Lego car -- on the cheap
[Adopts Yorkshire accent]In my day, we were that poor...

Anyway, my parents couldn't afford to buy me the Technical Lego that I lusted after -- cogs and axles that you could fit together to make awesome machines that actually did things. But then along came Weetabix, with a special offer: collect some tokens and get a free (very small) box of the stuff. I ate Weetabix for breakfast every day anyway, so it was win-win!

I duly stuffed myself with wheaty goodness at every opportunity and in due course, collected enough tokens for not just one but three whole sets of the stuff -- each set comprising one teeny gear, one medium-size and one large, plus a few axles and the special bricks with the holes in and so on.

I had my heart set on building a working car (with gears, of course), and duly scavenged as many compatible bits as I could. After many hours of toil, I had something that yes, looked a bit like a car (if you stood a long way away and squinted) but more importantly it had a working three-ratio gearbox.

I was so proud, but it wasn't enough. What it really needed was a motor!

Obviously there was no way I was going to be able to buy one of the official Lego motor sets, but I had made up my mind and I was not be defeated. It wasn't long before I had the answer.

What everyday (1980s) household item has a small, battery-driven motor? Why, of course -- a tape machine! I don't own one of those. But my sister does! And she's out of the house!

No sooner thought than stolen, I had at it with a screwdriver and in no time at all I had extracted the motor and -- bonus -- the little rubber band to link it to the gearset. A stack of batteries, a bit of wiring and lots of sticky tape and voila, one self-powered three-gear Lego vehicle.

Sadly, the motor was pretty puny, and while the car did move at low ratio, at higher gearings it barely crawled along.

I needed more power.

Lacking a beefier motor, I hit on the solution -- sod the batteries, I can connect it direct to the mains. I mean, the tape deck had a mains connector, what could possibly go wrong? I'll just connect these two wires to this cable here...

My mum came running when she heard the BANG and found me sat there, shaking slightly and clutching a very much burned-out motor, my face and hands covered in cartoon-style comedy soot.

My sister was incandescent at first, but of course when she realised that it meant she'd get a new tape machine she cheered up.

Me? I never did get any proper Technical Lego sets, and I soon got bored of trying to invent new ways to combine the same pathetically limited set of gears.

Now that's a deprived childhood.
( reallywittyname veraciously conspues lexiphanicism on, Thu 24 Oct 2013, 17:56, 12 replies)

technic

(dozers, do fuck off ur a nob m8, Thu 24 Oct 2013, 18:11, closed)

I did similar.
My brother and I had an intercon thingy that was like two walkie-talkies connected by bell wire. I decided that replacing the 9V batteries was expensive for my poor mother and annoying to us. So, I snipped the battery clip off the cables and pushed them straight into the holes in a figure-of-eight plug for a tape recorder.
Luckily there was just a loud flash and a bang that left me feeling like the terrorists in the Iranian Embasy must have felt like shortly before their demise. I don't know whether my mother believed me when I tild her I'd broken the walkie-talkies trying to work out how they functioned but she didn't tell me off for it anyhow.
I didn't manage to set fire to the length of hose pipe we used instead, thankfully.
(Me, I'm not... in any way intoxicated, Thu 24 Oct 2013, 18:13, closed)

me too
b3ta.com/questions/bodger/post1116724
( real i'm not happy 'til you're not happy, Thu 24 Oct 2013, 22:34, closed)

I managed to get a shock across the heart
- one hand on live, the other on neutral.

I don't recommend it. Quite an effective way to learn to fly, though, as all the muscles in your body spasm and catapult you across the room!
(moon monkey is busy making memories worth repressing, Fri 25 Oct 2013, 9:49, closed)

In my defence:
I was only around 8 at the time and they didn't teach about transformers until secondary school a couple of years later.
(Me, I'm not... in any way intoxicated, Fri 25 Oct 2013, 12:33, closed)

Tl;dr

( MEATSNAKE Richard Hammond, Thu 24 Oct 2013, 18:42, closed)

Thank you for registering yourself as an illiterate moron.
Our service may be along soon to convert the troublesome passage to grunts but, in the mean time, we apologise for being able to read.
(Me, I'm not... in any way intoxicated, Thu 24 Oct 2013, 18:55, closed)

#translation follows
wen i woz akid i ad legos
Da technical legos was to ecspensic so i ad to get em free from weetabix lol
I made like a wel gud car innit but i ad no motor lol
I niked me litle sis motor from tape dat is like old mp3 player ya get me?
Trie 2 make da motor go from da plug
It was well bad innit like flash and shit fuk!!!??!!!RRR111
(Me, I'm not... in any way intoxicated, Fri 25 Oct 2013, 12:40, closed)

Edgy.
( The Mock TurtIe ™ --- Thinks you are a cunt, on, Sat 26 Oct 2013, 15:11, closed)

prick

(immadme, Sun 27 Oct 2013, 16:28, closed)

Such astounding wit.
( The Mock TurtIe ™ --- Thinks you are a cunt, on, Sun 27 Oct 2013, 20:55, closed)

Edgy
(immadme, Mon 28 Oct 2013, 9:49, closed)