-World War I KitsIt could be the biggest bargain on the property market: a two-storey house that’s being given away for nothing. The only drawback is that this des res is made entirely out of Lego – and you’ll have to find somewhere to put it.Top Gear presenter James May has just built the world’s first full-size Lego house – including a working toilet, hot shower and a very uncomfortable bed – using 3.3million plastic bricks. Toy storeys: James May and 1,000 helpers built the 20ft-tall Lego house on a wine estate in Surrey Stripe me: A close up of the fully functional house, which was built using 3.3million differently coloured bricks About 1,000 volunteers built the 20ft-tall house in Denbies Wine Estate in Dorking, Surrey – but now the vineyard needs the land back toIf no one collects it by 8am on Tuesday, it will be hacked to bits with chainsaws. May says Legoland reneged on a deal to take it to their theme park in Windsor, Berkshire, after deciding it would be too expensive to move.
Meanwhile, miffed Legoland managers criticised May for building the house without their help.May said: ‘I’m very unhappy about it. I feel as if I’m having my arm twisted into saying “knock it down”. Blocked sink: The bathroom with a working taps and basin made from Lego Cosy: James in the bedroom - and you'll never guess what he made the bed, pillows and slippers from! Purrfect: The home even comes with its own cat ‘Legoland only told us on Thursday they were not going to take it. Block head: The TV presenter built the house for his forthcoming BBC show, James May Toy Stories 'Knocking it down is just wrong on every level. really lovely thing – it would break the hearts of the 1,000 people who worked like dogs to build it.’ May believes that an art gallery, a children’s home or a wealthy private collector might be interested in the house. entrepreneurs hoping to make money from it would face legal problems as
Legoland has an exclusive licence to use the plastic bricks as a public Lego has also banned May from dismantling the structure and giving away the bricks, which the company donated for his forthcoming BBC show James May’s Toy Stories. ‘It would dilute Lego’s sales – we can only give them to charity,’ May said. May slept in the house on Friday night, on ‘the most uncomfortable bed I’ve ever slept in’ – when he also discovered the house was not waterproof. Martin Williams, marketing director of Legoland Windsor, said: ‘We’re disappointed we were not consulted as our model-makers could have advised on building a movable structure. ‘In our opinion, the only way to move the Lego house now is to cut into it, which would compromise the structural integrity and present us with Plastic fantastic: James in the multi-coloured hallway Building blocks: James even used Lego to make kitchen utensils, including a toaster, whisk, bread bin and iron
Daily Block: The home, which is unwanted by Legoland, also includes reading material 'We considered all the options but due to timings, logistics and planning permission, we have decided it would not be viable to move the structure to the park.’Earlier this year the TV presenter made his debut in the Chelsea Flower show with a garden made entirely out of plasticine. in Plasticine boasted palm trees, bushes, a vegetable patch, grapevine, lawn, rockery and pond and featured two and a half tonnes of plasticine in 24 different colours.The 46-year-old claimed his effort is the biggest and most complex plasticine model ever made. He produced the the garden as part of his BBC 2 series James May's Toy Stories, where he aimed to 'get kids out of their bedrooms and away from their Playstations'. Bright idea: James stares through a multi-coloured window as light pours in the homeA dream of many kids (and adults) is to build a working replica of a real gun from LEGO bricks.
Some do make successful attempts at building LEGO guns, but there is one teen who is the undisputed master of LEGO guns and LEGO gun-building. Today I will introduce you to Jack Streat from the United Kingdom, his LEGO guns, and his new 350 page book full of instructions on how to make working LEGO guns: LEGO Heavy Weapons – Build Working Replicas of Four of the World’s Most Impressive Guns Whether we like it or not, guns are an integral part of our world, and making a LEGO gun is not going to hurt anyone any more than a water-gun or other toy-gun (wear eye-protection though as they really do shoot bricks!) – on the other hand they will enhance your thinking, mechanical and LEGO building skills. So if you are up to a great challenge, why not give it a try? And one of the best ways to start out is by learning the basics of LEGO gun-building from a true master. By the time you finish LEGO Heavy Weapons you will have the skills not just to build the LEGO guns included in the book, but also have the understanding of how to design and build your own weapon-replicas from LEGO.
Jack Streat has played an influential role in the LEGO guns builder community since posting his first LEGO gun online at age 13. His YouTube videos and MOCpages postings created a lot of enthusiasm amongst LEGO fans, so much so that he was approached by No Starch Press to ask if he would like to publish a book on the topic. After a lot of hard work the book LEGO Heavy Weapons was born with instructions to build four LEGO guns. Jack is now 17 years old and this is his first book. Below I will review the LEGO guns book quality, the instructions for building the LEGO guns, and the LEGO guns themselves – so read on… ➡ THE LEGO HEAVY WEAPONS BOOK QALITY: You can tell this book means serious business just by its look; it is a big hefty manual – kind of like a shop-manual for vehicles – that is meant to be used and can take some beating! The book is 353 pages and covers the instructions for four LEGO gun replicas: the Desert Eagle handgun, the AKS-74U assault rifle, the Jungle Carbine (a Lee Enfield sniper rifle) and the SPAS 12 shotgun.
Even though the book is big, the pages lie flat as you turn them – in fact, I have built my own Desert Eagle right on top of the book! The pages of the book have a matte finish, which is easy on the eyes and helps with seeing the instructions clearly with no glare. There are also lots of white spaces to keep the design nice and clean. The color of the instructions is black and shades of gray, which is great for building weapons, however in my opinion the shades could be a tad lighter as the darker colors are hard to differentiate. You do need good lighting to see them well. (Don’t build your first LEGO gun at 10 PM with only a night-light like I did!) Overall I would say that the book is excellent quality and definitely serves the purpose of an instruction-manual for building LEGO weapons. It looks right and feels right in every way. ➡ THE LEGO HEAVY WEAPONS BOOK INSTRUCTIONS: The instructions to build each of the four LEGO guns are excellent! Jack is not just sharing the building steps, but the thinking, the challenges, and the mechanism behind the LEGO gun designs – thereby giving you the skills to build your own LEGO weapons in the future. T
here is also a list of parts for each LEGO gun, so you know what you will need to build them. Jack uses a modular method for building-instructions; building sections of the LEGO gun separately (trigger, grip, chamber, barrel, magazine, etc.) then putting them all together at the end. The tremendous benefit of this method is that if you want to modify a particular section of a LEGO gun, you can build or re-build just that module – no need to take apart and redesign the entire LEGO gun. The downside is that it makes the instructions a bit tedious and boring. It took me a couple of hours to build the smallest gun (the Desert Eagle) and as I was building the various modules I kept thinking when will this thing ever going to look like a gun. It was not until step 25 (an hour into building) when I thought, yeah, this is starting to look like something! 🙄e instructions are logical and easy to follow, however I would suggest for further publications that, while keeping the modular method for its great benefits, put together a few of the modules earlier in the building steps to give a feeling of achievement in the process. Af
ns are just a big hunk of metal, so anything to make the building process more interesting and enjoyable will help for novices like me. ➡ THE LEGO HEAVY WEAPONS BOOK GUNS: I actually wasn’t planning to build any of the guns at this time, but once I was flipping through and reading the book I just couldn’t help myself. So I choose the smallest LEGO gun – the Desert Eagle – to build. After looking at the LEGO elements I needed I was pleasantly surprised that most of the parts are in fact very common LEGO bricks and plates with a few Technic pieces added for the sliding and shooting mechanism. Even though I don’t own any Technic sets, I had enough Technic pieces to build the Desert Eagle with only a few parts missing. Yes, my LEGO gun is a bit rainbow colored, but the point is that most likely anyone with a medium-size LEGO collection can build these LEGO guns to completion or close to completion, and pick up the missing parts for a few dollars on BrickLink.
As far as the finished LEGO gun, it is solid, it works, and it does look like the real thing! In fact all of the four replicas are 1:1 scale, so yeah, they could be mistaken for a real gun so be careful carrying them in public! 8) All four of the LEGO guns included in the book do something; the Desert Eagle has a blowback action mechanism, the AKS-74U has a folding stock (this is an amazing design!) and shoots LEGO bricks, the Jungle Carbine is a real giant and also shoots bricks, and the SPAS 12 has a pump-action mechanism and shoots bricks as well. (See video above for action!) In summary I would say that this is a must book for LEGO gun enthusiasts; it will greatly improve your weapon-building skills, and give you all the steps to build impressive replicas of four of the most iconic guns. I would suggest the book for older kids because of the complexity of the building-steps and the amount of time needed to build each of the LEGO guns. (The book itself recommends it for children over 12 with adult supervision.) An