Reader Challenge: Build Something Useful With LEGO

The missive to pop mech us readers, via Instagram, was this: Make something with LEGO that will make your (or someone else’s) life easier, and show us the results.

- Andrew Daniels

We weren’t looking for the complexity or aesthetics you see in expert LEGO builds – even though those are awesome. We were looking for utility. Plastic bricks, Technic gears, and mini-figures from existing kits were allowed, but we asked that builders steer clear of any instruction manuals. The job was to engineer your own solution. As one builder put it, ‘I just see any box of LEGO as a box of parts.’ Another worked from the same philosophy: ‘I love the concept of hacking items to get more uses out of something you already own.’

Of all the projects tagged for the #PopMech ProChallenge, here are a few of our favourites, and the story from their creators.

AUTOMATIC TOILET PAPER DISPENSER

The Builder: Steve Guinness @thebrickconsultant

Guinness builds commissioned LEGO models for customers, and is the British LEGO Masters champ. ‘I dream in LEGO, wake up with new ideas, and head straight to my studio and get building,’ he says. But he saves his best ideas for family.

For this build, Guinness wanted to help his 11-year-old son Obby who had just broken his arm. When Guinness came across a LEGO Star Wars BOOST Droid Commander set, he found what he needed for an automatic toilet paper dispenser, including motors and motion sensors that you can control remotely with a programmable app. Once he designed the machine, the programming was easy: Instead of an on/off switch, he and his son set a distance for the motion sensor, so when they waved their hands in front of it, the motor automatically started up.