everybody's gone from tested I'm here at Brix by the bay 2019 and here with
Laurie who's one of the people who's brought a what do you call this a module
it's a collection of modules so this is LEGO Group or contraption there is
around 46 modules on the table and they can range in size it really depends on
the individual builder so for example we've got this mini coal behind us
that's actually a collection of nine individual modules yeah so for a great
ball contraption standard about ten years ago a couple of people actually a
chap named Steve Hansen Blake wrote up a series of rules that we are that defined
the size of the input size the rate of the ball flow and a couple other
parameters and with those sort of six rules it basically allows us to build
everything on the table behind us even with us exposed the options are
limitless it feels like especially with Lego yeah it really is a question of
imagination like it obviously helps if you have a little bit of technical
knowledge because usually you're using a motor or you're using some gears for
mechanical motion but beyond that like if you can imagine it and you can
imagine it in the Lego space then you can you can build it into GBC it's a
Rube Goldberg machine that every single different convention you go to it's
gonna be a different arrangement yeah absolutely like it's like some of the
like some of the machines obviously go around or fewer conventions like some of
us do go to a few different areas but yeah every convention there's going to
be different creations depending on the group of people you might get a lot of
themed modules like Minecraft theme or things like that this one's kind of more
technical focus there's a lot of nice Technic bills and stuff like that with a
little bit of theming it really do varies from convention to convention and
with a technical focus it really feels like there's gonna be trouble shooting
non-stop or people running around looking at their modules and tweaking
and tune what you'll see to the left of us these people fixing something so GBC
is how you know it's it's hard work but it's fun like
it's we when we run this during the public we will we will be at this
station for the whole time fixing tuning keeping balls moving picking up also the
fall now you said yeah this mini-golf one which
is so striking it says it's your modules right here's your year or nine
yeah the mini-golf is actually something I built originally I was just going to
build the one and my wife said that to be boring so I ended up building a full
nine hole mini golf course but each one is still counted as a individual module
it meets the rules so when I bring it it still counts as nine modules towards the
count on the day and because it is mini golf and you have the little the putters
moving it's every every hit is different right like yeah yeah I'm sorry it's one
of the challenges of great ball is like you do need to keep moving the balls on
so even with every random hit it still needs to make it to the next hole so
like there's a couple of modules that like like there's a there's a pyramid
one here where the ball can travel down the center path or it can fall in a
couple of like water gutters but it always has to go to the next hole to
keep the flow balls moving you never want to build up yeah that's yeah once
you get to build up the balls and it has a sort of a snowball effect on the end
of the loop in terms of it the design of it being a loop there's a shape of the
loop does that change from event to event or is it it can so this really is
actually a figure eight just because of the weight end up getting stuck
typically it's running in ER and in any anti-clockwise direction so it'll but
sometimes like if you know if you if you've only got a few modules you might
just run a line of modules on a table you might run around a corner once you
get a bit bigger than you'll be running full sort of rectangular or circular
loops yeah it's a very evocative of like miniature
train sets of people building modules for that and connecting them and doing
meetups but it's so much kinetic movement and and the diversity and
builds and that the colors it's truly wonderful yeah that's that's one of the
things I really like about like tripod contraption is its kinetic so of the
40-yard step modules that are on the table
only to use programmable bricks everything else on this table is
mechanical motion and and all the different varieties you can do with that
so there's some really clever stuff on the table
awesome awesome are there modules here you've never seen before that for the
first time you're meeting up with these teams and you're seeing how those work
yeah quite a few actually because I'm sort of based on the East Coast so I
have chatted with a few of these people online but a lot I haven't seen in
person so there's some really cool stuff like the Train designs are really unique
and new there's a really cool counter on the table and there's some other clipper
mechanisms I've kind of sitting around that it's like it's really it's fun to
watch them online but it's even better to kind of see them in person and see
some of the interest sees in the mechanism and and the clever tips and
tricks are done in that kinda stuff any recommendations real or just getting
started want to participate yeah look I would say start with a simple set of
instructions there are a handful of great book contractors you can build
from your listing Lego kits they're not always meeting standard rows reliable
but there are quite a few instructions on lines for simple to build kits like
less than 200 parts one of the simplest is like a chain with mechanism and if
you're like if you're in the Lego and you're up to the Technic building ages
sort of around eleven twelve although I do have kids that are already building
at eight then they can get straight into juvie so my kids you know if you can
build a build a car that has some gears in it out of Lego kit then you can build
a Lego GBC kit it's great still come together it's pleasure to meet you Larry
thank you so much thank you you