TheLegoDr

Good point. Every country seems to have different price points. The funny thing is, a lot of pieces I feel can be overpriced here too.. I hadn't thought of the particular pieces you are using. Plus tiling the floors would add up. I hadn't done that to any buildings yet, but I plan to in the future. I think I'm of the mindset, I'll substitute cheaper pieces but still maintain an aesthetic I want. Like you were saying about the 1x4x5 white arch brick. I noticed those are hard to come by because I need 4 for a project I am doing. I may end up changing colors, but it won't look right. Yours obviously can't change colors, but I was wondering if you could swing this piece. If you could, then it would be significantly cheaper and add more structure since it would be solid across the top. Just an idea. Also, I've built a few modular roofs so far with the GG and CC, but I didn't use the official pieces/sizes. I threw together whatever I needed and made sure it was structurally sound/connected underneath to not break. That way I can use up plates I'm not using otherwise and I don't have to spend money on the exact pieces needed. That's another idea for you, if interested. Multiple smaller (4x8, 6x6, etc) plates may end up cheaper than the three 6x24 you need. I don't know. But if you have a lot laying around, it could work in your favor. Either way, keep up the good work. It'll be neat to see. I tend to use blue or green baseplates (preferably green for modulars) since you can at least pretend it is grass. The nice thing is you can use any baseplate since almost each modular has a different colored one. The medium stone gray isn't too bad price though comparitively. They are only $5 here through amazon.

Very nicely done. My favorite part is the snow tracks out front. Very clever idea. Ice Planet was on my way out of Space as a kid, but I still did love it a lot. I keep browsing for old sets on ebay or considering bricklinking some, but Blacktron II always takes the lead.. Good luck!

This is brilliant. Very well done. Classic Space was before my time, but I can still appreciate this build. I love the baseplate design. Gives me hope my mini non-space builds will look great with some good ground texture. Good luck in the contest.

Those look really neat. As I've stated before, I've never heard of GOTG until this movie was coming out. And I still know nothing about them because I haven't seemed really interested in reading about them. However, the figures are looking cool, so I'll probably pick them up. Similar to some random SW figures. They look cool even if I've never heard of them. That's all TLG needs to do I guess.

Well it'd be great to have a Meteor Man figure . I don't know what license that falls under. Either way, I can see them hinting at older figures/costumes in future sets, but I doubt they will ever directly brand a new set to fall under them. They need the direct movie tie-in to sell tlheir merchandise. The CEO or someone said so in an interview. That's why they have so many licensed themes. It sells. It keeps the company afloat. So if they are quitting LOTR because the movies are dying down, I don't see them giving us an older movie design/set of current heroes. People keep saying they hinted at a 60s Batman set with the Defend the Batcave set, but if you actually look at the real people in costume vs the figure, they don't really look anything alike. You need an amalgam of Robins to make the 60s Robin.

Thankfully a Target near me had them a week or so ago. Which is odd since normally they don't have anything until months later. But I did pick up the entire 16 in one shot, which is incredibly rare. I didn't care much for the price tag though. And because of that price I am not picking up extras like I usually do. I bought an extra Maggie and Lisa for my daughter, but I would have picked up extra Apus or Homers for the tiles. I was worried the heads would be hard to figure out, but most of them weren't too bad. But if you feel for the accessories it is a dead giveaway outside of Ralph/Milhouse since they have the same accessory with short legs, so you have to feel for the head. But Ralph is rather squat/round so it wasn't too hard after all. Hopefully the MMO series will have great accessories too.

^Obviously the popcorn in the movie theater lobby indicated a restaurant would be next... I think it would have been more fun if there actually were hints along the way. Although I wonder how far in advance LEGO actually plans these. I know some themes take a really long time. With this being just a big building, I wonder how much time is given to each build.

It really is a neat building, but 600 CDN is a bit alarming. I hadn't expected it to be that much. MOCs always take more than you expect.

Very nicely done. The mosaic is almost as gorgeous as the actress. I've considered doing a mosaic before, but I think it would take too much time/money that I don't have to do properly. I can hardly buy the sets I want, let alone MOCs.

^Short of scouting a few different stores with the bulk of the pieces you need and comparing overall cost there. Were you hoping for it to be under $30 or did you actually research all of the pieces you want and the average price on bricklink? Some sellers may have lower prices, but fewer pieces you need OR the opposite can be true. Sometimes paying a little more for pieces can work out better in the long run because of availability or shipping, or some other reason.

^That's a good point. If you would have/could have come up with the technique before ever seeing it in someone else's MOC, then is credit really due? Yes, you happened to witness it before you yourself built it, but you could have very well came to that same conclusion independently. The downside are the builders who think they are better than they are so assume they would have come up with that technique, but in reality had no idea how to construct it... Overall, I would try to give credit where it is due. Usually just saying I was inspired by this builder or that builder. But ultimately most of my builds haven't incorporated anything from anyone else (from what I've seen) and I haven't posted too many MOCs on here yet, so again, not a problem. But I agree that most people improve/change their MOCs in the end, even if they do happen to use one technique from someone else that they didn't create "first."

