Snow

There is up to two feet of the white stuff in places round where I live just now. It is pretty to look at, but when it brings Britain to it's knees then that is no fun indeed. Still, I think there is some beauty in it too ;)

New York Background

I've been working on a street scene picture for the last fortnight. I'm still finalising the activities and the characters in the foreground, but the background alone still looks up to it alone - it is basically supposed to be a generic street in Manhatten Island, NY, set during the autumn of 1998. But I did this one in black and white for the effect!

Robot Wars Prototype

In a nostalgic mood I decided to get out my lego and build a couple of battle robots - like the ones on Robot Wars, one of my favourite shows when I was younger. My uncle in North Carolina and my cousins there were and still are mad about robot combat - they have their own workshop and still compete in live events. Lucky them =P

Me? I didn't have that luxury (plus it was dangerous) but I always enjoyed the various designs that came about and do remember building lego (and later cardboard) variations of them in various sizes during that time; most of the time I did it alone by myself but in Primary 7 (a LONG time ago) I did sometimes spar with some other boys in my class, unfortunately the ones I competed against the most spent more time cheating than fighting fair - boo!

That said, it sort of made me evolve my designs into something that did beat them, convincingly - and the result was a lot of sour grapes from the opposition! This build below is a replica of my then most effective design - 'Scavenger' - and it's weapons were two lifting spikes that made a mockery of the oppositions' high ground clearance. It did not lose a single 'battle'.

Today, eleven years on if I were to compete in the real events today, what sort of robot would I have built? My uncle previously favoured full body spinners but I always found them a bit samey. On the other hand, below is a prototype is probably what I would go for; I call it 'Undercutter'. It is basically built to my favourite specs - low, flat, sturdy and with plenty of power behind it (it is six wheel drive!).

 

Undercutter is armed with a lifting arm that can ram and flip over it's opponents. The only drawback I think with this design is that it can't self right if it gets tipped over, so maybe if I want to seriously get into real lightweight Robot Combat events (not very likely!) then I would probably have to make some modifications - if the weight limit would allow it!

 Call me sad if you will, but James May plays with Lego occasionally so what the hell =P