Thought Experiment: Longest 5-piece assembly?

davee123

So, for reasons totally unrelated to anything, I was contemplating: What is the longest distance you could cover with 5 assembled LEGO elements?

Restrictions:

* The elements have to be plastic.  No string, stickers, paper, wires, etc. (The longest non-plastic thing I can think of was probably a kite string they sold)

* The elements have to be "attached" using a standard connection (stud/tube, pin/hole, ball/socket, etc).  Doing something wacky like "using the adhesive at the bottom of a play table" is disallowed!

* The elements have to be released in something LEGO has sold at some point.  (I know LEGO has, for instance, long reels of plastic flex-tubing in-house that they can cut-to-length, so ignore stuff like that!)

I got a pretty large answer (over 2.5 meters), but I'm curious to see what other people can come up with.  I have no idea if something longer is possible!

DaveE

Fauch

I can think of 188 studs long so far
3 48*48 baseplates linked by 2 24*12 bricks

luckyruss

My first thought was 5x 41L string with studs on the ends, so a legal stud to stud connection and will be 201 studs long, but I think you may have tried to rule that out with your definitions.

LusiferSam

My first quick thought is to use three 3 20x56 wings and 2 50x50 baseplates.  I get 264 studs long.  That should be around 2 meters, not the over 2.5 davee123 is talking about

davee123

luckyruss said:

My first thought was 5x 41L string with studs on the ends, so a legal stud to stud connection and will be 201 studs long, but I think you may have tried to rule that out with your definitions.

The strings with studs on the ends are ... probably "more ok", or even fully ok.  But I figured if I allowed non-plastic elements (like string) you'd start to get into the territory of using, say, a wooden playtable that LEGO made that has studs on it, which ... really pushes the boundaries of what constitutes a "LEGO element".

Fauch said:

I can think of 188 studs long so far
3 48*48 baseplates linked by 2 24*12 bricks

I'll also toss out there that the connections don't have to be sturdy-- so you could attach the studs on the corners and measure the diagonal, and you'd have about 2.014 meters with those elements!

DaveE

Paperballpark

I can get 220.8cm by connecting five wing elements (93541), which is pretty long. I'm curious what you used to get over 250cm...

LusiferSam

(Slaps forehead) Why not just use 5 wings and 276 studs long?  (Dumb, dumb)

Paperballpark

Well... I think I've beaten this. I've managed to get 375cm ;)

Using three of these (or these if you prefer) joined with two of these.

Paperballpark

Or if you somehow think that's 'cheating', I'll use five of these Duplo bricks instead, to get 284.8cm ;)

davee123

Paperballpark said:

Well... I think I've beaten this. I've managed to get 375cm ;)

Using three of these (or these if you prefer) joined with two of these.

Oooo, Modulex!  Although you could join them with these to get something longer!

Paperballpark said:

Or if you somehow think that's 'cheating', I'll use five of these Duplo bricks instead, to get 284.8cm ;)

I don't think those actually attach.  I believe the back of them is devoid of tubes, and they're meant to attach to a wall.

For the record, I was using 3 of these boat hulls:



Attached with 2 of the big 20x56 wings to get a bit over 318 studs.

DaveE

Paperballpark

The Duplo would surely still be hollow underneath though - allowing you to attach them. I can't see it being a flat base.

I'd considered the boat hulls, but suspected you couldn't join them to each other. Forgot about using other parts to join them.

Anyway, I still win by dint of my Modulex construction ;) Whichever brick length is used, it's still considerably longer than anything come up with so far! :D

LusiferSam

Modulex elements can't count per the rules and is disqualified (but it is a pretty good solution otherwise).  Modulex A/S is independent of the Lego Group, hence the parts weren't released by Lego.  See bullet point 3. 

I wasn't at all familiar with that ship hull.  I'm wondering if there is some type of diagonal connection that might get you a little more length. 

Paperballpark

Modulex was released by Lego back in the day. They may be a separate company now, but when those parts were released they were part of the Lego group :)

MAGNINOMINISUMBRA

^ Paperballpark is both correct in their above statement and within the original posted rules.

Fauch

thought about boats too, but I don't have any of those big molds and don't know how they connect.
looks like you have to disassemble the hull.
and the wings have anti-studs so you can connect to boats?

a 250 studs long plate... that is quite madness

davee123

Paperballpark said:

The Duplo would surely still be hollow underneath though - allowing you to attach them. I can't see it being a flat base.

You can't attach anything to the underside-- at least, nothing normal.  The backing is really strange.  Here's what it looks like, along with the thing that it's SUPPOSED to attach to (it's intended to be screwed into a wall):



So, as per the challenge you could use them, but only by attaching other things to the studs, like big DUPLO plates.  That's... wow... very, very, very close to the boat-hull-and-wing dealybob if you count the diagonal.  I estimate about 2555.97mm for the diagonal of the DUPLO vs roughly 2555mm for the boat-hull-and-wings.  So close that the accuracy of my measurements is probably affecting things.

