Football table : A LEGO® creation by Vladimir van Hoek : MOCpages.com

Football table

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Trolls versus Clones football table! In my teens I used to play a lot of "tafelvoetbal". It's about a 1:2 scale model, and plays brilliantly!

About this creation

I had the idea to build a football table for a while, but I was stuck in a large project, my previous MOC the Black Falcon Flying Fortress.

Construction started with finding a way to hang Minifigs on the bars. The obvious choice, "back-pack studs", I did not have enough, but the design I eventually stuck with, may be a lot more sturdy. I could have chosen for Minifigs with wigs, so the studs could be covered, but I liked the absurdity of trolls versus clones too much, plus, the few studs left look cool.

Next was the playing field. I was surprised I did not have enough yellow tiles, but I came to underestimate the size of this MOC a couple of more times during construction... So the field is muddy, it is a cola-stained, beaten-up, old table.

The ball-return was trickier than I expected. I was so sure that balls would get stuck, that I left a way to open the tunnel. This proved to be the solution for balls getting stuck; it allowed a gentle slope over half the table width.

The ball is dropped on the side of the player who was scored against. It rolls under the goal, through four layers of solid brick, to the spring-closed scoop. I wanted to make the table as heavy as possible, to prevent movement during play. It is close to 6 kilograms, or about 13 pounds...

There had to a net in the goal, not just for aesthetics, but to prevent the ball bouncing back into play after a hard hit, as well. In Dutch play this is called a "klinker" and quite an accomplishment. I did not want to make it too easy...

As I had already decided on the design for the bars, it was just a matter of building the walls up then. In it is the coint slot. As is to be expected with a beaten-up, old machine, it does not function... No matter what currency you throw in it, or how many times you push, and push and hold, and push and hold and shake that button, nothing will happen whatsoever!

The score counter works smoothly. Fumbling around with designs to have the heads face up did not work out, but this was cool as well. The edge of the table is round so that no one is dumb enough to put his glass on there. Judging from the stains on the field, the cup holders are none too stable either...

The second to last feature are the ashtrays and cigarettes. The cigarettes are out of scale with the MOC, but they turned out pretty convincing...

The bar grips were the last puzzle to solve. I was set on using wheels for them, but down to it, I only wanted the tires, and realising that it was a piece of cake to build ready for play. And, it plays brilliantly! You can not spin the bars though, but you should not want to either; kicking the ball with an aimed precision shot is a lot more effective... There is a lot of flexibility in the bars, and they rarely come apart. In the initial design they were two layers of plates thick, but this was too fragile. The holes in the wall were big enough to add a third plate and still allow easy spinning.

Dexter isn't very good at playing tafelvoetbal... He and his brother Helix celebrated their first birthday yesterday! They are still far too young to play with LEGO, but they want it so much! I allow them in my room when I am there building for as long as they behave, but that is usually not very long. Dexter always tries to steal bricks, and Helix likes chewing on LEGO building instruction booklets...