I concur with everyone else regarding the name. Not very creative. I knew my suggestions had no chance at winning (I can't even remember them now), but that isn't anything better than what I came up with. It is pretty obvious though. They used it before, so why not again. Throwing brick in there is pretty on the nose. It definitely sounds very low target age. And with every other theme having a Juniors set these days, they might throw in some Juniors Pirates again... I left a message on the rebrick forum so it isn't just me whining. But this has sunk my hopes for a good theme... see what I did there...

Very beautiful creation. It is very streamlined and smooth. I've recently been trying my hand at ships, but it is more along the lines of official LEGO style. Yours outdoes that considerably, so I know I won't compare to yours. But this will something great to look at for inspiration and tips. The editing is spot on, as everyone else states. I want to make sails for my ship, but hand sewn will not be an option since I haven't a clue how to do it and I'm sure my wife has better things to do...hah

^I did too. I assumed that is how they should be used??

It looks that way. It is a chocolate frog from Harry Potter. Odd that he used his one good jump to land there..

Interesting. One would assume that would be beer in his cup. Odd that you can't place those 1x1 rounds in those cups like that. I guess this will add fuel to the fire for Moe. I think the molded heads was the way to go, but this would have been easier to just print and make some new molds to attach to the top of the head similar to Darth Maul zabrak horns.

I have unoffically banned my one of my daughter's friends. They are 4, so still technically below the target age, but my daughter is capable of putting sets together without help. The friend thinks everything should be thrown and stepped on. Needless to say after witnessing this, I have removed ALL LEGO from my daughter's room and keep it in a safe place until the friend leaves. She also recently had a sleepover and after checking on them I caught the friend dumping about half of a container of fish food into our fish aquarium... it would be my preference if they weren't friends at all. But my daughter had the suggestion maybe she should only go to the friends house. I'm okay with that. The friend can break her own junk all she wants. She doesn't need to break our good quality stuff. Otherwise, only my daughter and I go into the LEGO room at all. But I have a few small display sets in our guest room that technically anyone would have access to. Thankfully only the VW van has been slightly destroyed in the past.

Very clever. I like the idea. Obviously making round people with square blocks can be tricky, but I think you pulled it off nicely. Now since no one can ever be happy, you need to make the rest of the cast!

^You are talking about Bricks and Pieces and not Pick a Brick right?? Crazy. That'd be awesome for them to show the prices as you put them into your bag.

I think it depends on what you are MOCing. None of my MOCs have been very expensive at all. Granted, I tend to not order pieces individually and try to only use pieces I already have. That would save some money. Granted, I do have to buy the sets so that still takes up money. As in, I just bricklinked Cafe Corner and Green Grocer and the total tally for extra piece orders came in at around $50 since I used stuff from my own collection. Very few subsitutions from the originals... Now I am currently working on a few different pirate ships so I'll have to order pieces for them. But if a color substitution can be made, it might be a good idea to try. I've recently started wanting to pick up sets from when I was a kid that I didn't have. So to bricklink those sets I'll have to buy all of those bricks since I won't have a good chunk of them in my collection, but even then those aren't MOCs, so it is different. I think the best bet is to build your MOC with whatever you have and then decide to order the exact number of pieces in the right colors to get the lowest amount spent. It doesn't matter if the MOC looks like a rainbow as long as you can picture how it should look with the right pieces.

It would be awesome if they posted the prices before you submit, but unfortunately they do not. I've done it before, but it becomes a hassle -- just submit multiple orders of different pieces you want so they come back with the price list and then you can determine which is cheaper for your needs. But then you have to keep the order numbers handy and in order to not mix anything up. Normally whenever I order things, I end up modifying it after the fact. Adding/removing pieces. The representative doesn't seem too annoyed by it, but I think they probably have call limits. They always seem to rush me through if we've been on for too long.

I really like this build. The dark tan plates thrown in seem to break up the facade a lot. I'm surprised. That is one concern I have of my own castle build (gray wall syndrome). I like the arches over the windows on the inside of the castle too.

I love M tron and Blacktron II. Great build! I hadn't considered using some newer elements to supplement the classic builds. Good luck.

I think it depends. Obviously supporting counterfeits is not a good practice, but where does one draw the line? There seems to be a lot of loopholes that are present when it comes to IP. I don't know all of the rules regarding it. I bought some knock-offs a few weeks/a month ago and they were okay ultimately. I was surprised the quality wasn't that bad. It was different than official LEGO and the printing was off on some of them, but ultimately by looking at them it might be difficult to tell the difference until you get really close. I mostly bought out of curiousity. I can understand buying them to supplement certain figures that LEGO won't produce or just haven't yet. If there is a chance of them producing one, I will just wait and get the official.

Thanks! I looked into their website and didn't care for the navigation. They also didn't look like they were too cheap, but maybe it depends on where you go. I'll have to look at some stores they are available at here in the States and see which size I'd want. But those trays look really useful and organized. I think it would work really well for what I want to do.