Is there a nearby feudal lord you are at war with, yet are either unable or unwilling to take part in a lengthy siege? Are you low on timber, but your stores are loaded with copious amounts of Technic panels and the accompanying Technic shrapnel? Then this LEGO Technic trebuchet is the build for you!

Can YOU use a counterweight to launch a 90g projectile over 300 FEET? Yeah, I thought not.

Built by TFOL Justin Fossum out of South Dakota, his trebuchet is composed of more than 9,000 bits of LEGO Technic. This marvel of engineering is capable of chucking ballistics (either marbles or bowls of pudding if you prefer) at speeds of around 75 mph and up to distances of 260 feet! (That’s 120 kmh in speed and up to 80 meters in distance for our metric friends.)

The trebuchet weighs 22 lbs and measures at 101 cm tall, 95 cm long and 51 cm wide. The frame of the trebuchet consists of two vertical columns that are 97 cm tall with two horizontal rails which are 95 cm long each.

Unsatisfied with one of those plebeian ballista-style siege engines—or heaven forbid, a catapult—Justin modeled his superior siege engine to replicate the same type of movement found in what is termed a SAW trebuchet, or a Sliding Axle Whipper.

The specific trebuchet that Justin has tried to replicate is the North American SAW, which competes in throwing the most dangerous of all orange siege-related ammunition: pumpkins. Typically seen at the Delaware Punkin Chunkin festival, the SAW is a modern style of trebuchet with the arm built on a rail system. Its design allows the movement to act similar to that of a baseball pitcher, utilizing its fluid motion for optimal energy efficiency.

Nearly all the energy from the vertical falling counterweights is transferred into the projectile—no swinging of the counterweight to waste energy, unlike a typical trebuchet.

The real life NASAW trebuchet in action

As far as this writer has been able to research, this is the first LEGO version of a SAW trebuchet ever to be built. In terms of scale and sheer performance, it also appears to be unique. What do you think about the superior style of siege weapons?

Leave a comment below and chuck some pudding today!

What would you launch with a LEGO trebuchet? Let us know in the comments below.

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