Getting started question

[timtiptoes]

Hi, noob here,

This seems like the best forum for my questions. 

I see on youtube people building actual machines out of lego, like here,  and I'd like to know is there one big kit, like mindstorms, that people buy to get started? Or do they just buy lots of kits and then picking and choosing pieces?

Or do people use digitial design tools, generate a bill of materials and then order just those parts?

Oh, and one more question: What's the best forum here for this stuff?

thanks in advance

[dhc6twinotter]

Welcome to the forum!

I think most people on the forum buy sets and use the parts from those sets to build their own MOCs.  Some use digital design tools, but personally, I prefer to just build and use trial and error with physical parts.  I have the majority of parts I need for a MOC on hand, and for the few I don't,  I use Bricklink and/or LEGO Bricks and Pieces to order the parts I need.

This would be the best forum for building things similar to what's in the video you posted.  If you end up going the Mindstorms route, there is a forum for that.

[Andman]

52 minutes ago, timtiptoes said:

Hi, noob here,

This seems like the best forum for my questions. 

I see on youtube people building actual machines out of lego, like here,  and I'd like to know is there one big kit, like mindstorms, that people buy to get started? Or do they just buy lots of kits and then picking and choosing pieces?

Or do people use digitial design tools, generate a bill of materials and then order just those parts?

Oh, and one more question: What's the best forum here for this stuff?

thanks in advance

Welcome to the forum! For this kind of stuff, this is the correct forum. All you questions can basically answered with yes. But i think many people here are buying/collection Lego (Technic) since many years. At least did and still do. As time passes... lets say the part count magically never goes down :-)

If you are interested in sets, which give you a good start, search the forum for "parts pack". There are certain sets, which give you a better variety and more parts for a reasonable price.

[Gray Gear]

If you dont want to spend a fortune but still want to insist on using original LEGO bricks I would recomment picking up some used sets or used LEGO technic collection to get started. Please dont buy new LEGO technic sets without proper research first. Overpriced and often disappointing.

[chlego]

I guess I just repeat what everyone says, but the collection comes with time. Mindstorms is a good set for starting, but since I don't have the 51515 (which is the new one), I don't know how it is. The 31313 (the older one) is great tho.

I always check the best price and price-quality and then usually buy 1 large-ish set per wave.

I just realized I've never bought a used set.

Remember one thing: You never have enough Lego...

[Jurss]

I started buying sets. Then I I realised that I don't have space/place for all repeating parts. Now I buy mostly some parts, mostly those, which are newly implemented, something older rarer.

 

[howitzer]

A lot depends on how much time and/or money are you willing to invest and what do you think you need. Also, don't forget to consider sorting and storage, Lego can take a lot of space especially if you want it properly sorted.

I would say that if you want to gather a wide selection of parts, buying sets is the best way to do that but comes with some serious caveats: The upside is that all the parts you'll be getting are brand new, you'll know exactly what you're getting, and you'll get a full set to build which you can examine and learn stuff from. The downside is that the options are very much limited by whatever is currently available so you'll really have to do your research first on what types of parts you need. A lot of useful parts can be rare in official sets (some were common in the past but not anymore) so you're better off buying those separately. As you expand your collection, buying sets for parts becomes less and less useful, as you're going to already own those parts in large enough quantities so after a while you should only buy sets which offer something new for you, like a colour scheme that you want to add to your collection (for example, I don't have much of yellow parts so buying 42114 might be a good investment for its exterior but its chassis is still built mostly from LBG bricks so I'd have those in excess quantity).

Buying parts individually from Bricklink or whatever gets you exactly the parts you need but can get expensive. My gut-feeling is that the price per part is about five to ten times higher compared to official sets but this can vary a lot depending on many factors. If you have a parts list of what you need, you could cross-check it's contents against sets currently in production and see if some of those would fit well into your needs so you'd get most of the necessary parts from the set and then fill the gaps with a Bricklink order.

As for buying used Lego, the very cheapest way is to go to an auction site or fleamarket, and buy batches of mixed Lego. You can get a lot of stuff for very cheaply, but you don't get to choose what you get very well and used Lego is often dirty so you should wash it first, which is a lot of work and it's even more work to sort it properly. Buying used sets gets more expensive (again, a lot of variation here), but they are often in better condition than mixed batches and you'll have a good idea of the contents and whether it fits to your needs or not.

Something to keep in mind if you're doing digital builds: unless you're experienced and know what you're doing, it's very easy to build digital models that are impossible to build in real life and/or are very weak and fall apart if you attempt to build them from real bricks. You really should get yourself some physical bricks first and attempt to build something with them so you'll have some feeling of how a Technic build is put together. I often build simultaneously both, the digital and physical model, alternating between the two as the building progresses.

As for the Mindstorms, you can find more info on its specific forum but personally I can highly recommend the new 51515 set. It includes four motors and a hub of 6 ports (as opposed to 4-port hub of the C+ sets) and a rechargeable battery so it'll get you a nice starting pack to build motorized MOCs.

[timtiptoes]

Awesome! Thank you for the great info. I'm in much better shape now and eager to get started.

[2GodBDGlory]

If you are looking to get a wide variety of pieces that can be used for all kinds of MOCs in a single set, I would recommend the 42043 Mercedes-Benz Arocs as a good starter set. I got it in late 2016 as my first Technic set, and I think that it is likely the best starter set with which to build MOCs.

[howitzer]

42043 is indeed a great set, even as a parts pack, because it includes motor, pneumatics, suspension, many wheels and even a linear actuator. The only downside is that it's also pretty expensive today so unless you find it at bargain price somewhere, I'd recommend something else. 42055 is also great though it lacks pneumatics and suspension parts and only has 4 small wheels, but the amount of structural parts is unrivaled and there's a lot of track-links and gearbox parts too.

All in all it comes down to what you want to build though - no single set covers everything and if for example you want to build fast cars you have no need for tracks, for those it's better to invest in lots and lots of panels in the colour scheme of your choice.