University/College Theme

[Tequila Teala]

Hi everyone. My friends thought I was crazy when I dug my old Legos out a few months back and started putting them together in the evenings. They were impressed by my scenes and how a lego set up could tell a story. They still think I'm a little off, but I haven't convinced them to log on here and see I'm perfectly normal, they are not. ;)

It has been an awesome adventure learning how big the Lego enthusiast community is. I've started looking at newer sets and trying to decide a direction for my collection. The sets I have from the '80s and early '90s run the gamut from town, pirates, castle, and even Cabana Beach from Paridisa. In deciding on a direction, I decided that I really liked the details of the town sets and the stories I could tell with them. I also really like my job as a University Administrator and think that doing a MOC of a University/College could be awesome and fit really well with sets I already have. I'm asking for help in determining what sets would be the best in helping me accomplish the following builds. I appreciate everyone's help!

Items I plan on building:

Classroom/Academic Hall (At least 2 different ones)

Residence Hall/Dorm

Administration Building

Cafeteria

Student Union w/bookstore, cafe, and convience store

Apartments

Theatre

Library

Fountain

Stadium for soccer/football (have purchased the soccer challenge II for this set up. I'm trying to amass a collection of cheerleaders)

Basketball arena

Parking lots

I think I can do some really great scenes of pep rallies, tailgating, sports games, and regular days. If you have a thought for another building to include or anything, please let me know.

Thanks! TL

[Stash2Sixx]

Honestly, for the items you intend to build, I wouldn't bother with sets. I would suggest a PAB wall at a nearby LEGO store. I'm not quite sure how large you want some of these MOCs to be, but at least you can save yourself a few dollars (and headaches) by buying brick in bulk.

What university if I may ask?

[Tequila Teala]

Honestly, for the items you intend to build, I wouldn't bother with sets. I would suggest a PAB wall at a nearby LEGO store. I'm not quite sure how large you want some of these MOCs to be, but at least you can save yourself a few dollars (and headaches) by buying brick in bulk.

What university if I may ask?

I'm at New Mexico State. Thanks for the suggestion!

[MetroiD]

Welcome - and what a great idea you've got in your head there! Hope you get around to building that sooner rather than later - if I were you, I wouldn't wait until I've got all the "right" bricks - just go with it and try to build anything, even if it's just a small portion of what you've planned. An entire university campus sounds, at least to me, like a very daring project - have you considered the Harry Potter sets for that purpose? I know they're a bit overpriced, but at they end of the day they might have quite a few pieces you'd need in that alma mater of yours. Also, you might want to check out the 10184 Town Plan - I feel that it could be very useful in terms of building arrangement, scenes, etc. for your campus since it also tries to potreay quite a large scene.

In any case, good luck and have fun building, and don't forget to fill us in on how it's going.

[Tequila Teala]

Welcome - and what a great idea you've got in your head there! Hope you get around to building that sooner rather than later - if I were you, I wouldn't wait until I've got all the "right" bricks - just go with it and try to build anything, even if it's just a small portion of what you've planned. An entire university campus sounds, at least to me, like a very daring project - have you considered the Harry Potter sets for that purpose? I know they're a bit overpriced, but at they end of the day they might have quite a few pieces you'd need in that alma mater of yours. Also, you might want to check out the 10184 Town Plan - I feel that it could be very useful in terms of building arrangement, scenes, etc. for your campus since it also tries to potreay quite a large scene.

In any case, good luck and have fun building, and don't forget to fill us in on how it's going.

Thanks, MetroiD!

[gotoAndLego]

I've started looking at newer sets and trying to decide a direction for my collection.

Why do you need to "decide a direction"? Just get which ever sets you like the look of.

[Odyssey]

That's a quite nice idea with the university campus. I've been thinking about doing a CC-Style University building with a lecture hall, library and office room plus maybe a small park. I think if you want to realize all the things you are thinking about it'll take quite some time and become a pretty big project. That doesn't mean you should do it, but you should have a realistic time frame for it.

What you should probably do is come up with a rough plan of how you want the buildings to look, how many buildings you want to have and how you'll arrange them on your campus. That said, I also think you shouldn't necessarily use sets to get your bricks but rather plan each building first and then purchase your bricks through Pick a Brick or Bricklink.

And personally, I'd probably start with either the cafeteria or a building with classrooms as those are smaller parts of the project and quite essential for a uni ;-). If you've got one or two buildings finished that gives you a better idea of how the rest should look and it gives you a sense of achievement and should help you start with the larger buildings...

[ACCURATEin]

You're perfectly normal. Your friends just aren't as cool as you haha.

I just google street viewed NM State campus. Order a bunch of tan and start building one of the buildings. Ultimately build your entire campus and have it displayed somewhere for everyone to see.