Tuesday, March 31, 2020

Lego GBC Observer 👁 Week 13, 2020

Welcome to week 13 of the Lego GBC Observer for 2020.  With so many people staying home, a lot of interesting new builds have appeared.  Let's take a look at some of the more interesting ones.

GBC Andre has created a neat lift using 2 pairs of Samsonite gears.  I've seen something similar to this before, but what makes this different is that he is using 2 different sized pairs of gears.  I think this is a great looking simple module.



In this next video, Ben has created what I would call a hybrid lift.  It's half stepper, half jigsaw, and I've never seen anything quite like it before.



Alex P has created a new module from the parts in the 42082 Rough Terrain Crane set.  The main lift is a ball pump, that feeds a water wheel.  Along with the agitated input bin this appears to be quite a robust module.



Have a great week everyone!

Monday, March 23, 2020

Lego GBC Observer 👁 Week 12, 2020

Welcome to week 12 of the Lego GBC Observer for 2020.  Several builders have been busy building new mechanisms and modules. (Can you say that 3 times fast?)  Let's take a look.

First up is a home layout by Mindstork.  There are a lot of new modules in this layout, and the cycling one is quite funny.



Now let's look at another "Nonsense Wars" production, the Slide and Spin.  This module has some interesting intermittent motion thanks to a differential and a stack of clutches.  The use of clutches for additional mechanism timing is new to me, and quite clever!



This next layout from somewhere overseas has a lot of new modules, some using original lifts and some repurposing older designs.  It's a good sized loop with around 30 modules.



Have a great week everyone!

Monday, March 16, 2020

Lego GBC Observer 👁 Weeks 10 & 11, 2020

Apologies for missing last weeks observer post, but with everything going on all around the world and my upcoming house move you could say I've been pre-occupied!  I've just had the chance to catch up on the latest GBC videos on YouTube and found some great modules that I'll share below.

Sawyer has built a nice EV3 "Robot Arm" module which appears to use 3 motors to lift balls in a bucket before dumping them into the output.  These robotic modules are always fun to watch.  I'm curious how much it will "drift" if it was running at an all day event.


Rimo Y has built a "factory style" module that has two stages to the lift and dump of each ball cart.
It looks like it uses quite a bit of parts.


This next module is simple, and I love simple modules.  Why do I love simple modules?  Because they are reliable and/or easy to fix!  Here we have a Minecraft themed 10x10 stepper.



Have a great week everyone!

Tuesday, March 3, 2020

Lego GBC Observer 👁 Week 09, 2020

Welcome to week 09 of the GBC Observer for 2020.  This week we will take a look at a few convention layouts as well as a very cool interactive module.

First up is a video I took from the VLC Booth that was at Fan Expo Vancouver 2020.   A total of 4 club members contributed to the layout and it was enjoyed by a lot of people.  Also shown is the prototype of my latest module the 42105 Catamaran Remix.



Next let's look at 2 videos from Bricks Cascade that happened in Portland last weekend.

First is a video of Kevin's loop.



Next is a video of Neil and Josh's loop.



Lastly take a look at Pinwheel's newest module which happens to be interactive, very cool!



Have a great week everyone!