ficbot

My fiancé bought me the valentine bear, which was my first adult Lego. He likes the architecture ones but builds them to display, he doesn't really make his own things.

Working on my second modular building! Have the computer store laid out, but I am not happy with it so I need to do some tweaking before I put the tiles on. I am hoping I have enough bricks for at least one more level...

Hi everyone! Thanks so much for your comments on my cafeteria. Here is the rest of the building; I had to do some parts of it a few times because it took some trial and error to get everything looking right. I am still not 100% satisfied with the apartment, but oh well. Anyway, here we go: Exterior, Inside View: More Lego! by ficbot, on Flickr Exterior, Side View: More Lego! by ficbot, on Flickr Exterior, Front View: More Lego! by ficbot, on Flickr (The girls put a loft level in their apartment, which is why the pillars are shorter on the second floor) First floor: The Cafeteria Modular #1! by ficbot, on Flickr (I posted this elsewhere in the forum before I knew it would be a full building!) Middle floor: The Apartment More Lego! by ficbot, on Flickr Alternate View with Details: More Lego! by ficbot, on Flickr Detail of the Kitchen: More Lego! by ficbot, on Flickr Rooftop Patio: More Lego! by ficbot, on Flickr (This is most, but not all of, the Olivia's Garden Pool set, but with some modifications and landscaping) Anyway, I wanted to make a shopping mall modular next but I don't think I have enough pieces, so I make make another floor for this with a department store. We'll see! Thanks for looking and as always, I welcome any suggestions to improve...

I wish they had some smaller Simpsons sets. The big house is out of my price range so there is nothing to do with the minifigs. I also heard there is a forthcoming Friends Posters sub-theme. I am very unexcited about that and I wish they would stop stereotyping the girls. I like the Friends theme because it is so detailed---the house and cooking stuff comes with actual utensils, unlike the totally empty and vacant Creator houses. But Posters? Meh. Also on a Friends note, I really thought the Pizzeria merited a full building, not a little box of just bits and pieces.

I had to go back to the Lego store today because we forgot to redeem our calendar coupon for a free Lego store employee minfig, which was the January coupon. You had to purchase something to redeem the coupon, so I bought a brick cup with some flat pieces to use in my modular building MOC, and I bought Emma's pool from the Friends line. I also got a free mini-golf pollywog since I made a Friends purchase, but we have it already so it is going in an eBay pile.

I can always find uses for the handbags, sacks and purses :) I also plan to build a Lego Library when I get enough books for it :)

Hi everyone I am very excited to share this creation with you. I just completed a big sort and mix of all my Friends pieces, so I could build my own stuff, and this is my first one. I used to keep the sets a little separate (I grouped them by categories and binned them 2 or 3 together) but I was getting frustrated that I would sometimes need pieces from other boxes. and my stepson was getting them all mixed up when he played. So I did the big sort this week and merged everything. And this is my first creation I made using ALL the pieces! ​I think it is a much higher level than my previous stuff, and when I think back to last year, when I first started Lego, I am embarrassed at what I posted. I think this is much more sophisticated and I really tried to make it nice. I used some techniques like the flower boxes which I learned from building sets, but the only part of this build which came from instructions was the pizza oven---I had just picked up the Stephanie's Pizzeria set and loved the pizza oven, but I was disappointed we didn't get a full restaurant with it so that inspired this build. This is my first attempt at a modular building, and I am currently working on a dorm room, a pet shop and an electronics store to go with the cafeteria. I hope you like this build! I welcome any constructive feedback for ways I can improve my stuff. Overview: Modular #1! by ficbot, on Flickr Right side detail: Modular #1! by ficbot, on Flickr Left side detail: Modular #1! by ficbot, on Flickr Exterior: Modular #1! by ficbot, on Flickr Window shot: Modular #1! by ficbot, on Flickr

I have a fun money budget every month for Lego, books and anything else I want. I buy accordingly :)

Lego Friends, and the Creator 3-in-1 models.

Thank you so much, everyone, for the very generous welcome! I finished my first big project today, a Lego park I did mostly myself (with help on one thing) and mostly from my imagination (with one exception, the Friends parrot house. I welcome any suggestions anyone has for improving it. I posted a thread already and am not sure if I am allowed to post the picture again. If I am not, I will edit this post and take it out. But I really welcome any suggestions for how to improve it and refine my skills. So, in that context, here it is and I welcome any comments. Lego Park! by ficbot, on Flickr

I have been working on this for about a week. My fiancé got me a big baseplate because he wants me to learn how to build from my imagination instead of using kits all the time :) We built a house together as a trial, then I took it down and built this park myself: Lego Park! by ficbot, on Flickr A few things about it I really like: - The stage and amphitheatre, where William Shakespeare is giving a performance. It also has a control panel so that concerts can happen. - I like the bathrooms and came up with the concept myself for using the side pieces, but I did need some help with the implementation. - The train attraction, complete with control switch - The animal attractions. The parrot stuff comes from a Friends polybag, but I made the doghouse myself. - The swimming pool with trees, I put a lot of detail on that. - The baseball game. I feel like it is a little wrong that every player has a ball and bat, but I stole these from the fiancé and I was worried about losing the piece, so I left them as is and just stuck them in. - The barbecue and picnic area. I feel I could have done a better job on the tables, but the barbecue came out very nicely. - I think I did a good job using the fence pieces to separate out the different areas and I am glad I had enough of them to do it properly. I am still learning how to do the really nice Lego stuff, this is a new interest for me, so be gentle! But I would love your comments on my Lego park.

Started MBA second retail kit, and built the micro airport.

I have the space box and just got the scone box tonight. I just did the airport model, I really like these, I feel like as an adult newbie, I didn't really know how to do a lot without following instructions, and these are giving me some good skills. But I think that with two big boxes of these, I am good. I don't want to buy any more of them, I have gotten into the Creator series and those are $25 each and also build three models. I am going to start collecting those instead.

Some random regular pieces to fill out our big generic box, and some fences for the park I am building.

I have FOUR lego stores in my area. I wasn't going to go this week. But I am home today in March break (I am a teacher) and they have decided to tests all the fore alarms in my building this morning. So I have to go out now. It's not really my fault.

We tore down the house on our baseplate and started a park. There were too many minifigs to fit in the house and I figured if I built a park,I could have an amphitheatre to corral them all. Have not figured out how to do pictures yet but I will post when it's done. So far be have the stage area, bathrooms, a few attractions (parrot cage from Friends mini bag, and a doghouse I made myself) and a tree. I want to make a snack bar and picnic area, and maybe a ranger's house too.

I am just starting to organize. I have some baseball cars organizers I stole from my fiancé which have spots for different things (we have 3 lego stores near us and have been to every brick wall) and a big bin for the basic pieces. I also am keeping the kits intact in their own tins for rebuilding when I want them. I want one more of the academy kits but I have to wait until next month :-)

:-) I know! My nephew was over and just wanted to take everyone's head off. It's getting a little crowded in the house. We are thinking of tearing it down and building a park. We have some outdoor stuff from the little junky bags, and can put some cool things in there. And I feel like we need to have an amphitheatre to corral all the mini figs.

Thank you!

I have not bought any overly large sets, so what I have been doing is storing each of them in a baseball card tim (my fiance has many of these) with the booklet inside. I also have a file folder for the instructions which are not needed for a kit---a few of the Lego Friends tiny impulse buys which got mixed into general parts, and also all of his Star Wars ones which he displays and does not tear down. I like my tin system because then when I feel like building something, I can just pick a tin and have a little project ready to go.

Hello everyone, I posted an intro already but I was hoping I could get some general feedback on how to learn to build your own creations. I got a Lego idea book with my first big lego purchase and it was great, but many of those creations use a lot of specialized pieces. I really enjoy putting the little sets together but can't buy a million of them, so I want to learn how to build my own stuff, but I don't feel like I have a natural inclination for it. Here is what I have tried so far: - We have a starter set of general bricks, and some fancy ones from the brick wall, and we have been building the inside of a house with them. It's been fun so far but requires sitting at the table and getting out a big box and an organizer with the bits and pieces in it, so we have to be in a certain mood... - I have a few of the Creator kits and what I am doing with them is building them, keeping them out for a few days, then disassembling them and putting them in tins (my fiance has tons of these for storing baseball cards). So, when I feel like building something and don't want to work on the big house, I can get out one of these smaller tins and build one of the alternate models. - I also have the first master academy kit and while I don't care much for spaceships, I enjoyed the book and the projects. I am saving up for at least one more kit from that series. I was thinking that I might start treating my little Creator tins like little pieces collections and instead of building the model, just pulling one out and using that as my pieces for the evening, to try and create my own thing. I don't like the idea of mixing up the sets, and I think having a smaller sample of pieces to work with will be easier for me. But I still feel like I need to learn HOW to invent my own thing. I did have lego as a child but all I remember doing with it was building a motorhome for my barbie dolls because my mother wouldn't let me have the real barbie one :) So, any ideas for books or blogs or simple projects I could try to learn how to do it better? I am open to all suggestions.

What a fun topic! I only recently started collecting lego and have a few sets and a giant tub of starter bricks. My fiance is trying to teach me how to build stuff myself (I feel more comfortable following instructions and need to learn how to do my own thing) so we have been building a large house together, on a big baseplate. We built one, and then started redoing it so it was bigger and more detailed. He is more into the perfectionist details of how to build the house and I am more interested in the storylines amongst the various mini-figs we have somehow amassed through various means. For example... - Abraham Lincoln is having an affair with the Pretzel Girl. But now we have a new arrival, Mr. William Shakespeare, who is trying to woo her away. There might be a midnight duel in the garden, with swords. Let's just hope nobody finds out about the firepower the Star Wars mini-figs are hiding in their little spaceship thing... - Nobody wants to share a bedroom with the Panda Man, so he and the baby panda have been sleeping in a little closet room all by themselves. They are the only mini-figs with proper beds right now, as we have not gotten around to finishing all the bedroom stuff yet. - We got a ton of slopes with computer stuff printed on them, at the brick wall at the lego store. Abraham Lincoln has used this to build himself some sort of surveillance lab/robot lab/computer dungeon, and he is spending a lot of time in there, sometimes with the baby panda. It all sounds a little sinister to some of the other minifigs, who will not go in there...

Hello everyone, I am so happy to have found this forum. I only recently got into lego, I received the valentine bear as a gift from my fiance and had so much fun putting it together that I surprised myself! I felt like it exercised my creative side in a way that I liked, and he enjoys lego too so I like that we now have a hobby we can do together (and a non-electronic one at that! We both spend enough time on gadgets!) Since that one gateway present, I have acquired an embarrassing amount of lego in a really short time. I have bought a few little bag sets just for fun, and also a few of the Creator 3-in-1 boxes and a bin of starter bricks. We are building a house together for all the mini-figs. I also got the first lego academy set and really liked it. I feel like I am not very confident yet in building things on my own without following an instruction, so I am hoping that doing a few of the kits will help me learn this. I am not interested in investing or selling or anything like that, I just want to do it for fun :) My goal is to limit my spending to maybe one small-ish kit per month (I really want the camper van!) and the rest of the time, to build with the basic bricks and learn to make my own things. Thanks for having me! Joanna