Lego movie left me wondering...

[eldiano]

I grew up with lego and when I was a kid I had vivid imagination, as an adult, i started buying sets and after watching the movie, I can relate to emmet in the sense that I need instructions to build Lego, I don't mix and match sets and just leave them with the original parts, I will never be a Master Builder ever, I don't think I have imagination and don't know how people come up with MOC with so much attention to detail, I think part of it has to do with knowing the entire brick catalog and figure out how to make stuff work I guess....

[Lordofdragonss]

Haha, no silly.

Every one of us have different imagination. You have just to find a key to unlock it.

Good thing to start is taking hadfull of random pieces, looking at the window and building a first thing you see.

No you cant add any more pieces.

Good luck!

[eldiano]

Lol I am almost 30!!! this sucks, I got to bricklink physical stores and I can't even pick legos to build anything to say the least, the thing that kills me is that I like to finish sets that are incomplete like half a house or half a room, I feel that the simpsons house is the only set I have ever bought that feels complete... rooms, toilet, kitchen, everything!

[MECHALEX]

Hi Eldiano. I found myself in the same situation. Over 30, lots of Lego and a handful of MOCs I'd started but not finished. Usually, those ideas were too ambitious - a giant space castle, a full-sized Eagle etc.

Lord of Dragons idea about taking a handful of pieces and just getting started is great. Or you could try this, which worked for me:

• Ask a loved one, friend or family member for some ideas. Not too ambitious, maybe a statue, cartoon character, building or distinctive vehicle.
  
• Jump on Lego Digital Designer and have a play with some shapes and different parts to practice the more tricky areas.
  
• Build those sections with your own Lego (don't worry about colour at this stage, colour is easy but the shape and form is important)
  
• Once it starts to come together and you gain confidence, start converting your model to the correct colours by buying bricks.
  

Here's my MOC journey so far:

Much of the credit is due to other Eurobricks members and Lego builders worldwide who inspire me and my partner who suggested Ganesh would make a good subject.

Good luck!

[bjorkan]

Hi everybody -- I've see the Movie yesterday (by the way, the age in the cinema was about 12+-8 years and me alone as a full outlayer ) and at the first had the same feeling, but then at home, when my wife was sleeping, I grabed some simple bricks and made the simplest cube possible (have no photos, but it was colorfull cube), and then I was fine just to share the feeling... now I'm ready to go to Movie again to see it with my grandson :) m.

[monsinjor]

Hi eldiano!

Everybody have imaginations... just start to build.

Try simple ideas from life... I don't know, even when you wake up, look around... you have a bed, make it, took clothes from a locker, make the locker, make a simple 4 wide car... anything.

Go build it :) and have fun with it. I'm looking forward to see the results!

Have a nice day!

[jonwil]

Whats keeping me from building right now is not a lack of ideas or a lack of inspiration but the fact my LEGO is packed up in moving boxes whilst I look for an apartment (currently staying with family)

[polarscribe]

I definitely understand your feelings - I am just barely getting beyond the "instructions" stage myself.

I would suggest starting with MODding - find a stock, out-of-the-box LEGO set that you like, but think could be improved in some way. I really wanted a realistic modern hospital but the 4429 Helicopter Rescue (the closest thing out there) is way too small and the helicopter was awful. So I bought two of the sets and used the combined parts to bash together something much better. Am I totally satisfied with the result? Of course not. But it's much better than the original, and showed me how I could improve on the LEGO designers (who were obviously building to a specific price point with that set).

Edited February 8, 2014 by polarscribe

[Godtshep]

I definitely understand your feelings - I am just barely getting beyond the "instructions" stage myself.

I would suggest starting with MODding - find a stock, out-of-the-box LEGO set that you like, but think could be improved in some way. I really wanted a realistic modern hospital but the 4429 Helicopter Rescue (the closest thing out there) is way too small and the helicopter was awful. So I bought two of the sets and used the combined parts to bash together something much better. Am I totally satisfied with the result? Of course not. But it's much better than the original, and showed me how I could improve on the LEGO designers (who were obviously building to a specific price point with that set).

Yes, I agree. I love modding sets!

