A Magic Folding “Fidget” cube with the design of a micro scale space ship in a Classic Space white/grey/trans-blue colour scheme.

So, what next? The third Classic Space colour scheme, of course: white/grey/trans-blue. Once more the micro model is a spaceship.

The “spaceship mode”:

Rear view:

The Folding steps:

2.)*

*… Oops, 1.) is missing (I forgot to take this photo – Imagine the cuboid in spaceship mode being folded by 90 deg around the hinges on the “belly” of the spacehip. The cockpit winds are folded to the outer corners and the white grills)

3.)

4.)

5.)

… and back to ship mode …

Here it is, the third and last one (for now) of my Lego Magic Folding Classic Space Cubes.

I hope you like it! :-))

A Magic Folding “Fidget” cube with the design of a micro scale space vehicle in a Classic Space grey/trans-green colour scheme.

The next colour scheme for a folding cube with a Classic Space design is grey/trans-green. The basic idea is a hovering ground vehicle used as a mobile planetary station.

The “vehicle mode”: A planetary hovering vehicle with a big cockpit, some windows, lights and greebles.

Rear view: Tail lights, two propulsion engines and the black “hover pods” on the “belly” of the ship.

The folding steps:

1.)

2.)

3.)

4.)

5.)

… and back to vehicle mode …This is #2 (of 3) of my Lego Magic Folding Classic Space Cubes.

I hope you like it! :-))

A Magic Folding “Fidget” cube with the design of a micro scale space ship in a Classic Space blue/grey/trans-yellow colour scheme.

The Borg Cube was my first idea for a magic folding “model” cube, a CS space ship was the next one. Being a fan of the first generation as I am, the colour scheme had to be blue/grey/trans-yellow.

The “ship mode”: A space ship with a big cockpit, a few windows, lights and some greebles.

Rear view: Two engines on the rear end, some landing pods and grills on the “belly” of the ship.

The folding steps:

1.)

2.)

3.)

4.)

5.)

… and back to ship mode …This is #1 (of 3) of my Lego Magic Folding Classic Space Cubes.

I hope you like it! :-))

RESISTANCE IS FUTILE – THIS CUBE HAS BEEN ASSIMILATED…  A Magic Folding “Fidget” Cube inspired by a Star Trek Borg cube.

As a Star Trek geek as I am, one of the first ideas for a new and more interesting design for a folding cube was, of course, a Borg cube.

So I started with a black “skeleton” of my folding cube (version A5) and added black and trans-green details that looked as “Borg” as possible. This is the result:

This is my new Lego fidget toy, the Magic Folding “Borg” Cube.
I hope you like it :-))

A basic “skeleton” for new design variations based on my Magic Folding “Fidget” Cube.

“Fidget Toys” have become quite popular ultimately and with all those spinners and tiny cubes on the market Lego fidget toys did get some attention, too. One of those Lego toys is a folding cube based on promotion picture cubes.

My Lego version is from 2014 and you can find quite a few of similar (or even identical) cubes sold as fidget toys in online “brick” shops.  I don’t know if they are copies, built by “reverse engineering” based on my cube or simply parallel developments based on the same ideas I had. But they exist and look just like my one.

Anyway, I thought I could go a step further with the design of the cube. A comment on my original cube on flickr inspired me to make a more interesting version that didn’t look just like “a cube”.

First of all I analyzed the design of the cube looking for the parts that were really needed to make it work. The result was a working “skeleton” of the cube which wasn’t more than the hinge plates, the SNOT brackets and a few plates as “connectors” between them:

Based on this skeleton cube I found four variations of the basic design (A … D) with the pivot points at the same positions but with some different details (changes marked with orange parts). Each of the designs has six folding steps (1 … 6) so you get 24 different versions of a symmetrical cube or cuboid that you can use as a base for a foldable micro scale Lego model:

Each of these “skeletons” has a lot of free space for new folding cube designs. The 1×1 round plates (black and yellow in the “skeleton” model) can also be replaced by any parts that can fill a 1x2x2/3 gap.

And there will be even more possible variations if you apply the “orange” changes only on one side of the cube/cuboid creating a non symmetrical “skeleton”.

After all you have a lot of possibilities to build some cool stuff around it.

So this is the basic skeleton for my Lego Magic Folding “Fidget” Cube. I hope you like it! :-))

Feel free to use it for your own folding cubes.
Credits would be appreciated if you did so ;-)).

A 3D ambigram of the lettering NILS-O-BRIX. Looking at the sculpture from one of the three main views you see the different letterings NILS, O or BRIX.

An ambigram is a lettering or an image that can be viewed from two different points of view (usually by turning the image by a 180 deg). The meaning of the ambigram can be the same or different when viewed from the different points of view.

The most popular ambigrams  can probably be found in Dan Brown’s novel Illuminati and the movie with the same name based on the novel.

A 3D ambigram is a special kind of ambigram: It’s a 3D sculpture that has a different meaning when viewed from the three main views (top-front-side).

I’ve been fascinated by these things for a while, but when I read Illuminati for the first time a few months ago I decided to build one myself. I chose to build an ambigram of my “Brick brand” NILSOBRIX divided into the three letterings NILS, O and BRIX

I started with LDD with a design based on four 10x10x8 1/3 cubic blocks. When I finished the design I realized how big that thing really was. So I built a smaller version based on four 6x6x5 cubic blocks.

I decided to use two different colours to get a better seperation of the single letters. I used 1×2 clear transparent plates for the connection between the blocks (for the big one I had used 1×1 Technic bricks and pins for that). The rest was pure geometry.

The design is a pure “studs up” design (no SNOT this time) with slopes and wedges instead of curves.  The result is a “blocky” lettering looking a little like early 8bit computer letterings from the 1980s. I remember making similar letterings with PETSCII symbols on a C64 ;-)). I’ve also added a few of my signature studs on the top corners.

So, this is the result…

Top view: NILS

Side view: O

Front view: BRIX
(You can almost see a “NILS”-shaped shadow on the surface)

Additional detail:
The centre hole of the “O” goes all the way through the sculpture. It was really a challenge to achieve that without weakening the structure too much.

So this is my 3D Lego ambigram showing the lettering NILS-O-BRIX.
I hope you like it :-))