Ronan Dragonov

I have the new canopy in trans-blue from Space Police III 5981 Raid VPR. I wish I had it in smoke for my Ultra Sea Dragon.

Great article. You raise an issue important to all minifigs and pose some timely questions all with objectivity. Let's not forget other emergency medical vehicles. I refer to the 6356 Med-Star Rescue Plane. An impressive set for its day in my opinion and one of my favorites. Finally, there is the related topic of private minifig health care that I wish to highlight - Drs. Blocknamara and Toy and their plastic surgery practice.

Like others have posted, it depends on your point of view. I say the pirates are the bad guys. They always were for me back in Classic Pirate days. Burn their ships and hang the lot! Furthermore I can't see a bunch of cannibal islanders as good guys. Then again it is fun to be bad sometimes.

Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey/Maturin series C.S. Forester's Horatio Hornblower series Joseph Heller's Catch-22 Robert Massie's Dreadnought & Castles of Steel Frank Herbert's Dune series (Dune is my favorite) Tom Clancy's The Hunt for Red October Joe Buff's submarine techno-thriller series I've also amassed a decent collection of ship & aircraft reference books - good material for MOC ideas. Don't get me started on my reading backlog...

I kept the 8480 Technic Space Shuttle (with some minor modifications) assembled for something like 5 years (2000~2005.) In fact a good portion of the fuselage is still sitting in my brick boneyard. As for MOCs, that all depends on how you count. A mini-scale submarine I originally built in 1997 evolved through 2005 into this. It remains intact to this day (on a different stand and long overdue for dusting.) So 4 years or 12 years depending on your point of view.

I usually just keep WIPs on the floor where I build. My progress can be rather slow so I throw a T-shirt over the MOC when I'm not building to keep off the dust. I store the rest of my collection in LEGO bulk containers, plastic bags, opaque & transparent plastic boxes of various sizes, and plastic cases with drawers.

Bricklink is probably the best source.

41,102 parts (256 minifigs) according to Brickset + some parts from Bricklink etc. (~250)

Best: 7197 Venice Canal Chase - What's not to like: great motorboats & great minifigs (even to an anti-fleshie like me.) Worst: 10196 Grand Carousel - It'a a very nice and detailed motorized minifig carousel but why would anybody want one? Runner-up: 6242 Soldiers' Fort - It's no 6276 Eldorado Fortress or even a 6267 Lagoon Lock-up

1291 Kabaya Promotional Set: Yellow (Dirt Bike) RoboRider Don't own it and wouldn't want it.

6274 Caribbean Clipper

Great start. I don't have the hardware or patience to try real LEGO stop-motion animation. I've been thinking about using MLCAD to try something like you did here. I wish it had a better minifig selection (esp. hair.) I have to check out LDD.

Ha! Ha! Yeah thousands of posts about Clone Commanders and Halo Master Chiefs. *Gag*

Not awful at all. I like it!

I vote mustache. I do see what you mean about it being a mouth - for one ugly minifig.

This is the first I've seen of this MOC. I think it speaks for itself...

Down with the clones! Down with the bootlegs! LEGO® Bricks Forever! However, captured enemy technology will be studied...

4504 Millennium Falcon Looks like the best Falcon to me. Too bad I hadn't fully emerged from my dark age when it was available.

I was born with it - I wish. I needed a name to join the online LEGO world. I began with Ronin (masterless Samurai.) Ronan sounded just like it. Then onto the last name...last name...Dragon, yeah I like that...needs more...Dragonov. That's it! Come to find out Yevgeny Fyodorovich Dragunov was a Russian weapons designer. Dragonov: not the same but close like Ronan. Plus it's unique enough that I don't need a bunch of numbers after it. As far the minifig me goes, I've always had the name.

I'd like to see an Expanded Star Wars Universe line. These may be too obscure but I like the look of 'em. 1.) Sun Crusher - about the size of 7680 The Twilight - featuring Kyp Durron, Han Solo & Chewbacca 2.) Bogga the Hutt's Enforcer One - 8039 Venator / 6211 Star Destroyer sized; featuring (of course) Bogga the Hutt, Captain Norufu & some other minions 3.) I'm drawing a blank here - something featuring an Admiral Daala minifig, Star Destroyer bridge (not a new idea, I know) maybe...

I saw Dodsworth on TCM last night. Great film. I'll probably buy the DVD.

I have 5 greys from the mid-90s. I don't remember how I got this many! If I'm building it's a sure bet I'm using a brick separator. I only wish there was some kind of tile separator instead of my fingernails. Doctor Sinister's MOC "Break Glass in Emergency" is awesome! Here's mine featuring an MLCAD brick separator (slightly larger than the sig pic)

Great topic. I've pondered it at various times looking at the bin full of Technic parts off (mostly) Star Wars sets that I've bought over the past few years (I have a few ideas...) I voted no as to over-use. Using Techinc in non-Technic sets demonstrates good LEGOneering. Aesthetic concerns are valid too. Though I usually buy sets for their general brick offering I do build the official set before adding the parts to my MOC inventory. Technic parts don't always blend well such as mentioned earlier with 6211 Star Destroyer. Take it as an opportunity, build the MOD1 of the official set and put it right.

Do you usually know beforehand what it is that you want to build or do you start piecing parts together and go in the direction the MOC is going? These days I usually at least have a general idea of what I want to build first - a single engine plane, a certain style of building, a vignette theme, etc. Of course there are times for random experimentation with parts to see what just might be possible. However a MOC begins it inevitably changes during building due to parts limits and aesthetics. What about resources? Where do you get the bricks from? I was thinking of going for a large Creator set and using the pieces in that box. I have a decent collection of built sets, but I don't want to take them apart to build an MOC. Is this approach good for a start? You should really consider scrapping your built sets and put those parts to work for MOCing. At least in my case most of my bricks come from the official sets I've amassed over the years. Bricklink is essential if you're planning a MOC in detail or just want particular parts. In my experience a general inventory of bricks is the best start and the best place for that is what you've already got. Do you use the Lego Digital Designer or just dive right in and work hands-on? I've used MLCAD a few times to plan MOCs but usually it's hands-on building.

1) In this builder's humble opinion LEGO purity is using only official LEGO bricks, stickers, etc. Generally speaking, if LEGO is printed on the box the parts came in or on the brick studs its kosher. Gluing, cutting, painting, and filing bricks and other parts is verboten. As for non-LEGO bricks the only place such abominations have in a MOC might be in vignettes featuring a MEGA-BLOK fig under interrogation or a MEGA-BLOK brick being studied under the strictest quarantine. 2) I am a purist. I don't even like using official LEGO stickers. 3) I do not avoid 'impure' MOCs, Mandrake, "But I... I do deny them my essence."