Lego city cargo train

Well, I know I haven't posted in a while. Life has thrown up some interesting challenges and upheavals over the last nine months, but my new year resolution is to get this blog back up and running and make it geekier than ever.

So, in the interest of sharing something geeky for the new year, here is my most recent project, the Lego city cargo train.





Lego city cargo train under construction:

A dozen or so bags of stuff! You will need about four hours to build this set or a few friends to help.

It begins!

It began

Customary shot of Lego pieces scattered around

The beginnings of a very garish looking base. This will become the engine carriage.

The engine carriage under construction.

Almost there

Adding the 9V power supply

The almost complete engine

One of three cargo carriage sections.

More space for cargo

I love the detail on this

Lego city cargo train comes with enough track for a reasonable oval circuit, however, I've added some extra track pieces so the whole route is a little longer.


Some videos of the train in action. First sped-up:

And another one here:

I hope you enjoyed this Lego post. If so, you might like to see these other Lego posts, or this Lego Millenium Falcon, or TARDIS. Maybe you just want something completely different.

Timelapse #LEGO building

I recently discovered the Microsoft Hyperlapse app. This app allows you to create smooth, time-lapse video either from existing video, or captured directly from your phone camera.

I thought I would try it out whilst building some Christmas LEGO. Here I am building the Imperial Assault Hovertank. This is a really easy but fun build. There's a link below should you want to build one yourself. The tank has a couple of missiles which shoot out of the model at remarkable speed, so do be careful.

Amazon link: LEGO Star Wars 75152 Imperial Assault Hovertank Building Set

The first problem was to set up my phone so it could view the action on the table. I used a egg-carton to hold the phone, although the phone did fall out of the container at the end of the first video!  I then improved this impromptu set-up before ordering a decent stand for my phone.




What I think about Hyperlapse.
It's pretty good, although I don't know why time-lapse isn't an option in the default camera app with Windows 10. Microsoft really should work on this as it will show Windows 10 to be the professional OS that it should be.

Time lapse is very easy to do, although it is rather power-hungry, and an external supply would be needed for any videos longer than the ones shown above.

Videos are created very easily and there is an option to create them at 1x, 2x, 4x, 8x, 16x or 32x. In fact you can create multiple videos of different speeds from the same capture. It would be good if there was some editing features built into the app, even just the ability to trim the start and end. Some filters or other effects would be a useful feature, however the basic app does a job well and I shall definitely be using this again.

Rest in peace Carrie Fisher

Whilst creating this StarWars related post, I have just heard of the tragic passing of Carrie Fisher. She will be in the hearts of all geeks everywhere as undoubtedly she was not just my first crush.

The most bad-ass female role models film has ever seen.

She will be missed by all geeks everywhere. A sad day.

#Lego #TARDIS

It's been a long day, so no computing-related posts.  Although I have been playing around with my Raspberry Pi and building some new websites there is nothing new to show at this stage.  Instead here are some photos of my #Lego #TARDIS (from Doctor Who).  This was built from a kit that a kind relative gave to me over Christmas.

LEGO Ideas Doctor Who Assembly Kit

Idris: No. You were thinking you could build a working TARDIS console out of broken remnants of a hundred different models. And you don’t care that it’s impossible? The Doctor: It’s not impossible as long as we’re alive. Rory and Amy need me. So yeah, we’re gonna build a TARDIS.

The Doctor: Ah. Right. Yes. Bigger on the inside. Do you like it? Wilfred: I thought it’d be cleaner. The Doctor: Cleaner?! I could take you back home right now. Wilfred: Listen Doctor. If this is a time machine, that man you’re chasing. Why can’t you just pop back to yesterday and catch him?

River Song: Use the stabilisers! The Doctor: It doesn't have stabilisers! River Song: The blue switches! The Doctor: The blue ones don't do anything, they're just... blue! River Song: Yes they're blue: they're the blue stabilisers! [presses the button and the TARDIS indeed stabilises] See? The Doctor: Yeah? Well, it's boring now, isn't it? They're boring-ers! They're blue... boring-ers!

The Doctor: The metal’s just battle armor. The real Dalek creature’s inside. Statten: What does it look like? The Doctor: A nightmare. A mutation. The Dalek race was genetically engineered. Every single emotion was removed except hate. Statten: Genetically engineered. By whom? The Doctor: By a genius, Van Statten. By a man who was king of his own little world. You’d like him.

#LEGO video games

A whole load of LEGO stop-frame animations.

LEGO Donkey Kong



LEGO Mario



LEGO Compilation



LEGO Centipeden



LEGO and GameBoy arcade machine



LEGO Portal featuring Still Alive

Awesome LEGO machines

Some pretty awesome LEGO machines.  As ever, +1 geek experience point awarded to all the creators and programmers here.

LEGO basket ball machine.



LEGO Bowling alley


Lego claw machine


Small mechanical LEGO loom


Too cool not to include here - LEGO arcade games!  I want to make a stop frame animation like this!



If you liked these videos then you might like these older LEGO posts:

Really Cool LEGO Robots
Awesome Marble Runs Built in LEGO
A feast of LEGO train sets

Get lost with maps

Some cool map apps you can play with right now...

Countries of the World Quiz
How many countries can you name in 15 minutes - the quiz!

European History the Interactive Map
Explore European history from 900BC to the present day, with a wealth of information and articles available by clicking.  Here we see the last days of Nazi Germany...

Six stunning maps uncover hidden details of the Earth and the Moon
Explore the Earth and the moon in some fabulous maps on the New Scientist web page.  Here we see the Dymaxion Airocean projection which showing the world's temperature zones on a more accurate representation of continental proportions than the standard Mercator map. Visit the site for maps of the moon; vesuvius; Hurricane Katrina Flooding Estimated Depths and Extent; and Human Mobility and the Spread of Ebola in West Africa.

