GBC - Balls and sets where to start?

[DS613]

I am afol and I own a few lego sets, and I am very interested in starting GBC bulds but I dont really know where to start. Any help would be nice.

What sets to buy to get started with GBC builds?

where to get the basket and football balls?

where to get the gears?

where to get the power?

Web sites etc.

Thanks in Advance

DS

[happymark]

I am new for GBC too. here are some of my thoughts

1) any sets would do, although you might want to buy some Technic sets. normal bricks & Plates would be useful too. even your existing set

2) there is a basket piece, you can also build your own using bricks or Technic parts.

balls are a little hard to get - (some GBC fans are hoarding a lot of them). maybe try to get from bricklink.

also, there is a thread for it. (you can use cheap beads)

http://www.eurobrick...showtopic=69642

3) you can be gears from Technic set, Education set or LEGO NXT, of course bricklink.com

4) power function, you can buy from shop.lego.com or bricklink.com

basically,

bricklink.com

shop.lego.com

legoeducation.com

ebay.com

craigslist.org

just my 2c

Edited August 9, 2013 by happymark

[Yiharua]

Our friend up here gave you a nice advice.

Bricklink is the best way to find cheaper GBC balls, altough you must need to know the ball reference to find it...

Anyway, there are alternatives. Bionicle zamor balls are not an option; they are bigger. But if you are not a Lego purist I highly recommend you to go to your local chinesse store (We have a looot in Spain) and ask for small balls. They have one type of the exact same size of the GBC balls.

And it is 5 cents per ball... (Bricklink price for GBC balls is between 0.5€ and 1.5€)

However official GBC balls are better looking :P.

See you! I hope I have helped you!

[EyesOnly]

I have ordered from the this ebay store that sells plastic beads as linked to from another thread. I will post back when i have them and what i think about them.

[Yiharua]

Eyesonly, those are the ones I was talking about. ;). They are perfect, they have the same exact size. ;)

[SheepEater]

[EyesOnly]

Those balls only have 31 and 36 bricklink lots respectively so while they might be a good source eventually, right now buying 20+ of them would cost a lot.

Eyesonly, those are the ones I was talking about. ;). They are perfect, they have the same exact size. ;)

My should be here in a few days i hope. BTW year ago i made a marble machine after reading about them. It used marbles instead of Lego balls due again to me not wanting to buy any. Anyways while it worked about as reliably as any such machine does, it was very noisy due to the weight of the marbles. I have separated the marbles that were to large to fit (16+ mm)into a smaller bag. The smaller marbles are 15 mm something so still bigger than what's recommended. While that machine wasn't based on GBC and i only have crappy pics of it, i plan to use marbles when i begin testing my GBC if the beads aren't there yet or even if they are to see the difference. The weight difference alone will make it interesting.

BTW if you are in the market for balls, don't use marbles. Due to their weight, anything built for beads/ plastic balls will probably struggle a lot with it and most likely fail. Simpler modules would probably work but i don't even want to think about all the weight posed by 20 marbles trapped inside the same module on their way up. Just look at the more advanced modules to see what i mean.

Oh since i've talked so much about it. The machine i built had a conveyor belt using the newer track links that pushed the marbles against a wall as they went up. If i build another conveyor it will use some sort of scoop to lift balls. 2 friction pins seems to be used a lot for this. The motor powering the machine was mounted so when the pump stalled, which of course it did at times, it separated from the machine slightly so that the gear on it could continue spinning without harming it. While this was due to bad mounting from me i really liked the effect. Sadly i doubt any machine i build now will have that feature so i've better fit a clutch gear somewhere.

The model wasn't really that much fun but now i feel confident that i can build something better. Since i will need a few modules to get a loop i while have lots of practice.

[Yiharua]

Weight difference is a little bit of a pitty... I have tried with marbles but it is not at all the same. Even simpler modules tend to fail...

Anyway those balls you have bought have same size and weight (or very similar weight) and worked in our local LUG events when we needed more balls.

I am looking forward to see your GBCs! And you should tell us more about the old marble module ;). Any pic?

Sheepeater those balls were a great new for us, the GBCers, this year. But not many of them are available as eyesonly says...

[S.I]

Lego direct has the orange ball for 76 eurocents. Still not cheap.

[dr_spock]

I have ordered from the this ebay store that sells plastic beads as linked to from another thread. I will post back when i have them and what i think about them.

I would be interested in the how those beads work out? Are they similar in weight to the Lego balls. I displayed my GBC outdoors today at a picnic and I was combing the grass for lost balls. I wouldn't cry if those beads got lost in the tall grass.

