The Moment Makers

In LEGO Inspiration today, we will show you what we found interesting in LEGO Elves set number 41194 Noctura’s Tower & the Earth Fox Rescue.

This is one of the medium-sized LEGO Elves sets, but even though it’s “geared” (haha) more for girls it has a lot of important things to consider using in your FLL attachments or robot. We really like that sets like these help kids (that might not even be old enough yet for FLL) to consider different ways to have gears, chains, rotating beams, and other moving parts bring function to their play sets. Maybe these sets will get all kids, girls and boys, interested in robotics!

Giant Bat Wings Open and Close

The most awesome function of this set is that the giant bat wings flap (open and close), while raising and lowering the giant bat head too! You can do this by turning a knob gear.  When you turn the knob gear, the bright fluorescent yellow chain can wind up around the axle holding the knob gear. This pulls the chain tighter and makes the giant bat action happen!

Not turned…

Bat wings closed when chain is most relaxed…

Turned (can see the chain wrapped around the axle more and the brown stick in the knob gear in a new position)…

Bat wings halfway down, and head halfway raised when knob partway turned…

Bat wings fully opened and bat head fully up, when chain pulled tight…

As the chain tightens, it pulls down on the beam cross-block piece connected to the brown wooden stick. As this piece rotates downward with the chain, the 6-long red axle running straight across the back of the giant bat rotates, causing the angled beam that serves as the bat’s neck to raise.

You can see the 6-long red axle at the bottom of this picture, along with the angled beam that serves as the bat’s neck. As the angled beam rises, the giant bat’s head rises into position.

The angled beam also has two ball connectors that are attached to what we found are called “6-long black steering links.” These steering links allow the bat wings to be pulled on. When pulled, the wings hit a pentagon-shaped 2×3 flat tile. The angle of the tile helps force the wings into an upward position.

The best thing about the steering links with ball connectors is that the movement of the ball inside the connector allows you to pull things in various angles. You don’t just have to stay in a single plane of movement. We look forward to incorporating these in our Technic and EV3 models.

Use of Connector For Trap Door

This set uses a three-long friction connector to help make a trap door work. This connector allows for part of the second floor to detach, setting the green fox free from where it is chained there. It can also be used as a trap door if someone is standing on it.

Balcony connected and large turquoise toadstool with friction connector in regular state…

As you push on the turquoise toadstool, the balcony starts detaching…

Balcony completely detached (toadstool lever pushed it off its stud connection)…

The set has 2 bricks, one behind the other, with connector holes in them. Through those brick pieces, it has a 3-long dark gray friction connector (shown below). The connector has two thirds of it which can go through the holes with friction (to resist movement). The remaining third of the connector is an axle which connects to the black piece in the stalk of the turquoise toadstool lever. When you push the toadstool it acts as a lever to lift the loosely connected balcony, to release the fox.

These axle/connector pieces can be very useful for attaching different pieces. We love using these three-long connectors when we build with Technic and our EV3 robots. They are some of our favorite pieces. In this set, it is important that the builders chose a friction connector for this piece. Otherwise, the turquoise toadstool lever would just hang with gravity and not keep a position. The trap door would not work! Try using these friction connectors when friction will actually help your function!

Potion Mixing

Another neat feature in this set is inside the tower structure. A see-saw-like part allows you to mix purple and green potions by turning a gear to tilt the 2 potions that are connected.

Both Potions Being Poured…

Green Potion Being Poured….

Purple Potion Being Poured…..

This happens by using an axle connected to the gear. The axle goes through the hole in the 1×1 brick stand which holds the cauldron. The cauldron stays put, but see-saw-like potions assembly can rotate freely relative to the cauldron hole. Since the potion assembly and the gear are both firmly attached to the axle, when you move the gear, the potions move, too, allowing you to pretend to mix the potions.

Ball Connector

We talked about ball connectors above when we were discussing the giant bat head and wings movement. Ball connectors are also used for positioning of elements in this set. There is a LEGO crossbow to fire at things; it uses a ball connector to aim at many different directions!

Aimed straight forward…

Aimed diagonally at you (a little spooky, isn’t it?)…

Aimed straight down

There are many other ways to turn the crossbow on the ball connector, but we can only show a few. This ball connector basically is a 1-long axle with a ball on the end. LEGO has many different pieces that can be used to connect to the ball. It this case there is a special 2×1 plate with a connector for the ball on the end. This set also uses ball connector pieces for the joints on the green fox, as well as for the pieces we already mentioned for the giant bat on the tower itself.

Concluding thoughts

We had fun playing with these LEGO sets and sharing them with you, along with showing neat LEGO parts and features. We hope that you can use some of these ideas in your own building!