Small Adventures

Science + LEGO = Awesome

Jason Allemann of JK Brickworks (previously featured here) created this wonderful LEGO orrery that depicts the moon orbiting the Earth as both of them orbit the sun. It’s powered by Power Functions M-Motor or manually operated by turning a little crank on the side.

Due to limitations in the components available to him, Allemann’s orrery is about 97% accurate. The itty-bitty moon orbits the Earth every 28 days and it takes the LEGO Earth 375 days to complete its year-long orbit of the Sun.

“I tried to focus on making the rotation and movements as accurate as possible without making it too complex… The relative sizes and distances between the objects is obviously not to scale, a concession often taken with these models. It’s also missing the tilt of the Earth and inclination of the Moon’s orbit. Perhaps some things that could be added in the future.”

“Robo Fett” - original creation and photography by Julius von Brunk

Exactly four years ago around this time, I dazzled the geek community when I first introduced my unique and original LEGO/Transformers/Nintendo mashups. And once again, I bring to you a new addition to my collection: Robo Fett, who transforms fluidly from a Nintendo 64 game cartridge of Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire, to robotic Boba Fett, and back! Thanks to the advent of Mixels ball and socket joints, I can make my LEGOformers much more articulated and compact.

The only thing better that LEGO sushi is LEGO sushi served up on a working conveyer belt! Japanese LEGO enthusiast peisan built an entire sushi restaurant fully of minifig employees, customers, and lots of LEGO food on teeny-tiny plates. Even BB-8 is there riding the conveyer belt.

This awesome model is full of playful details, including all sorts of unexpected visitors and sushi-prep shenanigans behind the counter. Maybe we have to travel to Japan in order to have our sushi prepared with swords. Click here for lots of close-up photos and watch this video for a tour of the LEGO sushi shop in action: