Sunday 9 October 2011

Self-Made Lego Sliding Puzzle

A while back, I chanced upon several YouTube video clips which showed sliding puzzles made out of Lego bricks. One video in particular, by someone named "Mahj" gave pretty good instructions with Flickr photos of how to go about building one. This caught my interest and I thought a Lego puzzle was something interesting (and relatively easy) for me to build on my own.

After some research on the internet, I discovered Bricklink was THE place for getting Lego bricks, whatever the quantity, colour, type or size. Bricklink is a site which consists of an aggregation of over 5,400 Lego brick sellers from all over the world, somewhat similar to Ebay stores. If you can't find what you want on Bricklink, it probably doesn't exist! The seller from which I got all my little bricks and parts from is aptly known as Missing Bricks based in the USA. I selected the required number and type of bricks needed and duly placed my online order. Some of the colours were not available so I had to make do with what I could get. My package of Lego bricks promptly arrived at my home about a week and a half later.

Using Mahj's photos as a step by step guide, I actually managed to constructed a pretty nice looking puzzle for myself (if I may say so). Instead of numbers in the traditional 15 Puzzle, I decided to use alphabets and created a sentence on the sliding tiles. Below is my own homemade Lego sliding puzzle from start to finish.

Photo 1: All the bricks laid out and ready for assembly
Photo 2: Building the base
Photo 3: Adding the structure for the sliding tiles
Photo 4: Completing the structure for the sliding tiles
Photo 5: Adding the smooth surfaced red sliding tiles
Photo 6: Completion of the red sliding tiles leaving one
tile empty. Making sure all the tiles slide smoothly
Photo 7: Alphabet stickers; effective and inexpensive
For those with large hands, use a pair of tweezers
Photo 8: Pasting the alphabets on the red tiles and
putting everything together 
Photo 9: Completed Lego Sliding Puzzle 

6 comments:

  1. Hey Jerry - that looks really good! Those bricks are amazing...it never ceases to amaze me what people manage to do with them... allard

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  2. Hi Allard,

    Thanks! Yes, Lego has really come a long way since I was a kid...now you can build practically anything with it...check out the videos on YouTube for other really incredible Lego creations...

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  3. I don't really ever use legos but wanted to make some of these for my nieces and nephews for christmas. Could you by any chance provide a "shopping list". I'd have no idea how to search for the pieces I would need. I don't know what they are called...

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    1. Dear Suzanne,

      Here is my order for the different pieces. This is the best list I have which came from the invoice. I ordered the parts online from site called www.bricklink.com
      Items in Order:
      --------------------------------------
      [New] Black Tile 1 x 4 (x2) ..... US $0.15 each = US $0.30
      [New] Black Tile 1 x 6 (x4) ..... US $0.15 each = US $0.60
      [New] Black Tile 1 x 8 (x4) ..... US $0.18 each = US $0.72
      [New] Blue Tile 2 x 2 with Groove (x15) ..... US $0.108 each = US $1.62
      [New] Dark Blue Plate, Modified 2 x 2 with Groove and 1 Stud in Center (x15) ..... US $0.495 each = US $7.425
      [New] Dark Bluish Gray Plate 1 x 10 (x2) ..... US $0.16 each = US $0.32
      [New] Dark Bluish Gray Plate 1 x 4 (x2) ..... US $0.05 each = US $0.10
      [New] Dark Bluish Gray Plate 1 x 8 (x4) ..... US $0.12 each = US $0.48
      [New] Dark Bluish Gray Plate 2 x 2 Corner (x1) ..... US $0.08 each = US $0.08
      [New] Dark Bluish Gray Plate 4 x 4 (x1) ..... US $0.10 each = US $0.10
      [New] Dark Bluish Gray Plate 4 x 6 (x1) ..... US $0.12 each = US $0.12
      [New] Dark Bluish Gray Plate 6 x 10 (x1) ..... US $0.40 each = US $0.40
      [New] Dark Bluish Gray Plate, Modified 1 x 2 with Door Rail (x6) ..... US $0.45 each = US $2.70
      [New] Dark Bluish Gray Plate, Modified 2 x 2 with Groove and 1 Stud in Center (x15) ..... US $0.315 each = US $4.725
      [New] Light Bluish Gray Brick 1 x 2 (x2) ..... US $0.14 each = US $0.28
      [New] Light Bluish Gray Brick, Modified 1 x 4 with Groove (x4) ..... US $0.15 each = US $0.60
      [New] Light Bluish Gray Plate 1 x 3 (x2) ..... US $0.071 each = US $0.142
      [New] Red Panel 1 x 1 x 1 Corner (x1) ..... US $0.15 each = US $0.15
      [New] Red Tile 2 x 2 with Groove (x15) ..... US $0.072 each = US $1.08

      Jerry

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  4. Suzanne, check out the YouTube video on my post too. Pretty good instructions.

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  5. GREAT!!! Thanks so much! I like to give my nieces and nephews puzzles that tell them where their christmas gifts are stashed. This is going to be great!
    Thanks!

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