Anyone else doing lego or lego clone builds?

[Drnick]

Just seeing if anyone else has done any of the big builds?  Got the wife the Disney castle for Xmas,  It's taken a week and some frustration but we have completed it. Over 4000 Pieces, 14 parts to the build.  Gonna have to mess about in the future fitting the LED's. Would have been nice if they had arrived, in fact would have been nice if they had even shipped, but hey ho, the joys of dealing with Ali

Ended up having 3 pieces missing, and about 30 extra pieces that weren't needed but came in handy to cover up the missing bits with a bit of rearranging

Based on the quality of this clone I would be more than happy to get the Death Star or the Imperial star destroyer from them

[Mike A]

Chinese SSD

[Mike A]

Genuine Lego Helicarrier



The helicarrier was missing 2 bags of Legos. Amazon sent another entire set and asked me to send back what I didn't use.

The Lepin SSD had 4 or 5 extra pieces.

[Drnick]

Nice SSD,  First time I have seen the Helicarrier.  The wife is dropping hints that she wants me to get the Hogwart's castle next. Not sure where it will go, although if she wants to turn the spare room into a Harry potter theme room instead of Haunted mansion It could go in there.  Secretly I think she just enjoys playing with lego and doesn't care what we do next. In which case I'll choose the Ghostbusters firestation and Ecto 1

[Howard_Casto]

Ok I'll ask you guys then.  What's the average price for legos these days? Don't care if it's an official set or lepin or whatever.... I'm mainly interested in doing pixel art with them so special shapes or stickers or whatever aren't needed. 

[Malenko]

I thought this was about cloning the BYOAC bartop that was made out of legos

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,102758.msg1088008.html#msg1088008

[Drnick]

@ Howard, I am assuming you mean 3d Pixel art, in which case I see about 37 dollars a kilo selecting the exact sized bits you want although colour will be random
If you are talking flat pixel art using 2x1 flat studded bricks, then you can get them for about $10 per 1000
Search aliexpress for kimifun store, From there you can view a bunch of similar items

@Malenko, Looks like about 90$ worth of lego, few pots of superglue,  I can ask the wife if she is up for the challenge

[shponglefan]

Ok I'll ask you guys then.  What's the average price for legos these days? Don't care if it's an official set or lepin or whatever.... I'm mainly interested in doing pixel art with them so special shapes or stickers or whatever aren't needed.

10 cents/piece is the running average for Lego.  Individual pieces can vary considerably depending on size / complexity. But 10 cents per is a good ballpark for estimating.

[Howard_Casto]

Thanks, that's very helpful.  I need an arts and craft project to retain my sanity at night.  I'm thinking this or perler beads, but ironing stuff sounds more like work than fun. 

[danny_galaga]

Nice castle Drnick!

I never had Lego growing up, but an ex bought me the Simpsons Kwikimart, which was a fun build.

On the clone front I have a Rick and Morty workshop diorama I will put together one day (",)

[jdbailey1206]

Kylo Rens Tie Fighter (75179) was the largest build I have accomplished.  Rather small compared to other builds.  It was only 630 pieces but still fun to build.





We also got my daughter Luke / Yoda brickheadz for Christmas.  My daughter and I ended up building them together.  I didn't think I would like them but they look cooler in person.

[Mr. Peabody]

I don't get these 'pre-makes'. Just buy the toy.

[ark_ader]

In the old days of my youth, I was a master builder.  When I got older, I got a job at an angling and tackle shop.  Ended up getting the title "masterbaiter", for successful monthly bait sales.

True story.

[jdbailey1206]

In the old days of my youth, I was a master builder.  When I got older, I got a job at an angling and tackle shop.  Ended up getting the title "masterbaiter", for successful monthly bait sales.

True story.

Master builder / master baiter.  Both make good use of your hands and both are started in your youth.

[Howard_Casto]

I had a physics teacher in High School named Ben Baker who was quite proud of the fact that he had a Master's degree.  He warned us not to say his full title too quickly. 

