Recommended Posts

Remark by Jim

This topic is for general newbie questions. If you are a Noob and you need help building, check this topic.

---------------------

Hi all :)

New to Technics here, so I started with a small one last week,42035 mine truck, and went on to the Arctic truck(42038). Now just finished the 42009 mobile crane(WOW !!!) which I paid over the odds for as it is discontinued :(

Just starting on the merc tipper now(42043) , Got a few more in the post to look forward to.

My main interest, like many of your guys, is modding and RC. So here are a few questions :

1)

A) Is the LEGO shop really that bad ? My 1st parcel from them came OPEN , yes open !!! No tape on package, just a flap slot that was loose. I had 6 items in it(|IR/RC stuff etc.) and miraculously they were all there. I have one more package coming and never ordering from them again, will stick to eBay, Tesco and other high street stores(am in UK)

B) where do you shop for stuff(sets and parts) ?

2) Is there a Technics software for designing that we can use ? or do you scribble design on paper and build/mod then rebuild/mod etc. ?

3) Mistakes, I have made a few and had to backtrack to fix them, but I loved it. Am I weird or are there others who also don't mind making mistakes ? :)

4) I decided I will, for my 1st mod, do someone else's and learn from it. I found an excellent RC mod for my 42009 mobile crane. Using Rebrickable I found I need another 323 parts to mod my 42009. I then looked around on Rebrickable and BrickLink but didn't get very far, will look again. As a UK resident , is my best option for parts the LEGO high street shops, LEGO online or one of the other sites I mentioned earlier in this question ?

Thank you for your time :)

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Welcome to Eurobricks!

1 Bricklink.com

2 LDD ( Lego Digital Designer)

3 I learn from my mistakes

4 I don't live in UK

I recommend using Technic General Discussion for this;)

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
Hi all :)

Hi there.

1) That's a bummer, I've ordered from Lego - I'm also in the UK - a few times without issue, although I've never ordered PF parts. They can be significantly cheaper on some common pieces, but for the most desirable ones (i.e. new wheels/tyres/pnuematics, etc.) it's quicker and usually cheaper to go to Bricklink or BrickOwl. Tesco would be my recommended high street retailer as well, when you combine their seasonal sales with Clubcard offers you can get a lot of Lego for a relatively low price!

A word of warning about Ebay though ... make sure you have a good idea of what you're buying first. I've had to go back-and-forth a number of times on misleading descriptions and shoddy packaging, but it works both ways and you can pick up more than you expected as well. When I emerged from my dark ages Ebay was a fantastic place to look for old sets, but now that I've got almost all of the out-of-production sets I wanted, it's much less useful for me.

2) LDD. It's not perfect, but it's invaluable for getting a look (if not a feel) for a model in the early stages, and it can save a lot of time/effort if used wisely in the "endless" cycle of building, refining and rebuilding a model.

3) It depends. I do not enjoy making mistakes in an official set, but for MOCs or mods it doesn't bother me nearly as much. Of course, a total rebuild to undo a mistake would be a pain, regardless of what the build was...

4) I really would recommend Bricklink for this sort of thing, unless you know that there is a set that will supply you with the majority (as in 50+%) of the missing pieces - I assume you've seen the Rebrickable feature that shows you what pieces you need and which sets would help you get most of them?

If you live near a Lego store you could also go there to buy PF parts, in my experience this is one area where buying directly from Lego is almost always the cheapest option. Because I can do this, I also avoid having to order these parts online.

Edited by Jay Psi

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Welcome to Eurobricks,I am in in Glasgow a mile away from the Lego Shop. Any PF stuff I will get from there.

1 Bricklink.com,lego Shop

2 LDD ( Lego Digital Designer) or LDCad.

3 I don't tend to make many......

4 Bricklink

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Brickowl and bricklink are great market places! Also never happened to me to receive an opened parcel...so guess it has something to do with a nosey courier maybe?

I live in UK, best shops for sets are: Smythstoys when the sales are on, Argos on the 3X2 and Tesco Direct sometimes!

Also on Brickowl I recently sold my sealed 42009 for less than retail price....still made money out of it...so watch out for it!

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Hi there.

1) That's a bummer, I've ordered from Lego - I'm also in the UK - a few times without issue, although I've never ordered PF parts. They can be significantly cheaper on some common pieces, but for the most desirable ones (i.e. new wheels/tyres/pnuematics, etc.) it's quicker and usually cheaper to go to Bricklink or BrickOwl. Tesco would be my recommended high street retailer as well, when you combine their seasonal sales with Clubcard offers you can get a lot of Lego for a relatively low price!

