The LEGO Thread

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So I'm making a custom Lego kit for my brother's birthday gift. It's a model of the blacksmith shop our great grandfather built and owned. Been planning it for a few weeks now. Designed and tweaked it in MLCAD and got used to the software (I'm new to MLCAD). Ended up with a 985 pc MOC that I actually own very few pieces for. Installed the Brickstore software to get price estimates for all the pieces (and an estimated total kit price). Imported that parts list into a wanted list in Bricklink. Spent a week sorting out suppliers for all the bricks while trying to buy from as few stores as possible to save on shipping. Placed all of my orders last night through Bricklink (signed up for Paypal for the first time in my life). Now they are all paid for, and one store even shipped already.

What an ordeal, but it's been a great learning experience the whole way through. I plan on doing many more MOC's and now I've got a good grasp on what's involved with that. After all is said and done, even after including shipping costs into it, I'm paying an average of $.08/pc. I'm happy with that seeing as I had a few older expensive parts and a few other costly items like baseplates. It's like half of what it would have cost me using the Lego site to buy bricks.

Now I just have to wait for brick deliveries. While I'm waiting I'm going to work on making custom Lego instructions out of MLCAD for the kit. I'm fearful this may be the hardest part of the project, I hope I'm wrong, lol.

Bricklink sure is a nice tool for buying bricks though.
 
woo, crossed the $600 mark on my ucs millennium falcon piece hunt. Should be less, but I accidentally ordered double of some pieces before I got serious about tracking purchases and inventory. I also didn't make as many color substitutions as I could have. 5000 pieces is a shitload of bricks though.

Lego never did send me an invoice for my order I made through their part replacement program, but it came. Got 47 of the 1x16 dark bluish gray technic pieces for pretty much half of what it would cost on bricklink.

Still haven't bought the minifigs, but they're all reasonable apart from old obi wan going for around $17.
 
woo, crossed the $600 mark on my ucs millennium falcon piece hunt. Should be less, but I accidentally ordered double of some pieces before I got serious about tracking purchases and inventory. 5000 pieces is a shitload of bricks.

Lego never did send me an invoice for my order, but it came. Got 47 of the 1x16 dark bluish gray technic pieces for pretty much half of what it would cost on bricklink.

Still haven't bought the minifigs, but they're all reasonable apart from old obi wan going for around $17.

Skipping out on minifigs is a nice way to save on some sets, haha.
 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bluQ4eOeBwo

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Just got the final parts and finished up wetwired's Lego Tumbler. Ended up making a couple changes to the rear spoiler cause in his design it kept falling off. I really like it.

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Cool. I actually sat down last week attempting to make some improvements to it. Bigger wheels at the back, better forms. I got discouraged pretty quickly though remembering how difficult it is to recreate the tumblers shapes.

Also while we're talking about cuusoo go vote for my batmobile and tell you friends to :p
 
For the canadians, indigo.ca/chapters is having a 20-25% all lego sale. Some of the items aren't available online, but check the store stock. The Chapters near me had 9 X-wings in stock (8 now). I walked out with the X-Wing, Snow trooper Battle Pack and 2 Series 6 collectible minifigs.

Only have phone camera on me.
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Probably gonna go back and for more minifigs.
 
Cool. I actually sat down last week attempting to make some improvements to it. Bigger wheels at the back, better forms. I got discouraged pretty quickly though remembering how difficult it is to recreate the tumblers shapes.

Also while we're talking about cuusoo go vote for my batmobile and tell you friends to :p

Also supported. Do you ever get to see what we write in the popup box asking us how much we're willing to pay and why we want it?
 
I could show you what I did to make the rear spoiler more stable. Also the cabin cover needs a little help, it's pretty flimsy.

Cool. I actually sat down last week attempting to make some improvements to it. Bigger wheels at the back, better forms. I got discouraged pretty quickly though remembering how difficult it is to recreate the tumblers shapes.
 
I could show you what I did to make the rear spoiler more stable. Also the cabin cover needs a little help, it's pretty flimsy.

