Adulting the fun way. With Lego!
You LEGO, I LEGO, we all have LEGO’d right? But have you ever extreme LEGO’d, yo? Hardore LEGO’d? Adult LEGO’d? If you haven’t and you wish to step up your game let this be an entry into the world of Adult LEGO…ing.
Adult LEGOing is separated into six “zones”: Entertainment, Art/Design & Music, Travel & History, Star Wars™, Science & Tech, and the one I dabbled in, Vehicles. Specifically the Ford Mustang Shelby GT 500 of the LEGO Technic series. What’s the Technic series you may be wondering? The Technic series are LEGO kits ranging in prices from $9.99 to $449.99 which model real life vehicles. Featuring functioning gearboxes, wheels, and axles that kids (and adults) can assemble with an augmented reality (AR) feature designed to help enhance the fun. The whole experience helps grow an understanding of the intricate details that make the vehicles work. And when LEGO says intricate, you better believe they mean INTRICATE.
The difference between the Technic sets and the other LEGO sets I’ve dabbled with is the complexity. I’ve built LEGO buildings with my children, but we’re not placing individual shingles on a roof or creating a LEGO approximation of architecture to support the display. The assembly is simple while giving the illusion of complexity, whereas the Technic sets are complex, intricate and, not surprising given its namesake, technical.
544 pieces, assembled by 166 steps guided by a one hundred and seven page manual is what greets you when the packaging is opened. It is a lot, and although it seems like you need an engineering degree from Berkeley, Caltech or Stanford, but it actually just requires concentration and attention to detail more than any kind of advanced smarts. Every LEGO piece is split into four bags; two large bags housing the larger pieces and two smaller bags housing the connector pieces. The large and small bags housing pieces that will make up the chassis, the inside of the car, is numbered “1”. The large and small bags that house pieces for the body, the outside of the car, is numbered “2”. Obviously, you start with bag(s) number one.
This particular Technic set sports a "pull back feature" to generate kinetic energy to move the car. The gearboxes are the key to make the pull back feature possible. Starting with the two gearboxes, you'll connect an axle through both of them and squeeze them side by side to create one large gearbox, and from that you connect more axles to make half a frame for the car. When that’s completed, you set it aside and start constructing the other half of the frame. As soon as that's done, you connect the two frames, thus creating the base of the chassis for the car. That’s basically an introduction to the cadence of constructing this model; creating simple machines and simple structures and combining them to make a more complex machine or structure. Once the chassis is completed, you dig into bag(s) number 2 and repeat the cadence again; constructing and connecting the body around what you’ve already built, adding accent stickers on the outside to make the car to hew closer to how the real life vehicle looks.
Assembling the LEGO set was more intuitive than I expected. In every page of the LEGO manual here’s a display for which part you need and the number of them you require, drafted in the direction that you need to assemble the pieces. There are no words offering any explanation, only pictures. And when you need an axle or a studless beam (of which there are multiple shapes and sizes per set) there are to scale handy displays that you can use to find the right piece for the job. One of my only complaints was that there were multiple pieces of similar size, shape and color and I would have to interrupt my flow to discern whether or not I need this grey circular LEGO thingy, or this other, slightly darker grey circular LEGO thingy… or does it even matter. They’re the same, right? Right?!
The other complaint, or more of an observation, is that the Technic series seems like it is very unforgiving. Full disclosure: I did misplace a piece or two (as one does), and I was concerned that I, for a lack of better term, had “boned” myself. Those missing basic, black connector pieces were going to hamper my progress and I was going to have to upturn my entire apartment for those pieces, or more than likely order more of those pieces from LEGO. Turns out it didn’t really matter. I had enough spares to offset my clumsiness. Not a lot mind you, I had three or four black connector pieces left over, but it was enough cushion (also note that LEGO will send most pieces to you, free of charge, as replacements if you report them missing).
After ten hours stretched over six days of construction I finally finished. I felt an immense sense of accomplishment, and when I tried to roll my newly constructed car on the floor I felt a deep sense of disappointment: it wouldn't move. The wheels couldn’t roll, and if they couldn't roll I couldn’t use the AR feature because the car had to be in motion in order for it to work. In order to fix whatever was affecting the wheels, whether it was a problem with the axle or gearbox, would require me to remove most of what I had constructed because it was so sturdily placed together and I just didn’t have the wherewithal to repeat that process again. So, instead of a “Display and Play” LEGO Technic Set, I just have a “Display” LEGO Technic set, which is fine. I’m good with it, but again, very unforgiving.
If you are the type of person to find relaxation in completing puzzles or crafts, or if you consider yourself a handy-person, the LEGO Technic series might be up your alley. On the LEGO website, they offer the practice of LEGO construction as an exercise in mindfulness and after engaging in this experience I tend to agree. The Technic series is LEGO for the hobbyist, akin to building a ship in a bottle or a model plane or having a 100% completion rate in Elden Ring. When you’re in the zone constructing this three dimensional puzzle, even frantically searching for a piece you just spied five minutes ago, there is a zen to cataloging your progression. And when you complete construction of your vehicle of choice, regardless of whether it moves or not, the pride you feel of completing your task will move you. Or at least, I hope it will.