You might remember that back in March we talked about a new series on LEGO’s YouTube channel titled Beyond the Instructions. In the series, Erik Beck from Indie Machines takes a wide variety of official LEGO sets and transforms them into something even more awesome – usually by motorizing them and making them fly, launch, jump, shoot, and more. I highly recommend the series as Erik is somewhere between a big kid, a mad scientist, and a crazy mechanic, and his creations are very impressive and educational. So, put on your lab coat, safety glasses, and let’s do science! 🙂
We have already discussed the first twelve episodes previously that you can watch here: LEGO Beyond the Instructions Video-Series, and today, I wanted to bring to your attention five more episodes that have been released since. Just like last time, I put all the episodes in a playlist for your convenience, so you can watch them one after the other, or select the ones you are most interested in by using the drop-down list in the upper left corner of the player. Under the videos, I also included a summary of each project.
➡ BEYOND THE INSTRUCTIONS EPISODE 13: Erik swoops in for a new episode of Beyond the Instructions featuring the #70916 LEGO Batman Movie The Batwing. To get this set really flying, he goes beyond the set to build an insane Batman Super Coaster with 30 feet of track! Building a LEGO roller coaster is not an easy task, and I really like his method of using commonly found LEGO Technic pieces and flexible hoses to build the track.
➡ BEYOND THE INSTRUCTIONS EPISODE 14: In this episode, Erik packs more power into the #76086 LEGO DC Super Heroes Knightcrawler Tunnel Attack vehicle to take down a couple pairs of parademons. He adds a rechargeable battery pack, two infrared receivers, and two large LEGO motors to operate the stud-shooters with automatic fire, the beefed up legs, and a bunch of LED lights. I told you Eric is totally nuts! 😀
➡ BEYOND THE INSTRUCTIONS EPISODE 15: In this episode, Erik amps up the #70612 LEGO Ninjago Movie Green Ninja Mech Dragon by transforming it into a dragon launcher that hurtles Lloyd into battle. The launcher is basically a slingshot that is operated by LEGO Mindstorms components, so the dragon can get activated by Lord Garmadon’s laser pointer, a.k.a. The Ultimate Weapon.
➡ BEYOND THE INSTRUCTIONS EPISODE 16: Welcome to the Jungle! In this episode, Erik takes the #60160 LEGO City Jungle Mobile Lab to the extreme by building in tons of torque to tackle the steepest of terrain. This includes converting the vehicle into a six-wheel drive with a medium LEGO motor, battery box, and IR receiver. Erik also added a kayak launcher, you know… for science…
➡ BEYOND THE INSTRUCTIONS EPISODE 17: In this episode, Erik heads to a galaxy far, far away to take the #75185 LEGO Star Wars Tracker 1 beyond! Inspired by the actual ship from Star Wars: The Freemaker Adventures, Erik decide to make the spacecraft levitate in real life, using some magnets. Really cool!
As you can see, Erik is an incredibly talented and creative builder, and watching the modifications he makes to official LEGO sets is very inspiring and enjoyable. I also like how he makes scientific experiments so much fun. You don’t even notice that you are learning! I could definitely see these videos inspiring families to do some great projects together. As you may have noticed, Erik uses a good number of LEGO Power Functions elements. If you don’t have some of the pieces, they are available at the Online LEGO Shop.
What do you think? How do you like the Beyond the Brick episodes? Are you inspired to modify any of your own LEGO sets? What would you build? Feel free to share your own ideas in the comment section below! 😉
And you might also like to check out the following related posts:
Wow! This guy is nuts! Love his projects! I’m definitely going to watch the whole series!
I would love to build that roller coaster!
Yeah, me too! It’s so awesome!
Would love to work with this guy! How does he come up with this stuff?
My kids agree. (And me too!) Would be great to visit his studio. Aweomse series!
I figured he’d make the Batwing fly for real by adding a drone (UAV), but maybe that would be too complicated, and the Lego ABS too heavy for practical usage…
Otherwise, I might checking out the series when I have some more time.
He does have a video where he combines a drone with a set. I forgot which one it was, but it was one of the episodes I wrote about previously. 😀
Aah, it was mentioned in the older post.
BEYOND THE INSTRUCTIONS EPISODE 4: In this episode, Erik attempts to transform the #70605 LEGO Ninjago Misfortune’s Keep into a an actual flying pirate ship. It sort of looks like a drone.
Yes, that’s the one I was thinking of! 😀