Lego Books

An Ok book, but I was hoping that the author would go into greater details.

My kids are young enough that the basic building schemes illustrated here are interesting to them. Some are beyond them (ages 5,6,11). They were somewhat disappointed there weren't more "models" or building plans to follow. I like it, though, because it just shows the basics then makes them use their imaginations where anything is possible. So, it's useful, but not an item I'd rave about.

A true labor of love, this is the most comprehensive guide around! A must-have for LEGO devotees.

THE UNOFFICIAL LEGO BUILDER'S GUIDE is the best "Overview" of the LEGO building system available hands down. The book has been written for beginners as well as more advanced builders. It's a great reference guide with tips, techniques and definitions for users of all ages. Anyone can buy and build a LEGO "set", but this book will give you the tools needed to build your own creations. Once those "sets" are in a hundred pieces and you want to try your hand at your own creation, this is the guide you will reach for to help you do it right.

The chapters are written is a simple easy to understand way and the flow of the material is easy to follow. There seems to be just enough information on each page that the reader does not feel like he/she is always getting lost when following the examples or descriptions. The illustrations are in black and white and are very clear and easy to see. Some might complain that the illustrations are not in color but I personally prefer the black and white. When building your own creation the lack of color is actually less of a distraction than it would be if you were building something blue and white and the illustration was red and yellow.

One of the best features of the book is the Bricktopia, a categorized list of the most commonly used LEGO pieces. It includes an illustration of the piece, a description, size and part number. I personally find it helpful to browse thru this area to get "ideas" for building projects. I have noticed pieces I forgot about that has triggered a "thats the one I could use" thought to help with a project I am working on or have been thinking of building.

I recommend this book to anyone interested in learning the foundations needed to build projects from simple to the more elaborate. LEGO builders of all ages will benefit from buying this book. Buy this book and leave it out on a coffee table and see how long it takes someone to pick it it up!

Bedford's book offers everything and anything that one could consider useful to know about building with LEGO. I love the way he describes how to design things using grids and how to organize large collections of LEGO bricks. He's even designed a game in LEGO that others can play! I highly recommend this book to all ages of LEGO builders.

I enjoying reading this book and looking to make other things with the helpful ideas in this book.

This book is an ultimate hit. The history of the Lego is described and then creations that fit every category are shown. Some of the hints on how to build things are really helpful.

This book IS for anyone who likes Lego's.

I purchased this for my seven-year old, yet my 20-year old enjoyed it just as much! Great pictures!

I have 3 boys who all clamor to look at this book. They all love legos and this book has great pictures and inspiration. It's a must for any avid lego fan.

We bought this book as a Christmas gift for our 10-year-old nephew [in combination with Lego Crazy Action Contraptions: A Lego Inventions Book (Klutz)]. His eyes were as big and round as Christmas-tree ornaments as he flipped through the books and saw the myriad wonderful things he could build with his treasured blocks. And, with two huge tubs of Lego pieces already in his possession, we figured he didn't need yet another set of Legos... but perhaps something nifty to build with them all. This fills the bill nicely!

When I opened Baum's "Definitive Guide", I expected a description of how to build and program a few simple projects. The book did that, and did it well, but what I did not expect was the depth of insight into mechanical engineering and computer science principles that it provides.

For example, Baum gives a careful and clear explanation of how a mechanism works (such as a worm gear or differential, to name but two), and then presents experiments that you can build with Lego. These experiments will give you an invaluable feel for the principles involved. And I mean "feel" literally; after you build and try them, you will understand how these machines work on a gut level that's unforgettable. It's a lot of fun to build and operate even the simplest of Dave Baum's models.

On the programming side, his NQC language is a nice stepping stone to the syntax of today's most widely-used programming languages (C and C++). But, as with the mechanical side, Baum -- without getting preachy or teachy about it -- introduces computer science concepts that will help make a youngster (of any age) a better and wiser programmer. Because you do them instead of just read about them, this is the kind of learning that tends to stick with you.

NQC, which comes free with the book (and is free on the Web), is a better way to work with the Lego RCX unit. My kids, from 9 years old and up, prefer it to the tedious and somewhat weak Lego-provided method. As a tutorial to the language alone, the book would be a five-star recommendation. But Baum's work is a lot more than that, and a lot more than the shallow building guide to a few toys I originally expected.

Buy it, build it, and program it: This book succeeds at being both toy and tutorial, a rare achievement.

Simply excellent. From Lego Maths to complex and multitasking programming.