The new one I was attempting was a complete rebuild from the ground up.

You mean the removable roof piece to give you access inside? I've built about 7 of them and never had any issues. I know what you mean about the real spoiler though.
 
Yeah, the top cover, if you press on the center it crubles. There might be a couple more integrity issues that Lego may find when testing "playability". Like the way the tires are attached may not be super durable when a kid's playing with it.

You mean the removable roof piece to give you access inside? I've built about 7 of them and never had any issues.
 
woo, crossed the $600 mark on my ucs millennium falcon piece hunt. Should be less, but I accidentally ordered double of some pieces before I got serious about tracking purchases and inventory. I also didn't make as many color substitutions as I could have. 5000 pieces is a shitload of bricks though.

Lego never did send me an invoice for my order I made through their part replacement program, but it came. Got 47 of the 1x16 dark bluish gray technic pieces for pretty much half of what it would cost on bricklink.

Still haven't bought the minifigs, but they're all reasonable apart from old obi wan going for around $17.

How many pieces do you have now?
 
Nope, that's for legos eyes only.
I wrote that I would want red bricks with your medic robot and a tear drop for when he loses a patient.

Wow the tumbler is yours too? I voted for a bunch of your things. You should just work for Lego already. Email them this thread with your application.
 
I doubt it's bigger than the UCS Millennium Falcon. In any case, they've previous released a Sandcrawler although it looks shit compared to the this one.

Please vote

Well, the Millenium Falcon has a more general appeal, it's one of the most beloved parts of the whole franchise, and houses all the best characters. This one would only appeal to hardcore fans.

Still a great MOC, though.
 
Finished the main build of the Lego Creator Blue Roadster 6913.
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Great value for $12, plus you get two other cars to build. Highly recommended.
 
Oh, yeah. UPS left my Fire Brigade delivery sitting by the front door. And it is not from the problem batch either. The box is pretty beat up, but I dont care. Gonna have fun tonight with my first modular!
 
Just got email saying my Slave 1 is on its way via UPS for delivery Thursday. Hope it's not wrecked. I want the box in good shape so I can lie to myself and say I could resell it later.
 
GAF please help me decide my next set, just really looking for something that will be fun to build.

1. VW Van
2. Fire Brigade
3. Mini Modulars
4. Tower Bridge *** longshot :D ***
5. Grand Emporium

X wing is a definite, I think that'll be my only Star Wars set.

We also have the Lighthouse Set waiting to be built too.
 
GAF please help me decide my next set, just really looking for something that will be fun to build.

1. VW Van
2. Fire Brigade
3. Mini Modulars
4. Tower Bridge *** longshot :D ***
5. Grand Emporium

X wing is a definite, I think that'll be my only Star Wars set.

We also have the Lighthouse Set waiting to be built too.


1. VW Van
- Wonderful set with some of the best building techniques to date. Displays great, too.

2. Fire Brigade
- Going out of production soon, so it may be worth getting for that fact alone. A great set with some really cool building points.

3. Mini Modulars
- Newest of the sets you listed, but has a lot of advanced micro-scale techniques and tricks. These display great on a desk, too. Playability is low, but they have crazy nostalgia to back them. No matter what you do, buy these within the next 2 years before they go OOP.

4. Tower Bridge *** longshot :D *** - If you can afford it, the Tower Bridge is my single favorite model to date. I missed the Taj Mahal and Grand Carousel, but I wasn't going to miss this. It may be getting close to its life cycle, so keep that in mind. But this gets my vote...It's a monster and holds a special place in my heart.

5. Grand Emporium - I built this a while ago, and I will say that it has so many fun parts and pieces going on. I prefer it over the Fire Brigade, but it should be around a little longer. FB wins for the collectors aspect, but GE is (in my opinion) a better set. It's completely subjective though.

Final verdict? If you can stomach the Tower Bridge, absolutely the clear choice. Otherwise, you have to judge what you're looking to "get into".
 