[Drnick]

I don't get these 'pre-makes'. Just buy the toy.

I'll put it like this, in slightly larger building terms.  When I want to build a lean-to or a shed I design and build my own,  But If I want to build a house I hire an architect and follow his plans.

[Howard_Casto]

Isn't the hole point of lego the act of building it though?  If you want a model of something lego is a piss-poor medium what with the ugly studs and seams and what not. 

[Drnick]

All the enjoyment was in the building, Sure it may be the ugliest of all the castle models that are in the room, but me and the wife can say to others when they see it, yep we put that together.

Now if you had given me a box with the 4000+ bits included with the castle but no instructions and no picture of how it should look I would probably have been able to put something that resembles the castle together, but it would have been more than a little wonky and by no means as sturdy as it is.

Now that I can recognise a lot of the bits used in this build and the way they were used together I may use the Lego Designer software and see if I can make a sleeping beauty castle similar to Disneyland's castle. 





 

[ark_ader]

Sometimes these kits are too complicated and destroys what Lego is supposed to be.  Your interpretation of a said space vehicle and playing with that, or creating something new from standard parts.  Now the bricks are only for the original model concept.  Some are pretty sharp for small children.  I got stabbed easily for not watching what I was doing.  It's not mecanno or an airfix kit, but it's trying to be.I

I miss the simplicity of the 1980's space lego, trains and the original bricks we started from.

[jdbailey1206]

My belief is the larger builds are geared more to the 'kids at heart' demographic.  Build them once and you have something to showpiece and not to play with.  (Or play with when no is looking.  I don't judge.   )  There are many Youtube videos showing how to build other versions of something with the same kit.  BrickBrosUK is just one example.

Being a fan of Lego growing up I have found a new revitalized appreciation for them all over again.  The one thing I have noticed though is that, for whatever reason, the bricks out of the new sets just don't seem to stick together like they did in the 80's.  When I put my Tie Fighter together pieces would just fall apart to no fault of my own.  I've even noticed this when I helped put together my daughters sets.  The polymer that Lego uses seems a little weaker than it used to be.

I would also recommend watching A Lego Brickumentary on Amazon and of course The Toys That Made Us episode. 

[Drnick]

I agree with jdbailey1206   especially the Bricumentary and toys that made us.  Also if you can find it there has been 2 series of lego building challenges on UK TV Lego Masters, that's what it was called.

Thanks google .

[Mr. Peabody]

Sometimes these kits are too complicated and destroys what Lego is supposed to be.  Your interpretation of a said space vehicle and playing with that, or creating something new from standard parts.  Now the bricks are only for the original model concept.  Some are pretty sharp for small children.  I got stabbed easily for not watching what I was doing.  It's not mecanno or an airfix kit, but it's trying to be.I

I miss the simplicity of the 1980's space lego, trains and the original bricks we started from.

As I recall, Lego was always a certain construction, and the commercials had a line about making your own design. That was the idea behind the product. We got a moon station kit in '82 or 3, and we built it one night (mostly, as we got stumped on the final bits....) and then......forgot about it for a couple years when I wanted my own version of the ship Voltron combo air ship. I made other similar things. All were pretty simple, none bigger than my hand. I built a small Enterprise-like ship, and imagined a dedicated version, without studs on the outer pieces/faces, which then I thought, 'why not just have a toy?.....'

I remember the blocks getting stuck so hard you needed two pairs of pliers to get them apart, but that in the later 80s they made them easier to come apart, meaning they fell apart easily as well.

[Mr. Peabody]

Life size: https://www.popularmechanics.com/cars/a25955039/life-size-chevy-silverado-legos/

[The 80s Man]

Check out this ZRK/ LOZ/ Nanoblock arcade machine kit.

I'm thinking ordering one. I wonder if one could find a small digital picture frame to fit inside the mini cab to provide different background images.