A lot to learn for newbies and intermediate builders.

I used this book to teach a beginning robotics class this summer to Middle School students. It is a great book for introducing concepts of building as well as programming the Lego Mindstorm "brick" with either the language that Lego developed (Rcxcc) or NQC(a modified C language). The children were able to grasp the ideas of programming quickly because they could change qualities of the program and see the change immediately effect the behavior of the robot they had built.

David Baum,s book is also very logical because he begins by telling you how to build and program the the basic "Tankbot". After that, the projects are the result of changes made to Tankbot so the child is not starting from scratch each time. Each new project introduces new concepts of programming that are discussed in the book. Therefore, it is a gradual growth of experience and knowledge that is not too overwhelming to the child. (Or the adult helping.)

The disk which comes with the book contains the NQC compiler and is also full of program examples so that you can simply download the programs if you wish. The class was a hugh success because of this book. Next summer we will be offering two classes in robotics (beginning and advanced).

I used this book to teach a beginning robotics class this summer to Middle School students. It is a great book for introducing concepts of building as well as programming the Lego Mindstorm "brick" with either the language that Lego developed (Rcxcc) or NQC(a modified C language). The children were able to grasp the ideas of programming quickly because they could change qualities of the program and see the change immediately effect the behavior of the robot they had built.

David Baum's book is also very logical because he begins by telling you how to build and program the the basic "Tankbot". After that, the projects are the result of changes made to Tankbot so the child is not starting from scratch each time. Each new project introduces new concepts of programming that are discussed in the book. Therefore, it is a gradual growth of experience and knowledge that is not too overwhelming to the child. (Or the adult helping.)

The disk which comes with the book contains the NQC compiler and is also full of program examples so that you can simply download the programs if you wish. The class was a hugh success because of this book. Next summer we will be offering two classes in robotics (beginning and advanced).

Very complete book. From Lego Math to multitasking programming.
Plenty of examples an very well explained.

Worthful for newbies and intermediate builders.

It well worth the money

Great accompaniment for the Lego kit.

I am very impressed with the book. It addresses robotics in a broad sense then drills down to the specifics of hobbyist robotics using LEGO and the RCX. Many tips and tricks, great insights into performance challenges and remedies, and lots and lots of cool project ideas! Great Book!

I bought this book to get a better understanding of the Mindstorm NXT system. While this book is very interesting, it does not cover NXT -- so the descriptions of the programming, the sensors, even the basic lego pieces do not match what you'd get in a NXT package.

MindStorms is an absolutely fascinating robot building system for children, adults, and those who don't fit well into either category. This book helps you delve more deeply into the principles behind making really cool robots with MindStorms. The opportunities for learning are just never-ending, and at the same time, the limitless fun anyone can have, from pre-teen to geezer, makes the learning very rewarding. This book helps open this potential.

This book takes you beyond the step-by-step instructions in the Constructopedia, and doesn't shy away from the physical principles behind robots, so it is suited for the more experienced and mentally mature builder. I use it to get ideas for things I can build with my 9-year-old son. It won't be long until he's ready to have a go at the book himself, though.

Don't get me wrong. The models are cool. However, they usually need some tuning up before they are full functional. The majority of programs is written in NQC (as described in the book), however there is one in lego script which works only for newer RIS (2.0). I tried to contact the publishers and authors on many occasion but I've only managed to get my name on the spam list! This is not a nice way to treat a costumer.

My 10 year old son thought this book was great! He took it to school to show his "peeps".

I bought this book for my 5 year old son -- who looooves bionicles. He loves to create the bionicles in the book, however the pictures are small so it makes a bit harder. He does love to listen to the descriptions of all the bionicles. Only complaint -- larger pictures would have been better.

Lots of extra info to read about these characters Mom finds odd, but sons LOVE! :-) Pictures are, as they tell me, "WAY cool!"

My 9 year old son received this for Xmas and he has not put it down since (now end of Jan). He brings it with him every where. He loves Bionicles, plays with them, builds them, reads the Bionicle series of books, so this was right up his alley.

Our 5 year old son likes Bionicle and has built a few of them (with a little help) but doesn't know a lot about the history or characters. The Bionicle world seems so complex. However, this Bionicle Encyclopedia is very informative and helps the reader understand the Bionicle world a lot better. Whenever our son is interested about a particular Bionicle character, place, thing or term we just look it up in the encyclopedia. The fact that it's alphabetized makes it very easy to look things up. We also like the fact that it shows correct pronunciations (especially since we're not sure how to pronounce some of the names). We like the pictures but we wish they had a picture of every character in the Bionicle world...other than that we think it's a great Bionicle encyclopedia!
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THIS BOOK ROCKS!!! It tells about the language, each koro, toa, matoran, rahi, ect...