A word of warning about Ebay though ... make sure you have a good idea of what you're buying first. I've had to go back-and-forth a number of times on misleading descriptions and shoddy packaging, but it works both ways and you can pick up more than you expected as well. When I emerged from my dark ages Ebay was a fantastic place to look for old sets, but now that I've got almost all of the out-of-production sets I wanted, it's much less useful for me.

2) LDD. It's not perfect, but it's invaluable for getting a look (if not a feel) for a model in the early stages, and it can save a lot of time/effort if used wisely in the "endless" cycle of building, refining and rebuilding a model.

3) It depends. I do not enjoy making mistakes in an official set, but for MOCs or mods it doesn't bother me nearly as much. Of course, a total rebuild to undo a mistake would be a pain, regardless of what the build was...

4) I really would recommend Bricklink for this sort of thing, unless you know that there is a set that will supply you with the majority (as in 50+%) of the missing pieces - I assume you've seen the Rebrickable feature that shows you what pieces you need and which sets would help you get most of them?

If you live near a Lego store you could also go there to buy PF parts, in my experience this is one area where buying directly from Lego is almost always the cheapest option. Because I can do this, I also avoid having to order these parts online.

1)will check out brickowl ty :) my 42009 was from eBay and it was sealed and all parts there.

4) yes I did do rebrickable, and it told me what extra pieces I needed.

Any thoughts on SBrick ?

will look up LEGO shop locations but I think nearest is miles away(Cardiff)

Welcome to Eurobricks,I am in in Glasgow a mile away from the Lego Shop. Any PF stuff I will get from there.

1 Bricklink.com,lego Shop

2 LDD ( Lego Digital Designer) or LDCad.

3 I don't tend to make many......

4 Bricklink

ty :)

Brickowl and bricklink are great market places! Also never happened to me to receive an opened parcel...so guess it has something to do with a nosey courier maybe?

I live in UK, best shops for sets are: Smythstoys when the sales are on, Argos on the 3X2 and Tesco Direct sometimes!

Also on Brickowl I recently sold my sealed 42009 for less than retail price....still made money out of it...so watch out for it!

I got my sealed 42009 for £230 (ouch!)

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

1. For buying loose parts, Bricklink is your best bet. Be sure to check it out!

2. I (still) use MLCad to do digital planning of LEGO models. I don't know about how outdated or whatever it is, but I really like how the program has 4 views. It's part of the LDraw package that also includes somr other programs like LDView (rendering program) and LPub (instruction book designer). http://www.ldraw.org/

3. Mistakes are the core of doing anything creative. Keep cherishing them ;)

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

1) I am in the UK - and lego store has always been well packaged - you should talk to customer services about this as will give them a heads up - that is really bad.

I have bought from ebay - but be careful, second hand stuff tends to be really dirty (I wash with washing powder - not liquid - as powder contains peroxides which will both sterilize the lego and begin to whiten white lego that is brown . You cannot buy peroxide in the UK except for a few drops for hair and asking in a shop will result in you being shot for possible terrorist activity). You can get good deals as sometimes sets just don't get bid on - but buyer beware - especially with "sold as seen" mean mostly missing and chewed. Packaging is sometimes poor and sometimes good - I have had a Mint box destroyed because of myHermes - I never use this courier when selling as usually check what the seller will use.

Bricklink is "always" reliable - everyone I have bought from have been very good. Second hand is always pre-washed, clean and almost good as new. Second hand is always complete (unless stated), and the best place for spare parts. Note that the cost of a set in parts is usually 3x the cost of the set new. Packaging is normally good/very good.

Argos: sometimes 3 for 2. : careful they don't care about the box and I have had scratch and warn boxes - take your own bag.

Most stores sell lego (tesco, asda, ....) sell lego at the lego price and you just have to search for the deals. Sometimes people give the heads up on this site as to the latest - such as 42054 was £30 off from tesco direct.

the rest is just ditto with previous answers

Edited by TomOOO

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Your experience with the lego store sounds really weird. I haven't ordered anything from them yet, but as someone who gets a lot of my stuff from abroad, I wonder if the customs-people were suspicious on the value of the parcel and the contents and simply dedided to open it and check things. Never happened to me, but parcels can be held up for weeks coming from outside the UK.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

1A. Depending what country you're in and from where LEGO.com ships to you. If it is out of country, your country's customs office may randomly open and inspect the package.

1B. I buy from LEGO and Bricklink. Do your homework on Bricklink like with eBay--some sellers are better than others.

