Hey everyone, Jason here.
There is only one week left until the official release of my LEGO Ideas Maze set, and today
I thought I would show you some of the differences between the official set and this model, which
is the one I originally posted to Ideas all the way back in April of 2012.
The official set was designed by Steen Sig Andersen, who has designed many of the Ideas
sets, and I was really impressed with how faithful he stayed to my original design,
especially with respect to the overall look of the model, how the tilting frames work,
and the control system, which is pretty much identical.
I am just going to focus on some of the bigger changes that were made in this video. There
are a lot of subtle differences between the two models, but most of them actually aren't
very interesting.
But, enough of the preamble. First up, and probably one of the most obvious differences
is how the locking mechanism and ball container work.
In my original model, the locking mechanism is implemented using this piece here, which
slides into this corner and constrains the tilting frames in this gap here.
The ball container sits in this corner, and has a nice little click hinge on the front.
It can slide in and out on some door rails, and has a nice little hinged lid to open and
close it.
In the official set, the ball container does double duty with this block in the opposite
corner, to lock the tilting frames, by essentially filling up the space between the frames and
the base of the model. I actually really like this solution, it's quite elegant and simple,
and I was actually really impressed when I first saw it.
The ball container itself is a lot simpler than in my original model, but it can still
store balls, which is all it really needs to do.
Next up we'll take a look at the frame itself. Most of the changes here were made to add
some much needed reinforcement to some of the weak spots in my original model.
For example, where the control system is anchored here, which is a pretty high stress point,
I only have these pieces connected using regular stud clutch power, which tends to work loose
over time, especially with aggressive play, and eventually it just kind of falls apart,
which is obviously not awesome.
Similarly, where this control rod connects to the outer frame, again it's a high stress
point and all that's holding this section together is the clutch power of studs. And
again, over time, it has a tendency to work loose and fall apart.
In the official set, Steen has addressed both of these weak points very nicely.
These pieces of the control system are further connected using these short Technic beams
that anchor them securely to these Technic bricks that are built into the base, which
means they are not going anywhere.
And where the control rod connects to the outer frame, we have these brackets and tiles
holding them together, which means this is not coming apart. These are both some really
great changes to strengthen up the model.
On the outside of the frame he also added some reinforcement beams at various points
to keep everything together, which is quite nice.
One other notable change to the frame is that in the official set, the tilt frames are actually
one brick lower than I had them in my original model, and this is one of the changes that
contributes to the uneven tilt range in the official set.
Now, like I said in the previous video, this isn't really a big deal, since you are only
making small adjustments to control the ball while you are playing, but it was something
I paid attention to in my original model, to have an equal tilt range in every direction,
and like I said before, I will be posting a tutorial next week on modifying the official
set if that's something you feel is important to you.
Next up, we'll take a look at the mazes themselves.
There are a couple of changes to how they are built. In my original standard maze, I'm
actually using these Technic beams on the their sides for walls, which I just wanted
to try for something different. I completely understand why they went with standard brick
built walls. It just makes it a lot easier for sharing parts between mazes, and using
standard building techniques also makes it a lot easier for you guys to incorporate your
own pieces when you're designing your own custom mazes.
The other change that you can see, is that my original mazes are actually one plate thicker
than the ones in the official set, and that's because I designed slightly deeper holes for
the balls to fall into.
It might be kind of hard to tell in the video.
Again, I'm not surprised they simplified the construction in this way. It really reduces
the part count for each maze and also makes the mazes of the official set a lot lighter
than my original ones. Which is actually a big advantage in that it makes the control
system a lot more responsive.
When I go back to playing on my original model it actually feels a bit sluggish in comparison
now.
One disadvantage of the shallow holes though, is that in some situations, especially where
you have a long lead up to a hole, you can get the ball rolling fast enough to just roll
right through it.
I think that's really all I wanted to mention. Like I said at the beginning there are a lot
of other small differences between these two models, but I really didn't want to make a
half-hour long video.
And, again, I'm really pleased with how the official set turned out. I think Steen did
a great job of turning my original concept into an official LEGO product.
As always, thanks for watching, keep on building, and I will see you next week.