Modifying Bricks?

[Hod Carrier]

Hello,

First of all, apologies if this topic has already been covered. Apologies too if I'm stoking controversy with my question.

I was just wondering what the general consensus was on the topic of modifying bricks, by which I specifically mean cutting them down to fit as necessary. I understand that this would render any build effectively "illegal", but I'm interested to know how widespread and acceptable this practice is among the AFOL community at large.

My reason for asking is that a build I'm currently working on may only be resolved by these means if all other methods fail.

Over to you.

[dr_spock]

Funny you should ask. We recently had a discussion on that about a couple month ago. http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=106241

[deraven]

I won't presume to speak for the whole community, but since there haven't been a lot of other replies... I think you can do whatever you want with your own personal property but, for the purposes of a MOC here, I would say that most people are against that kind of modification. Part of what makes MOCing fun is figuring out clever solutions within the System. If someone posted a huge, highly-complex MOC but achieved their result by cutting and shaving pieces, using stuff they picked up at the hardware store, etc., it wouldn't be all that impressive and would be much more "a creation made with some Lego" rather than "a Lego creation."

I also think that most folks are more-or-less OK with things like cutting down a piece of flextube to the right length or modifying a minifig for decorative purposes (in which case it's a "customized minifig" anyway, not a MOC), but cutting bricks and technic pieces to "make it work" is somewhat frowned upon in general.

Again, this is all just my personal thoughts along with what I've taken to be the summary opinion from many similar discussions over the years, but I'd say the better way to approach it would be to post the challenge you're having and see if you can get some ideas on how to solve it in-System from some of the other highly-creative AFOLS here!

[Hod Carrier]

Hi deraven,

Thanks for the reply. That neatly summarised what I imagined the feelings would be, and it's pretty much what I expected.

I have to say that I'm in agreement with this sentiment. I have been thinking and tinkering with the problem to come up with a "legal" solution, and I think I've come up with a workable solution. Well, as far as LDD is concerned at least. It might work out differently when I get the bricks. Ha ha!!

[deraven]

Right- LDD is pretty solid overall, but until they implement a gravity and "swooshing" simulator it's no substitute for the real bricks!

[Hod Carrier]

Yes, I've found a few weak points in the design and have added some reinforcement in some places but have been able to remove it from others where I expected there to be weaknesses. However, it's a good way of cooking up a basic recipe and checking how things should look.