Brick management

[Daniel Williams]

Hi, just curious if you have not alot of one specific part for a project, and you have projects that are gathering dust with the specific piece needed for your new project. What I'm asking is how would you manage with a small collection of bricks and such? I'm just curious who here keeps all of their creations and how long should a creation "live" or "die" (be torn apart to be harvested for parts), if anything do you keep a lego creation for show and tell if you have guests. What's your input on this matter if any? For me personally I love lego because it's universal and because I take pictures of most of my creations and if they look amazingly good keep them for a year and than take it apart. Anyway I just was curious to how you guys manage your bricks.

[Mirandir]

If I'm short on stock of one or more bricks I turn to Bricklink. If the bricks I need are expensive I just have to be patient and order them a few at the time until I have the stock I need for the project.

If the item doesn't exist in the color I need I go back to the "drawing board" or scrap the project all toghether.

[DLuders]

My son and I like building Lego TECHNIC MOCs, and so we're more concerned about FUNCTION rather than COLOR. We usually stock up on certain key parts by making Bricklink orders often. We try not to tear apart recent MOCs just to get a part. Instead, we'll usually make design changes and keep going. Sometimes, we use alternate parts and replace them with the correct ones after the next Bricklink order arrives.

There is a very talented TECHNIC AFOL ( http://sariel.pl/ ) who is building new, complex MOCs all the time. He has said that he has "only" 75,000 pieces in his collection, and reuses the same parts over and over after photographing his new MOCs and posting them online. His fans, however, sometimes say not to take his unique MOCs apart since they're so special.

Lego parts are expensive, so I guess everyone does what he/she can afford. Who wouldn't like an unlimited supply of Lego pieces?

Edited July 2, 2010 by dluders

[Ronan Dragonov]

I don't keep a MOC too long after completion – I photograph it, transcribe it into LDraw (if not too big), then scrap it. I photograph the “unbuilding” of a MOC not transcribed into LDraw so I'll have a more complete record of its design.

As for building with scarce parts I either accept the challenge of completing the MOC with what parts I have or if I can't compromise my design I turn to BrickLink.

[Modulex Guy]

I usually bricklink the parts I need. I also have MOCs / an entire large display that I use for our club's public displays that usually does not come apart for about 6 months to a year. THen I have personal MOCs that will stay together no matter what parts I need are in them.

...But its also rare that I need a part from a MOC due to the fact my collection is around an easy 200,000. bricks.

[Eilif]

Most of my personal MOC's are for the same club as Polish Guy, so my good MOC's tend to stay together for a while. If not for the club, my MOC's would probably be recycled more often, as I haven't got the space to display them.

I haven't bought off Bricklink in years, and I usually only make one PAB online order when they change the pallete just to pick up some interesting elememts. Thus, when I'm building a MOC, if I don't have the bricks to build it one way, I'll find a different way to build.

I don't have the patience to wait for an order to come in, and for me, much of the fun is building with what I have. Saying this is a bit disingenous, as I have a very large LEGO collection, but that's still how I approach the MOC'ing experience. I find a way to work with what I have.