Video: Instead of relying on just his imagination to make LEGO toys fly, Adam Woodworth supersizes his favourite sets and upgrades them with motors and electronics so they can take to the skies all by themselves. But with a blocky rotor that clearly isn’t designed for flight, can you figure out how this LEGO helicopter manages to get off the ground?
If you look closely, you can spot a set of four quadcopter motors mounted to the chopper’s landing skid that provide all of the vertical lift needed to make this replica — made of lightweight foam — actually fly. A smaller motor powers the tail rotor, while an additional propeller causes the LEGO helicopter’s main roto to slowly spin in flight.
Obsessed LEGO fans might recognise this helicopter from set 6396, the International Jetport, originally released way back in 1990. Woodworth’s version of the vehicle is 10 times larger than the original but only weighs in at a little over 2kg, including the hand-sculpted foam minifigure pilot.
It’s a one-off custom creation, however, so don’t bother trying to reach out to Woodworth to buy a kit — you’ll have to build it yourself from scratch instead.
[YouTube]