2. You can use LEGO's official Digital Designer. It's a popular one. There's also 3rd parties like MLCAD, LDDraw, etc.

3. Mistakes can happen. Learn from it.

4. Shop around if you're look for the best deal. Some things are better on LEGO.com, other things on Bricklink, etc. Watchout for shipping charges adding up on multiple orders and stores.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

LEGO shop has given me a better experience than Bricklink, but maybe that's just me.

Mistakes are always going to happen. I rebuild parts of every gearbox and suspension system at least 30 times before settling on the final design. Once, before I joined here, I made a truck with a gearbox where the MINDSTORMS shifting control needed tuning (working on an upgraded version of that gearbox for a future model) since the shift positions were non-definite and had to be found through trial and error. To make things worse, parts were flexing under load and I had to make the shift position change slightly depending on load handled. That took many sweaty, expletive-filled hours, but it was worth it.

I haven't been to many LEGO shops in the UK, but the LEGO store's prices seem on-par with LEGO.com, at least for sets. Bricklink will probably give you the best deal if you want a specific part, since few individual TECHNIC parts are available on LEGO.com.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Brickowl is good for buying parts in UK. Ive used multiple sellers for many different parts and ive never had trouble with any order ive made. Even spent so much with a seller once i recieved a bonus bag of small parts, nothing major but a nice touch. Also, ive never had that happen with an order from Lego themselves, but i bought a V1 receiver from brickowl once for less than the price they were being sold on Lego.com, purely because of the fact it had been used, but was in good condition. Looking around is best way to find good deals.

On brickowl, Brickshop UK are reliable seller, as well as Creative Technic. They're the sellers i usually use.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Thank you all for the replies :)

My only LEGO buy on eBay was the 42009 discontinued crane, and it was sealed and in perfect (mint) condition. Well it was for all of 5 mins, after which I opened it and constructed it.

I will try Brickowl and Bricklink.

I believe LEGO in the UK is shipped from the UK (LEGO imports it to their own facility here) so no customs involved. I have had items shipped in to the UK before(for motorbikes) and after opening them the customs taped it up. This box was unsealed and no sign of any tape. Got the excavator coming tomorrow from them , will let you know how it turns up...

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Let's keep this topic. I will add it to the index.

Welcome to EB!

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I've seen a lot of people using the buggy motor to power their Mocs, can someone give me a link to the PF extension wire that connects the old connection point (4 metal studs) to the new connection point (2 studs and a metal oval)?

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I've seen a lot of people using the buggy motor to power their Mocs, can someone give me a link to the PF extension wire that connects the old connection point (4 metal studs) to the new connection point (2 studs and a metal oval)?

http://shop.lego.com/en-GB/LEGO-Power-Functions-Extension-Wire-8886?p=8886&track=checkprice#shopxlink

http://shop.lego.com/en-GB/LEGO-Power-Functions-Extension-Wire-20-8871?p=8871&track=checkprice#shopxlink

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

1) I live in Switzerland and had never any negative experience with the Lego Shop. Customs might have opened the parcel. But they usually put a sticker on the parcel to let you know.

4) Im ordering my parts from the following sources:

- Lego Shop (UCS, Pick a Brick, Bricks & Pieces). You can collect VIP points and turn them into some discount formfuture orders. They also have some special gift every month.

- Bricklink. No negative experience so far after about 20 orders. Just ensure that you check the sellers feedback.

- eBay. e.g. rare pieces or used models. Always pay by PayPal.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I'm back :classic:

My next 2 deliveries from the Lego shop were spot on :thumbup:

I bought bits here and there, the eBay ones were good, the 8 from Brick Owl, 2 had missing parts but sorted.

So currently I am using Lego shop, Brick Owl & eBay.

I have now got over 12 kits(including a few older ones not available now), lots of spare parts and am now deciding what to make with my first MOC.

I do know it will be 100% Lego(not going to dark side yet).

I wanted to make the Armatron but inside it there are weird & "special" cogs/gears that makes it all work, so for now that is out of the question(unless I use the Armatrons own gear some how).

Here is the link to an article about how it works http://www.starborneworks.com/?p=22

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

If you have NXT´s you could make a robotic arm very similar to that one, using its servos and putting some turntables you can get a very decent model.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Armatron : It is too complicated as there are no suitable gears for it, alas it is on the backburner for now, until in the future I get a 3D printer and learn to design the weird gears plus adding the Lego sized holes to it :)

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    No registered users viewing this page.