Noob question, guys: is it possible to upload the piece data of a lego set into MLCAD/any other program, rather than manually select every piece? For example, I'd like to digitally mess around with the pieces in my Ewok Attack & Cannibal Escape sets.

Grazie.
 
The missing pieces to my Fire Brigade came in today. Finished up the first floor and set it next to my Pet Shop. Very fun set. I'll re-organize the minifigs tomorrow to give it a more "lively street" feel.
 
4. Tower Bridge *** longshot :D *** - If you can afford it, the Tower Bridge is my single favorite model to date. I missed the Taj Mahal and Grand Carousel, but I wasn't going to miss this. It may be getting close to its life cycle, so keep that in mind. But this gets my vote...It's a monster and holds a special place in my heart.

Nice, I think I'm going to jump on this before the double VIP points event ends. I want to try tackling one of the huge sets, and Tower Bridge is an amazing bang for the buck in terms of piece count. Plus it's just a cool looking model that would make a great display piece.

Is there going to be some sort of free shipping deal going on? I thought I saw that mentioned earlier in the thread.
 
Nice, I think I'm going to jump on this before the double VIP points event ends. I want to try tackling one of the huge sets, and Tower Bridge is an amazing bang for the buck in terms of piece count. Plus it's just a cool looking model that would make a great display piece.

Is there going to be some sort of free shipping deal going on? I thought I saw that mentioned earlier in the thread.

I think someone said on the 12th there would be free shipping. :) In time to bank on double VIP, too!

And I'm sure there are a few others in this thread who have built the Tower Bridge and will agree that it's a wonderful, WONDERFUL model.
 
I think someone said on the 12th there would be free shipping. :) In time to bank on double VIP, too!

And I'm sure there are a few others in this thread who have built the Tower Bridge and will agree that it's a wonderful, WONDERFUL model.

Where is this idea of a free shipping day coming from? please tell my wallet it's not true, its scared. I can hear it whispering "just when he got bored with steam sales*sobsobsob*"
 
4. Tower Bridge *** longshot :D *** - If you can afford it, the Tower Bridge is my single favorite model to date. I missed the Taj Mahal and Grand Carousel, but I wasn't going to miss this. It may be getting close to its life cycle, so keep that in mind. But this gets my vote...It's a monster and holds a special place in my heart.

Final verdict? If you can stomach the Tower Bridge, absolutely the clear choice. Otherwise, you have to judge what you're looking to "get into".
Thank you so much for the insight. I think I might just take the plunge and go for the Tower Bridge, followed by Fire Brigade and VW van in the upcoming months.

So giddy.
 
Here's my collection of city vehicles. My favorites are the yellow car and it's caravan as well as the orange tipper truck. They are both sturdy and well built. I was disappointed with the garbage truck. It felt very flimsy on the sides and not a fan of it's dumping mechanism.

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When people resell these monster sets, are they resorting the pieces or something? If they come separated out in numbered bags, it's gotta be impossible to get them right in the tear down, right?
 
Finished the first floor of the Fire Brigade. This is my first modular set, and here is my two word review:

WOW!

I always hated the Town stuff growing up, but the rave reviews these sets got enticed me to bite, and I have to say it is probably the coolest build I have ever done, and that is just the first floor. I loved putting together the Imperial Shuttle, but with the Fire Brigade it is the little touches that make the set stand out, such as the little alarm box, or the broom and shovels inside. I glanced through the second instruction book just real fast to see how many steps there are and accidentally saw some awesome little touches in it that I wish I had not seen. Really, the less you know about the details of the set, the cooler it is. It is such a joy to see this thing come together, that even my wife was laughing and amazed at the attention to little things.

I am officially hooked on the modular series now. I need to give it a few months before I get the next one, but I HIGHLY recommend getting into them, even if you dont like Town themed stuff. The price is great for the piece count, and it is just a damn fun build.

I will post pictures when I am done building it tomorrow. It is too late to upload things from my phone.
 
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