This book is a guide!

From a TRUE Floridian Bionicle Fan d:D

thought that this book was the first 15 comics of bionicle but I was wrong. In stead of that the shipped me the freakin' official guide. I was really disapointed. If your looking for the comics don't get this book.

This book has lots of really good information about Bionicles. It tells you all about toa, bohrok, bohrok-kal, rahkshi, and some other important info about bionicles. It tells the power of the great masks the toa use, and tell some of the things about the turaga. It has a decoder, and it has a map of Mata Nui. It also tells about the koros. It has some facts about a selected few of the matoran. It tells a selected few of the things about Takanuva and Makuta even though you should know that already. It has a lot of cool things about the world of bionicle

This is one of the most comprehensive books I have ever seen. My 8 year old has not put it down since he got it! He has studied it and memorized every name. I highly recommend this book if you have a Bionicle fan at home!

The book tells good about Manas, the crab Rahi. You cannot find better info from it outside the guide. Power information from characters is unbelievable! Images are good, but the guide gives good info only 30% of text. 70% is what all Bionicle fans must have knew before reading the guide. The Makuta and Takanuva have not real images, what is stupid! This is still good work from Greg Farshthey. If you ask me is clever to buy it i'll say: YES!

You can see the contents of this book and the author's other work at [...]. Also check out the author's own website [...]. Very creative work however this is not geared towards children. There was a comment above about wrapping this with a box of legos for your child. Don't do that. Parents do your homework first!!!!

I bought this book (and the others by the same author) for my brother who is a huge Lego fan. He actually read them all and loved them, whereas before it was difficult to get him to read other books with kids' versions of Bible stories.

We purchased all three of these books. Great for the Christian lego maniac.

James 2:21-22 "Was not our ancestor Abraham considered righteous for what he did when he offered his son Isaac as sacrifice on the altar? You see that his faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did."

Brendan Powell Smith's faith is complete; he has molded his faith into LEGO pageantry and his works will be your pleasure. Pick it up... its his version of marching his child up a mountain in order to slay him on the altar; and unless you are humorless, it'll slay you.

If you do not like this book then you hate Jesus.

I have an eight year old that loves Mindstorms and needs the step-by-step instructions that Lego generally provides. Looks great for older kids.

Also, its NOT NXT.

In the fall semester of 2003, I taught a special topics course in robotics at Mount Mercy College with two students. A Lego Mindstorms kit was purchased and in the first segment of the class, the students built a robot and programmed it to move around the halls. We then moved on and used a more advanced robot in the remainder of the class, because I did not consider the Lego kit to be sophisticated enough. From some of my professional communications, I learned that entire college classes are being taught using only Lego Mindstorms kits.
After reading this book and evaluating the projects, I am now completely convinced that Mindstorms kits are all you need to teach a robotics class. Some of the projects in the book are a giraffe that simulates feeding, a flashlight follower, a robot painter, robots that communicate with each other, a machine that makes bubbles in response to stimulation, an infrared fax machine and even a submarine. To get these projects to work, it is necessary to solve some of the standard problems in Artificial Intelligence (AI). For example, the giraffe and all other animals require that the standard problem of getting a robot to walk be solved. The flashlight follower requires that the robot be able to dynamically process sensor input, using it to make decisions. Standard problems in machine-to-machine communication must be solved when the actions of a robot are in response to what another has told it.
The robots can be programmed using visual basic, robolab or NQC (Not Quite C). Robolab is a visual development environment where many of the actions are coded by connecting icons. The visual basic and NQC languages have many differences from their true counterparts, basically, they are stripped down versions with altered syntax.
Legos are one of the most mind-expanding toys that children can use. Applying some of the concepts in this book, they can be used as learning tools for some of the most complicated tasks that we can try to do, making a machine do intelligent tasks.

