remus753 Posted February 9, 2010 My older brothers got me into LEGOs when I was young, they were space fans, but I loved my yellow castle (there can only be one yellow castle). I still remember getting the set, and exactly where I was when I put it together (I just recreated it thanks to Peeron last month, it now sits on my shelf). I got distracted by other toys shortly after that, and it seemed to me that LEGO had gone the way of the modular home building. Just a bunch of big pieces that didn't look much like LEGOs. I forgot about LEGOs until my nephew got into them a couple of years ago. He had a couple of the Creator houses, and some other things, many of which I had bought him, and it seemed to me that LEGO had really turned the corner. Then while helping my mother shop for him this winter, I saw the Green Grocer. This set was like the LEGOs I grew up on, but on steroids. Instead of a set with 700 pieces, this had 2300. I was showing off the change in LEGOs to my mother, and didn't think much of it. Imagine the surprise of a grown man receiving a LEGO set for Christmas of that magnitude. I couldn't wait to kick my in-laws out of the house so I could begin what ended up being an 8 hour adventure. Now I have found you guys, and all of your wonderful MOCs. I am not at the place right now where I can start buying sets (I want the Modular sets so bad) due to the economy and being told I won't have my teaching position next year, but it doesn't stop me from dreaming and planning. I clip and save many of the photographs I find on here to help in the future when I hit the lottery. I know this question has been asked MILLIONS of times on here, but I haven't had much luck with the search function. Can someone point me to some threads about how to get started with MOCs, how much they generally cost, how people get started, things like that. Right now I am sorting through my boxes of LEGO pieces from the 70s and early 80s, which gives me a lot of primary colored bricks, but very little in the way of detail. I have started to sort out the red bricks to add a modular next to my GG, but they red seems out of place unless I can make it into something that is normally red (maybe my own firehouse?). Perhaps my own brothel... wouldn't Mom be proud. Anyway, thanks for motivating my creative mind (my wife would like to conversely say mean things to you for emptying my wallet in the future)! marcus Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
tedbeard Posted February 9, 2010 I always recommend starting at BrickWiki for newcomers. Explore there for a bit and you will find lots of inspiration and education. To answer your question more directly, MOCs cost nothing - if you already have some LEGO. Anything you build without instructions made by someone else is a MOC. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
BlueDragonZ Posted February 10, 2010 Welcome to Eurobricks and have fun ! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Davey Posted February 10, 2010 Welcome to Eurobricks and glad to see that we have another person who has succumbed to the allure of LEGO. It sounds like you have a good base collection from the 70's and 80's and you'll find many of us consider those to be TLG's golden years (although lately they are really giving the classic sets a run with the new modular and UCS stuff). As for MOC's, it's always difficult to tell how much a MOC will cost when you start mainly be cause you have no idea how many pieces are going to be in it. One thing you can do is try building virtually in either L-Draw or LEGO Digital Designer. L-Draw will let you output a part list which you can then use to check what parts you do and don't have. You can then head over to Bricklink to price the parts you don't have. This is one way to do a test build before you commit the cash for the final piece. You can also do a multi-color test build with the pieces you have and then order the pieces in the colors you want once you know what is needed. It all depends on whether you are comfortable building 'virtually' or not. If you want a general cost for a MOC, just take the piece count and multiply by $0.07/piece to $0.14/piece. Unless you use a lot of rare pieces or rare colors this should give you a ballpark estimate. As I mentioned above though...usually you don't know the final piece count until you are finished (even then I usually don't know how many pieces my MOC's actually contain). Getting started MOC-ing is a simple as grabbing some bricks and snapping them together. You would be surprised at what can be built with basic bricks in standard LEGO colors. My LEGO NES and my Miniland Rainbow Brite MOC's generally used standard LEGO pieces with a few specialty pieces and rare colors. But overall it was stuff that is easily found. It really comes down to finding something you want to build and then just sitting down to build it. Start small and work your way up. Most of all...have fun and be sure to share your work with us here on EB!!! Welcome to the asylum. -Davey Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
