How does an idea of a MOC come to you?

[RoryoCox]

I thought it would be interesting to find out how members decided what to build next. I know some people make minifigures and then build something around them (which is what I sometimes do). Some people walk past a local building everyday and think it would look great in lego form. Some just pluck something out of thin air and create in their heads. Others take inspiration from other people's work.

I want to know what you do. Take part in the poll and I am sure it will be interesting to see the results.

Edited May 30, 2010 by Burman

[Randal]

I create mine from thin air, but I create them with minifigures in mind. My latest "from scratch" turned out to be so bizarre that I scratched my head until I figured it had to be retro-sci-fi. Sort of what you might see if Giger was the set designer on an old Flash Gordon serial.

you can see it in this thread here.

Edited May 29, 2010 by Randal

[prateek]

This poll should be multiple choice, because I see something in real life that I want to build, and I see other people's MOCs, AND I come up with my own ideas.

[FinalFeature]

I would have to say its inspiration. It will be interesting to read what others say.

LegoGalactus

[TheWarden]

I think this topic is too widespread to have a poll. Inspiration comes from everywhere. I have a MOC (secret, hasn't been published here yet) that is an homage or spoof of a upcoming real set. So, MOCs can come from official set ideas.

Also, some people sketch to start a new MOC. I do that sometimes. The same build I'm talking about above... well I wasn't sure what form or shape I wanted overall. I wanted it sexy curvy, so I sketched out some curve lines and how they might overlap or entwine till I liked it. Then I set it aside and grabbed all by white curved bricks and got to it.

Also MOCS might come from literature or movies of course.

Sometimes I also have a mental goal list for a MOC. My long term sci-fi MOC work in progress started off as mental goal list of: 1. Red / Black 2. Use these big wheels I haven't used yet 3. Tall with two levels of interior space. Then I started the skeleton.

Anybody done these?

[krystalKING]

I voted "other" because I sometimes base it around minifig's,other time's I build something out of thin air,and one time I (this is really embarrassing to say )built a spaceship based around a fan!

[Vincent Kessels]

Every time I go shopping I come back with more ideas than groceries.

[Daniel Williams]

I usually try to build from different inspirations such as other MOCs as well as movies and tv shows. I usually try to blend different things together to make it somehow my own design. Anyway I had an idea for a WoWP substation for my town and I'm going to search for parts as soon as I can. But back to the point, my ideas are usually to ask myself what can I do to make something look better than before.

[Calabar]

As I've not many bricks, generally I try to imagine something that grow around the bricks I have.

[dr_spock]

I get ideas from out of the blue.

[MrTools]

Sometimes its just out of thin air, but mostly inspired by others work.

[Sergiu]

I usually get a new MOC idea when I see an interesting vehicle that would look very well in LEGO, but I also like to take inspiration from other people's MOCs, to see how they solved certain problems that I may encounter in my creations. Sometimes I come up with my own ideas, though this is very rare.

[Zerobricks]

I usually either get idea from thin air, or by randomly playing with bricks, until it hits me :)

[Derfel Cadarn]

I get mine all from imagination. I think it helps that my childhood was influenced by fantasy films, books, cartoons and I used to visit so many places with legends of pirates, ghosts and castles. It's just all now in my mind, which is great, as I've got about 20 odd different ideas for mocs in my head at the moment which will all be built, and as I build them, more ideas flood in. So it's never ending really. Although I love old myths and legends, and have a book with over 1000 in it, and any that sound really cool I will build. Historys always good, just the other day I though why not recreate the Gunpowder Plot on a big lavish dio, or the Great fire of London would be fun. In fact, there's just so much inspiration and ideas to build if you really think about!

[LEGOMAN132]

Others MOC's and thin air .

[-R8-]

Most of my ideas usually just pop out of thin air or are derived from real life inspiration. I usually try to think of a rough visualization of what the final MOC will turn out to be, but of course lots of improvisation and revisions during the building process causes the MOC to turn out completely different from what I envisioned before. Sometimes whenever a holiday roles around I create a MOC to commemorate the occasion.

[LuxorV]

It may vary a lot: some of my MOCs come from books I read or films/TV series and videogames, some are influenced by others' MOCs I see around, some come out of thin air or from toying around with the so-called 'table scraps'.

I almost never try to mimic buildings or vehicles I see in real life, though I did so with smaller items, like a microscope or toaster. This doesn't mean I don't build things that could exist in real life; I just give them a heavy personal and idealised twist.

But looking at my BS folder, and also thinking about some MOCs I never photographed or posted, I'd say more than 50% of my MOCs are just based on random ideas which cross my mind. At times it takes weeks for one to be complete enough to be MOC worthy, other times it's already good at first glance.

Of course, online community fashions and contest themes can influence my building choices, but it's still mostly based on the spirit of the moment.

[Superkalle]

I explore my ideas using LDD (isn't that a surprise ). I play around with colors, shapes, brick orientation etc. Sometimes the final result is something completely different then I started with. Because LDD is so much easier to use then other CAD-tools, it doesn't hinder your "flow of creativity".

[allanp]

About half the times it's from real life vehicles. Sometimes I see something, like a fully sequencial gearbox in a car and go "wow, that would function be interesting to replicate" and then build a bugatti veyron or something. Othertimes it's just stuff seen on TV/internet (anything from movie monsters and insects to trebuchets to themepark rides) or my imagination, like some crazy robot mech thing! And all from a pile of technic bricks. Gotta love Lego!

[Calanon]

I either play around with a limited number of pieces, or someone says something (usually totally un-related to LEGO) and then I think of it made in LEGO as a MOC.