This book is a great introduction to the world of LEGO Mindstorms robots. I've been working with the LEGO Mindstorms kits for about 6 months, and I've often been frustrated by the lack of detail in the manuals for the kits. This book provides quite a bit of the missing information. For instance, it explains that you lose your firmware if you take your batteries out of your RCX for more than a minute or two (I wish that I'd seen that in a manual somewhere!). It provides a broad overview of alternatives to programming in RCX code, together with examples from each alternative mentioned for comparison. These coding examples are discussed in the text and they are also included on the accompanying CD. In addition to the coding examples, the CD also includes videos and stills of the robots described in the book. The book includes descriptions of a broad range of robots, from the very simple Acrobot robot featured in the Constructopedia, to robots designed by school kids, to robots designed by parent-kid teams, to advanced robots using IR communication and data logging. In each case, Erwin provides the details of the development process, how the robot was first conceived, how it was developed, and how the design problems were identified and solved. This approach makes the book much more than a simple code cookbook- -it explains to parents, teachers, and older kids how robots actually come about. Scattered throughout the book are "Asides" that explain various topics such as LEGO geometry, how to calculate gear ratios, understanding compound gear trains, programming decisions, etc. The book includes appendices of useful information, a bibliography, an excellent glossary, and an index.

It's a great book. But the Mindstorms microproessor is now NXT -- it has been updated. Until this book is updated, you'd be better off to find a good book which is based on the NXT system.

I've read both this book and Dave Baum's Definitive Guide and both are excellent. I enjoyed Baum's book more because it caters to an older audience: Baum seems to be writing to an older reader, there's an emphasis on the programming aspect of Mindstorms, and there are more semi-advanced projects.
Erwin's book is a thousand times better for children. The brilliant full-color pictures blow away Baum's black and white book. Erwin is a genuinely interesting author and obviously loves teaching.. Anyone who wants to teach a class with Mindstorms should take a look at the book, because it's full of great "this didn't work, but THIS did" anecdotes.
Ultimately, this never really goes above that level. Teachers and younger students should purchase this book, because it's a beautiful guide and will inspire quite a few youngsters. For the robotics engineers, programmers, and older geeks who wish that they'd had Mindstorms as a child, check out Baum's Definitive Guide - it's definitely more of what I was looking for.

I thought this guide would give me the secrets to beating the game, but it only caused confusion. Most of the information in the guide book was extremely different from the game. I was very disappointed.

This guide is much better than the one for LEGO Star Wars. Better presentation, better maps...overall much clearer. You probably won't use this one as much as the book for LEGO Star Wars since the game seems to be slightly easier.

It drives me crazy when I can't find all the secrets in a game! It also makes me feel extremely thick when I can't figure out a puzzle. This books sorts out both problems, in addition to making this mom look "cool" when she plays with her kids. I like the addition of the checklists- that was one of the biggest drawbacks of the Lego Star Wars Guide.

This is a great game my son has enjoyed it alot. Highly recommend for children who like video games and legos.

I found the guide very helpful. It was well written and not at all confusing as many are. My grandchildren like to play the games and try to figure out where all of the items are but when they get stuck we need the book. This is a well put together aid.

Well written, docummented and explained.

Plenty of examples and good references.

Well worth the money.

I have recently bought a copy of this book. Many of these projects and info are very good to know to programming the RCX and a crash course in legOS, pbForth, etc.

After purchasing The Unofficial Guide to LEGO MINDSTORMS Robots by Jonathan B. Knudsen, I was very excited about working on each project in the book. Then I continued to read and found myself getting disappointed with the terrible photos, less then detailed descriptions, and easy working robots. I though this book was going to blow me away with new robots creations but it fell short. For the price I paid I expected more, more robots, more information, more of everything. I have to admit, the information on the different O/S's are great but tying to get them to work was hell. It was better than 3 stars but not by much. Buy this book if you want more info on programs, but look on the web if you want more robot creations.

This book is very well written and easy to read. It starts off slow and simple, and advances into programming "Behavior" based robots, which is very interesting. The chapters on custom sensors don't say that much, but they are still a good intro to homebrew sensors. If you want a compilation of tons of robots to build, buy "Dave Baum's Definitive Guide". If you want a disorganized 'Everything but the kitchen sink' book, buy "Extreme Mindstorms". If you want well written, well structured, well thought out and thought proviking, buy this book.

Your an adult that never grew out of loving toys, an engineer at heart, and have been bitten by the Lego Mindstorms Robotics Invention Set. Ya have built everything in the Constructopedia, met all of the challenges but are now looking to go beyond the box. Where do you start? Jonathan Knudsen's Unofficial Guide to Ledo Mindstorms may be one of the best answers. He does a great job with construction tips, and provides a great survey of programming alternatives such as NQC, pbForth, and LegOS. He also has some insight into constructing your own sensors. Best of all, each chapter concludes with links to relevant sites on the WWW. I highly recommend it!