LEGO Worlds & You

[WesternOutlaw]

I've been looking at the wonderful Guilds of Historica creations recently as well as some other historic worlds that I've built over the years (Grave Stone, Mexican Village, Classic Town, Jungle Adventure, Ghost Train, etc.). It got me thinking, and not just applicable to LEGO Historic Theme fans (but probably more prevalent), do you find yourself creating LEGO Worlds or are you a single MOC builder?

By single MOC, I mean simply one Castle or creation vs. an expanded set of creations for a complete Medieval Village or collection of MOCs (LEGO World). Similarly, interest in a single theme may have a direct impact on what you build and desire to create a World vs. a MOC.

While I enjoy the single build at times, personally, I find myself creating LEGO Worlds inhabited by characters who with backstories, come to life in a myth of historic legends and story. Are you a LEGO World builder and do you enjoy expanding your creations "beyond the build" with story and myths?

I'd be interested in hearing your perspectives.

Although not about Grave Stone or specific to Wild West, one of my many LEGO worlds, Grave Stone, to help illustrate:

Ghost Train, part of a collection of creations centering on the LEGO Wild West World of Grave Stone

[Angeli]

I am building my mocs around AD&D world, or more precise, around "Baldur's Gate" games :)

All my inspiration comes from there, although my creations rarely have something really in common with the games ;)

I like to mention the names and make up events, and I try to come back to the characters and things they done in my previous mocs, and connect them. But mostly, firstly I build, and then I sit and watch the town/tower/temple and make up a story, trying to somehow connect with previous mocs and the BG I and II games ;)

And due to the fact that I have a lot of red and black bricks (and almost no other color:), I've decided to build something with evil tint ;) Drow were my first choice, and they are present in BG I and II - so, perfect match

[WesternOutlaw]

I am building my mocs around AD&D world, or more precise, around "Baldur's Gate" games :)

Excellent Angeli - a great world to build upon.

If LEGO had been so elaborate back in the early Greyhawk days, I too may have been an AD&D builder.

Lankhmar and Ravenloft/Barovia are two other worlds that I still have interest in seeing in LEGO - perhaps one day.

[Seaber]

I have a small Western set-up planned, that has a story intertwining two themes :)

In 1911, it features the Western characters, and in 1936, Indy, Sallah and the Adventurers have made it their base on one of their adventures. The only change in this time is a hanger and air strip have been added. I liked the idea of nothing really needing to progress, so it doesn't.

So, yeah, I do rather like the idea of worlds rather than one of MOCs :)

[WesternOutlaw]

...and in 1936, Indy, Sallah and the Adventurers have made it their base on one of their adventures. The only change in this time is a hanger and air strip have been added.

Interesting - the 1930s would be a neat time period to build upon, especially in the Wild West. You've still got old Western Towns but they can incorporate more modern marvels (like automobiles and flight, as you've indicated). 6444 Outback Airstrip comes to my mind, a fantastic small/mid-sized Outback set.

1930s Pharaoh's Quest Airstrip (a Single MOC)

I'm visualizing the 1950s movie, Bad Day at Black Rock- not exactly a western, but staged in the West post WWII (no airplanes though).

[Vindicare]

What I'd like to do someday would be to create a Medieval world. Not using MOCs but creating a landscape to situate them on. It would be extremely large though, because I'd like to have decent sized areas for my different castle factions. I really like what mayday artist is doing.

[WesternOutlaw]

I really like what mayday artist is doing.

Does he build Castle-related worlds?

[Alex the Great]

Does he build Castle-related worlds?

He is building a very large castle project here.

[Si-MOCs]

Interesting topic.

I never really given it much thought...

From my perspective I don't necessarily go off planning on creating worlds... but I seem to start steering towards that.

Normally I would build a single MOC with no intentions of creating a 'world' but if I like that MOC I may add brothers and sisters to it and start growing that world...

If the MOC doesn't really interest me any more I move on.

Ironically the one world that breaks this rule is GoH - as we totally planned it as a world from the get go :P

Sorry if I dip out of the Historical forum, but I have more Sci-Fi builds examples:

I built the tank first, I liked the it so much I an APC and a slew of humvees.

Similarly I built one ship... then a bunch of others:

and again:

This time culminating with a station:

And while I don't always have extensive stories written up... I do have them in my head.

