HawkLord

Looks amazing! The added foliage and that superb tree really help alot. Good job!

This is a must read for any kind of nature/outdoors MOCing. Very well done and explained.

Sorting seems to be more than half of my MOCing time. I feel like I've got a reasonable system down, it's just when I get new sets to part out, I get lazy and don't get to them right away. Then I've got all these parts to sort before I begin my project. Obviously the worst are the small pieces and trying to figure out what brick families should go together.

I don't mod parts, but I don't fault others for doing it. It's kinda like the custom pieces that some companies make - its just not my cup of tea.

Very cool. I think I've heard it called a speeder sled before. Very faithful to the original design.

Very creative and original. I like the fold out wings. Now if it just had some flick-fire missiles... :P I can remember those heavy weapon designs from the old POTF2 days.

I've seen damaged boxes in a special section that has other "clearanced" items. Usually you can tell it's all from the same case - like several of same item damaged. In these cases I think the biggest mark down I saw was 20% off, but those are on smaller sets. It never hurts to ask. If you see something not in great shape, most stores (even stores like Target or Walmart) will give discounts if something looks bad enough.

Being in the mental health field, I've heard of Lego being used as a therapeutic tool to help expand on how a person is thinking and feeling during a therapy session. How or what the person builds and what colors they use or gravitate towards when given a random set of bricks can help determine if a person is happy/sad/etc in a very broad sense. It's kind of like sand tray or other types of interactive therapy models.

Lots of really great techniques there - thank you for posting that. My favorite is the trench portion.

I think I'd always rather have the option of stickers than not. I agree that LotR Mines of Moria had alot of stickers that helped sell the scene, but I actually don't think they were necessary. Lego is so abstract that even if the scene doesn't greatly advertise Mines of Moria, one could still see it at first glance to some degree.

Wow, I'll be in for a number of those to army build both Elves and I can always use more forest/castle bricks. Despite being an uninspired set, there's lots of MOCing material.

Imperial Shuttle polybag from Target (first time I had seen it in the wild) and another 75052 Cantina from Lego.com.

I would say the easiest would be chewbacca because he's been out for years in that form. Also the CMF Minotaur is pretty cheap on the secondary market.

Long live the king!!!

I'd go for Emmett's mech. It's very unique and freaking huge. The build is fun enough and if you like the movie, the minifigures are good. I agree that town square would be another good one because of the age.

I miss HP Legos only in the sense that I was just coming out of my dark ages in '09/'10 and so I was only buying some HP sets (I missed alot of the larger ones, like Hogwarts Castle and Diagon Alley), as I was hooked on SW and still getting back into the idea of Legos. If I knew then what I know now, I'd have gone in alittle heavier. I also miss the idea of HP Legos in terms of how much better Legos have become since '09/'10. I feel like the HP stuff ended at a time when Lego was adding more alternate facial expression and detailed printing. Who knows how good the HP stuff could be if Lego produced it today?

I would like for it to be Doctor Who, but I'm not sure a full line is viable. I see Doctor Who as an Ideas set like BTTF or Ghostbusters. Jurassic Park/World feels too early (and I'm not sure what Lego could show). Since Lego is really good at keeping secrets, it could be something completely out of no where.

Wow... that takes me back. That was my favorite Lego set as a kid. As for the modding, that is very well done. As mentioned, it fits the look of the classic material perfectly - which can be hard to do, since people can easily get fixed on the modern look/style these days. Thanks for posting it.

I would love to see CMF licensed series for IPs that don't normally get attention or don't have enough longevity to warrant a full line. With that said, while I primarily collect SW and Marvel, I wouldn't really want a CMF line from either of those, as I'd much rather just sets from them. This would clear the path for smaller IPs, like Jurassic Park/World or Doctor Who which may not have enough material to warrant sets (as some have pointed out - aside from a Tardis where do you go with Doctor Who?). Simpsons was good way to handle the licensed CMF concept. As for licensing rights and action figure debates, I still hold to the idea that now that Lego is the number one toy maker and Disney owns SW, all bets are off. Disney could very easily position Lego to have a SW CMF or even their Lego magnets back.

When I first started collecting in 2009/2010 it was: Set - 100% MOD - 0% MOC - 0% This year, it's been: Set - 60% MOD - 5% MOC 35% I think most of the sets I've bought this year were for parts. It seems to be a natural progression for me, as I used to just buy sets and keep them organized together without letting a single piece get out of order. Now I just buy boxes that I rip open and sort into respective containers for future MOCs.

Where to start? That is probably the best executed Lego set for Star Wars I've seen. I know that may sound extreme, but I have nothing negative to say about how it looks. It's very smooth and sleek, yet still bulky and imposing. I'm definitely sold in the ship. Meanwhile that Boba Fett looks perfect. He was already pretty good and very much near perfect, but this covers any remaining element of Boba I could want. The other figures though are the weakest part of the set. I was really hoping for additional bounty hunters, as they have been lacking recently. None of the other figures are ones I really need or have been looking to fill in my collection. All things considered, I'm easily sold if the price is below $250.

I like this as a direction for the CMF series which seemed to have gotten stale by or before Series 10. Maybe running licensed CMF is the way to go. I mean with how many companies now have some version of the Star Wars action figure license, maybe it's only a matter of time before that gets the CMF treatment. Although the most encouraging thought here is that if there is another Simpsons CMF series there would surely be a tie-in set to build interest.

I actually just buy alot of sets. I know it's counter intuitive, because it means spending more to get bricks, but I don't mind having tons if material. Especially, if it's sets that have alot of terrain bricks that I didn't even know I wanted. That's part of the fun buying sets, is finding material you normally wouldn't look at and then thinking if how you could use it. Plus you can always sell the figures to recover some costs.

What if mini Ant-Man is just a printed 1x1 tile...? That could save having to make a new mold. Or maybe just reprint the mini statute found in the CMF line.

Whereas, I don't have as many bricks as some AFOLs, I have been working on building a collection and organizing it. When I work on MOCs, I literally just use the pieces available to me in my parts collection. I'll think of an idea and just try to accomplish it the best I can with what I have, regardless of if another brick would be a better choice. To me, making the desicions with a limited palet can be more fun than working in systems where all options are available. As I collect, this process gets easier, but I know I'll never get to a point where I have every brick I could need.