I've had this wind-up mechanical spider for so long that I no longer
remembered what it was called. I've always been fascinated with how it
moved and wanted to recreate it with LEGO.
It's been a fun project, and many challenges were overcome in order
to achieve the final result. The leg support geometry went through
numerous iterations, as did the gear train that drives the legs.
After I completed the LEGO version I did some searching to determine
what the original, made by in Japan by TOMY, was called. I quickly
found out it is a Spider Zoid, made back in the early 1980's.
The finished LEGO version reminds me of the Star Wars AT-AT
walkers, perhaps the Spider Zoid was their fore-runner.
So now I present for your inspection an 8 legged motorized LEGO
Spider Zoid! Be sure to check out the MPEG near the end showing it
walking.
(...) Now if it could only turn corners.... BTW, those Brickshelf URLs (with ?i=xxx) are not available until after moderation either - you need to link one level deeper, like you did with the MPG URL. Regards ROSCO (21 years ago, 16-Jun-03, to lugnet.technic, lugnet.build, lugnet.starwars)
