Monday 30 November 2015

"Talent is a flame. Genius is a fire."


If I'm honest LEGO Technic doesn't really appeal to me as much as the classic brick does but I could see while building recently that Seth is getting into the more technical side of LEGO building and he's even been eyeing up the electrical kits in our local toy store. I thought it was time for us to try something a little different. Although the parts used in Technic don't do it for me, the amazing finished articles that are popping up in the range look really interesting.

To start with, one of the mid range kits to get Seth's technical building started (42040 Fire Plane). I personally find it really difficult to custom build with the Technic piece system but that's mainly because I am so familiar with the classic bricks. As we made our way through the build though I was really impressed with the design and being able to see the moving mechanisms starting very early on. The propellor on the plane moves when you push the landing gear along a surface and the boys found it really interesting that that was made possible using only a series of cogs and a small rubber band. I could hear the cogs in Seth's head going round as he was asking "could I make something that does this...." and "If I built this could we make this bit move". The ailerons and elevators also move using a joystick on the plane and if that's not enough, there is a button on top of the plane that you can press to release the water bricks from the hatch below, it is a really detailed build.




LEGO Technic offers a completely different side to LEGO building and for a builder that wants what they have created to include motion it really is a great addition. the Fire plane looks awesome and has great playability. What makes this build even better though is it is a 2 in 1 kit and can also be rebuilt in to a jet plane. A lot of thought has gone into this build especially being 2 models and it has got me thinking more about my own creations.

*Note: The plane does come with stickers, unfortunately our over excited 4 year old is yet to let us stick them on until we have built the jet plane.


Now to move on to a bigger build, we have started kit 42042 The Crawler Crane which is taking Seth longer than expected but he is loving learning more about the power functions so stay tuned for that post very soon. I may have been converted to the magic of LEGO Technic after all.


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