holiday

Chocolate Pooping Bunny

Jason

With Easter coming up, I finally decided to revisit one of Kristal’s ideas from 6 years ago, which was a bunny rabbit that would poop chocolate eggs. I know, right? It’s a super fun idea. This time, I decided to take a completely mechanical approach (the original was designed around the LEGO BOOST robotics kit), and with the LEGO White Rabbit set (31133) being currently available, I decided to use that model as a starting point.

It has a capacity of three chocolates, and dispenses (poops) one out every time you press down on the head. You can see it in action in the video below, and continue reading to find all the information needed to build your own.

https://youtu.be/Ah_ZM8Rp4GM

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Love Story Pop-Up Book Instructions

Jason

A few years ago, I designed this love themed pop-up book for Kristal as a Valentine’s gift.

At the time, I only released building instructions for the pop-up ‘I heart U’ message and ring box, as it could be fit in the original LEGO Pop-Up Book set (21315).

Since then, there has been a pretty steady interest in building instructions for the full model, and I think I’ve actually been getting more requests as time goes on. I finally took some time to put full instructions together, which you can find below, along with a short video demonstration of the model.

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Twinkling Star

Jason

For this year’s Build To Give campaign, LEGO has challenged people to build stars for the holiday season. For every star built and shared with the #buildtogive hashtag, they will donate a toy to a child in need.

I decided to use a few of the relative newly released metallic gold pieces to design an elegant six pointed star to sit atop our tree. Continue reading for instructions on building your own, and a video showing how I motorized it to turn it into a twinkling star.

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40499 Galloping Reindeer Modification

Jason

With the release of set 40499 Santa’s Sleigh, I was excited to try to make the reindeer gallop, like I did many years ago for the reindeer from the Santa’s Workshop set. I gave it a modular design this time, so that it can be configured with the 4 reindeer that come in the set, or extended to 8, 9, or any other number of reindeer.

You can see it in action with 4 and 9 reindeer in the video below, and continue reading for more information and building instructions. I also made a build video showing how it is assembled, which can be found at the end of the post.

https://youtu.be/145BWcp5xiM
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Little Drummer Boy

Jason

For the last few years, as the holidays approached and I was thinking of models to build, a small kinetic model of the little drummer boy was an idea that I always considered. It wasn’t until this year, though, that I finally set out to bring the idea to life.

You can see it in action, along with a detailed explanation of how it works, in the video. Building instructions and more info can be found below.

https://youtu.be/NWFhNyvAZkI

The model features the little drummer boy performing a basic drum beat on his drum, with a cute lamb and ox beside him, bobbing their heads to keep time with the beat.

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Pursuit of Christmas Instructions

Jason

With the holidays on the horizon, I finally put aside some time to create instructions for my Pursuit of Christmas model.

The reindeer and sleigh sway from side to side as you rotate the crank on the back. You can find more information about the model, along with a video showing it in action, in the original blog post. Continue reading for additional build notes and information on motorizing the model.

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Nativity Pop-Up Book Instructions

Jason

Last year for the holidays, I designed a Nativity Scene insert for the LEGO Pop-Up Book. I received quite a few requests for building instructions and, just in time for this year’s season, I’ve finally finished them.

The instructions show you how to build all of the individual components, and inserting them into the pop-up book should be fairly straight forward. In case anything isn’t clear, I have also put together a video showing how they all fit inside.

https://youtu.be/OiCk6mk8qt0
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Mini Chocolate Vending Machine

Jason

This year for Halloween, I thought I would give the kids that come to our door an opportunity to choose their own variety of chocolate treats. I dusted off my LEGO Mindstorms EV3 and built this vending-style machine, which dispenses a mini chocolate when the corresponding button is pressed at the front.

https://youtu.be/bFGsgjLQXA8
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Valentine Pop-Up Book

Jason

January 2022 Update – Building instructions for the full book are now available here: Love Story Pop-Up Book Instructions.

For Valentine’s Day this year, I decided to build Kristal something special based on the LEGO Pop-Up Book set. Thankfully, the cameras were rolling to capture the magic.

https://youtu.be/bpbAgpiW068

I put together instructions for building the ‘I Heart U’ message and ring box insert, which you can find below. They can easily be inserted into the official LEGO Pop-Up Book set.

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Smooth Motion Dragon Dance Modification

Jason

When I first glimpsed images of LEGO set 80102 Dragon Dance, I was very excited to see the details of the mechanism and how the dragon moved. Sadly, this set, along with a couple of other Chinese New Year themed sets, are only available in the Asia-Pacific region.

I would not be deterred! As soon as I noticed the building instructions had been posted on LEGO’s website, I downloaded them and built my own copy, substituting parts where necessary. Thankfully, the stand and mechanism inside are built using basic bricks and Technic pieces, so I was able to reproduce them exactly.

https://youtu.be/1VbwBFSZ9CU

I turned the crank for the first time… and I was a little underwhelmed with the results. The motion of the dragon was… clunky. It’s not really bad, it’s just not at all what I had envisioned in my head. I immediately went about to rectify the situation, and eventually came up with a solution that satisfied my itch to have a smoothly flowing dragon.

The video above details the changes I made, and gives some pointers on hiring the best dance troupe. If you are lucky enough to have acquired this set, and would like to make the same changes, step by step building instructions are below, along with some notes on the build.

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