If Harry Potter was a redneck …

Posted on November 19, 2008 by Mike Walsh

I was looking for a different picture this morning when I ran across this picture.  It is a slightly modified version of the flying Ford Anglia from the 4728 Escape from Privet Drive set.

I adapted this from the basic model, adding a monster truck undercarriage I had developed for another truck and some heavy duty chrome exhaust pipes.  I built it as a joke, my son and I thought it would be pretty funny but it turned out to be pretty popular on the NCLTC layouts.  At the time, the Harry Potter sets were popular and readily available.  I also have a monster truck version of the 4755 Knight Bus.  It is pretty funny looking mostly because the Knight Bus is so tall.

People often ask where the wheels came from.  I was fortunate enough to pick up quite a few copies of 5561 Big Foot 4×4 Model  Team set.  This set was really in demand from train builders as at the time, it was one of the very few sources of train doors and windows.  I was on a mission to built a white and black version of the Metroliner and as a result, ended up with quite a few of these big wheels.  They are ideal for MiniFig scale monster trucks.

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LEGOPalooza 2009

Posted on November 18, 2008 by Mike Walsh

Word came across the NCLUG mailing list yesterday about LEGOPalooza 2009. It will be held on January 31st and February 1st at the Morehead Planatarium in Chapel Hill.  The nitty gritty details:

  • LegoPalooza 2009 – Morehead Planetarium, Chapel Hill, NC
  • Set up Friday, Jan 30, 12:30pm-9pm
  • Saturday, Jan 31, 11am-4pm
  • Sunday, Feb 1, 1pm-4pm
  • Breakdown Sunday, Feb 1, 4:01pm

It has been a while since I participated in LEGOPalooza but I committed to Carin Proctor that I would help out this year.  I will be the NCLTC representative and am probably going to bring some train stuff, my amusement park, and some Town things.

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LEGO Minifig Timeline

Posted on November 1, 2008 by Mike Walsh

There must be a bunch of LEGO fans at Gizmodo because they post something LEGO related pretty frequently.  Their most recent post is the LEGO Minifig Timeline.

Looking through all of the minifigs brings back some memories.

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Six Foot Minifig washes up on a UK beach

Posted on October 30, 2008 by Mike Walsh

There is an article on Gizmodo about a 6 foot tall LEGO minifig washing up on the beach.  How come I never find anything interesting like this when I am at the beach?

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October NCLUG Meeting

Posted on October 17, 2008 by Mike Walsh

NCLUG has a meeting coming up on October 26th at the Cameron Village Library in Raleigh.  I am going to do my best to make this meeting – I had a good time at the last meeting.  I am not sure I will get anything "Spooky" done but am considering resurrecting my amusement park which has been shown at a few NCLTC layouts and once at LEGOPalooza.

This is the Merry-Go-Round I built, there is also a Ferris Wheel, a Spider, and set of swings.  All of the rides are motorized and driven from an RCX.  They can also be run from a 9v Speed Regulator.  You can see them all in this Amusement Park BrickShelf Gallery.

All of the rides work pretty well right now except for the Ferris Wheel.  Something happened to the gearing at one of the shows and I wasn’t able to fix it on site and the last time I worked on it, I couldn’t get it working either.  I’ll probably take a box of Technic parts with me to the meeting and see if I can make it go – should be a good activity.

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