A limb from Lego

It's amazing what you can build out of Lego. But … an arm?! This video shows us that anything is possible …

Do the preparation task first. Then watch the video and do the exercises. You can also read the transcript.

Preparation

Transcript

David: When I was a kid I always played with Lego. I built cars, planes, motorbikes. But now, I built an arm.

Narrator: Meet David Aguilar.

David: My name is David Aguilar. I am from Andorra, and I'm 18 years old.

Narrator: When David was born, his right arm hadn't fully developed.

David: This is the … my right arm. When I was growing up, it was quite annoying because I received a lot of *commentaries (comments) like, 'Oh, you don't have a hand', or something like that.

Narrator: And while some would see this as a disadvantage, David is just a regular kid. He likes EDM. He goes by the name Hand Solo – get it?! He has an embarrassing dad, he goes to school …

David: This is my school.

Narrator: … and he can open doors with his Lego arm. So cool! Growing up, he was obsessed with Lego. So much so, he wanted to make it a part of him – literally.

David: I built my first prosthetic arm when I was nine years old, and I built it around my hand. It started (off) being a boat.

Narrator: Unfortunately, the Lego bricks weren't strong enough, and it wasn't for another nine years till he would try again.

David: This is MK1. This is Lego Technic. It's like the sophisticated part of Lego. I can do push-ups with this thing, so it's quite strong. When I first built the arm and it was fully functional, I went to the mirror and I was like, 'Uugh, er!'

Narrator: That model, the MK1, only took five days to build. Of course, like any good inventor, he got straight to work on an upgrade.

David: And this is MK2. It has a battery that works like a biceps, and it has this fishing cable that ties up in here. When I fix this to my shoulder, I can do this [demonstrates] and the arm closes. I can stop in the middle and move it by myself.

When I first brought this (into school), they were all really amazed because how can somebody create a hand out of Lego? I was a normal guy, and when I built the arm everyone was like, 'You're awesome, you're really smart.' They told me they are really proud to be my friends. It's amazing.

© Great Big Story

Discussion

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Average: 3.7 (12 votes)

Submitted by Mahago on Mon, 10/02/2025 - 03:10

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What a smart kid he can do that by using Lego

Submitted by jyoti Chaudhary on Tue, 10/05/2022 - 11:58

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What do you think of David's device? What would you build out of Lego?

we learn from David. he is a creative person and learn lego since the age of childhood. David's device is fabulous and he is intellectual.

Submitted by senes19 on Sat, 05/09/2020 - 19:19

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While I'm watching David's story, I understand repeatedly that our most important treasure is health. It looks like very creative and genius. And he also seem to manage this deficiency. I conragulate him. I didnt play so much so with Lego. But always it attracts me. When I have a child, I want to play with him.

Submitted by VIVIANB_D on Tue, 11/08/2020 - 00:22

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I reckon that he is a creatives, genius and smat guy, David´s has the world in his devices.

Submitted by hamzahh on Thu, 18/06/2020 - 18:45

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Genius idea, this kid creates unconsciously a new type of makers " do human lamb yourself " with only lego. Unbelievable !

Submitted by girosero on Tue, 09/06/2020 - 13:42

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I think that this person is very intelligent and isn't lazy because he does his arm when he was 9 years is very Amazing

Submitted by Username alrea… on Thu, 23/04/2020 - 19:53

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I think that the invention is a fantastic idea: cheap, useful, and can potentially help many people all around the world.
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Submitted by OlaIELTS on Mon, 13/04/2020 - 02:05

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To me David's device is a breed of sophisticated development that's amazing and it's welcome. I would built car out of Lego.

Submitted by Vidyasagar on Sun, 02/02/2020 - 06:03

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He is amazing. What he has achieved is just fantastic. Not the physical barriers, but the mental barriers are what stopping a person from achieving something. Coming to me, i haven't heard the word Lego in the past. Now, i'll see what can i do with it.