alansmith

Hi, I'm getting the parts together for the Avtoros Shaman 8x8 MOC https://rebrickable.com/mocs/MOC-5360/Madoca1977/avtoros-shaman-8x8/#info It requires 8 of the 11949 Technic, Steering Wheel Hub Holder with 2 Pin Holes and 2 Ball Joint Arms. https://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem.page?P=11949#T=P&C=86 The current price of these on BrickLink is around €12 each, and has risen sharply in the past few months. I was wondering if it would be possible to use the 23801 Technic, Steering Wheel Hub Holder with 2 Pin Holes and 2 Axle Holes and two Axle Towballs. It looks like it would work based on the models in LDD. Has anyone tried this on a model? Here is an example of how they are used in the Shaman build:

Hi, I'm working on this too, I have around 60% of the parts in the correct color, maybe around 90% if I use other colors internally and compromise some. I plan to build it with my kids, so I'm not too fussy about exact color match or quality of parts. Here's what I did... 1) Created a spreadsheet by importing the BriskSet CSV inventory. 2) Rooted through my old Lego, I got about 1000 parts. 3) Bought about 30 kg of Lego unsorted locally, this got me up to about 50% of the correct color. 4) Got in contact with a guy fairly close by who has built a Falcon and is working on another model. I had quite a few parts for his wish-list and he had a lot of parts for mine. I traded parts and some cache, which got me about 500 additional parts. Buying a lot of bulk unsorted Lego can get you quite a few parts, but it takes a lot of time to sort through. I have sorted most of mine by part into ziplock bags, so I am in a good position to trade parts with anyone who is working on another project. I'd highly recommend trying to hook up with a few contacts locally to trade parts with if you can. Its great to be able to help each other out and it saves a lot of money on having to order stuff. Alan

Yesterday I picked up 17 kg of Lego for about £320, mostly space related, so it should be a good haul. It was in the local classifieds, so I could meet the seller, and take a look it before deciding to buy. This is important, I looked at another batch earlier and there were not that many useful parts in that one, it also saves on shipping. I'm about 20% of the way through sorting through it, and have a lot of parts for the Falcon. There is a mixture of old and new greys, but all the parts are in very good condition. I've got a lot of the plates and the special bricks, lots of engine grills, roof bricks and other parts. Only 4 levers and one telephone receiver though... If you plan to do this you will need to invest a lot of time sorting through it all. Checking parts to see if they are in the inventory takes most of the time, but gets quicker as you learn what is what. It's also a little disheartening to find a piece and think "Do I need one of these?", then find out you need 94 of them. Its more fun that putting in an order though, I'd recommend it if you have the time. If you know your stuff, which I don't, you may will come across some rare parts to trade. Not sure if I will save any money this way, or if I will sell the unneeded parts or keep them for the kids. Hopefully it will get me started with many of the bits. I'll let you know how this worked out in $ per part when I'm done.

I've decided to go for this build and stumbled across this thread, it's great to see that there are so many others working on this, and that it is not impossible to do. Rooting through my old Lego I found over 900 parts, not all the correct color, but for internal parts that's not a problem for me. To get the common parts I am planning on hunting adverts for "10 kg of Lego" (20 Pounds of Lego) in the local classifieds. If it looks like there are a lot of useful parts I can buy it, hunt out the parts i need, and then sell it as "9.5 kg Lego" for almost the same price. Has anyone else considered this as a strategy? I guess it will be time-consuming, but maybe good for the common parts, and I might try to hook up with a couple of friends so we can pool resources on this. The "shades of grey" issue will be a challenge. Has anyone mixed old and new greys, and if so, how does it look? I plan to build the set with my kids and have fun playing with it, so we won't care too much about the exact color match, and if it all looks new or not. A lot of my old Lego is looking very battered, and we can hide as many of these pieces in the interior and underside as we can. (I seem to remember the Millennium Falcon in the films looking a little battered, and I can't imagine Han and Chewie caring too much about the exact color match of the spare parts they were scrounging in their travels.) It's a few years before my kids will be able to help with the build, so time is not an issue...