Eyes bigger than your stomach (or bricks)?

[BrickG]

I have the unfortunate habit of my builds being too ambitious. My collection isn't nearly as big as probably 99% of the people here. No matter how much I buy I seem to have less even than people who are barely into Lego or got out of them when they were kids. ;p

So this leads to me rarely finishing a build. I'm always lacking enough pieces or enough specific pieces. Then I plan to buy them from bricklink but can't usually actually allow myself to do so because of my limited funds.

My next project, the Technodrome. Chances it'll be finished: About 5%.

(P.S. anyone got an idea for the best wheels for that thing? )

[Saint]

I think everybody started out with one set.. one time or another... and with the introduction of the internet everything became bigger and faster... young builders look up to builders who have a lot, but are forgetting they had to start somewere.... My dark ages endend in 2002... a whole 10 years ago... actualy... that was this month .. I started again with some LEGO.. perhaps a mere 1000 parts i managed to save over that time... 15 Blacktron I guys... wow.. takes me back. While on a limited funds I managed to get to the point I collected so much I had to sell some of my parts.. just to make room... Today I have a room dedicated to LEGO, try to visit the LEGO store once a year ( 160 km , for the Dutch no LEGO store ) in hope they have a few parts I need. Bricklink IS the best way to get parts !

I can relate to the fact your ambitions are bigger than your collection/ funds ... even after all this time I have the same " problem" .. now I try to calculate parts , sort them at forehand and make something accordingly. Even colors don't stand in my way.. if I want something in a specific color, I'll try to build it , and replace the parts afterwards.. problem solved... this may take some time and doing.. but IMHO totaly worth it...

Just don't give up hope I guess.. that's the message.

As for your Technodrome .. ?? I don't have a single clue what the size should be.. or what size you want to build it in..

grtz Saint

Edited October 25, 2012 by Saint

[BrickG]

It'll probably be like 2 feet or so. I can't possibly do the minifigure scale which would be like 8 feet. 2 feet will already be hard enough with my relatively small collection. I'll probably make it darker too. Light Grey (for the white'ish areas), dark grey and black. I think Lego white is too white and I wouldn't stand a chance to make anything since I don't have enough white stuff.

[Saint]

you can try mini-scale first.. using the sphere technique you can enlarge it with whatever parts you have

[Kai NRG]

I certainly wouldn't put myself in the 99%, I'm always thinking my collection is really small (I've never bought a set, all for myself, that's over $20), but I have managed to build a few bigger setups. Be creative. Size down if you have to, but use pieces you normally wouldn't think are useful. Or introduce a few colored strips down the middle. Forget the interior if you have to. Especially if you're just building for a picture, don't bother with the back or other pieces that won't be seen until you're done with the rest. Work with the bricks you have; I never plan on BrickLinking anything. (I do have an advantage of several LEGO fans near me that I can easily borrow from for the picture. . . ) Occasionally though, my eyes do end up a bit bigger than my bricks!

[Nintendawg]

I actually have the opposite problem at the moment. I have bags full of parts I still haven't opened. Maybe my ideas are too overambitious. I need to start on a bit smaller scale maybe.

[soccerkid6]

Having "eyes bigger than your bricks" is a common problem I think. It takes time to build up a large collection of parts. In the meantime try some smaller projects it will help you become a better builder and see what pieces you want to acquire

[Martin_B]

That's a phrase worth remembering - it used to happen to me all the time when I was a kid. Eventually I started to realise my limits and reined in my enthusiasm a bit. I discovered Bricklink a few months ago, which really opened things up for me. Now I can understand how so many people can make such impressive MOCs!

Apart from the obvious financial restraints, the only limitation is the physical space inside my house. Fortunately I live on my own these days, but there's still the issue of fitting in everything else (furniture, guitar gear, er, me...).

Edited October 25, 2012 by Martin_B

[Hrw-Amen]

I have to admit that I had no idea of what a Technodrome was. I imagined it to be a fancy name for one of those glitter ball things you used to get at discos. Anyway after googling it I see it is somehow connected to turtles, though what use a turtle would have for a large glitter ball looking thing I don't know. (I found an image and indeed it does look like one of those.)

So I cannot answer your question about this and the wheel size.

