In one of my last posts I mentioned that the idea of a “Midi-scale LEGO Land” is nothing that is officially reflected in the official LEGO Sets. But then I came across a few sets distributed under the LEGO Creator series in my local supermarket. LEGO Creator – especially the Vehicles sub-series – contains a few sets that are “in between” the original LEGO scale supporting the Mini-Figs and the previously introduced “Midi-Scale”.
- LEGO 6911 – the Mini Fire Rescue,
- LEGO 6910 – the Mini Sports Car,
- LEGO 5765 – the Transport Truck,
- LEGO 5762 – the Mini Plane,
- LEGO 5761 – the Mini Digger,
- LEGO 5865 – the Mini Dumper,
- LEGO 5864 – the Mini Helicopter
All but the Transport Truck are bearing the “Mini” indicator in the set name – and with a width ob about five Studs they almost match the proposed Midi-Format. Almost… they are slightly larger. But also slightly more detailed! So here is a comparison:
The above image shows the constructed LEGO Set 5761 – the Mini Digger. Like I said: it is a bit too large to match the Midi-Scale so here comes my first attempt on constructing my own LEGO Creation: I need to downscale the digger a bit to match my previously constructed shovel.
I will start by “stealing” the back end of the shovel to reuse it for my digger. Only I will replace the two yellow slope bricks with two transparent red ones.
Next up is the mounting of the rear wheels. The idea is to use LEGO Part 3641 – a tire constructed for the larger scale of the minifigs but certainly making up well for large wheels on my digger. The mounting is done using a 1×1 plate with clip (LEGO Part 4081b), two 1×1 plates (round – LEGO Part 4073), the tire itself (LEGO Part 3641) and another 1×1 plate (LEGO Part 4073) to fix the tire.
The rear part is then built from some more standard bricks to the finish. It is slightly taller than the shovel part but that is OK to me. The connector to the front part is a 1×1 Brick with handle (LEGO Part 2921).
Next up is the front part (which I build as a separate entity in MLCad). The challenge with that part is the size – it must be as short as possible to make sure the overall digger is not too long – yet it needs to hold together and allow wheel placement.
The front part starts out with a 2×3 plate under which I mount a 1×3 plate and (in the back middle position) a 1×1 plate. Next come the wheels (same construction as above) and – in the center – a 1×2 plate. The whole thing is finished using a 1×3 plate facing forward to allow for the mounting of the shovel construction.
The shovel mount is a 1×1 brick with two studs on opposite sides (LEGO Part 47905). The arms of the shovel are formed by two Minifig Mechanical Arms (LEGO Part 30377) – the mounting is done via a shortened flex hose (LEGO Part 76263). Front-wise, the connection is done using a hinge top (LEGO Part 3938). Some finishing is placed on the top of the front part, the shovel will be formed using a 1×4 Panel with corners (LEGO Part 30413).
Putting it all together – and adding the shovel from the previous post – this is what it looks like on our construction site now:
The difference is obvious – the digger is significantly larger as the small shovel – but that is true in reality as well. A shorter version of the digger, with a different type of wheels – can easily be built using a few standard parts. This would then match the shovel in size…