This week on LEGO® Fun Friday, we have a very “boy-ly” challenge! (You know, like girly, except for boys – boyly!) This challenge was inspired by Yvonne who commented on our Build a Car that Rolls the Farthest Challenge. She said that when her boys were young, they liked to play “LEGO® demolition derbies” by flinging cars at each other using rubber bands stretched across the legs of kitchen chairs. Whichever vehicle had sustained the least amount of damage was the winner. Well, my boys thought that sounded like great fun, and we tucked that idea away for future use!
Here’s the challenge: Build a vehicle, and develop a way to test that vehicle’s durability.
Here is how we did the demolition derby style of testing:
One, two, three FLING!
My car lost to Aidan’s because his only lost the front wheels, and mine was pretty much destroyed! He was very happy.
Other ideas for testing the durability of vehicles:
- Roll the cars off the edge of a table
- Send them down the stairs
- Drop them out a window
My younger boys had trouble with the rubber band shooting method, so we’ll be trying something else for them. Come back next week, and we’ll report on what all we did. Then, share your ideas! Next Friday you can link up a post with your kid’s LEGO® designs, or you can leave a comment or share a photo of your kid’s LEGO® creations on my Frugal Fun for Boys facebook page.
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5 Comments
Yvonne Blake Jan 25, 2013
I'm glad you tried the Lego Demolition Derby. I hope your boys have as much fun with it as mine did.
(I warn you, you will be finding scattered pieces for years!)
Leslie Jan 25, 2013
Just want to say, this needn't be exclusive for boys. This would be a great way to teach girls engineering skills too.
Sarah Jan 25, 2013
Oh, I didn't say it had to be exclusive for boys! I just meant that most boys enjoy a challenge where they get to fling/crash/destroy. I don't have any girls, so I write from the perspective of a boy mom, but I am not saying that girls can't (or should't) do these things!
Lauren Jan 25, 2013
We're planning on doing this at our Lego homeschool group next month. It looks like a lot of fun! What kind of rubber band did you use?
Sarah Jan 25, 2013
We used some really, really long ones that I bought for another project. I thought they were a little too loose. You might need to test out different size rubber bands on the chairs you have.
Charity Jan 26, 2013
What lego set do you use?
Sarah Jan 27, 2013
We have quite a variety of sets all mixed together! We bought one tub of basic bricks at Target - I believe it came with some wheels as well. Then the boys purchased several more sets of wheels from the "brick wall" at our local Lego store. They also own a few Toy Story sets and lots of Star Wars, although I don't think they used any Star Wars for this.
Patrick Aug 3, 2020
Another idea is to make custom Lego Pull Back-n-Go cars, then run them into each other. Try to have a gearbox for each axle (make sure they go the same way) and a part on the front for destruction. If the two cars are well made enough, they will both be destroyed and flipped and whatnot.
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