[EyesOnly]

I would be interested in the how those beads work out? Are they similar in weight to the Lego balls.

Anyway those balls you have bought have same size and weight (or very similar weight) and worked in our local LUG events when we needed more balls.

I am looking forward to see your GBCs! And you should tell us more about the old marble module ;). Any pic?

dr_spock see above for answers to your question. I wont have any Lego balls for a long time to compare with. Ok just had another look at my old marble machine. The pics aren't good but i'll make a new thread once my flickr has been properly set up. I wanna make subfolders and stuff.

[LegoGBC]

Basketballs:

http://www.bricklink.com/search.asp?itemID=18197&colorID=4

Footballs:

http://www.bricklink.com/search.asp?itemID=3223&colorID=1

Sets: You'll need both classic bricks & technic liftarms...I for example have only 1 technic set - the 8043,but I have lots of the "regular" Lego.

I'll be making a GBC tutorial series soon which will include everything a new GBCer needs to know :)

[EyesOnly]

A tutorial would be great. BTW i just compared the price of balls to about what my beads will cost and i would get about 25 balls, not including shipping for the same cost as 100 beads, which at least for me had free shipping. Prices need to go way down for me at least to pick up some official balls.

[LegoGBC]

A tutorial would be great. BTW i just compared the price of balls to about what my beads will cost and i would get about 25 balls, not including shipping for the same cost as 100 beads, which at least for me had free shipping. Prices need to go way down for me at least to pick up some official balls.

I agree,the prices for the GBC balls are pretty high,that's because Lego discontinued them. Luckily for me I got like 30 balls off of eBay when I started,cost me around 7$

[Yiharua]

That was a good deal in fact... Great price.

[dr_spock]

dr_spock see above for answers to your question. I wont have any Lego balls for a long time to compare with. Ok just had another look at my old marble machine. The pics aren't good but i'll make a new thread once my flickr has been properly set up. I wanna make subfolders and stuff.

Ok. In that case, I'll order some of those balls myself and do a comparision. $5 for 100 doesn't seem like a big financial risk. Thanks for the ebay link.

[EyesOnly]

Your welcome and yes for that price it sure is worth it.

[DrJB]

IMHO, one of the best sets (number/variety of parts, value) is 8258. You don't get the tracks that many GBCs use for lift mechanisms, but the assortment of liftarms and gears is real good. ALso check philo's homepage. He's got LXF/LDD files for some interesting contraptions. Needless to say Akiyuki's designs are phenomenal and some people have made LXF/LDD files to help as well.

[EyesOnly]

I just wanted to say that my "balls" arrived today. I was surprised at the small size of the envelope it came in. I thought it would be bigger. Anyways one of the beads was measured at 13,7 mm and that is fully acceptable considering the price. Also i don't know how accurate my calliper is. I did count them and they were all there.

Unfortunately i'm still looking over my sorting system last updated about 5 years ago so it will be at least a few days before i can get going. The module i started had trouble with marbles but worked fine with the beads. I haven't even motorized the mechanism yet but thankfully it can be tried out by hand. That is also all i'm gonna say for now other than that it will not be an original design, just one that is rare.

[nxtstep101]

I just wanted to say that my "balls" arrived today. I was surprised at the small size of the envelope it came in. I thought it would be bigger. Anyways one of the beads was measured at 13,7 mm and that is fully acceptable considering the price. Also i don't know how accurate my calliper is. I did count them and they were all there.

Unfortunately i'm still looking over my sorting system last updated about 5 years ago so it will be at least a few days before i can get going. The module i started had trouble with marbles but worked fine with the beads. I haven't even motorized the mechanism yet but thankfully it can be tried out by hand. That is also all i'm gonna say for now other than that it will not be an original design, just one that is rare.

Can't wait to see it!

Good luck!

[DrJB]

Double Post

Edited September 3, 2013 by DrJB

[EyesOnly]

Well i'm not and as for 8258 then the prices i have seen makes buying 42009 a much better deal. I did see that module and it was nice. If i had the time and patience i would try something similar with another set.

[Yiharua]

Nice! Hoping to see your module soon! :D

[Doc_Brown]

Anyone received their new balls yet from ebay? I'm very curious to hear how they are? :)

[S.I]

I'm thinking about ordering a couple hundred 14mm marbles, they are the same size so ignoring the weight issues the layouts should be similar. And its a lot cheaper, 4 euros for 100 marbles. I'm hoping that I just will need to reduce the gearing some in order for this to work. First thing I want to do is build some sort of vertical screw.

Edited September 2, 2013 by S.I