Canada has been celebrating the 150th anniversary of the country’s confederation with a number of festive and commemorative events throughout the year. Canadian LEGO fans are also joining in the fun by building many Canadian themed models, which you can find at the Canada Builds 150 website. Today, I thought to share with you two Canada-themed models by Jason Allemann and his partner Kristal – well known for their cute and clever motorized LEGO creatures and other mechanical creations. 🙂
Jason shares the following on his website: “I thought it would be an interesting challenge to build a mechanical LEGO sculpture of Canada’s national animal, the cute and industrious beaver.” As you will see in the video below, the beaver uses a fairly simple mechanism, consisting of a single drive shaft with a cam that slaps the tail and a crank connected to a piston that opens and closes the teeth. You can operate the beaver with a hand crank inserted into the side of the body, or by using a LEGO Power Functions M-Motor. Building instructions and more details about the LEGO mechanical beaver are available at Jason’t website, JKBrickWorks.com.
To continue the celebration of Canada’s 150th, Kristal decided to build the quintessential scourge of Canadian’s everywhere, the dreaded eating-everything, pooping-everywhere, and attacking-everyone Canada goose and three goslings. The whole setup is similar to a traditional pull toy, with the three goslings tied to momma goose, so they can get pulled along. Jason added a LEGO Power Functions Battery Box, M-Motor and IR Receiver to the goose, so that it can be controlled via an IR Remote. For the goslings there is a crank on either end of the axle of the drive wheels, connected to the wings via a rod. This acts as a piston to flap the wings up and down as the goslings are pulled along a surface. More explanation and details can be found in the video below.
Really cute models, aren’t they? And very clever too! Jason shares on his website that they may be making some more Canada-themed LEGO projects this year, so keep an eye out for them. What do you think? How do you like these motorized LEGO animals? Feel free to share your thoughts in the comment section below! 😉
And you might also like to check out the following related posts:
- Happy Easter with Hatching LEGO Eggs!
- Light, Sound, Action! – Introducing PFX Brick
- LEGO Ideas Maze Review & Thoughts
- LEGO Ideas Maze – More Alternate Mazes
- The 24 hour LEGO spaceship NCS Aries-K
- Walking LEGO Animals – So Much Fun!
- LEGO Mindstorms Ultimate Useless Machine
- LEGO Winter Village Additions & Modifications
The Canadian scourge is equally scourging here in Sweden. Not sure if they’ve been imported, or if they’re migratory.
It was imported, apparently. Bad move.
LOL! Why were they imported? Or was it an accidental import, like on ships?
Not sure, entirely… It seems to have occurred int the 1920’s… Maybe it was considered an exotic gift by some diplomats, or something… Now they’ve pretty much settled…
LOL! Yeah, we also have some lovely “gifts” lurking around here, like caimans, pythons, monkeys, and all kinds of birds. People just let their exotic pets go when they get tired of them, and Florida is so warm and lush, pretty much any creature can live comfortably on their own. We found a python in our back yard once! 😮
I can’t accept that the geese are a scourge! I’ve slipped on as much goose poop as anyone else but I also have fond memories of a pair who raised their goslings below the house I lived in in West Vancouver. I never tired of watching the mom lead her brood out into the waters of Howe Sound to swim East in the mornings and back West to their nest in the evenings or the dad standing perfectly still and watchful as they tore up the grassy park as they fed. They are stately beautiful birds who will always have a spot in my heart.
Were they Canada geese though? They are much more aggressive than the regular kind. But I agree; families are very cute. 🙂
Adorable! How are these people so creative? And it’s nice to finally see Kristal!
Yeah, I have been wanting to meet the mysterious Kristal too, as she is the creator of many of the original models before Jason motorizes them. And yes, they are very creative. 🙂
Really cute models!!