I love Lego, always have since I was a kid. I got reacquainted with it again about ten years ago when I bought a large box of loose stuff for a few quid. The great thing about buying loose Lego is that when you come to sort it out and see what youve actually got in the bag or the box, besides all the rare bits and the figures, theres always other stuff as well. Its a bit like having a deep sea trawl net, besides coming up with the fish, theres always something else stuck in the net. Usually its marbles, counters, mega blocks (cheap lego knock offs) or plastic soldiers, but now and then you find something interesting. One such instance was a small wheeled chassis from a toy I didnt recognise, the chassis was studded with tiny pegs like lego, but much smaller. It wasnt till a while later I figured out what it was - Tonka Motorix.
Sometime back in the 90's, after Tonka had been taken over and had moved on from the staple pressed steel cars and trucks, they branched out into plastic toys too. One line was a sort of cross between Lego and Micromachines. The toy had a clip-together capability like bricks and an interchangeability of modular parts of planes, boats and cars. In themselves, they are a mildly interesting toy to pass an hour, but what intruiged me was the similarity to some of my other favourite toys.
Motorix came on a card based package with larger sets in a box with a big vehicle such as the trek-inspired shuttle craft and the orange sea rover.
Cool Wote! Never know lego was so flippin awesome! It's totally SWORD and Spacex! Wer'e you've been hiding these then?
ReplyDeleteToad seconds that. These are cool!
ReplyDeleteand they arent even Lego either! Forgot to point out - the average size of the four wheeled trucks is about 2 inches - pretty small!
ReplyDeleteTrouble with lego, at least in the early days was that ther was a limkited range of shapes avaialable. I built a good many square-section space rockets...
ReplyDeleteSorry about typing errors.
ReplyDeleteTypos excused, Andy ^_^ We so need an edit tool for commenting.
ReplyDeleteInteresting what you say about the limited shapes of Lego. I know what you mean, but Lego lost it for me when they began introducing specific shapes for specific constructions. I felt it was "cheating" somehow, and showed a lack of imagination. I don't mean the slim bricks, or smooth topped bricks. Nor the gears, lighting bricks and what have you. But the sort they have now where a vehicle is mostly built around a very specific, specially designed brick.
Back in the (cough) good old days, they had Lego Ideas Books (do they still have those?), and those sparked off all sorts of creative ventures. Given a lil imagination and enough bricks, anything could be made. Hee hee, I even learnt from one of those books how to make doors which opened using just the basic Lego bricks! Wonderful.
What do you think, Wote? You're the Lego expert. What's your view on "custom" bricks?
Oh dear, I think I predate Lego ideas books -must borrow P. Toad's cough at this point...
ReplyDeletei recall the very early blue and yellow lego as well as the ideas books! having said that, i do like the new super specialised bricks. although it does mean its very easy to 'cheat', its also possible to use the bricks for much different purposes too, making really sophisticated models practical. look at www.brothersbrick.com
ReplyDeleteI loved my Lego...strictly old school here.
ReplyDeleteI was always trying to make an accurate Jupiter 2 but alas it was always square and of course, with the old style bricks it was impossible to get a double deck and retractable landing gear and keep it all in scale and "workable".
Made many a "Saturn 5" with the top of the rocket made from red roof bricks!
I did manage to perfect my rocket so it had a Command Module that could go back and connect to the Lunar Module...both with big red hinges as doors.
Which brings me to Toad's point about doors. Later in my Lego career when I was like 12 or 13 I actually got some proper Lego doors but I would love to know how you did it with the ordinary bricks!
Do tell!
www.brothersbrick.com goes to a webpage about patios and such, Wote.
ReplyDeleteToad's (ahem) cough is at your disposal, Andy ^_^
ReplyDeleteYour Command Module sounds very exciting, eviled!
ReplyDeleteHard to describe making opening doors using ordinary Lego. Maybe you could step in at this point, Wote.
Tomorrow I'll make a sketch to explain ... but Toad needs some sleep now. (Yawns, and sets alarm clock for December).
http://www.brothers-brick.com/
ReplyDeleteThis is an overview of custom models made with modern lego, Its amazing to see what pro builders can accomplish with Lego these days. Have to say im a lazy beggar and tend to love the new bricks because they take all the effort out of building! When i was a nipper I had Airfix Betta Builder which were utterly useless and only came in red and white! They did have one redeeming moment when they made a rocket set.. watch the blog later!
Tonka were also responsible for Legions of Power...
ReplyDeletehttp://www.virtualtoychest.com/legionsofpower/legionsofpower.html
Beware of pop-ups with this site. I thought they were a re-badge of the Hasbro 'Air raiders' but they seem to be different?