Foursquare check-ins show the pulse of New York City and Tokyo


Foursquare check-ins show the pulse of New York City and Tokyo from Foursquare on Vimeo.
Every day, millions of people check in on Foursquare. We took a year's worth of check-ins in New York City and Tokyo and plotted them on a map. Each dot represents a single check-in, while the straight lines link sequential check-ins.

What you can see here represents the power of check-in data -- on Foursquare, every city around the world pulses with activity around places every hour of every day.

Related: Also see our data visualization of four days worth of Foursquare check-ins in New York CIty during Hurricane Sandy (and the subsequent power outage) during October 2012: http://vimeo.com/52883962.


Build with Chrome
A partnership between LEGO and Google allowing you to create Lego constructions within Google Maps.  Go to your street on Google Maps and try and build your house in virtual Lego.  Then share your creations with your followers. As the title suggests, you are going to need a chrome browser logged-in with your Google account - I'm still waiting for Lego to release a browser.

Really cool Lego robots

Following from the post on Lego marble runs, here you will find a some videos of really cool #Lego #robots (and some more marble runs). +1 geek experience points for all the programmers and creators.

As awesome as they come

Lego car factory, wheelchair, rubix cube solver, gun and more

Cool Lego floor cleaning robot

Lego Coffee vending machine...

...and tea maker

Bridging robot

Sudoku solver

The sort of music that robots listen to

Watch your fingers!

#lego #robots

A feast of awesome Lego train sets

+1 geek experience point for all the contributors

Some Arduino controlled train sets

Space Lego train given suitable sci-fi editing

Longest Lego train world record attempts

A full Lego city

Lego Mindstorms sliding doors

Mindsotrms Lego train

Getting Candy - the long version

#arduino #lego #mindstorms

Children react to computer motherboard

The quote is from 11-year-old Louis upon seeing the old motherboard of a computer system.

"It's like LEGO but more complicated."

#computerScience #LEGO

LEGO Competition

A new Christmas tradition in my house: - LEGO competition!  Each competitor is given 16 ounces (454g) of randomly assorted LEGO bricks, and 60 minutes to build the most awesome thing.  Here are some of the best from this year's competition:

Grandpa's entry: "Space police, space toll booth".  Category - best use of sloping yellow bits.  Prize - chocolate coins.

Grandma's entry: "Archaeological dig (in space)".  Category - best story.  Prize - satsuma.  

My entry: "Humbug mobile".  Category - all round excellence.  Prize - washing up duty.

My LEGO advent calendar is complete

The LEGO advent calendar is finally complete (with a few bits left over).

Everyone will remember this scene from the movie Starwars.

Awesome marble runs built from LEGO

A collection of awesome LEGO marble runs.


Clearly the best so far. Apparently over 600 hours of work has gone into this. Be prepared to say: 'WOW', then 'WOW!', then 'OH MY GOD, WOW!!'
Another good one. Video gets more awesomer as it goes.
Close up of awesome LEGO marble run
If only I had these toys...
Another fantastic piece of work, this time a 9V powered marble run, with human loader.


It's a simple one, but a beauty!

Cute

Marble train. Someday our cities will look like this
Saving the best till last - a new world record...

Advent Calendar 13-18

Today's advent calendar:

Rebel Scum!

Advent Calendar 12

Today in advent calendar news - he can bulls-eye womp-rats in is T-16.

Use the four-by-two, Luke.

Dude, that's your sister.

Advent Calendar 09-11

A festive Tie-Fighter pilot appeared in my advent calendar this morning.  The first person to comment with the reason a Tie-Fighter is so named earns one geek experience point.

Tie-Fighter pilot stands next to the yellow speeder he got for Christmas.

Tie-Fighter pilot bringing us such awesome and memorable dialogue as "Yes sir!" and "Look out!"

Advent Calendar 04-08

The latest offerings from the LEGO advent calendar follow:

I've been feeling under the weather recently so haven't had the chance to update the blog in a timely fashion, so here are four days in one.

A very festive collection of robots.

What YOU lookin' at?!

Not enough?  Need your classic LEGO fix?  Check out our Pinterest board here.

Advent Calendar 03

Today's LEGO advent calendar features a very festive robot with a fetching toilet plunger for a head.  Here you can see him sitting with his pals.

Nothing says "Christmas" like a robot with a toilet plunger on his head.

Advent Calendar 02

Today's Christmas robot standing next to yesterday's scorpion Robot.  LEGO has changed a bit since I was a young 'un.

There was only one way to put this one together.

Advent Calendar 01

My nephew bought me a LEGO advent calendar recently (shouldn't that be the other way round?).

How did Darth Vader know what Luke was getting for Xmas?  He felt his presents.

Each day brings a new window to open, and behind each window is a new bag of LEGO bricks.  Here you can see my first attempt with the bricks so far.  It is an...erm....um.... festive, LEGO scorpion.  Happy advent readers!

A festive scorpion robot holding a festive black rod thingy.

Thank you Talisman fans

Thank you! Talisman fans continue to visit these pages and I am sorry that I can no longer provide a link to download (Games Workshop know how evil they are).

Please enjoy our other products (follow the links above)- there are more in the pipeline.

In the meanwhile please enjoy some images of the LEGO Millenium Falcan and some Falcan quotes:

She may not look like much, but she's got it where it counts, kid.

She's the fastest hunk of junk in the galaxy.

This bucket of bolts is never going to get us past that blockade.

You came in that thing? You're braver than I thought.

Would it help if I got out and pushed?

Let’s just say we’d like to avoid any Imperial entanglements.

Yes indeed, if it’s a fast ship.

I've made a lot of special modifications myself.