[WIP] Bricklinking and Building Henrik's BB-8

[Cjd223]

With the recent release of The Force Awakens, the seventh installment to the Star Wars Franchise (If you haven't heard of TFA, I wouldn't be surprised, almost no advertising and no merchandise was made for the movie), fans have been in love with the newest droid, BB-8. The new look to the droid caused many Lego builders to desire their own, and HenrikLego did just that. Totaling at nearly 11K pieces, Henrik built an enormous droid for a local theater of his, and even included the local community of AFOLs with an LDD file for it. His original topic for this MOC is here: http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=116949&st=0

After seeing it, I immediately wanted one of my own. After an incredibly long and difficult debate with my wallet, I decided to pursue my own BB-8. Using the LDD File, I generated a parts list for bricklink totaling 10,909 pieces. I looked over the parts needed for this and took note of some of the nuisances.

White Brick 2 x 4 (1184 needed) - The part itself is not all that rare, but getting it in new condition (Getting White Bricks in used condition is a nightmare) in that quantity was a challenge. It ultimately ended up costing me 25 cents per brick.

White Plate 1 x 2 (1385 needed) - Also very difficult to get in large quantities, but I managed to find it for about 10 cents per piece.

White Plate 1 x 3 (527 needed) - It always seems like 1 x 3 plates are a pain to obtain, this was the case here. About 15 cents per piece.

Orange Plate 1 x 8 (25 needed) - I did not imagine this piece being very rare, but I ended up placing about 5 orders for it, despite it being cheap. About 10 cents per piece.

White Plate 4 x 10 (24 needed) - The large quantity drove the price way up. 48 cents per piece.

White Plate 2 x 2 Corner (374 needed) - Once again a hard to find piece that I never would picture as rare. About 12.5 cents per piece.

That rounds out the worst bricks and pieces for me, the rest are not very difficult to find, but prepare yourself for about 11 cents per piece, I optimized smaller amount of orders over saving a few cents per piece because shipping charges really drive up the final price. To date I am glad to say that I have ordered all 10,909 pieces, just waiting for them to arrive. However, I have not started designing a desert base for BB-8, I need to work on this ASAP. Once the pieces come in, I of course will have to count them (I am not looking forward to this at all, but more and more it seems that bricklink sellers don't have the ability to count) and check off that everything is in my possession, including parts for a base. I hope to keep you guys updated as much as possible throughout this process, but for now I need to explain to my wallet why an enormous chunk was taken out of it.

[lanesteele240]

1200 bucks. Wow. That is a lot but it is one awesom model

[Cjd223]

Quick Update: A lot of the bricks have come in, just waiting for about 1500 more, which means I have about 9,400 pieces for BB-8 right now. Unfortunately, I cannot build any sections of BB-8 until a few more orders come in, so I'll just have to wait for then.

The bricklink sellers did an excellent job organizing pieces when shipping which made it incredibly easy to sort out what I have onto a table. I still have not started designing a base for BB-8, but that's on my list for the next few days, then I will hopefully be able to build it all next weekend, if that's enough time to build BB-8, it may take two weekends given it is almost 11K parts. Here are some images of my current setup:

[Hold0511]

Exciting - all those bricks....

[Swan Dutchman]

All those parts look jummy to me

Have you considered buying at LEGO's pick a brick shop?

http://shop.lego.com/en-US/Pick-A-Brick-ByTheme?_requestid=10567830

Prices per part at Pick a Brick are mostly a bit higher compared to what you pay at BrickLink. However, there are some parts that are considerably cheaper, because LEGO doesn't consider one color to be more valuable than the other. Besides, if you need large quantities they can supply them in one go and you get free insured shipment as well. That saves a lot on shipping costs compared to Bricklink orders.

I understand you already ordered all the parts you need, but maybe something for a future build?

[lanesteele240]

Pick a brick never ever has the part i want. If they do it is 10 cents higher per peice

[HenrikLego]

I see this is an old thread, but I didn't see it before now.

I hope you managed to build it now that you got all the parts. Would be great to see an update.

[legocharles]

What a nice pile of bricks! is it finished?