Engineering:Great Ball Contraption

From HandWiki
Short description: Type of contraption built with Lego

Great Ball Contraptions (GBCs) are a type of Lego design comprising a machine built with both regular and Technic bricks that continuously transports Lego balls through different modules using chain reactions. Robotic elements from products such as Lego Mindstorms can also be used.[1][2][3][4] They are sometimes compared to Rube Goldberg machines,[5][6][7][8] and have been featured multiple times by the Guinness World Records.[9][10][11][12]

File:GBC Standard.svg
The design standard, invented by Steve Hassenplug

Great Ball Contraptions are popular at Lego fan conventions, with a community of builders who design them. They are often collaborative, with different designers creating different modules. They can consist of several hundred modules and take nearly an hour to complete their circuit.[11][12]

Several precursors include the Ping Pong Ball Handoff challenge hosted by the Lafayette LEGO Robotics Club, as well as the SMART's Crate Contraption, both in 2004, which contained elements of GBCs. The term was coined by Steve Hassenplug on LUGNET in 2005. After this, many people began to create ball contraptions of their own, beginning the trend.[13]

Further reading

  • Ruge, Christoph (2023). Das LEGO®-Kugelbahn-Handbuch: Ideen und Techniken für eigene GBC-Module. Heidelberg: dpunkt.verlag. ISBN 978-3-98890-003-6. 

References

  1. ↑ "Watch a Giant Lego Contraption Endlessly Move Balls" (in en-US). 2016-06-21. https://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/a21440/giant-lego-contraption-endlessly-moves-balls/. 
  2. ↑ "Watch: The Most Epic Lego Contraption Of All Time" (in en-US). Fast Company. 2012-09-24. https://www.fastcompany.com/1670847/watch-the-most-epic-lego-contraption-of-all-time. 
  3. ↑ Coumans, Remco. "Fascinatie voor ‘ballet van bewegende balletjes’". https://www.limburger.nl/regio/leudal/heythuysen/fascinatie-voor-ballet-van-bewegende-balletjes/21989358.html. 
  4. ↑ MacManus, Christopher. "Is this the greatest Lego Mindstorm machine ever?" (in en). https://www.cnet.com/culture/is-this-the-greatest-lego-mindstorm-machine-ever/. 
  5. ↑ "Amazingly Complex, yet Simple LEGO Contraptions in Rube Goldberg Fashion" (in en-US). https://www.businessinsider.com/amazingly-complex-yet-simple-lego-contraptions-in-rube-goldberg-fashion-2011-4. 
  6. ↑ Vreeburg, Naomi (2016-12-06). "Bizarre LEGO-machine vervoert balletjes" (in nl-NL). https://www.kijkmagazine.nl/nieuws/lego-machine-vervoert-balletjes/. 
  7. ↑ Liszewski, Andrew (2021-07-21). "12 Fantastically Complex and Mostly Pointless Lego Great Ball Contraptions" (in en-US). https://gizmodo.com/12-fantastically-complex-and-mostly-pointless-lego-grea-1847260964. 
  8. ↑ "WATCH: The Most Amazing Lego Contraption Ever?" (in en-US). HuffPost. 2012-09-30. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/lego-rube-goldberg-machine-video_n_1926328. 
  9. ↑ Guinness World Records 2016. Macmillan. p. 139. ISBN 978-1-910561-06-5. 
  10. ↑ (in en) Guinness World Records 2017. Guinness World Records. pp. 146. ISBN 978-1-910561-66-9. 
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 Holmes, Stephen (2018-08-09). "WATCH // Record breaking 'Great Ball Contraption' build" (in en-GB). https://develop3d.com/develop3d-blog/watch-record-breaking-marble-run-lego/. 
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 "Watch: Guinness record-breaking 'great ball contraption' - UPI.com" (in en). https://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2018/08/08/Record-breaking-Lego-contraption-moves-balls-in-40-minutes/7641533736700/. 
  13. ↑ lange, Noah de (2025-10-18). "GBC Beginnings: The Birth of LEGO Great Ball Contraptions" (in en-US). https://bricknerd.com/home/gbc-beginnings-the-birth-of-lego-great-ball-contraptions-10-20-2022. 



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