Tag Archives: Technic

The LEGO Technic line was first released as “Expert Builder” sets in 1977, and LEGO has been producing Technic ever since, including Bionicle and MINDSTORMS. The custom Technic models featured here on The Brothers Brick include some pretty crazy and amazing mechanisms that’ll blow your mind, from self-sorting LEGO to automated Rubik’s Cube solvers.

Upcoming The Batman movie LEGO sets revealed, including Technic Batmobile [News]

Today LEGO has taken the wraps off a wave of sets from the upcoming movie The Batman, a reboot starring Robert Pattinson. The new sets include three minifigure-scale sets. 76181 Batmobile: The Penguin Chase features Batman’s newly stylized muscle car Batmobile with Batman and the Penguin, while another, 76179 Batman & Selina Kyle Motorcycle Pursuit, includes a pair of motorcycles for Batman and Celina Kyle, AKA Catwoman. The third is 76183 The Batcave: The Riddler Face-off, which can function as a garage for the Batmobile and Batcycle from the other sets. It includes Batman, Selina Kyle, The Riddler, The Drifter, Alfred, and Commissioner Gordon. The final set, 42127 The Batman – Batmobile, is a larger, 1,360-piece Technic version of the new Batmobile. The movie is slated to release March 4, 2022, but you’ll be able to snag the sets well ahead of that as they’re available to pre-order now and will begin shipping Nov. 1.

Check out more images and details

Life isn’t just luxury supercars...

Sometimes you just need to hit the streets in a Japanese sports car. GSM Studio built a medium-sized Technic model of the 2006 Honda Integra, the type of sports car that you would see in street-racing scenes of the earlier Fast & Furious films. Grouped in the same category as the Honda Civic, the Integra is more of a high-performance model spanning four generations of limited release. It is regarded as one of the best front-wheel-drive cars, which GSM Studio faithfully replicated in his build, amongst other functions.

It’s not a Technic build without lots of functions. The opening doors, trunk and hood do not cut it close. The steering wheel in the cabin powers the steering, and a knob between the seats works the four-speed transmission, which is linked to the front wheels as well as the I4 inline engine under the hood. However, not all four wheels have working suspensions. There is only suspension in the rear, as the front axle has the drivetrain as well as steering.

Still, it is quite a feat packing so many functions into a compact build of a compact car. It is more than LEGO does in their official sets, such as Dom’s Dodge Charger from Fast & Furious, which this build would look amazing next to.

Loopy loopin’ teal devil

Teal and purple? What’s this, Technic battle bots from the 90s? This bright racer by Djokson is a rebuild of something just as old, if not more obscure. Continuing his rebuilds of the Xalax racers, he this time pays homage to 4568 Loopin, with a look that borrows design elements from popular pieces of pop culture. For example, the racer and pilot is a perfect blend of cyberpunk aesthetic with a bit of rugged and spiky Mad Max flair. It also uses the unique front wheel design of the spinners from the Blade Runner films and the Tumbler from Christopher Nolan’s Batman: Dark Knight trilogy.

Track Devil Loopin

Djokson is a master at NPU, especially with Technic and construction elements such as Bionicle. Loopin has less of that but is still old and obscure. Transparent orange electronic sensor piece from the LEGO Dimensions toys-to-life style videogame cover each wheel, bordered by a basketball rim from the LEGO Sports theme. Djokson also incorporated the printed pieces from the original Loopin set, which give this racer fun decals. The fairly new purple-coloured headphone pieces works well as a chin guard for the pilot’s helmet, as do the red accents. Djokson also achieved the small red rings in the tail and wrists of the pilot via unconventional ways: by cutting a ribbed hose. It’s not exactly an illegal building technique, as the instructions of some LEGO Technic sets do require you to cut ribbed hoses as well as pneumatic tubes.

Lastly, because I just have to gush about teal LEGO pieces: the Technic parts in this colour are fairly limited, but work perfectly in this build. I’m just wishing for more pieces.
Big teal Technic supercar when?

Red Rover, Red Rover, send Beat Felber on over

LEGO builder Beat Felber is a master at building massive moving vehicles with Technic. Take this Land Rover 110 for instance. He tells us that this model uses two Power Functions L-Motors for the all-wheel drivetrain and a servo motor for steering. The chassis features a hi/low gearbox which was automated using an M-Motor. Also both front and rear axle are of the solid type with differential and are spring mounted.

Land Rover 110

If that wasn’t impressive enough, here is the model posed with the real Land Rover. The car was used as a fire engine for about twenty-five years until Beat bought the vehicle in 2017.The car is called ‘Grisu’, named after an Italian cartoon figure of a dragon who wanted to become a firefighter. Be sure not to miss out on some other Technic vehicles from this builder in our archives.

Land Rover 110

Totally tubular Technic tread tube

In the 23rd century, biker gangs rule the skies on their modified hoverbikes. The most dangerous of these gangs is the Tunnel Snakes, named for their tendency to use broken flux conduits as their primary highway between crime scenes. This futuristic build by David Roberts makes excellent use of Technic tread links, a part most commonly used in official sets on construction equipment or sci-fi vehicles. But here, these treads are the road through which the sci-fi vehicle travels. There are 40 links in each complete circle, a shape that David has made use of before. But this time the staging successfully implies a much larger scale. It’s easy to imagine the broken conduit tube stretching on for miles across a futuristic cityscape.

