|
LEGO
This danish toy has a lot to answer for. I spent lots of hours of my childhood building things with it, probably too many hours. It's almost certainly responsible for me becoming an engineer. However, before I get too sentimental, lets look at some of the things I built over the years.
Ferry - approx 1981, 4 yrs old
This was the first really big thing I ever built. It used pretty much all of the lego I had to build it - I used railway rails to finish the roof, and I even had to persuade my mother to buy me an extra set to finish the red bit along the bottom...
Train - approx 1984, 7 yrs old
This was built from my first proper train, with electrified rails... I probably got bored with what the set was supposed to be fairly quickly, and decided to rebuild it!
Gladiator and Typhoon - September 1988, 11 yrs old
Two of the least camoflagued military aircraft you'll ever see. I was having fun putting motors into things...
Land Rover - late 1988, 12 yrs old
This is a lot more like it - Land Rover Defender 90, with independant suspension (and dodgy wheel angles). The rather oddly positioned spare wheel operated the steering!
Tufted Duck - late 1988, 12 yrs old
Er, yes, well, that is a Tufted Duck. Made out of lego. Aah. Remember I was a YOC member...
Town - late 1988, 12 yrs old
I built this town for my brother. OK, so most of the vehicles and the fire and police station were commercial sets, but the rest of it I built myself...
"The Pathfinders" - early 1989, 12 yrs old
Bearing no relation to the WWII RAF bomber squadrons, this was some kind of airbourne task force. There's a Harrier, helicopter, Douglas DC3 Dakota cargo plane, truck, and scout plane. The helicopter and DC3 were motorised, and it looks like I had taken to sticking paper stickers over everything by now...
Rocket III - Spring 1989, 12 yrs old
![](lego13s.jpg)
The first "Rocket" truck that made it onto film. My friends and I built quite a few trucks, improving their strength and looks as time went on. This is quite an early one; The scale of a lot of things wasn't quite right, especially the roadside cafe!
Rocket XI - August 1993, 16 yrs old
![](lego16s.jpg)
This was the crowning glory of the Rocket trucks, and one of the last models I made before I sold everything. It had working lights and a curtainsider trailer, was about 1.25m long overall, but best of all, it was radio controlled! It used a standard two channel 27MHz radio system, along with a mechanical speed controller from a Tamiya car and a very low powered 540 size motor, in an attempt to look after the transmission...
![](lego20s.jpg)
Of course lego is not designed to run at high speed or under high load, and Rocket XI ate its transmission on a regular basis. Above you can see the transmission module under maintenance, and broken gears removed from it.
![](lego24s.jpg)
Selling Up - Autumn 1993, 16 yrs old
I decided that if I was to get any work done at school, I had to sell it all. I needed the money anyway! So I built everything up into its original sets. Looks like I had quite a lot!
![](lego28s.jpg)
There's lots of Technic lego, including the original Car Chassis and the newer Test Car, Tractor and Pneumatic JCB, quite a few railway and town sets, plus a few space sets.
I was fortunate enough to sell the lot eventually!
| Home ||
Robot Wars ||
Land Rover ||
Honeysuckle Weeks ||
E-Mail |
|