Lego Saturn V
ideas.lego.com
ideas.lego.com
LEGO sets have an average price per piece of around 10 cents, which has been pretty stable since the late 70s [0]. With 1969 pieces (which is a fantastic number) you'd expect the set to cost $216.59 at the current average of 11 cents per piece, so this is a fantastic deal.
It's also a meter high (about 3 foot 4 for the Americans) which is really fantastic.
[0] https://flowingdata.com/2013/02/07/analysis-of-lego-brick-pr...
But the black one has friction ridges that are a tiny fraction of a millimetre. Little enough that for constructions where friction doesn't matter (you just want to connect two parts and something else will prevent rotation), they are mostly interchangeable, but the grey ones work better to connect wheels that you actually want to be able to spin, and the black one works better if you want to build a rigid structure.
You don't tend to find two parts that similar with that kind of minor difference for most non-lego plastic building blocks because most of them don't manufacture their parts precisely enough for it to work.
[1] https://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem.page?P=2780...
[2] https://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem.page?P=3673...
The patent expired long ago, but few companies will put that much effort into making those shapes that precisely.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1&v=Tnb-LUM0yd4
edit: Ah! He did it for this stack exchange question - https://bricks.stackexchange.com/questions/1754/how-much-usa...
Legos are amazing.
Whenever someone goes out of their way to complain about the profit someone makes (as though its dirty somehow) I always wonder... have you ever calculated your own profit margin? Having a job is rarely free and, unless you you're just living off prior earnings/trust fund/etc. this is a figure you can come up with. Most people I've known, including myself over time (I've for worked everything from minimum wage to very healthy salaries), have done pretty well in the profit margin percentage area as compared to the 32.8% markup you cite.
To be fair, you certainly didn't register a complaint per se in your comment, but something to think about before making that complaint.
Maybe don't be so judgemental for no reason?
(I just explained why Lego is expensive. Nothing else.)
Seriously? How do you design something with that kind of easter egg in it?
Edit: Imagination no longer required.
> Ryan "The Brickman" McNaught, one of only 13 LEGO Certified Professionals, has built an 18.7 foot (5.7 meter) tall Saturn V with launch umbilical tower using 120,000 bricks. It took him 250 hours to build.
You want the Unofficial LEGO Technic Builder's Guide: https://www.nostarch.com/technicbuilder
which is an excellent reference for how to build steering mechanisms, differentials, transmissions, suspensions... and Sariel usually offers two or three different ways of accomplishing any given goal.
Highly recommended.
I have fond memories of hacking together a 10 dpi photocopier using the light sensor and a few motors.
I thought "here's a good way to prototype building robots and having fun too" - and I could use my old kit with it.
I found that buying that first kit rather steep, but I persisted. Over time I purchased more parts, hit up the Lego-Pitsco-Dacta store to get others (stuff like pneumatic pieces and gears), and a few of the Mindstorms expansion sets...
I sunk several hundred into it all before I came to realization that it wasn't cost effective; today I know it isn't.
If you want to prototype (or outright build) robotic systems, just go with "raw" materials (especially surplus or junkyard pulls). Small scale stuff can be easily bodged together with hot glue, cardboard, and RC servos. At the time, a great controller for it all was the BASIC Stamp, today it would be an Arduino, RasPi, or ESP8266 - or any number of other options that are all low cost.
Still - where Lego (and other building kits) shine is the modularity and standardness of the system. There have been attempts, some fairly successful, to do the same with more robust (mechanically and structurally) parts for kits (makerbeam, vex, actobotics), but they don't all have the traction the Lego enjoys from being a near first-mover, and not requiring tools to put together.
But if you don't mind tools - there are plenty of lower cost options out there (not saying this because people don't know it - plenty do).
That said, Lego Star Wars has been taking over our house, and we now need to buy a bigger house.
The tolerances are far worse than with Lego, but there are many more possibilities to build workng machines.
