ROBOTMAK3RS Blog

Combining a LEGO set with LEGO electronics is the fundamental part of a "ROBOTMAK3R Remix". This blog post focuses on the work of Jason Alleman (aka JK Brickworks), who has a tremendous knack for automating traditional LEGO sets and "bringing bricks to life."  We hope this blog and the sample projects discussed serve as an inspiration to readers to try their hand at automating LEGO sets. Option 1: Adding gears and a crank  Take, for example, the Shark from Deep Sea Creatures (31088). Alleman transforms this simple 3-in-1 Creator Set into a kinetic sculpture . Building instructions are provided here . Another similar remix was made with the Majectic Tiger set (31129) which Alleman use to create a kinetic sculpture koi fish.  Adding a motor and hub (PoweredUp or SPIKE Essential) can easily transform these models from crank-based to motorized with LEGO robotics. Option 2: Adding motors As you build your sets, think about how you might create movement in them. For inst...

Nino Guba is from Torrance, California, USA. He played with LEGO as a kid, but growing up in the Philippines, it wasn’t something he had easy access to. He only got reintroduced to LEGO when he moved to the US and had kids of his own. When his sons were younger, they received LEGO sets as gifts, but as they grew older, the sets got put into storage as their interest faded. Fast forward a few years, he started coming up with his own product ideas and thought about how he could quickly prototype them. That’s when he discovered LEGO MINDSTORMS—and was hooked! He raided his kids’ old collection, got everything organized, and now he's designing and building his own creations, blending his coding skills with LEGO robotics to bring ideas to life. Tell us about your Ghostbusters Remote Trap Vehicle (R.T.V) project. This project is a LEGO Technic adaptation of the Ghostbusters R.T.V.—a ghost trap converted into a remote-controlled vehicle. Its companion build is a prop replica of the Futaba...

By Lee Magpili 26August.   Your Mocs have been registered! So I'm going to LEGO fan weekend in Skaerbaek Fan Weekend this year and we have to register MOCs by 1st August, long before I would build them.  So I'm going for two.  One is the Converted Mario Kart, we've seen that already. Cool thing for me is to build a cool-looking controller so it's fun to drive around from the table.  Check out this inspiration that I found in my YouTube/Instagram algorithm!  The  second is a spaceship, the program. B asically, a 100-stud shiptember (look it up) with its tie to the ROBOTMAK3RS in that I'm making it in the shape of a Scratch block.  I've had the idea for a long time, actually, so I have sketches from some time ago, and now just trying to flesh it out. Check out some sketches and ideas, one was that it could have some smaller ships also in the same design that could attach to it.  Also thinking about landing gear and other functions.   At ...

What Was the Nerdland Festival 2025 All About?  Nerdland Festival 2025 is the premier science and technology festival in the Benelux. The event was held between June 6 and 9, 20025 in Provinciaal Domein Puyenbroeck, Wachtebeke (East Flanders, Belgium). The event had a record attendance of between 25,000 and 30,000 attendees across the four days.  It is Belgium's largest open-air science festival featuring fun, interactive, and educational attractions.  It was co-created by Hetty Helsmoortel and Lieven Scheire, and offered a lively blend of entertainment, educational talks, hands-on experiments, and shows.  The live shows featured Erik Van Looy, Daphne Agten, Kobe Ilsen, Alex Agnew, Andries Beckers, and more De Zondag. “Ner d icons” such as Jeroen Baert and Peter Berx, served as experts. There were presentations on niche, curiosity-driven research such as sessions on medieval “value of dung,” ocean science, and beyond De Zondag. In addition, organizations like i...

Motorized Mario Kart by Anika Vuurzoon Anika Vuurzoon is a Mechanical Engineer from Eindhoven, The Netherlands, by day. In her spare time, she designs robots out of LEGO. She started this hobby as a child and never stopped. In the past, she used to build robots with her father. Nowadays, she builds LEGO models with her boyfriend. Anika specializes in games and animals that react to their environment. For her, building a robot is not only about function but also about aesthetics. Hence, her projects have an element of realism to them. Has your building style or project interests changed over the years? How have you grown as a LEGO builder? My first robots were not really strong; they would easily fall apart at an event. Over the years, I learned different building techniques to improve the strength of a robot. Also, my software skills improved, making it possible to also make more complex robots. Which sets did you use for your Mario Kart project? I used set   72037 as the base of t...

The ROBOTMAK3RS continued their celebration of the 25th Anniversary of MINDSTORMS through these Fall and Winter remix projects. Each ROBOTMAK3R was tasked with selecting one LEGO set of their choice and combining it with a MINDSTORMS set. Below are the five amazing models they came up with. Braill3 by Jerry Nicholls Braill3 is an EV3-based LEGO Braille bricks reader. This robot uses its fingertip, made from three touch switches, to read messages written using the LEGO Braille bricks and will speak out what it detected. If it sees a simple maths problem it will attempt to solve it and give the answer as well. To learn more about the process of creating this machine, read Jerry's blog . Braill3 can be viewed here . Set Review: The Braille Bricks set is well thought out. The ratios of the letters is suitable for general use and the addition of some punctuation and arithmetic operators is excellent. There is a card showing what bricks there are and their quantities, but no form of sort...