Building gives time for the brain to wonder and create worlds for which all these things fit in.

The one thing I haven't done - but have long wanted to is to tie in different themes into a single world... like some sort of corporation or illuminant type society that are present in Castle, City and SPACE!

[Ecclesiastes]

I was walking around with the idea of making a whole Lego World. The guild contest was the little push in the right direction.

The buildings I've build so far:

Those and a giant castle I'm working on right now. Those, I'm going to use for a castle world. And in october we have legoworld here in The Netherlands. Then I will put all of those creations on display there!

I think a lot of people have the idea of their own legoworld. But I like to build in detail and that means you've to use a lot of bricks. And that's not cheap! It happens a lot when I'm building and I'm like: "I'm looking for some bricks, but the bricks are in a other moc. So I've to tear down that one. So byebye own legoworld!"

Edited February 5, 2012 by Ecclesiastes

[Khorne]

Interesting topic. I'm not much of a MOC'er due to my rather small LEGO collection and megalomaniacial building projects/ideas (which are, of course, never executed due to said collection). I do have a decent Castle minifigure collection and the pieces to build small-scale MOCs, which I often do. These small creations are more often than not linked to the official LEGO factions. I rarely invent new names for factions, I simply like to use the names LEGO has given them.

I have tried to combine all my LEGO Castle factions into one coherent universe or world ever since I was a kid. I had a very rudimentary basic background story and self-drawn map back then. Over time, I just kept on reinventing and adding to this universe, reshaping it many times. Geographically speaking, my Castle world has reached somewhat of a final form, I like to believe. Background-wise, however, things are very much fluctuating. There are constant pillars of background, but the details keep on changing.

My biggest challenge is trying to combine the different official LEGO background stories into one coherent, believable history of my LEGO Castle world. Being a history student, I find myself using loads of historical facts and stories as a basis for my LEGO histories. I just really love reading fantasy stories that, in a certain way, could actually make sense.

This is the map situating all post-2000 LEGO Castle factions (pic = link).

It is still WIP and will most likely remain so for a very long time. It's something I work on every now and then, when I've got the time or inspiration.

The same goes for the background of my Castle world. Right now, I've got tens, maybe hundreds, of pages in Word documents detailing the history of the factions. Some faction have very detailed histories that I've been adding to, and changing since I was perhaps 15 years of age. Others are still really vague and haven't even gotten a page full with info . You can read a really basic general background here. It's kind of based on Norse mythology (amongst others) because I really, really like Norse/Viking culture. You can find more (really rough and sometimes outdated) information on characters and "factions" here.

Phew, that's a lot of text . I always get carried away when talking about stuff like this .

[Sirens-of-Titan]

Great topic Brickster!

I definitely suffer form the same condition that you guys do; creating elaborate worlds in my head and then putting them to brick form.

I find myself enthralled by fantasy and sci-fi fiction a lot of the time, so it's only natural to want to emulate and create my own version of old classics like Tolkien etc. What started for me as a simple venture into the world of castle building has turned into a full-blown fixation into making as many diverse fantasy environments as possible, and putting my own twist on them. When I write stories I create elaborate relationships between characters that draw on historic an literary precedents, and hopefully inspire and entertain other builders.

The fantasy world I've been writing about is your classic fantasy setting, with a few exceptions. You get everything from castles, to villages to bizarre dream sequences, all in the spirit of the classic fantasy novel/movie/game. My goal has always been to create a type of cross-section of the world with multiple environments so that I'm not just building house after house and fortress after fortress.

I have a plan for something a bit more interesting in the future, but only after I finish my "Rise of the Mage" project, and of course depending on how Historica is doing after the projected end date.

[JackJonespaw]

I've always built individual MOCs, but I might start to build a huge world. I'll have to find some good deals on boxes of bricks. Any ideas?

[K-Nut]

I like the idea of building a bunch of MOCs from one world, like Sandy's Heroica RPG. It's a fun idea and you can incorporate things from MOC to MOC.