[M'Kyuun]

To some degree, I can relate. While I've never had a Dark Age, I did have about a ten year window of non-productivity MOC-wise. My biggest hurdle is that all I think of building are transforming mecha, mostly those based on Macross. I'm not a good builder, and I lose interest very quickly, so for years many projects that I started languished unfinished. LDD and LEGO Factory brought me out of that slump, as I designed and bought about five models, and later designed and Bricklinked a little P-38 Lightning. In 2011, I realized my goal of building a transforming fighter based on the VF-4 from Macross.

I definitely recommend LDD as a good, inexpensive tool for experimenting. Or just pour out a pile of bricks and let your imagination take you where it will.

[fred67]

I get it, too. I actually started wanting to build my own and not buy sets, but mostly I just build sets because they are both much better than what I can do, and because they have the right parts. It would be nearly impossible for anyone without a lot of time and money to be able to get exactly what is best needed for their own modular building, or train, for example, when the sets come with everything.

The sets are also usually really well done... it's quite rare for me to even mod one.

But I do build my own stuff, too. I find a lot of inspiration in CMFs, the ideas seem to create themselves with do many varied figures. If you challenge yourself (limit yourself) with, for example, small 8x8 builds, it is easier than trying to make one of these beautiful, but enormous, mocs that some people do...and collect pieces over time to have the collection to build bigger as time goes on.

Just my two cents.

Edited February 8, 2014 by fred67

[N-4K0]

mostly I just build sets because they are both much better than what I can do, and because they have the right parts.

This is what I feel about the topic too.

I'm only into Technic, and I buy a few sets I really like, then mod the ones I keep built. Those I don't want to keep, goes to parts. Although now I mostly use BrickLink for parts and only buy sets I want to keep.

Otherwise I MOC if I have a particular model I want to make.

The only thing I know for sure is that I would never be able to create a model like e.g. 42009 Mobile Crane MK II by myself. I don't have the skills for that.

I also tend to favor sturdiness over realism when I make a MOC.

[Milan]

Just patience and be persistent!

[bacem]

don't have imagination? everyone have imagination somewhere in their mind, and i'm sure you're no exception. just try it. try to build something with what you have, and be proud of it.

[Sarah]

I'm 40 and a lot like you -- I don't MOC. I MOD a little. But the Mixels have been GREAT for encouraging me to MOD more heavily. Both the ideas on the website about all the different combinations. and the fact that they aren't realistic. I don't have to make it LOOK like anything at all -- just please me.

I'm eager for more series and thus more colors.

[AFOLguy1970]

Likely everyone has a degree of creativity. Maybe there is sometimes an area of specialty like architecture, vehicles, landscape, etc. I have yet to complete my first MOC, but it is in progress with the first level done. I cannot say that it is fully my idea since it is based on a real building.

The movie did leave me a little puzzled. Did the Man Upstairs build from his own creativity or are all of those buildings sets made from instructions? If his town is completely made of MOCs, then he is far different from his alter ego "Lord Business".

As much as I hate to say it, I would not be happy if I spent 8 1/2 years making a Lego town, and the boys were scrapping it to make vehicles. Mine are 6 and 7 right now, and they unfortunately tend to lose pieces, bite them, and leave them scattered all over the table. Just like in the movie, they have their bricks, and I have mine. For now, there is no way they are going to allowed near the MOC, the modulars, and Orthanc. I really wish they had the creativity the kid in the movie had, but we are just not there yet, Thus like the Man Upstairs, I am pretty much in defense mode.

[B-Lister]

Buy set 6177.

Think of things you want to build. Use the bricks in the set to build them.

[mrfuture]

I was like you and i'm 45. Build a lot of space things in my childhood but after wake up from a semi dark age (was still do some buying if i saw a model i liked), i had been locked into build the model mode and keep pices together. Just before the movie came i joined the local AFOL club and we all went to see preview of the movie. That sparked a new creativity for me and is now MOCing again. And I will also go to the main event for our club this year with a modified version of an still standing spaceship MOC that has been saved since i left Lego building + something new.

Edited March 5, 2014 by mrfuture

[B-Lister]

The thing that blows me away are the people who can build from any angle. While it impresses me, a lot of the time it seems like they do it just because they know how.

[Amset-Rah]

Chalk me up for this feeling too. Most of my creative moments have been hindered by either not having the right bricks or someone doing it first and doing a better execution. I have modded sets to my personal preference (Like my Melting Room became a James Bond death trap) or done purist minifigs.