The LEGO Power Functions Idea Book, Vol. 1: Machines and Mechanisms (Lego Power Functions Idea Bk 1)

This is a great book - bought for a 9 year old for Christmas, alongside a power functions kit. Warning - you will need plenty of Technics parts for this, including quite a few cogs and gears.The book gives a lot of ideas for little mechanisms (and some not so little), illustrating pretty much every mechanical concept I can think of. And the good thing about Technics is that the components are of such good quality that things really do work without rattling, jamming, or falling apart.Another good thing about this book is that many of the models are relatively quick to make, so we often do "10 minutes" of Technics between other jobs, and usually get something new working in that time.A note: The models are shown with a few clear photographs for each, but NOT step-by-step instructions. The idea is to learn how to think things through yourself and experiment, not follow step-by-step instructions, so that's fine by me.Definitely recommended.

Fantastic book! The build ideas are very clearly presented and easy to follow for anyone. You will find that some use more than just what comes in a single "Power Functions" set, but still interesting to create should you instead want to employ a manual approach. The book itself is of excellent quality. Pretty heavy, about 1kg (confirmed by author), but given the fantastic quality of paper and print, that's more than expected. I bough volume 2 as well (alongside a Power Function set), but that's just because I love Yoshihito's Lego books, and felt it's better to have them both, not because you'd need to.

My son loves it. Colourfull book with great ideas for power function creations. Excellent quality with many pages. Every day he creates something different and sometimes he combined 2 or 3 creations to build something bigger and more complicated. After bought that book my son stopped watching TV or playing with i-pad.

Some great ideas here. Plenty of illustrations but designed so that you can learn how things work on Lego and Lego tecniks.

Oh yes, this is great. It has kept my son busy with loads of crazy contraptions. The joy of this book is that it isn't a step by step guide. Instead it shows you what you need and various pictures of the end result. This invokes thought and encourages lego'ers to extend and remodel. This is good for more experienced lego'ers but younglings may need a little help :)

A great book for Lego technic fans. It would have been nice to have labelled the parts with their ID number or description to make ordering the pieces easier, but that is nit picking. Overall a really good book.

Really clear to understand. Shows the parts you need at the top of the page and then just has pictures for you to follow. Really good if you have a child like mine who loves building and exploring and trying out various different ways of constructing things. Has everything from spinning fans to moving cars and even constructions that will allow a pen to move across a page scribbling as it goes!! You will need the Lego motor functions to go with this though as otherwise it would be pretty pointless.

Brilliant gadgets – great for my young budding Engineer.Well laid out, parts required are listed, both for each gadget and for the whole book