It’s For the Kids, Right?

As many of you know, I specialize in design and 3D rendering.  I went to Roger Williams University to study architecture.  For as long as I can remember, I have loved to design and draw whatever popped into my head.  One of my earliest and fondest memories revolves around Legos as a way for me to express my designs and ideas.  I love Legos – I always have fun putting together models.  As a kid, I would get a set of Legos, build the model, play with it, take it apart, and combine it with previous sets to make some sort of “super thing”, whatever that thing was.  Sometimes it was a tank, other times it would be a fortress, aircraft, whatever.  For me, Lego building was a great escape. 

Ahhh - memories.

Even as an adult, I still have a deep appreciation for Legos, and if they weren’t so expensive, I would probably still be buying them.  So, when I started visiting the Choates with Allie, I was happy to see that all of their kids also loved to play with Legos, and I jumped right in helping them build various creations.  Then I found out David, my brother in law, also loved Legos.

Things just got serious, people.

Every evening, after the kids went to bed, David and I would dump out all of the Legos that the kids owned and we would just start building.  I had found a kindred spirit.  For some reason, we were always on the same page, and we could just sit there for hours building away.  Here are some of the creations that we collectively worked on.

“Huey” Helicopter and Fast Attack Jet

This was the first major building job that took a few nights to complete (we would actually put the unfinished model out the kid’s reach so we could continue the next night).  We started with the “Huey”.  We looked up the Huey on the Internet and did the best we could with what we had to emulate Bell’s UH-1 Iroquois helicopter, an iconic piece of flying machinery that has served in every major conflict since Viet-Nam.  We were able to build the body and get it pretty close to the correct proportions, but we had some issues – the original rotor was all wrong and our skids were just terrible.  So, it was off to Wal-Mart to find some parts – yeah, it got that involved.  We found a small chopper model for $10.00 that contained all the parts we needed – a spinning rotor with finished blades and a small landing skid that we used as a guide to building a larger version.  The end result was pretty decent (despite the multiple colors, but that is the price you pay for combining sets).

 

Jet on the left, Huey on the right.

Overhead view.

Tail, rotor and engine detail.

Rescue chain.

Engines.

Landing skids.

Because David and Sami have twin boys, there has to be two toys to play with.  So, we built a fast attack jet with working landing gear.  After all, the Huey has to be able to battle something, right?  Our jet is complete with a top mounted turret gun and after burner with flames.  The boys loved them, and played with them constantly until the day of the massive crash, to which one of the boys responded with a heavy heart, “oh no, there are so many pieces….”  I was not present at the time of the downing of the Huey, but I heard it was a heartbreaking event.

Apocalypse Vehicle

Well, David and I couldn’t have sad children on our hands, so we mothballed the Huey and the jet and got to work on the next masterpiece.  This build was going to have to be awesome, we were going to have to outdo ourselves and blow away all previous models.  Our solution: the ultimate apocalypse vehicle.  We went all in with this one – we even decided to use pink pieces from David’s daughter’s Lego sets.  We started with a monster base vehicle – massive oversized tires, multiple compartments, each with flip up roof access, a massive plow attachment on the front, and bays for three secondary vehicles.  The AV also boasted multiple gunner stations, look out posts, communications tower and armory. Not only does the AV contain all of the above mentioned awesomeness, but it was built like a tank.   After hearing about the Huey crash, David and I resolved that this vehicle was going to have to be “boy proof”, meaning that is going to have to stand up to some punishing playtime.  We used heavy duty double wide blocks for the walls, and triple secured all flat pieces to make sure that this tank truly was that, a tank. 

The AV.

 

The AV crawling over rubble.

 

Now, as I mentioned before, there are two boys, so there has to be more then the one vehicle (beside, a tank this awesome would cause a war between the boys as to who got to play with it first).  Enter in the secondary vehicles:  a road warrior style ATV, a glider that launched off the back, and speed boat for water combat. 

The secondary vehicles - the boat in the foreground, the glider in the back.

Launch ramp up. Note the glider in position at the upper left hand side.

Ramp down, showing the ATV in its bay.

ATV launched.

I was not there when the boys discovered the completed vehicle, but I have heard that it was akin to finding the Holy Grail. The AV held up for the remainder of our visit, although I do not know the current status of our masterpiece. I am looking forward to the next visit so David and I can build the next great thing (hopefully, more Legos will have been purchased so we will have more parts to work with).

Here are a few images of a past creation – nothing as grand and epic as what we had created in our most recent visit, but certainly worth a mention, as it was the first time David and I collaborated on a couple of models.

Of course, when I got home, I built a quick little model for myself that I purchased in Medford – nothing terribly fancy, but it is a great reminder of the fun I had. 

Lego building has become quite the event for David and I, and whenever we feel a bit silly about it, we just remind ourselves, it’s for the kids, right?