Construx Oil Platform

Where does gas come from Dad? Well son, it is made from oil. Let's build an oil rig!

That's roughly the conversation that lead to us building our latest Construx creation. An oil platform is a challenge because it needs a ton of surface area, and needs to rise out of the sea and support itself. Each of the 4 supporting pillars is made from 27 tubes. That's 104 tubes total, so it took some time to build those. They sure are strong though. I'm sure they could hold 20 pounds, or more.

Some other features of the build:

• Lighted drill tower
• Helipad built from a case, with cargo helicopter
• Two cranes
• Support watercraft
• Sleeping quarters

Along with the Construx men populating the platform, you'll see some Fisher Price Husky Helpers. It is interesting how these Husky Helpers figures always end up in a pile of Construx. I have gotten half a dozen of them buying Construx off of eBay. For the most part, they fit Construx chairs, and their rugged theme fits with many of the things you can build with Construx, so they work well.
Sadly, the platform only lived for a couple of weeks as it was using up the majority of our knots and we couldn't build much else :(

What will we build next? What would you like to see us build?

The Big Wheel

This Construx creation was a ton of fun. I wanted to build something with a large rotation structure and the kids came up with the idea of a Ferris Wheel. This was also a great chance to use the huge quantity of seats that I have.
The challenges for this build were

• Determining a gondola width that could be built and still allow the wheel halves to connect
• Sizing the wheel based on the ability to make a circle. Construx generally build in straight lines. You have to convince them to be other shapes.
• Keeping the gondolas right side up. All of the gondolas rotate, but the weight of the figure alone wasn't enough to overcome the rotating piece friction. The glowing bells were added as a cool little hack. They glow in the dark which looks great. They add a little weight to help the rotation. Finally, they are just low enough that they scrape the ground if the gondola isn't level. The scraping rights the gondola for another trip around the wheel. It really looks cool when the wheel spins.

Step right up and buy a ticket!