Tunnel Snakes Speeder Bike

Unimog unifies form and function

You may or may not be familiar with the Unimog – Mercedes’s all-wheel-drive multi-purpose utility vehicle. Usually they can be found constructing European highways or operating farm equipment. LEGO Technic veteran Kyle Wigboldy built the Unimog U-400 with an orange cab cleverly constructed with a combination of Technic elements and traditional LEGO. It took me a closer look to realise that this isn’t an official set from ten years ago, but rather a smaller build. Now that I have taken a closer look, this is in the same scale as the upcoming LEGO Technic 4×4 Zetros, which is based on a similar Mercedes truck.

Unimog U400

This build is packed to the brim with functions, such as the Technic essentials: engines, steering, suspension, all-wheel drive. This Unimog model also offers pneumatics, and power take-offs linked to the drive, which allow attachment equipments to be powered from the truck, as demonstrated by the motorised LEGO set. While this build does not come with attachments, it does have a flatbed with variable three-way tilt. You can check it out in the video below:

Check out some other Unimogs that other people have built!

LEGO unveils life-size Lamborghini Sián FKP 37 built with over 400,000 pieces [News]

LEGO unveils yet another life-size sports car to add to their collection: Lamborghini Sián FKP 37. The model is made of more than 400,000 Technic pieces and weighs 2,200 kg. The model was created by 15 engineering and building specialists and took a total of 8,660 hours to develop and construct. To create it, 154 different types of LEGO Technic elements were used, and 20 of them were moulded just for this model.

Click to see the full details of the 1:1 scaled vehicle

Scooter Computer and Mr. Chips

Actually, their names are Ike and Mack (Ike’s the tall one). But when I saw these two LEGO Creations by builder Silvak The Mocist, I had an instant flashback to that old Schoolhouse Rock series about a skateboarding kid and his computer-headed pal. Despite a passing resemblance to that old cartoon, I get the impression these two are less likely to teach us about computers and more likely to grind along some railing, leaving a rotary telephone-headed old man shaking his fist at those darn kids. Silvak’s done a great job of communicating character here, from Ike’s expressive limbs to Mack’s radical pair of kicks. I’m particularly impressed by how those Technic panels hang like an open hoodie on Ike. And bonus points for using the old M-Tron logo so Mack can put his initial on his skateboard.

Click here to see more Ike and Mack on your iMac (or PC or phone or whatever)

No job too big for the Technic Rexx

LEGO Technic builder Kirill Mazurov has graced us with a vehicle so amazing it deserves a second, third and fourth look. Kirill seems to be a builder of very few words. There are no descriptions with his photos. However, he has posted a video on YouTube that does all the talking for him. This model certainly has all the working functions you’d expect from a Technic model this size. It boasts an impressive fifteen motors and twenty huge tires!

P1060544_

For once I’m also going to be a writer of very few words and let the video do the talking. Give it a looksy. It does not disappoint!

A box that unwraps itself

Sometimes I see a LEGO Technic model that makes me scratch my head and wonder how the builder came up with the idea, let alone actually made it work. This unfolding box by YouTuber munimuni Bekkan is definitely one of those times. This clever little box is motorized so that it can unfold to lay completely flat, and then close back up. I’m not sure what you’d use this for, but I know there’s got to be something awesome. I do know that I could have used something like this last time I moved…

Check out the full video of it in action below.

I am the robot walrus

When I first heard about Mitsuru Nikaido‘s LEGO mecha walrus, I pictured a cyberpunk Beatles nightmare. But when I looked at how well-built and detailed it was, I was only impressed.

LEGO Mecha Walrus_09

What really sells this as a mecha walrus are the green eyes. They give off a ghostly computer-like glow that is creepy and makes the rest of the build look metallic. The tubing also helps, but without the eyes, I would have thought it was just a LEGO Technic-style sea mammal.
LEGO Mecha Walrus_11

The skin even looks like armor plating! Well done, Mitsuru!

A vintage racer from automobile history

Back in the 1920s and ’30s, when Ferdinand Porsche and Enzo Ferrari were not heads of exotic sports car companies but mere racecar drivers, Mercedes-Benz pushed the limits of racing using supercharger technology developed from airplane engines. One sports car that utilized this enhancement was the Mercedes-Benz SSKL of 1931, which LEGO Technic and Model Team expert Pawel Kmieć (Sariel) faithfully replicated. This old roadster jumps out from black and white photographs with a clean white livery, custom-chromed parts and the laurel wreath of champions.

Mercedes-Benz SSKL

Pawel is a master of building accurate vehicles that are also packed with functions. He includes everything an essential large-scale LEGO vehicle needs: suspension and steering. In addition, he often crams the body of these vehicles full of LEGO electric motors, allowing remote control. This display model becomes a real-life racer, pushing a top speed of 5mph. Watch Pawel’s in-depth video of the build process, and the speedy drive outdoors.

Check out more builds depicting LEGO Mercedes-Benz vehicles!