As you probably know already, The LEGO Movie line of sets is full of interesting 2-in-1 builds; turn an ice-cream truck into an ice-cream shooting machine, a plumber’s van into a flying flusher, a garbage-truck into a scary chomper… All of this transforming fun is based on the story of The LEGO Movie and is really what LEGO is all about; let your imagination out of the box of what’s supposed to be possible, and build some creative and crazy contraptions! I would say that these are in fact some of the best LEGO sets that have come out in recent years. 🙂
From The LEGO Movie line-up there are a couple of sets however that are clearly transformations from their “normal” state to mechs and flying machines, instructions are not provided for the normal model. This includes the #70812 The LEGO Movie Creative Ambush set, and the #70813 The LEGO Movie Rescue Reinforcements. I guess the idea here is to allow LEGO fans to try to build the alternate models themselves, and there has been many attempts to do this – you can find them on various LEGO forums and picture-sharing sites.
One of the more challenging models to transform into it’s normal state is the fire-mech from the #70813 The LEGO Movie Rescue Reinforcements set. The mech itself is a large and complex model, and although it clearly looks like it was transformed from a fire-truck, it is not immediately obvious of how to make it into a truck again. It requires quite a bit of tinkering – which is of course fun and makes you think! 🙄
So far the best transformation I have seen for this model was done by JANG, who shares his transformed fire-truck on his YouTube channel. He actually took the challenge quite seriously and only used parts from the fire-mech itself, leaving the Micro Manager and the Windmill Helicopter intact. (The Windmill Helicopter in this set is another fun build that you can attempt to transfer back into a regular windmill.)
In the video above JANG shares the details on how he transformed the fire-mech and the challenges he ran into. His fire-truck looks good, isn’t it? The video should help you to visualize what the fire-truck could look like if you have this set already and decide to rebuild the fire-mech. I encourage you to give it a try and see what you can do. (If you don’t have this set yet, you can find it at the Online LEGO Shop.)
What do you think? Do you have any of The LEGO Movie 2-in-1 sets? Have you built both versions of the models? And have you tried building alternates for the sets where secondary instructions are not provided? Feel free to share your own experiences with these fun LEGO sets in the comment section below! 🙂
And you might also like to check out The LEGO Movie section or select from the following related posts:
Nice! I’ve been wondering what it would look like as I didn’t see it in the movie (or maybe it just went by so fast 😉 )
they had it in there for a few seconds! 🙄
Yeah, it was flashing my so fast, but it was there.
Ha! Good on the fans for taking care of this gap that was so curiously left by Lego with these two sets.
I was wondering about that too; why LEGO left these out. As the Fire Mech actually have a unique number printed on each set, I originally thought that will be a key to downloading the instructions for an alternate model online. But that wasn’t the case. The number is actually for The LEGO Movie game. 😕
number? I used to collect the little 2dotlong smooth number plates from the old Exo-force things. =D
Yes, there is an edged on special code on each of the firetrucks. (Just checked mine, it is actually a combination of random letters, not numbers – sorry about that.) It is on a 1×6 red tile in front of the truck. JANG probably substituted the tile on his so others can’t see and use his code, but the tile is between the 2 1×1 trans-blue lights at the front of the truck.
Are you sure it’s a 1×6? It seems to be a 1×4 on JANG’s truck.
Yes, it’s 1×4: http://brickset.com/parts/6083453 😉
Yes, it is a 1×4 sorry about that.
I really like that fire truck. It’s great to have sets that look made from something, but you’re not told how to make them. I don’t get any of these, though, my brothers do. 🙁 Closest I’ve got is the Flying Flusher. Hmm… 😐
Also, admin, are you gonna do an article on this? http://brickset.com/article/10669/official-images-of-simpsons-collectable-minifigs
Yes, I have a post ready for the Simpsons. Will be posting it sometime in the next few days so we can discuss. Right now I’m waiting for our server to be transferred. Fingers crossed all will go well. I think it will be done tonight. I don’t want to post any major news until that is done as I know we will be loosing some comments in the transfer process.
I have this set, and I love it the way it is. I originally bought this set fully intented on building it all then break the windmill flyer contraption down and piece it out..but then when I was done I fell in love with how cool it is! I also find for displaying purposes, because of its base, its top-notch.
For the 2-in-1 sets I have the Joes Plumbing truck. The fiancé surprised me with it during an errands run. It wasn’t really my first choice out of the movie sets, but I love the outhouse, very creative. I chose to build the van as I feel its a nice fit with City theme. I also felt that the alternative model was uninspired and didn’t interest me but.
Nicolas, thanks for sharing. Yeah, I really like the firemech too, and that pig-powered, chicken guided windmill is an awesome contraption. I was laughing out loud when I built it. Still, with the mech, it is just begging you to take up the challenge of building it into a regular firetruck.
As far as the Plumbing Van, I agree that it looks great as a van. As a flying machine it is interesting, but not the best 2-in-1 set. The Ice-Cream Truck is more fun, and my favorite is the Garbage Truck. 😀
I haven’t even HAD any LEGO Movie sets, or any LEGO sets at all for that matter… 🙁
I have just built the ice cream machine, the trash chomper, and the flying flusher into their original form. I just really want to get the fire mech into its original form guess this just wasnt the right site 🙁
Brayden, instructions for all the sets are available at LEGO’s website. Just put in the set number: https://www.lego.com/en-us/service/buildinginstructions
In the movie the fire truck was a lego city fire truck. It was in the episode hot chase.