The Day Of The Dead is a Mexican holiday with pre-hispanic origins to remember friends and family members who have died. The celebration takes place on November 2, and was declared by UNESCO as Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity. Day Of The Dead! The Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) also known as MANGALYAAN, is a space probe launched to Mars by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). Launched on 5 November 2013 and reached Mars orbit on 24 September 2014. Like the real one, this LEGO model was built based on a cube. Spacecrafts are usually wrapped in a golden reflective film, to protect scientific instruments from temperature oscillations. This time the probe is presented "naked" to show some details. The cube is made of 6 4x4 plates, interconnected with "hydrant" bricks. Solar panels were modeled with 4x6 plates covered with blue "grills" to make the cells. The panels are interconnected with flexible links. In the original spacecraft solar panels and high gain antenna were stored folded inside the rocket.
To build the probe around 140 steps were needed. The biggest visible features of MANGALYAAN are its 3 solar panels, high gain antenna and scientific instruments on the surface of the cube A lot of times happens that some stuck lego bricks are impossible to separate using only our hands. In this desperate situations is common to use tools like pliers or screwdrivers, leaving scars or some damage to the bricks. LEGO 630 brick separator tool Well, LEGO has a tool to make this task a bit easier. In this case is LEGO 630. Useful to solve problems like: Plates stuck to a base - Small low height plates stuck to a base. Using the tool like a lever, doesn't require too much effort to remove. If a lot of force is applied bricks can fly anywhere! - Two low height bricks strongly stuck together. This situation requires 2 steps: First: Put the stuck bricks in a medium size base, levering towards the base with one hand and pushing the tool towards the bricks with the other hand.
Second: Use the thinnest part of the tool to finish separating bricks. Wheel strongly attached to the axle. Use the cross shaped tip of the tool, holding the wheel with one hand and pushing the tip towards the middle of the axle Separate wheels from axles & other technic bricks This tool can be bought separately, but it's included in so many sets like LEGO Minecraft series The ISEE-3 spacecraft was launched by NASA in 1978 to study the the interaction between the Earth's magnetic field and the solar wind and was operated up to the year 1997. In 2014 it was discovered that the probe wasn't deactivated and was emitting radio signals. A group of Citizen Scientists crowdfunded the ISEE-3 reboot project, earning enough money to buy and build equipment to reestablish contact and take control of the spacecraft. This LEGO model fall into the "micromodel" category because some details were sacrificed to make it easier to build. The original spacecraft is formed by a 16-side cylinder, this model was made with 8-side cylinder.
Another fine detail like thrusters, scientific instruments and antenna details were omitted due to the difficulty of being represented in the right size scale. Each side side of the cylinder has two solar panels (upper and lower), antenna support and plate brick. The top and bottom pieces of the cylinder are made of 4x4 round plates. The inside of the spacecraft is made of a superposed crosses structure, this is one of the techniques used to build cylindrical objects. The colors of the insider bricks are irrelevant because aren't viewed from the exterior. In the center of the cross lies a "fire hydrant " brick with 6 connecting points. The arms of the crosses could be made with any kind (or combination) of 1x1 bricks with the same length shown. The building process takes around 150 steps. In the finished model the biggest characteristics of ISEE-3 are long and symmetrical antennas, instrument masts and blue solar panels Unpacking Emmet Hard hat, from minifig pack movie series.
Revealing bump code and production number Unpacking minifig Lego movie series: Gail constructio worker, revealing bump code, an production numberBusiness has been so brisk at the world’s most profitable toymaker that Lego last year did something unusual: It began looking for ways to discourage customers from buying its products. The Danish company scaled back its advertising efforts amid a 25 percent rise in annual sales, according to Reuters. It simply couldn’t make enough toys to satiate demand in North America, and needed a break while it boosted capacity at its factories and increased its workforce by nearly 25 percent. “We feel we need to invest, to build some breathing space,” John Goodwin, Lego’s chief financial officer, told Reuters. Lego, a family-owned company founded in 1932, has enjoyed booming growth for decades. The company has released thousands of sets of its eponymous blocks, forging licensing deals with popular brands including Star Wars, Angry Birds and Disney Princesses.
It has also taken on iconic architecture: A model of the U.S. Capitol building is for sale on Lego’s site for $99.99. A replica of the Ghostbusters firehouse, meanwhile, is listed for $349.99. The company’s dominance has also extended into the company’s six Legoland theme parks, 125 retail stores and dozens of video games. The Lego Movie, a full-length movie released in 2014, brought in $468.1 million at the box office. The company’s revenue has increased by an average of 15 percent a year in the past 12 years, according to Reuters. The efforts to quell demand seem to have worked – at least temporarily. Sales in the Americas remained flat during the first half of 2016, according to Reuters. (Revenue in Asia and Europe, meanwhile, continued to grow by double digits.) Overall, Lego’s revenue rose 11 percent to roughly $2.35 billion in the first half of the year, ahead of the $1.83 billion reported by Mattel, the maker of Barbie. But executives at Lego are hoping to ramp up production in time for this year’s holiday season, Goodwin said: