Compromise!

[jof]

OK, I admit it, I havn't been MOCing as much as I should for a while.

Not really a dark period as much as trying to get the kids to make their own stuff.

Now what I am having problems with is my desire to make things big & detailed, with the fact that the kids are just going to play with them.

I spend the occasional evening knocking up some components & playing with ideas, but end up going nowhere (Exception being a hydroponics bay which eldest daughter has kidnapped)

If I get a good shape, its too fragile for kids to play with, of I get a good underside, but can't get a satisfactory transition to the topside. The Kids, they like simple blocky constructions - its the playing that counts, not waiting for dad to keep on scrabbling & then start on something else because it wasn't good enough and want the pieces they are already using.

I get them playing with part made frameworks, lining up the people on it & sticking on printed control panels where they want to go. (And me just investing in 30x 6*16 grey plates, making a nice octagonal prism 48 blocks long as a cargo pod - but I just can't seem to get a handle on the freighter to carry it.)

So I think I will be moving to a more compact - kid friendly swishable format, in the hope that I can get past my creative block.

Jof

[snefroe]

honestly, what you're going through is basically the difference between what the Afol wants and what the kid wants... it's the same dilema that lego faces these days: children want playability, afols prefer display quality... good luck on the compromise :-X

[SuvieD]

Try getting or using some of the bigger click hinges. You can get great shapes in just a few minutes. Another thing to try is the artistic approch of sketching. Try building something in the general shape and frame and give that to the kid to play with and then go back and flesh out the idea.

If you need ideas there are plenty of options to emmulate on brickshelf.