Our friends at Toypro wrote a nice article about our latest GBC 51 Gravel Works. A model made from all the parts of LEGO 42131 CAT D11 Bulldozer set. Check out what they have to say about it and, while you are there, why not get the LEGO set there as well.
So many things are happening, GBC balls are rolling everywhere in the GBC 51 Gravel Works. With 6 modules and lots of paths for the balls to roll over, this GBC has a bit of everything. PV-Productions, the well-known makers of GBC machines (Great Ball Contraptions), have made another great machine. This time from the set 42131 Cat D11 Bulldozer (App-Controlled)…..
Make a wish with the GBC Funnel Gravity Well. In the upcoming GBC 52 Flight Fair we use the left version to form around the general shape of the complete GBC structure. It fits nicely into place but still is, as always, an optional part to extend the GBC layout.
Naoko O. from Canada got our GBC 49 Geneva Drive for his son. This little nifty GBC features multiple mechanisms to get the minds intrigued. This is what Naoko wrote:
I bought this instructions for my son's 7th birthday gift, as he requested.
He is not a big fan of LEGO but really likes GBC videos. He made a few small GBC modules by watching examples from GBC promo videos before, but it was the first time for him to build a GBC module by following building instructions.
With some short breaks, my son took about 8 hours to build the module himself. For him, this was neither too difficult nor too easy, neither too large nor small, but there were a few exciting challenges and lots of fun to build and play. The instructions were clear and detailed. Timing mechanisms, geneva mechanism, and arms of the caroucel might be more challenging, but they were actually not, because of the detailed "Fine Tuning" section.
On the other hand, the geneva mechanism snagged every round because a large bevel gear connected to a weapon barrel (#6 on Page 18) and a small bevel gear under the ratchet mechanism (#13 on Page 24) didn't mesh properly. To solve it, axles/axle-pegs connecting a weapon barrel and shell 3x1x2 technic beams needed to be adjusted by a little poking and prodding, about 0.5 mm or so (Page 19). It was tricky because what he needed to adjust was not the bevel gears themselves but other parts. When my son solved it, he was really excited, looks super happy and proud. The LEGO Technic 42120 set is a retired product in our country, but I was fortunately able to purchase the 42120 set. Like other PV-Production's instructions, it was really awesome that all the parts came from a single existing LEGO set and we did not have to gather parts up from here and there. Only if the instruction was printable. It seems that books/prints are still easier for this age group of children to follow instructions. It feels like more than just STEAM learning. It was a big hit and still is. My son wants more PV-Productions' building instructions, and I'd definitely buy.
Thank Naoko for sharing this with us and we hope your son will continue his passion for engineering in the future.
After 3 year LEGO finally organizes the biggest LEGO event of the year again. Covid-19 prohibited this for well known safety reasons but we are happy to report that this is now over and we are back at it again! With more and many new GBC modules we have developed in the last 3 years.
Normally LEGO World 2020 would be the 20th year anniversary but we are celebrating this milestone now in 2023 from 18 October until 24 October. LEGO World is located in the Jaarbeurs in Utrecht, The Netherlands. We would love to see you there and get in touch with you. Also watch the video below to see what you can expect!
It is always great to see our passion GBC being featured on the internet. But being it on TV is even more exciting!
Polo and his nephew Arthur (also known from Planet-GBC.com) participated to the French Got Talent show and showed various cool looking GBC modules. It is always very entertaining to watch people seeing GBC for the first time. You don’t have to speak French to see that the judges got very excited over it!
They even used our GBC Funnel XL which you can see on minute 26:48!
Imagine a world where you simply press a green button on a LEGO Powered Up Hub and your program would automatically start. No phone Bluetooth connecting and mandatory screen on. Just press and play. Meet Pybricks!
Up until now we used the official LEGO Powered Up app to program our models which use LEGO Powered Up. This works fine but users needed to re-create our software in their app via our building instructions (there is no share program option). Not very efficient and very sensitive to errors. LEGO recently updated the graphics in the app which makes everything even more confusing. Next to that you need to connect your phone every time you want to use the model and the screen has to stay on, draining the battery. All in all, very user unfriendly and complicated.
Pybricks is here to fix all these issues. Run and store all code locally on the hub which is 100 times faster and more reliable.
In the last few months we have worked hard on setting up our website and product pages to support Pybricks with code and programming environment. All our models that use a LEGO Powered Up hub (or can be automated with it) now include a new section where you can download the Pybricks Python code. Via the Pybricks programming environment you can open this file and send it to your hub.
This was quite a time investment and we hope you all appreciate it. If you have any feedback we would love to hear it from you. Get yourself familiar with Pybricks and start living the dream ;)
