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Comment by tostitos1979 | Hacker News Reader

tostitos1979

As an adult who has had to deal with a Lego addiction, my suggestion is IF you have an addictive personality and not money to burn - please .. don't start. I sunk 1-2 grand into sets - for me it wasn't worth it. The old legos were a lot better. Reusable pieces that make them an investment. The newer sets often have special purpose pieces and instructions to just build 2-3 models. I thought I was learning about mechanical stuff - differential steering, inside of an engine, etc. Frankly, watching Youtube videos is a much more cost effective way of learning. What is the worst thing of it all - artificial scarcity. I'd buy sets I didn't really care for because I was afraid they would go out of stock. This has happened to some of the popular sets where scalpers charge 10x. They even have web sites where people do this full time. Just say no.

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If you want to learn mechanics with LEGO, you don't want a particular set -- you want a book.

You want the Unofficial LEGO Technic Builder's Guide: https://www.nostarch.com/technicbuilder

which is an excellent reference for how to build steering mechanisms, differentials, transmissions, suspensions... and Sariel usually offers two or three different ways of accomplishing any given goal.

Highly recommended.

I also highly recommend this book. It's basically a crash course in mechanical engineering. I'm a 41yr old software engineer who's played with Legos my whole life, and I still learned a bunch.

The Mindstorms kits, a few pounds of technic parts are also pretty good for dipping your toe into robotics. The Mindstorms have instructions on building line-following cars and a variety of other things.

I have fond memories of hacking together a 10 dpi photocopier using the light sensor and a few motors.

As a kid, I had a few of the Lego "Expert Builder" sets, so when the first Mindstorms kits came out, as an adult I was pretty stoked.

I thought "here's a good way to prototype building robots and having fun too" - and I could use my old kit with it.

I found that buying that first kit rather steep, but I persisted. Over time I purchased more parts, hit up the Lego-Pitsco-Dacta store to get others (stuff like pneumatic pieces and gears), and a few of the Mindstorms expansion sets...

I sunk several hundred into it all before I came to realization that it wasn't cost effective; today I know it isn't.

If you want to prototype (or outright build) robotic systems, just go with "raw" materials (especially surplus or junkyard pulls). Small scale stuff can be easily bodged together with hot glue, cardboard, and RC servos. At the time, a great controller for it all was the BASIC Stamp, today it would be an Arduino, RasPi, or ESP8266 - or any number of other options that are all low cost.

Still - where Lego (and other building kits) shine is the modularity and standardness of the system. There have been attempts, some fairly successful, to do the same with more robust (mechanically and structurally) parts for kits (makerbeam, vex, actobotics), but they don't all have the traction the Lego enjoys from being a near first-mover, and not requiring tools to put together.

But if you don't mind tools - there are plenty of lower cost options out there (not saying this because people don't know it - plenty do).

I've got the opposite problem. I was so hesitant to pay money, that I failed to buy sets before they were dropped, and I really regret missing some of them. The Medieval Market Village and Bag-end, in particular.

That said, Lego Star Wars has been taking over our house, and we now need to buy a bigger house.

This is the artificial scarcity problem I mentioned ... there is no reason one cannot pay extra, heck 100% extra, and get any set from Lego's catalogue on demand.

Meccano seems like a better choice for learning about mechanisms. (Sorry in advance if you're about to drop a few grand on those...)

Fischertechnik is fantastic, but I guess mostly unknown in the US?

The tolerances are far worse than with Lego, but there are many more possibilities to build workng machines.

I'm just reading a book about technic history with Fischertechnik, where all kinds of differentials, steering mechanisms, planetariums (yes, with several planets, ecliptic, and so on) and even several types of mechanical clocks are built.

> Fischertechnik is fantastic, but I guess mostly unknown in the US?

Perhaps only by those "not in the know" so to speak. For the general consumer, yeah mostly.

But if you're into DIY robotics for any length of time (or perhaps other STEM pursuits), you likely know about it.

That said, Fischertechnik makes Lego look cost effective...

I had a Fischertechnik set growing up in Czechoslovakia in the 1970's.

Thanks .. had no idea. What is the name of the book if I may ask?

Bauen, erleben, begreifen: Technikgeschichte mit fischertechnik: 16 Meilensteine zum Nachbauen

Dirk Fox, Thomas Püttmann ISBN: 978-3864902963

> What is the worst thing of it all - artificial scarcity. I'd buy sets I didn't really care for because I was afraid they would go out of stock. This has happened to some of the popular sets where scalpers charge 10x. They even have web sites where people do this full time. Just say no.

Hell, they even do it at the Lego store. I was in Bellevue WA and they had about half a dozen of one of the Star Wars sets, and the guy there suggested I might want to buy several of them because they were about to stop production...

(Alas, though, my Lego fetish is Architecture, and some of the Creator stuff).

I'm going to have to call you out here.

Nothing is stopping you from reusing pieces, they're made to the same quality as always. Newer sets don't have as many "speciality" pieces as they did in the dark ages (2000-2005) and the instructions have NEVER had more than 1-2 models in them.

If you want mechanical stuff, buy the Technic range.

And there is no "artificial scarcity" - they just happen to release new products constantly, and they can't keep every single set in production; so sets are retired after 3-4 years.

Finally, scalpers aren't the only ones to buy from; I find below-RRP sets all the time on Craigslist & similar.

Check out the 8020 set. That is what I grew up with. Beautiful models (in my eye as a kid and as an adult), and an amazing number of them with the same set.

But I don't disagree with your points. I think if you lose control over any hobby, interest or indulgence, you end up in a bad place. I warned about lego because I didn't consider the dark side when I started :)

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