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LEGO M4 Sherman Crab Is a Grown-Up’s Delight

Us, petrolheads, we can’t just grab the toys our kids play with and have our way with them. We need to stay all mature, to represent the wise side of the family. Down under, we all enjoy playing around with all these toys they come up with, especially when it comes to miniature tanks like these.
LEGO M4 Sherman Crab 1 photo
Photo: Tommy Styrvoky on YouTube
Back when they wouldn’t have top notch sensors that detect land mines from a distance, solutions were rather simple. That’s how the Brits figured they could just attach a mine flail onto their famous M4 Sherman tank.

This device consists of some heavy chains, ending in fist-sized steel balls (flails) that are attached to a horizontal, rapidly spinning rotor mounted on tow arms in front of the vehicle. The rotor’s rotation makes the flails spin and pound the ground.

The point? When the balls strike above buried mines, they mimic the weight of a person or a vehicle, which causes them to detonate. The key here is that they explode without provoking any severe damage to the flails or the tank. The idea apparently belongs to a South African soldier, Captain Abraham du Toit, and as we said, it may seem a simple one but it did the job.

Brick enthusiast Tommy Styrvoky here figured the iconic World War II vehicle was great enough that it deserved proper respect. So to pay his tribute to it, he created this Lego replica. It’s not just a toy you look at, though, considering it’s a motorized, radio controlled scaled version you can play with. We’ll leave you with the video below where its builder explains how he made it.

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