I'm just reading a book about technic history with Fischertechnik, where all kinds of differentials, steering mechanisms, planetariums (yes, with several planets, ecliptic, and so on) and even several types of mechanical clocks are built.
Perhaps only by those "not in the know" so to speak. For the general consumer, yeah mostly.
But if you're into DIY robotics for any length of time (or perhaps other STEM pursuits), you likely know about it.
That said, Fischertechnik makes Lego look cost effective...
Dirk Fox, Thomas Püttmann ISBN: 978-3864902963
Hell, they even do it at the Lego store. I was in Bellevue WA and they had about half a dozen of one of the Star Wars sets, and the guy there suggested I might want to buy several of them because they were about to stop production...
(Alas, though, my Lego fetish is Architecture, and some of the Creator stuff).
Nothing is stopping you from reusing pieces, they're made to the same quality as always. Newer sets don't have as many "speciality" pieces as they did in the dark ages (2000-2005) and the instructions have NEVER had more than 1-2 models in them.
If you want mechanical stuff, buy the Technic range.
And there is no "artificial scarcity" - they just happen to release new products constantly, and they can't keep every single set in production; so sets are retired after 3-4 years.
Finally, scalpers aren't the only ones to buy from; I find below-RRP sets all the time on Craigslist & similar.
But I don't disagree with your points. I think if you lose control over any hobby, interest or indulgence, you end up in a bad place. I warned about lego because I didn't consider the dark side when I started :)
I will have this set.
Lego has more sets today that are just bricks or bricks with multiple models than they've had for like 35+ years. Not to mention dozens of books they put out with other ideas.
And I'm not talking about instructions for how to build a different set, I mean "Here's a way you can combine these pieces that you might not have though of - figure out what to do with that" or "You like animals? Here's how to make a tail. Go make some animals."
My daughter gets plenty of small sets, and then typically just wants to dive into all of the extra pieces and build something completely different. Sometimes these are inspired by Lego suggestions. Sometimes they are crazy things she comes up with on her own.
There is nothing that Lego sells that legitimately limits people in what they can build.
I'd get it not just because I'm a space travel buff but because of the scale- it's a meter tall! Great job bringing out the immense size of the Saturn V, in Lego form.
We have ~20 kits at home (gifts, impulsive purchases, etc), it looks like pile of assorted, useless, weird blocks, non-matching wheels. My son started play Lego after I bit the bullet and just sorted out that crap, leaving only 5-10 standard blocks.
I also wonder what some people consider standard blocks. If you're just talking about 2x4s, they're actually not that much fun. If I sorted all of my sets, the majority of pieces would be 1x2 or longer bricks or various flat pieces which are significantly better for building.
There are plenty of odd pieces out there, but when you get into the expert level sets and see them use croissants and robot fists to do remarkable detail on buildings... well I certainly realized that very few pieces are useless.
There are a few sites around where LEGO fans post alternate builds of models. Here's an example search showing 100+ alternate models built from a single 67 piece kit:
https://rebrickable.com/search/?search_type=mocs&parent_set=...
You can do this with licensed themes as well. Here's five alternate models that I built from a tiny X-Wing:
https://rebrickable.com/users/jncraton/mocs/?parent_set=7512...
Seeing what a set designer has put together is always a fun way to learn new techniques and design concepts, but there's nothing stopping anyone from building whatever they want out of a LEGO set.
Eh, you can always just take it apart and build what you want or just build what you want form the get and throw the instructions out. I did this for years as a child and have done it for years as an adult.
Think of it as buying a set of pieces you can use build anything you want with (including combining with other sets to build bigger/other stuff), but it comes with instructions to build something very cool using just those pieces.
On a side note, LEGO does sell boxes of basic pieces with multiple instructions sets included that only utilize a small portion of the whole box.
Plus, nothing's stopping you from buying lots of loose pieces. I'm not sure if it's still the case, but you used to be able to just buy whole boxes of bricks of different colors or shapes from lego.
The collection seems small, but it looks like you can buy general brick sets for maximum creativity.