[CptMugwash]

I would say I'm a bit of both. With GoH I love how loads of people are in this world together and seeing all the fantastic mocs they produce, whether they are a one off or part of a collection. I also started building a steampunk world, I stopped because I went on to something else but now I'm getting the urge again, inbetween I create onesies or focus on mine and my bros city. I've never really gotten around to doing this one,

It was for when I was in a mech/scifi mood, the story goes that WW2 never ended, there was a huge technological boom and Nazi Germany spread like a disease across the world, Asia in their effort to fight back against Germany combined their forces and also saw this as an opportunity to claim some land and maybe more, Russia, stubborn and trying their best to fight off the persistent attacks but the German forces overwhelming their defenses and pushing Russia back, claiming more and more land. The Allies are spread far and wide, the USA, Canada and Australia under constant attacks from sea and air whilst the battlefront in Europe slowly dwindling, desperately needing reinforcements. Will Nazi Germany succeed in their mission to take over the world, or will the Allies, Asia and Russia put their heads together and lay some smack down...(to be moced)

[Dwellington]

My collection is rather small, and very disorganized, but since I've gotten back into Lego I've been working specifically to build up enough resources to create a big old fantasy world. I've had some small ideas here and there for a while now, mostly as a role playing setting, but as new things keep happening in terms of Lego, I must admit that my intentions change to justify my purchases. For example, while my intention has always been European fantasy (ie; Castle sets), the region I'm developing has a Middle East analogue, complete with an ancient civilization, because it was the Pharaoh's Quest sets that got me really buying Lego again.

So, yeah. Definitely Lego World kind of guy.

[AwesomeStar]

I'm somewhere in between. Occasionally I'll build a single MOC by itself (for example, I currently have a medium-sized Avalonia vignette sitting on my working desk ready to be photographed for the Guild), but I guess I do like to create my own little worlds.

Something I've really been getting into lately is collecting (or attempting to collect) sets in a sub-theme and then combining them together. So far I've had better luck with MB's Halo line due to their availability, but at the moment I've just purchased the 1988 Forestman's Outpost from an eBay seller and with my birthday coming up this week I'll probably end up procuring some of the other Forestmen sets and a few Lion Knight ones to even it out a bit.

To support this woody collection I sat down yesterday and dug out all my green baseplates, trees, plant bits and as many classic-castle bits and bobs I had, so then when I eventually collect some of the sets I'll have a decent environment to play in.

So I guess I do like making individual MOCs and those in my own world, but I'm of the sort who prefers to take Lego's themes and expand upon them!

-A.S.

[sanders]

On 05.02.2012 at 10:27 PM, K-Nut said:

I like the idea of building a bunch of MOCs from one world, like Sandy's Heroica RPG. It's a fun idea and you can incorporate mobile online casino play from MOC to MOC.

Yeah, it looks amazing!

Edited April 20, 2018 by sanders

[Jim]

4 hours ago, sanders said:

Yeah, it looks amazing!

Hi,

Welcome to EB.

You have posted a comment in a six year old topic. This is called bumping. Please don't bump a topic unless you have new/useful information to add. Please read the site guidelines (link in my footer).

Other than that....have fun!

[Aanchir]

Not so much of a historic builder personally (I dabble in Castle MOCs but finish few of them). Most of my MOCs are either independent of any sort of theme/world or designed to fit some sort of existing universe. For example, sometimes I design Blacktron MOCs, or Elves MOCs, or Bionicle MOCs, or Ninjago MOCs, or Atlantis MOCs, or The Legend of Zelda MOCs, all intended to fit into those fictional universes in one way or another.

Other times I will create MOCs that don't belong strictly to any universe, real or fictional. I may try to create additional MOCs that are intended to belong to the same fiction as these, but rarely am I successful enough at it to really cement them as fully realized worlds.

I'm not really all that into developing original minifigure or mini-doll characters for my System creations, at least not to the extent of giving them backstories or personalities. For instance, This mech belongs to no universe in particular, and its pilot is nobody in particular — both are just intended to look cool and unique enough that you can imagine they COULD have a story. They are blank slates in the same sense that most official LEGO City and LEGO Castle characters are blank slates, without fixed identities beyond the role they fill in a particular play scenario.

By comparison, a lot of my constraction and large scale figure creations do wind up being original characters with personalities, names, and backstories, because in that case the figure IS the creation, not just an accessory to it. Usually, I decide who the character is as I'm building them or even after the fact — the design informs their personality and what kind of story they belong to. PAIGE is the latest original character I successfully completed, and I have tried planning other robot characters belonging to her world, but they're all still works in progress.