About this site

Hello world! If you’re visiting this page then most likely you are bored, curious, or lost. :)

Maybe you want to know who I am and why I care about historic Lego robot sets.

I’m Evan. I work as a science writer for a university and also as a computer historian. Lego toys were part of my life since I was a child in the 1970s and 1980s. They are some of my happiest memories, especially set #6383 Public Works Center and set #8860 Auto Chassis. I liked the former because its sliding crane reminded me of the Disney World monorail which I thought was the coolest thing ever. I liked the latter because of all its moving parts and realism. But as great as these sets were, it didn’t take long before I disassembled them. I spent most of my free time digging through a huge pile of parts and building my own creations. I won a prize (more Legos!) in a building contest at a local department store.

My other childhood passion was the Apple II computer. We had an Intellivision game console and then an Atari VCS at home, but the first computer I touched was a Commodore 64 in fifth grade. We learned the turtle graphics portion of Logo programming. Then in middle school we learned BASIC programming on Apple II+ and Apple //e computers. We also learned our first application, that being the AppleWorks suite of word processsing, database, and spreadsheet programs. I was fortunate: my parents had a Commodore budget but they were able to buy an Apple //e because my mother worked in the local school district and received a discount. I dabbled in making my own programs, but mostly my friends and I played games. I also had a Koala drawing pad which was fun.

I remember one moment as if it just happened today: telling my parents that I wished there was a way to connect Legos to the Apple II. Wouldn’t that be cool!? As it turns out, that was right around the time set #9700 Technic Control Center debuted here in America. Nobody in my life or at school knew about it. My wish went ungranted...

...Until about 30 years later! Ben Greenfield told me about the 9700 set in 2016 when I asked friends about historic robots to demonstrate at World (NYC) Maker Faire. I was speechless — this was EXACTLY what I dreamed of three decades prior! I was stuck at home and unable to work all of summer 2016 due to surgery for a bone tumor in my leg (that’s one reason why I support Cycle For Survival), so I was feeling very sad — but then I was able to channel all my energy into learning how to use this amazing find. I lived my childhood dream!!

I discovered other Lego robot sets throughout 2016, 2017, and 2018. I realized they are mostly from before the Mindstorms generation, and I found that information about these sets is scattered around the web but not collected in any single place. That’s why I decided to make this web site. The Lego company objected when I bought the domain “LegoRobotMuseum.com” so I went with brickhacks.com. The rest is history unfolding as you read this...

Questions/comments? Email me at evan(at)snarc(dot)net.

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Copyright: Evan Koblentz, 2018-2024