My concern is that, due to the much greater number of unique pieces, the increased difficulty of organizing a collection, or finding the piece you need in an unorganized pile, or even just being able to visualize what it is you want to build will tend to discourage kids from making their own creations. Hopefully I'm wrong about that.
Ahh, I see. That makes sense, but also I fail to see how that's a bad thing. The new pieces are built to be backwards compatible with your Legos from 30 years ago, so wouldn't that just make them MORE attractive?
Don't under estimate kids' ability to change and invent.
Just because you can't think of anything to build other than what is shown in the book in front of you, doesn't mean that applies to everyone.
The packaging used to be better about this, even including alternate instructions using the pieces in the set.
They still do that with some sets.
Lego Classic 10709 - a small cheap set (less than $5) - has one page with suggestions if you combine it with other similar sets, and another page with instructions about modifying this set.
Pages 14 and 24.
https://www.lego.com/en-us/classic/activities/booklets/10709...
I MUST HAVE THIS! I am afraid when my birthday comes around it will be sold out.
Around that age I also built a bomber plane with cruise missile. I was inspired by Greenham Common and the news! My parents did not think that was so good.
All the adults were impressed by our creations, plus our child view of the world. So that Saturn rocket would be subtly on show rather than thrown in the box. We had feedback on our creations and played to the crowd.
I am sure brick economics would have me not getting every piece optimal, however there would be few spare bricks. I doubt our version would compare to this fancy kit version though. Therefore the original mega project would not have been attempted had the new kit been available, it would enforce a requirement to have the special bricks rather than be extra resourceful.
Yes I will buy this for my sister in memory of those happy times, to be a familiar object on the shelf for her newborn to eventually play with. It will be there ready.
I've got a yearly pass to Kennedy Space Center, but I don't even live in the US. Still, I've been there more than four times just this year, and even watched a rocket launch from the LC-39 gantry. I've been to the Apollo/Saturn V center a number of times and the sheer size of the rocket gets me every time. I watch rocket launches all the time on the web, and am constantly awed by what engineers can accomplish, not least with SpaceX landing rockets like parking a car these days. I'm a total space nerd.
This package is epic, even down to the number of pieces. I need it.
I prefer real scale models over Lego
This is a beautiful model. Looks like a model though and not a Lego set.
From a reply to the same question in the comments
"With 1969 LEGO elements the 21309 NASA Apollo Saturn V rockets its way into LEGO Ideas history as the tallest LEGO Ideas set, as well as the one containing most elements."
The last part is incorrect, the Lego set with the most pieces was Taj Mahal with 5922 pieces, way more than this: http://lego.wikia.com/wiki/10189_Taj_Mahal
Edit: I misread that, thanks for the clarification.
Also, they specifically refer to the "LEGO Ideas" collection; the Taj Mahal was part of the "LEGO Sculptures" collection.
(There have been many other sets from other collections with more pieces than this.)
And honestly, KSP isn't really for everyone. Some people would find it boring while building a giant Lego rocket would be right up their alley.
There are more than a few kits out there which can be easily built and launched safely - where the total equipment needed (if all purchased) would amount to something around what this Lego kit costs.
And you get a real flying rocket in the end!
If you want to spend a bit (or a lot) less, you can build flyable model rockets from literally trash: One local model rocket club here in the Phoenix area likes to display rockets made from Pringles cans (body, fins, and nosecone!). There is plenty of free and low-cost software out there to help with designing such rockets (and more than a few books).
Lastly - if you want - you can even make your own engines from easily sourced materials (sugar rocket engines are easily made using powdered sugar and tree stump remover, for instance, stuffed/poured into paper tubes or PVC pipe). You can find plenty of information on the internet too about these designs.
So - instead of building a non-flying pretend rocket - build a flying real one, strap a gopro to it, and launch!
I also regret spending more time building Airfix model planes than building flying RC planes. oh well.
Kerbal would likely be more expensive due to licensing fees -- the Saturn 5 is public domain.