get me there.

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They See Me Mowin'. . . The Grass Hatin'

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JK Brickworks produces so many wonderful creations that incorporate clever use of power functions to create forms of movement in the models. Jason's latest model definitely can be better appreciated by watching the video on his YouTube channel, which I have linked to below. Take a look at just how well the mechanism works! Fantastic job once again, Jason.

Lawnmower Man
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Nathaniel Stoner

     My name is Nathaniel Stoner, and I am an very active LEGO builder.  I mostly build in the themes of castle and science-fiction, but I also dabble in other genres and create occasional random MOC's (My Own Creations). 

     When I was younger, I would get and build small LEGO sets for my birthday, but I was never really into them.  When they fell apart, I would become frustrated attempting to put them back together and would throw them in a box in my closet.  I couldn't stand them!

     Then, miraculously, I became addicted to the LEGO brick later in my teen years.  Ever since, I have continued to build up (pun intended) my collection of bricks and to expand my knowledge of techniques and building skills.  LEGO is truly more than a toy, its an art form and a way to express yourself.

     For the most part, I collect LEGO Star Wars (mainly the minifigs), which is probably my favorite LEGO theme.  I have a fairly decent collection, including some of the original 1999 sets, such as the Snowspeeder, X-Wing, and Naboo starfighter.  I also collected LEGO the Lord of the Rings when those sets first came out.  The minifigs are great, and the story remains one of my favorites ever. 

     My hope is to inspire other young (and perhaps even older) LEGO builders to unleash their inner creativity!  You can find me on my Flikr here. 

Technic '59 Caddy

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Cadillac, the name is synonymous with quality. And now builder martijnnab22 has built the Cadillac of Technic MOCs (see what I did there?) with this sweet '59 Eldorado Biarritz 1959 Convertible. It's loaded with features including independent suspension, power functions remote control, lighting, locking doors and more. Check out the video to see them all.

Cadillac Eldorado Biarritz 1959 Convertible

SmartBrick- Bringing Bluetooth Control To Power Functions

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Power Functions are awesome. There's just something magical that happens when you can bring a MOC to life with lights and motion. Well now there's something to take that magic to the next level, like exponentially to the next level. Some very smart people in the UK (Mark Bollobas and his team) have come up with a way to control PF over bluetooth with smartphones. And it's not just a bluetooth version of the standard IR block, this thing is supercharged with features. You can, among other things...

  • Control from 100 Meters away
  • Use it in direct sunlight (try doing that with the IR one)
  • Control 64 ports (!)
  • Tweak away with programmable firmware
  • Use custom profiles
  • Control MOCs over the internet
  • Interact with other users with social functions 

There are so many cool things you can do with this awesome bit of hardware, I can't imagine what users will do with it once it's in the wild. But for now they need your help to get to mass production so head over to their Kickstarter project and throw some love their direction!