I Scream Clone Posted February 10, 2010 My older brothers got me into LEGOs when I was young, they were space fans, but I loved my yellow castle (there can only be one yellow castle). I still remember getting the set, and exactly where I was when I put it together (I just recreated it thanks to Peeron last month, it now sits on my shelf). I got distracted by other toys shortly after that, and it seemed to me that LEGO had gone the way of the modular home building. Just a bunch of big pieces that didn't look much like LEGOs. I forgot about LEGOs until my nephew got into them a couple of years ago. He had a couple of the Creator houses, and some other things, many of which I had bought him, and it seemed to me that LEGO had really turned the corner. Then while helping my mother shop for him this winter, I saw the Green Grocer. This set was like the LEGOs I grew up on, but on steroids. Instead of a set with 700 pieces, this had 2300. I was showing off the change in LEGOs to my mother, and didn't think much of it. Imagine the surprise of a grown man receiving a LEGO set for Christmas of that magnitude. I couldn't wait to kick my in-laws out of the house so I could begin what ended up being an 8 hour adventure. Now I have found you guys, and all of your wonderful MOCs. I am not at the place right now where I can start buying sets (I want the Modular sets so bad) due to the economy and being told I won't have my teaching position next year, but it doesn't stop me from dreaming and planning. I clip and save many of the photographs I find on here to help in the future when I hit the lottery. I know this question has been asked MILLIONS of times on here, but I haven't had much luck with the search function. Can someone point me to some threads about how to get started with MOCs, how much they generally cost, how people get started, things like that. Right now I am sorting through my boxes of LEGO pieces from the 70s and early 80s, which gives me a lot of primary colored bricks, but very little in the way of detail. I have started to sort out the red bricks to add a modular next to my GG, but they red seems out of place unless I can make it into something that is normally red (maybe my own firehouse?). Perhaps my own brothel... wouldn't Mom be proud. Anyway, thanks for motivating my creative mind (my wife would like to conversely say mean things to you for emptying my wallet in the future)! marcus Welcome Marcus, Glad to hear you returning from the "dark ages" and welcome to Eurobricks. As far as MOCing goes, try picking a theme you like and start there. If you like Castle, then check out some great castle builders in our MOC index You will find MOCindexes in most theme threads. There are also plenty of good builders and groups out on Flickr (make sure you search for Lego as one of the keywords) and MOCPages, which is just Lego creations. Good luck and remember to enjoy the hobby Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
remus753 Posted February 11, 2010 TedBeard-I decided to do just what you said. I created a Federalist home to go next to my GG. A little out of place, but feel it wasn't all that bad considering what I had to work with. I posted (bad) pictures in the Town forum. I really need to remember not to take pictures at night, or figure out how my digital camera works. Sad state of affairs considering I have an art teacher right now. Blue Dragonz-Thanks, I am already having fun seeing what you guys are doing. I talk with my wife and the people I work with about what I see each day... I think they might be just a little sick of it. Davey-your tips were wonderful and helpful. I must say, as someone who cherished my friends NES (and RBI baseball), I thought that was a beautiful creation. I really appreciated the advice on Bricklink and pricing. I spend some time there yesterday (thinking about buying the Market Street MOD piece by piece), and not sure how you buy what you need without getting it from 340 different vendors. I will have to look for Bricklink advice somewhere in here. I Scream Clone-I was a castle kid growing up, but I have fallen in love with the new modular town. I have probably spent 10 hours in that forum and on the other town related websites over the last couple of weeks just looking at what they have done. Although, seeing your Western work has been awesome as well. I have a soft spot in my heart for the modern Western, and I think you have done a wonderful job recreating those scenes. Thanks for helping direct me around, this place is far more extensive than most forums I have participated in. Thank you guys for everything, glad to be a part of the forum. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
