Legos aren’t just children’s toys. The plastic bricks also serve as building blocks for some of the world’s most inspired architects, who combine thousands of small pieces to craft incredible things. The Lego Group — which overtook Ferrari in 2015 as the “world’s most powerful brand,” according to Brand Finance — never stops innovating, introducing new themes and products each year in an effort to satisfy its fanbase.
In 1999, Lego introduced Mindstorms, a line of software-laden robotics toys that allowed the bold to create programmable machines using Lego products. Since then, the range of mechanical and electronic parts has grown enormously, and today, Lego Robotics teams are commonplace in schools. Across the globe, enterprising builders have constructed elaborate machines, composed of thousands of moving parts, made to tackle tasks both large and small. Without further ado, we’d like to show you some of the coolest Lego machine ever created.
Paper Airplane Factory — Arrow Electronics and Arthur Sacek
Apparently, no one at Colorado-based Arrow Electronics — a Fortune 500 company — was capable of properly folding a paper airplane. So instead of learning, they decided to hire Lego wunderkind Arthur Sacek out of São Paulo, Brazil, to do it for them. Sacek, of course, built a ridiculous machine (comprised entirely of Lego bricks) that feeds a sheet of paper along a conveyor belt while simultaneously folding it into a picture-perfect airplane. At the belt’s end, two spinning gears effectively “launch” the airplane off its runway.
The project was all in service of a commercial, which shows the airplane slowly making its way through the machine while snippets of inspirational voiceover — including choice excerpts from one of JFK’s most famous speeches — and music play in the background. It’s a slick composition, and it’s worth checking out. Arrow also released a “Behind the Scenes” video featuring commentary from the Arrow team and Sacek, which you’ll probably like if you found the first video interesting.
Lego Mindstorms NXT Loom — Tomasz Zajac
Polish builder Tomasz Zajac (no relation to the soccer player) built a fully-automatic Lego loom, which was honored by LugPOL — which, as far as we can tell, is the official Lego club of Poland — as 2013’s top creation.
Using a series of power function motors, Zajac crafted a loom that, if properly fed yarn, will actually weave you a freakin’ scarf. Or, if you’re really skinny, a blanket. The monstrous device is controlled via a Mindstorms NXT brick, and uses several Power Function remote control motors.
It’s kind of entrancing to watch the loom methodically work through its colorful threads, and it actually looks to be faster at knitting than a human. We’re watching you, SkyKnit.
Pinpoint Animator — Arthur Sacek
The Brazilian Lego master returns, with a new twist on a classic toy. Actually, we’re not sure if this qualifies as a toy, but it’s definitely a new twist on something you probably bought at an arcade and left sitting on your desk for 12 years.
Remember those pin-art things? Well, Arthur built an autonomous robot version called the Pinpoint Animator, which is capable of setting a matrix that moves each pin individually. It requires about 30 minutes to complete one “frame,” but afterward, it rotates the box and resets the pins before going to work again.
For two days, the robot created frame after frame, automatically triggering Sacek’s camera to take a photograph upon completion. Then Sacek went and edited all the images together to make the sweet video you see above.
Tron Light Cycle — Sariel
Apparently, Poland is a hotbed of Lego wizards. Who knew? Paul Kmiec, better known as “Sariel,” is a Technic legend, having crafted dozens of detailed vehicles and contraptions that’ll make you feel less confident about your building skills than you even knew was possible. In addition to cars — like the Pagani Huayra supercar — Kmiec has made a veritable army of trucks, trains, and construction vehicles.
The crowning jewel of his collection, however, is a spectacular Tron-style light bike. The bike, which runs on the same Power Function motors that Zajac’s loom uses, can be driven via remote control, and is enhanced with non-Lego lighting strips to evoke the cinematic feeling of the movies.
Reinhardt’s Rocket Hammer — ZaziNombies
Youtuber ZaziNombies has collected more than a million followers as a result of his wacky, Lego-centric videos. The builder takes much of his inspiration from popular video games, including Team Fortress 2 and Minecraft, often crafting Lego weapons and gadgets that bear an uncanny resemblance to their on-screen counterparts.
Some of his most popular uploads, though, are creations inspired by Blizzard’s Overwatch, which exploded onto the scene last year. Each of Overwatch‘s heroes is equipped with a set of unique weapons, and possibly the most iconic is Reinhardt’s giant rocket hammer. We’re not sure if ZaziNombies was able to recreate the actual rocket boosters — probably not — but, either way, this is a sweet frickin’ hammer.
Super Awesome Micro Project — Steve Sammartino & Raul Oaida
This ridiculous contraption was all over the internet in 2013, and for good reason. Romanian engineer Raul Oaida and Australian Steve Sammartino built a functional car — like, one big enough for humans to drive — made almost entirely out of Legos. The car, which can move at up to 20 miles per hour, is composed of more than 500,000 separate blocks and pieces, and took nearly two years to complete.
Other materials were used for the tires and gauges, in addition to Lego blocks, but the real achievement is the engine. This thing was built using four orbital engines, each of which consists of 64 cylinders and pistons. And here’s the kicker: It’s 100-percent Lego. Crazy, crazy stuff.
Cubestormer 3 — Mike Dobson & David Gilday
Currently, the world record for fastest solve of a Rubik’s Cube by a human is 4.73 seconds, held by Australian speedsolver Feliks Zemdegs. In comparison, the record for an automated machine is a paltry 0.637 seconds, held by a machine named “Sub1 Reloaded” that was created by German electronics manufacturer Infineon.
You might be wondering, “What is the record for a Lego machine?” Well, we’re glad you asked! In 2013, chip designers David Gilday and Mike Dobson teamed with Samsung to create the third iteration of Cubestormer, a Lego robot built to solve Rubik’s Cubes. Though this beast isn’t 100-percent Lego –it’s powered by a dual-core ARM Cortex-A9 processor and controlled via a Samsung Galaxy S2 — it’s still capable of solving the Cube faster than any human, ever, at 3.253 seconds.
Bricasso Mosaic Printer — Jason Allemann
Jason Allemann is one of the foremost Lego architects in America, and he gained a fair bit of notoriety for his infamous Ultimate Lego Machine, a box with a switch on top, which, when flipped, triggers the opening of a compartment and a a mechanism inside that flips the switch back. It’s a dumb, useless invention — Allemann’s words, not ours — and it became so popular online that Jason built a Lego hand to automatically flip the switch, effectively creating an infinite loop of uselessness.
The printer, constructed entirely out of Lego blocks and Mindstorms controllers, utilizes Mindstorms EV3 to scan a pre-pixellated image and reproduce that image using 1-x-1 blocks placed on top of rectangular Lego sheets (assuming the printer has been fed the proper colors). It won’t replace your regular printer anytime soon, but who cares? The printer can store a total of 450 1-x-1 plates, and has nine separate feed belts, so you can theoretically use nine different colors.