However I do agree with what the others have said about starting small. I had a ton of LEGO when i was a kid but no matter how much i had I always needed one more of one colour or another to finish something. It was so frustrating as there was no internet back then and mail order took ages. Now I have built up a collection to rival that of my youth with thousands of parts, but even still I come across this. There are some things that I just do not want to take apart and so Bricklink does become your friend and it seems your bank!!. I guess I probably spend more than i should really, but then i don't get out much nowadays.

Most Bricklink sellers though have smallish minimum buys and although it may cost a bit more in postage you can for as little as £10.00 get quite a lot of bricks if you look around and don't mind second hand ones.

So yes, i would say that is the way to go. I always set out with an idea of what I want to get, but end up thinking just ten og those or ten of these and before you know it you have a massive amount of bricks to use of all sorts and all colours.

[TheLegoDr]

I agree with a lot here. Try working in a different scale at first and see how you come up. I have only bricklinked a few times, but I definitely feel I have a larger collection. According to Brickset, I have over 80,000 pieces, so I try to avoid ordering more if I can get away with it. And by limiting yourself you actually learn to build better and better. If I limit myself to only using the pieces/colors I have, I end up coming up with more creative ways to design things. I haven't won any contests by doing that yet, but I have been pretty satisfied with the end result. And my skills and collection are growing all the time, so with time, things can only go up.

I would recommend keep branching out like that. If you can't visit a pick-a-brick wall or can't bricklink, set up some guidelines for your builds. You'll be happy once you finish something you set out to do.

[davee123]

It'll probably be like 2 feet or so. I can't possibly do the minifigure scale which would be like 8 feet.

Based on the below image, I would guess it's around 200 feet in diameter-- so roughly 5 foot diameter at minifig scale? And when you add the fact that it's propped up on a platform, it's probably a little over 5-feet tall, which is... unwieldy to say the least!

2 feet will already be hard enough with my relatively small collection.

[...]

(P.S. anyone got an idea for the best wheels for that thing? )

If you're not aiming to make it compatible with minifigs, you should probably ask yourself whether or not it's worth making it "really huge". Making really big models is fun and all, but why not shoot for, say, 1 foot in diameter instead? I would encourage you to come up with a design for the treads, and let that dictate your scale. Find a tread design that has the look you're shooting for, and then figure out how big the rest of it should be, based on that design.

DaveE

[ShaydDeGrai]

I think the "condition" of having one's LEGO ambition exceed the feasible limits of one's collection is a very common problem regardless of how extensive (or not) that collection actually is. In my youth, I had a very modest collection and even my simpliest MOC designs seemed impossible to realize. I'm very fortunate these days to have been able to expand my collection and I _still_ have a notebook full of ideas I've put on hold while I try to amass the parts needed to build them. Maybe I'm an addict and "thinking big" is just my excuse to buy more LEGO lots, but I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one...

[TheLegoDr]

Going back to the Technodrome MOC, I agree about finding one aspect you like the size of and work with that. Even if it isn't minifigure scale doesn't mean it wouldn't look awesome and look spot on. How often has TLG actually had a minifigure scale set? Their sets still look awesome and work well even if the scale seems off. That's the beauty of LEGO!

[Rook]

Build small. Perfect the art. Then explore larger and larger models. Then finally once you've jumped into to something too big just suck it up and spend the money needed to complete the project. And never ever ever build something that big again... for at least 6 months. XD

[SNIPE]

Is there a way to get more money to fund this hobby?

You'll probably find you'll need more money regarding lego no matter on size or complexity, detail, etc

Edited October 26, 2012 by SNIPE

[Lyichir]

I used to have that problem. Now I either use LDD to plan MOCs or limit myself to parts from only a few sets so that it doesn't affect me as much anymore.

[Masked Builder]

Oh yeah, that happens to me all of the time. While I have a decent collection, I want to build models that are a foot long, and that never works out.

[Redhead1982]

It happens to me, too. Everytime I start building another modular building, I 'run out' of some specific bricks I need. And when bricklinking, I almost always go for some extra bricks. But I started with only 2 Creator sets, and now my collection is much bigger. Finishing my first castle diorama, I actually ran out of baseplates (so I got to extras ). Other than that, I try to work around when I'm stopped for lack of bricks. Sometimes it works with other parts, sometimes it doesn't. All in all, it's all about self-discipline. Start small, and learn your way up - this way you really get to know well what are your favourite/most useful bricks/colour and it's not so heavy on your budget.