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New to community. so many questions!

Posted: Fri May 24, 2013 7:25 am
by PsychoPixie
I had Lego's as a teen, and selling them all off in a garage sale was the dumbest thing I ever did. I miss those old sets!

Now, here I am. An adult with kids. And my daughter is old enough that she is now finally expressing interest in the Lego's I have been fiddling with since she was 2 yrs old. Granted at 4 yrs old she cant do a tonn with it, but she is very creative and wants to help me. I make Castles for her, and she has a bunch of minifigs. She uses them much the same way little girls use doll houses.

I pick up design idea's from the MOC video's i see on youtube. Plus the random thoughts which pop into my head. But I am restricted by the amount of lego's I have access to. My access to lego's is limited by the stores, eBay, and occasionally craigslist. Where do you folks get the bulk boxes of lego's?????

I see all the wonderful creations on the video's from events. Are there events on the west coast? Here in So Cal would be awesome. Also, these creations often have custom lego minifigs and pieces I have never seen. Where do those come from? And those beautiful rock formations, are they all legos? Are they hollow? Are they foam inside with lego outside? Can you use Lego duplo to build up instead so that you use fewer bricks?

So many questions! I have so many idea's for castles and landscapes! Please help me with my questions?

Re: New to community. so many questions!

Posted: Fri May 24, 2013 9:43 am
by Bluesecrets
Hi. I can answer a few of these for you.

First, most of the rock formations that are being built currently are made from slopes. They might be hollow, or partially, it depends on who built them and how much brick they had. Sure you can build with duplo. It is system compatible with LEGO bricks. I know a lot of people who use it for interiors of raised landscaping to save on the use of their bricks for the visible parts of their build. Bulk LEGO, well now there is a question. You can check with the local LEGO store to see if they will sell you a box of the pick a brick wall. As far as are the builds all LEGO, primarily the answer is yes. LEGO fans tend to be VERY product specific. Clone bricks are a nono! But there are custom shops who are not LEGO but make things for the LEGO builders...Brickforge, Brickarms, Brick Warriors...there are a lot of them so I can't list them all. You can find those listed in the Customs forum. There are events on the west coast, specifically Bricks by the Bay in San Franscisco, Brickcon in Seattle, and Bricks Cascade in Portland. If you are comfortable, you may start looking into a LUG (LEGO users group) in your area. I know there are a few in that area.

I hope that answered some of your questions. And welcome to CC.

Re: New to community. so many questions!

Posted: Fri May 24, 2013 3:40 pm
by Bruce N H
Hey PsychoPixie,

Welcome back! We've missed you. :)

First up, everything Blue said.

Second, you should also check out Bricklink if you haven't already. This is a person-to-person LEGO part buying site. You can find pretty much any part ever made there.

Also, you mention looking at MOCs on YouTube videos. You should also check out Brickshelf and MOCpages, free LEGO image sharing sites, and Flickr, a general image sharing site that lots of AFOLs use (warning, two days ago Flickr underwent a big change in format and business model, so there are a lot of people ranting about the change right now). Those can give you a lot of additional inspiration. Is your daughter into Friends sets? You might also want to check out FriendsBricks.

On local LEGO offerings in southern California, Blue listed the major west coast conventions. LUGOLA is the Los Angeles based LEGO Users Group. I think all of their discussion happens on their Yahoo group (they also have a website and Flickr group, but those seem to be dormant). I lived in LA ten years ago, and at least at that time the LUG meetings were very informal, often at a public setting, and kids were welcome. You should also check out SandLUG and OCLUG, both of which spun off from LUGOLA over the years. There were a couple of LEGO train groups as well, if you're into train building.
Of course you're also close to Legoland California, and occasionally there are AFOL events held there - in particular they have a Star Wars Days celebration at some point in the year and a bunch of AFOLs always put on a big display. That would be a great place to meet local AFOLs. I think Ace, one of the admins over at FBTB, lives in Orange County, and is always involved in organizing that display. As to other local LEGO venues, there are ten LEGO brand stores listed in California, including the LEGO Imagination Center in Downtown Disney. These often feature displays by local AFOLs, and there are regular in-store events where you might meet local AFOLs. I live on the east coast now, and I'm an hour away from a LEGO store, but when I do get over there I know the local LUG has a set of fliers by the cash register, so you mgiht find contact information in that sort of location.

There are lots of ways to build rock formations. Perhaps the easiest is to base them around BURPs and LURPs (Big/Large Ugly Rock Pile/Piece):
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The downfall of that is that they can look repetitive - here's an example of a cliff I made using them:
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Here's an alternative, that was all basic bricks (mostly 2x4):
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Again, not, IMO, ideal (I'm using my own MOCs so I can feel free to insult them). As Blue notes, many people have moved to a more slope-based rock style, as it looks more realistic. I think Steve DeCraemer gets credit for popularizing this style. E.g. one by me:
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The build liability there is that it can be very parts-intensive. (You might also note that over the years I've personally moved from doing a mix of grays to doing rocks in one main shade, I just personally think it looks much better.)

If you're building up your interior with Duplo, one 2x4 System brick fits over two Duplo studs. So you could basically build 2x2 Duplo columns, and then top them with 4x4 System LEGO, and then connect your System layer over top of that.

Re: New to community. so many questions!

Posted: Fri May 24, 2013 5:13 pm
by AK_Brickster
As someone who only got re-involved with Lego a few years ago, I totally understand having a lot of questions! My advice is to just take your time checking out a lot of online community sites (classic castle, www.brothers-brick.com, etc) and get reacquainted with the hobby that way.

If you enjoy building castles, take a few minutes to go through a couple of the big Flickr groups for this page: Lands of Classic Castle (which is the photo pool for a role-playing project based on this forum) and Classic-Castle (the general photo pool for this forum)

If you see a technique you like or a part you don't recognize, just ask! Most builders will be more than happy to point you in the right direction or offer you some tips :)

Welcome back to the hobby, and have fun building!

Re: New to community. so many questions!

Posted: Fri May 24, 2013 7:47 pm
by friskywhiskers
Welcome! I can definitely help you out with some of those questions:

Bulk Lego: If you want specific Parts, like the hundreds of slopes it takes to make the rocks you see bricklink is a good way to go. You can get parts at very reasonable prices. I'd estimate that you could get all of the slopes you'll need to start of with that technique for well $30. I recently stumbled across a site similar to eBay, it is a good source for bulk Lego, just be sure to check the price of shipping. I've made orders from it so I know It's legit. You can prob. find people you already know with tons of Lego just sitting in their basement that would be happy to sell you some. Also, yard sales and garage sales are always worth checking out.

Those Rock Formations
With a little money, and a lot of practice, you can create the amazing formations of which you speak. I use the Burps and Lurps mentioned above, Duplo, and all those red and yellow bricks that I never really use to fill up the space. If it was hollow, It would be way to fragile. If you want more tips for gettinf good with rock scaping as we call it, feel free to PM me, I am quite good if I may say so myself.

General Tips:
1.If you are interested in becoming a serious MOCer, I would recommend investing in a sorting system, orting by part type is usually the best way to go, not by color. Here is an example of a sorting system used by dozens in the community:

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2. For inspiration join Flickr, and start adding people who's creations you admire. you will then get updates of they're latest works. You can then mark your favorites to look over, and try out the techniques you see. Also like AK_Brckster said, you can join Lego Castle related groups.

3. Don;t get discouraged! The lego hobby takes time and patience. Don't expect to be building like this right away:

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