GBC book available now
Posted by Huw,
LEGO Great Ball Contraptions are hugely popular, both at exhibitions and on YouTube, where videos are viewed millions of times.
It's surprising, then, that until now there hasn't been a book published on the subject that explains the standard and provides ideas and inspiration for building your own modules.
Author Christoph Ruge, who I had the pleasure of collaborating with on the GBC at Skaerbaek this year, does this and much more in his newly-published book Das LEGO-Kugelbahn-Handbuch: Ideen und Techniken für eigene GBC-Module, which translates to The LEGO Marble Run Manual: Ideas and Techniques for Creating Your Own GBC Modules.
If you can read German you can buy it at Amazon.de for €30 and Amazon.co.uk for £26, but if you can't, and you'd like to see an English translation, I encourage you to do what I've just done: email No Starch Press, who have a relationship with the German publisher, and request that they consider translating it for a wider audience. The more that do so, the more likely it'll happen!
You can view a few page spreads after the break.
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15 comments on this article
I sent an email requesting an English version. Let's see what happens!
My wife/in laws are all German. I might be able to get away with them translating for me!
Why only in german ? ??
@Laurent9204 said:
"Why only in german ? ??"
Because the Author and publisher are German!
I'll certainly send an e-mail.
It would be good to see this in English.
I enjoyed German at school and thought I was doing pretty well.... but then got 'unclassified' for my German O-Level, so apparently not!
It's a bit cumbersome but Google Translate using your cell phone camera does a pretty good job of it.
Email sent, this looks like an amazing book to keep lying around and read every now and again!
@Ridgeheart said:
"Ich denke dass mir dieses Buch wirklich gefallen wird. Ich bin sehr froh, dass es tatsächlich eine Anleitung für diejenigen gibt, die es selbst wagen würden.
Ich finde GBCs unglaublich entspannend. Es ist wie Zen-Gartenarbeit, nur ohne Katzenkot und Zigarettenkippen.
Hoffentlich."
I would have used mesmerizing but Zen works as well!
I was expecting more people interested on the subject.
I have the book at home and I must say the author did a great job. Yes, there are about 10 pages about my modules, so I might be a little bit subjective, but it's still a really good book. It was missing on the market and I will vote for an English version too (even though my German is not bad).
Kugelbahn just leapt up the rankings of coolest word in German, just behind Knoblauch and ahead of Handy!
Unglaublich that there has been no book on this topic until now. I expect inspirational engineering can be found inside. Thanks for sharing.
Thanks for posting this. I have sent an email
If people want an English version, maybe we could convince Steve Hassenplug to write a GBC book.
@jsutton said:
"Kugelbahn just leapt up the rankings of coolest word in German, just behind Knoblauch and ahead of Handy!
Unglaublich that there has been no book on this topic until now. I expect inspirational engineering can be found inside. Thanks for sharing."
Agreed! I think it would help grow interest in these builds if AFOLs starting referring them as Lego Kugelbahns instead of GBCs. Acronyms can be very intimidating to newcomers. :)
@Ridgeheart said:
"Ich denke dass mir dieses Buch wirklich gefallen wird. Ich bin sehr froh, dass es tatsächlich eine Anleitung für diejenigen gibt, die es selbst wagen würden.
Ich finde GBCs unglaublich entspannend. Es ist wie Zen-Gartenarbeit, nur ohne Katzenkot und Zigarettenkippen.
Hoffentlich."
Stop talking gibberish!
;-)
@Ridgeheart said:
" @AustinPowers said:
" @Ridgeheart said:
"Ich denke dass mir dieses Buch wirklich gefallen wird. Ich bin sehr froh, dass es tatsächlich eine Anleitung für diejenigen gibt, die es selbst wagen würden.
Ich finde GBCs unglaublich entspannend. Es ist wie Zen-Gartenarbeit, nur ohne Katzenkot und Zigarettenkippen.
Hoffentlich."
Stop talking gibberish!
;-) "
FRECHHEIT!"
Gesundheit!