(... Actually, if you offset the wings on the rear end of the boat hulls, I think you can eke out a bit more distance too-- but it's still really, really close)

As for whether or not the Modulex counts?  I'd say so.  If you're going to allow other LEGO "building systems" like DUPLO, Primo, Quatro, Soft, etc, then you should allow Modulex.  As such, the Modulex is the current front-runner I think, although I wouldn't be completely surprised if someone turns up something bigger-- there's a lot of oddball things out there!

DaveE

MAGNINOMINISUMBRA

Couldn't one successfully argue that the boat hull insert ISN'T allowed?  By my reckoning, you're actually using a sub element there - to use it in this experiment it would have to have the outer hull attached to create an actual element that TLG release in a set (as per the rules).

SprinkleOtter

^ Splitting hulls hairs there, aren't you?

davee123

MAGNINOMINISUMBRA said:

Couldn't one successfully argue that the boat hull insert ISN'T allowed?

That's not how I interpreted it-- if you wanted to use (say) the casing for control lab, I'd be fine with that.  Actually, depending on the "full assembly", I might even suggest that if you had tried to use the "complete" ship, I might count it as two elements.  Not sure.  But obviously, everyone's going to have differing opinions on what constitutes an "element", which is what makes defining things like "longest LEGO piece" so difficult!

If multiple things that were actually separate molded parts were allowed, "as they were sold", I think some of the containers or play tables might start to come into play, where they had plastic molded elements that were "attached" to some other part, making something all the larger.  That's really the intent behind wanting to avoid things that are clearly "two attached elements".

DaveE

Matt89190

Brilliant topic. I don't think my knowledge of Lego is good enough to compete with the record here, but I'm quite happy to stand back and watch.

1974

Too bad you've ruled out uncut hoses (yes, they originally did come on huge reels)

I have several 7mm ribbed/4mm rigid and un-terminated flexaxles in well over 4 meters length, so I could easily wup up something around 20 meters for five parts (+ connectors)

Proper LEGO, but never sold as is

Cheers,

Ole

datsunrobbie

How about 5 #5005031-1 8 stud Black Storage bricks connected diagonally? Sadly, I only have one, so I cannot throw them together to measure. 

davee123

1974 said:

I have several 7mm ribbed/4mm rigid and un-terminated flexaxles in well over 4 meters length, so I could easily wup up something around 20 meters for five parts (+ connectors)

Acha!  I thought someone might try something like that!  Yeah, I didn't know how long the reels were, but I knew they were easily a few meters in length at least.  But I figure if you allow prototype or unsold elements, it opens the door for a LOT of craziness.

Paperballpark said:

Well... I think I've beaten this. I've managed to get 375cm ;)

Using three of these (or these if you prefer) joined with two of these.

So, I was looking at the Modulex boards more closely-- how are they made?  Both of the ones you posted are composites of some sort of ... wooden? backing, with plastic Modulex affixed to it.  However, looking at the 1st picture, it appears that it's not a single sheet of plastic Modulex studs.  It looks like it's made from smaller, 100 Modulex-stud sheets (presumably two 100's and a 50?).  Does the other board do the same thing?  Anyone actually have one of these boards to check?

DaveE

Paperballpark

datsunrobbie said:

How about 5 #5005031-1 8 stud Black Storage bricks connected diagonally? Sadly, I only have one, so I cannot throw them together to measure. 

Why not measure one, take three quarters of the length (to allow for overlap) and times by 5?

I suspect it won't be that long - you might just break 200cm.

stlux

According to BL those 2x4 storage bricks are 25 x 50 x 18 cm. As per @Paperballpark's suggestion, (50*0.75)*5=187.5cm, so not even breaking 200cm.

davee123

The other issue with the storage bricks is that while they technically nest with each other, I don't know if I'd consider them to be "attached", since there's (as I recall) very little (if any) clutch power between them.  On that note, LEGO Soft and Primo would also be very difficult, since both of them have very weak or non-existent clutch strength!

DaveE

LusiferSam

I forgot the first Modulex elements were molded with the LEGO logo.  The M logo came later.  As such only the elements with LEGO on them should count in the challenge.  I'll stand by my statement that Modulex is and always was independent. 

Attached diagonally the 2x4 storage bricks should get you around 208 cm. 

That Duplo plate looks like it would attach to another via 2 rows of studs rather than a single.  Might have to get a ruling from Lego whether that's a legal build or not.

Paperballpark

stlux said:

According to BL those 2x4 storage bricks are 25 x 50 x 18 cm. As per @Paperballpark's suggestion, (50*0.75)*5=187.5cm, so not even breaking 200cm.

Don't forget to add on a stud at the end where it doesn't connect to another one! So it would be exactly 200cm.