Tech – Page 37 – Robot Claw

Backhoe Loader

July 14, 2012

Time for yet another Lego kit! This one was a birthday gift, and I built it over several days this past week.

Here’s the content of the box:

You can tell how big the finished product is from the size of the tire.

The kit contains numerous intricate gear systems connected to several different moving parts. Of particular note are the actuators used to raise and lower both digging arms:

It’s a complex build that took many hours over three days. It was particularly interesting seeing all the gears and systems piecing together in seemingly random order:

Luckily I had assistance for most of the build…

Here’s the finished product:

Everything about this set was fun. If you like Lego technic at all, this set is highly recommended.

Samurai Scorpion

July 4, 2012

Remember Mega Mantis? Well he now has a friend:

Once again, this kit was a gift from my brother. I have the same high praise for the design, the instructions and the quality of the pieces. Even better: this guy was easier to assemble than the mantis!

While there were many pieces, some of which required bending, everything went together with ease.

Doesn’t he look like a water scorpion without his tail?

He took me about an hour to assemble, using just the tool in the box and (once only) a pair of tweezers. Here he is complete:

And here’s the fated battle that everyone knew would happen one day…

Magical Device

June 20, 2012

Well now this is interesting. The latest iteration of Wizards annual Magic The Gathering (computer games) Duel Of The Planeswalkers was recently released and in addition to the old formats (PC, PS3, XBOX) it also came out for the iPad. I’d bought and enjoyed the previous versions on the PS3, but couldn’t resist going for the iPad version this time around. And, after playing for a couple of hours, I’m glad I did!

The game follows the same format as previous iterations: you use premade decks to defeat a variety of opponents in various game modes (including, new to this version, Planechase). As you win you unlock additional cards you can add to the various decks, so some deck building is included. There are a lot of decks and opponents, and it would take a very long time to unlock all the available cards.

Gameplay is intuitive, smooth and faster than it used to be on the PS3. This is a significant upside, since it was the one issue that used to bug me. Importantly, the ability to control the game using touch and swipes is natural and makes me feel more like I’m actually playing with the cards. In other words this is the best version of Duel of the Planeswalkers yet, but playing it on an iPad makes the experience even better.

The graphics are very, very nice! The screenshots in this blog have been scaled down from the actual resolution, but everything is in high resolution with nifty effects and great looking art. The game includes cards from all legal sets up to 2013, which means you’ll be using cards that haven’t been released yet (like the guy in the shot above).

Buying the game – which costs US$9.99 – also gives you a code that can be redeemed at a game store for a promotional booster pack that apparently contains a mythic rare. This is nice 🙂

Suffice to say I’m very pleased with the game so far. $10 may seem like a lot to pay for an iPad game, but for me this is a no brainer if you like magic. If you’re not sure, the download is actually free and you can demo the game before having to shell out for the full unlock.