I consider Christmas a success if my present pile includes something I can put together after lunch, while watching a good film. The kit mustn't be too taxing, and shouldn't form part of a serious project. Lego is perfect, but knock-off Meccano works well too.
On the bits front, the motor/gearbox unit has possibilities. At 20mm wide, it would fit in a garden railway locomotive. The 2 X AA battery box includes a switch and these aren't that cheap either.
and are good enough quality they will head to the toolbox eventually. Nuts and bolts are in reasonable metal so I didn't manage to chew the heads off any by using excess force. Three lengths are used, and these are identified at each stage of the instructions.
You need your brain in gear as the photos for the instructions are tiny and so it helps if you can figure out things for yourself. The stage took me much pondering - it looks like the motor mounts centrally under a plate, but if you to that, the gearbox doesn't fit between the orange spacers. Offset it by one hole and everything is fine.
The result looks like the model on the box. Throw the switch and it scoots across the floor at a modest pace. In fact, at a pace that would be good for a garden railway locomotive...
And the film I watched? Sparticus. Never seen it before and won't bother again, but I've ticked off another classic film hole in my memory. It certainly didn't distract me from building, and lasted well over an hour longer than the kit.
4 comments:
They are on offer 3 for £12. Good price for the motor units if you have alternative uses. I am not sure who would need 3 diggers!
I guess if you left the shovel off it would make a good off-road buggy.
Phil - what's with all these kits?
Anyone might almost be forgiven for imagining that you're trying to get some of us to actually build things.
There's just one problem with this - some of us are railway modellers - and long standing members of railway modelling themed forum sites.
Judging by some posts on said sites, I'm not sure we're allowed to do anything other than buy red or blue boxes - open them - and then go on an extended moan-fest about how overpriced the contents of these boxes are, because some #@*! has failed to represent exactly the correct number of rivets.
Well, I guess it's either that or "Rule 1". You know the one: "It's mine - so I'll do what the *#&@!!* I want."
Seriously though, these kits sound great.
I'm not sure if I'd get any - I'm giving the idea some thought - but I wonder how much use the contents would be with the projects I'm planning on building.
In particular, I have my doubts about using a 3V motor.
Saying that, if suitable wheels were easily obtainable, I could imagine "model trains from repurposed toys / toy parts" forming the basis of a great RMweb challenge.
It could be interesting to see if anyone makes anything using parts from these kits.
On reflection, I suspect that basing a repurposing challenge exclusively around toy parts might be unduly restrictive - even if they might offer some potential.
At various times, I've looked into a number of build projects that wouldn't use any toy parts - but would involve some serious repurposing - using stuff like pen barrels, electronics project boxes, a torch housing and other distinctly "left field" components.
I suspect that other people (who also don't have any toys in their possession) might also be interested in coming up with builds that involve using stuff in completely different ways to those originally intended - and I wouldn't want to "cramp their style".
OK - I'm not expecting to see any RMweb challenge along these lines - but a "Wombles challenge", based around a build using "things that the everyday folks leave behind" could be serious fun.
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