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I would love to see TLG develop a marble run/ball track theme. Marble run toys
are my favorites next to LEGO and it would be great if I could bring the two
together. Here are some of my thoughts:
1. LEGO parts can be used to build almost anything imaginable. If we want to
build ball tracks with LEGO it can certainly be done. For examples just look at
http://www.baylug.org/zonker/ZMarble.html or any of the Great Ball Contraptions
that people assemble at LEGO conventions. That being said, specialized parts
would be a huge advantage. Think of how difficult it would be to create LEGO
model railroad layouts without special track and wheel pieces.
2. I think that marble tracks and complex looking rube goldberg machines have
the same kind of universal appeal as LEGO bricks. When you present someone with
LEGO bricks they just naturally want to pick them up and play with them.
Similarly, when you put someone in front of a marble track, they almost cant
help but drop at least one or two marbles in to see what happens. This sense of
kinesthetic curiosity is what drives folks to drop coins into those parabolic
funnels where the coins go around and around.
3. We know that there is some market for this type of toy. Every time I go into
Toys R Us I am tempted to pick up one of the marble tracks that are produced by
other companies. K'Nex has a set called "Motorized Madness Ball Machine" that is
very impressive, Magnetix makes the iCoaster set, and there are various other
ball tracks that are not part of a formalized building system, like the Skyrail
sets. There is even a toy called "Block and Roll Marble Maze" that is compatible
with Duplo bricks. At the higher price end of the scale there are some excellent
wooden ball tracks. The best in the world IMHO are the Cuboro sets made of 5cm
cubes. The next best is the Klimba system which adds specially designed track so
that the marble plays a melody by striking xylophone pieces on the way down.
Other great lines are the Quadrilla ball runs and HABA marble tracks. For the
truly old school, look up the Spacewarp 5000. A quick Google search can turn up
info and pictures on any of these for those who are not familiar with them.
4. So, knowing there are all these other types of marble run toys out there, why
am I so interested in having LEGO come out with their own system?
Well, the first reason is that I think there is some room for creative
innovation in marble track building systems. Cuboro is brilliantly designed but
limited by the fact that all the pieces are made of kiln dried 5cm beechwood
cubes. There are no long bridge type structures or spirals or even large curves.
Klimba is very specifically musical in nature and doesn't lend itself to
flexibility. All of the wooden tracks are a great value IMHO, but they are very
expensive, even for small sets. The K'Nex and Magnetix sets are neat but limited
in the ways the track can fit together. I think TLG could design a few new
pieces that would leverage the existing building system to create something more
open to creativity than any of the other sets.
The second reason is I could leverage my existing collection of bricks to make
bigger and cooler runs. :)
5. A marble track theme could be explored across multiple age groups. There
could be simple Duplo sets with large marbles, System sets with smaller marbles
and more complex tracks, Technic sets with motorized elevators, conveyor belts,
NXT marble sorters, etc...
6. Some of the challenges: A LEGO marble run should be well made, tightly
integrated with the current building system, and highly flexible. It should
allow for reuse of the pieces (some marble runs have you cut the rails to fit a
certain track layout), and have special pieces to allow for the creation of
custom shaped track geometries. I'm imagining some kind of bracket that would
hold two rails for the marbles to run on, with the rails being made out of those
hard plastic tubes that came with some of the technic sets. I'm sure we can come
up with something excitingly awesome if we put our minds to it.
So what do you think LUGNET? Is there any interest out there for this kind of
thing from TLG, or am I all alone out here? Thanks for reading this far, and
happy building.
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In lugnet.dear-lego, Chris Marx wrote:
(Last things first here...)
> So what do you think LUGNET? Is there any interest out there for
> this kind of thing from TLG, or am I all alone out here?
Given the the rise of the GBCs has been one of the most amazing things I've seen
in the AFoL community, I'd say you're far from alone. I'd love to see TLG come
out with some LEGO-based marble runs (or rolling ball sculptures, or any of the
numerous other names). I'm not sure why they've not done it already. With the PF
motors, there's a system to power lifts. Just package it up. They even have a
ready-made design study in the numerous GBC modules that are out there.
> 1. LEGO parts can be used to build almost anything imaginable.
> If we want to build ball tracks with LEGO it can certainly be
> done... That being said, specialized parts would be a huge
> advantage.
Also a huge (cost) disadvantage. Remember LEGO has tried to reduce the parts
pallet, so anything that expands it needs to really prove its worth. And since
it's quite possible to build GBCs/RBSs out of the currently existing LEGO parts,
I'm not sure I see a strong reason for expanding. The most difficult part is
building a reliable lift, and even that can certainly be done without new molds.
> 3. We know that there is some market for this type of toy.
That actually what puzzles me - there seems to be a strong market for this sort
of set, and it's one exploited by many of LEGOs direct competitors. Do they just
not wish to compete there?
> ...have special pieces to allow for the creation of custom shaped
> track geometries. I'm imagining some kind of bracket that would
> hold two rails for the marbles to run on, with the rails being made
> out of those hard plastic tubes that came with some of the technic
> sets.
It might be tough to join those very thin tubes with supports in a strong enough
way. The larger diameter "ribbed" tubing works quite well in this regard, with
normal parts (cross-blocks and similar) making for adjustable spaced brackets.
Would I buy these sorts of sets? Probably in a heartbeat, and I'll bet we could
sell them out anywhere a group GBC is displayed. The single most common question
being "where can I buy this?". 'Course, we've seen how well this sort of
argument worked for 9V trains...
--
Brian Davis
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To all:
I made a Lego Marble Run - made entirely out of Legos (acutally my
children and I did). You can view the results here:
search Youtube for:
"Lego - Marble Run - 100% Lego - Final - Wistuk"
or try this link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mRTnFnTA0zQ
Nothing was cut, all peices can be reused and are available anywhere. The run is
highly flexible, easy to build and expand on.
I would be very happy to answer any questions you may have, as a ton of thought
has gone into this and I would love to share how it is done. It would have been
larger, but my wife started to complain.
Bart Wistuk
b5612@optonline.net
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In lugnet.dear-lego, Bart Wistuk wrote:
> To all:
> I made a Lego Marble Run - made entirely out of Legos (acutally my
> children and I did). You can view the results here:
Wow - that's amazing, congratulations! I (and I expect others) would be very
glad to see some close-up photos showing exactly how your construction works...
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In lugnet.dear-lego, Chris Marx wrote:
> I would love to see TLG develop a marble run/ball track theme. Marble run toys
> are my favorites next to LEGO and it would be great if I could bring the two
> together.
I agree, this is an excellent suggestion, and in fact it is a mystery to me that
they are not doing it already. A few carefully designed specialised parts would
almost certainly increase the mass appeal of such sets. While making tracks
with existing parts is of course possible, it can be quite tricky and time
consuming. It would be very natural to have something that could be snapped
together with less fuss...
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