LEGO conventions often offer play-based fun for younger attendees. From Duplo pits to mosaic walls, from free play to building challenges, there’s lots to do for kids. But at a recent visit to Bricks Cascade, the clear winner in our family was the Brick Derby.
What’s A Brick Derby?
Glad you asked! Similar to a Pinewood Derby, a Brick Derby is a chance for kids to build cars from their own imagination using a standard chassis. They’re then raced down a slope powered entirely by gravity. Beyond having a blast racing, and trying to come in first, it was a great opportunity to teach them about concepts like aerodynamics, drag, and weight.
a happy and engaged three year old
Participants were greeted by a huge table of pieces with a decent variety of shapes and colors. Then, they were given an 8x16 plate and two LEGO-compatible metal axles. You could only use two axles, and there was a maximum height But other than that, kids had free reign to build.
I can’t give higher praise to an activity that can keep my kids focused for almost 90 minutes! I also cannot overstate how enthusiastic my 3, 6, and 7 year old kids were.
the author may need to workshop his car build
After a few minutes of watching the kids build cars, I couldn’t help myself. I built a car, but didn’t want to take too many of the in-demand pieces. I was pretty pleased with my second place finish.
Final race of the day!
Each of my three kids was able to improve their car enough to get first place at least once, so everyone got to feel like a LEGO racing champion.
How To Drive Your Own Brick Derby
After all the fun, I looked into how to run your own Brick Derby. The easiest way to gather supplies is to sit down in front of your computer, get out your credit card, and head to a site like DerbyMagic or PinewoodPro. These sites sell everything you need, including LEGO-compatible chassis, track, and timing mechanisms. This is also going to be the most expensive way to run a derby.
via Pinewoodpro.com
A pair of metal axles or chassis will cost between $5 to $8 depending on the quantity of your order. The tracks and timing mechanisms also will add up at checkout. Timing mechanisms work out to be $100+ per lane. So that gets pretty pricey in a hurry.
What If You’re On A Budget?
If you’re looking for DIY alternatives and don’t want to break the bank, here are some ideas:
Chassis/Axles
LEGO conveniently makes their own axles and they’re pretty common pieces. For fairness, it would make sense for each participant to have a standard car frame. At Bricks Cascade, I noticed they had staff “recycling” cars fairly quickly to make sure the line stayed short. Consider setting a maximum number of races before a car needs to be taken apart for the next racer.
Track
This is an opportunity to get creative. If you like to work with wood, there are a number of DIY guides on YouTube. You could also use rain gutters as seen in this guide as well. A bonus with that would be to reuse the materials for a LEGO based Raingutter Regatta. If you keep the cars small, you could even get away with using a Hot Wheels track.
Timing Mechanisms
This one is tricky since the cars can come in so close together that eyeballing might cause contested winners. I did some searching, and there are a number of DIY guides using programming and Arduinos. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find any mechanical or non-electric solutions. But you could consider using a stopwatch and racing the cars one at a time.
LEGO Bricks
If you don’t have a massive amount of bricks on hand for racers to build their car, then the smaller the car, the better. You could consider giving each participant the same set of bricks, and use a smaller number of pieces per car. Also, the smaller the chassis, the fewer bricks each racer will need.
Ready, Set… Oh, Wait…
That was the easy part! Now you’ve got to come up with rules, and how the derby is going to be run. A lot depends on the number of kids (and parents, of course) who will be participating. Do you set up a dual race free-for-all? Or set up brackets like a tournament? There’s no end to the possibilities! Or maybe trying the reverse and making wooden cars that look like LEGO!
Have you ever participated in a Brick Derby? What made it work for you? Let us know in the comments below.
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