Instructions Question

[Andy D]

There are some great MOC instructions, some cost, some free. I feel that if someone spends the time (no matter how long) they deserve to be compensated.

As others have said, there are lots of free instructions on rebrickable, there are many, many free instructions on the LEGO site for some great models, with these instructions one can create some great models and MODs.

Andy D

[SevenStuds]

Firstly, the problem is not with the price of parts or instructions, it's with the approach that your spending should come from your pocket or lifestyle budget, no matter what size it may be. There are a myriad of ways in which the hobby (or any other similar activity) can start becoming cash positive. If, for example, you had to use your yearly budget just to buy large and cheap mixed bulk lots, and then spend your time cleaning and sorting them, you could turn a profit of 5-10X your initial cost giving you much more buying ability during those cash-dry student years. We have all been there

Secondly, as others have said, the MOCs that have paid instructions are usually in the €300 plus category in terms of part cost, so spending 5% of that on instructions is a marginal cost. Especially when you realize that the builder's are not making instructions for themselves, but rather as a service to others. I believe that a few bucks is a gratuity for their hard work.

Good luck!

[zux]

Quality is different for every body. Some one likes a moc or not likes it. Maybe you like the moc but you want to fine tune it for his own interrest. Its there own free choise if he likes a moc or not. Every as a moc builder is not born as a "Lego Han" or a "Grohl" you will grow as a builder by each new moc what you build or instruction what you draw. That's fine with me.

I think he has been speaking about quality of instructions. This is important if you are charging for them. And if person is looking for instructions I would assume MOC has already passed personal quality check.

[Erik Leppen]

There are free instructions. There are €5 instructions. There are €10 instructions. There are €20 instructions. There are €50 instructions.

So, whatever your budget is, there are instructions for you. You cannot access all instructions you might want, but there's always something for your budget. Just as with official sets, there's something to pick for each wallet. But contrary to sets, in this case, even an empty wallet will do :)

Of course, the best instructions aren't free. But there's a lot of pretty decent stuff available for free. But it requires you to go searching. :) This holds for instructions the same way as for Android apps, news websites or whatever.

To help you out, there's Rebrickable. A lot of instructions are put there, paid ones but also free ones. And some builders put free instructions on their websites. I won't link to my website here, but there's free instructions of my models there.

[Jim]

If you can afford the pieces for those MOCs then you can afford the instructions.

I think this pretty much concludes this discussion

If you really like to build a (N)MOC and you are willing to fork out $100/$200 or $300 for extra parts, getting instructions for $10 or $20 shouldn't be the issue. Granted, you won't be able to build 10 NMOCs a year, but your budget wouldn't allow it anyway.

And like others suggested; there are lots of free instructions available. Enough to keep you going.

[Lucio Switch]

Since I was mentioned a couple of times I think that I have to give my personal point of view.

First of all, Blakbird doesn't sell instructions, at least for what I know, he does an enormous work for the comunity in various aspect for free and I think it's inappropriate to add him in this context.

Now coming to the point, I'm a worker with a thirty-year mortgage a pregnant wife that will give us a baby in a couple of weeks that will become a student with a budget, so everyone has his life problems, but I'm for sure a lucky guy and I can't complain!

Please don't take it in the wrong way, but I build for my personal satisfactions, not for yours. So the instructions are not my goal.

At a rough guess, for the Dump Truck, I spent 500 hours between build itself, shooting pics/video and making instructions. The last activity occupies 2/3 of the entire amount of time. Time that I could use to build other MOCs or to be with my family.

To do money with BI, I should start to build more affordable MOCs, maybe something like C-models. For sure a 7600 parts MOC, that cost more than 4000€ in parts, will not have lot of customers. In facts, I haven't reach your lowest selling number (500) with all my 3 models together.

Now, I'm asking 10-12€ for each instructions, doing some math, I don't think that's a high price. Honestly I don't think is a high price even for smaller MOCs of other builders (not everything is based on the dimensions), and I don't intend to belittle my work with discounts.

There would be other things that we would have to consider. But I think I gave a good overview of how much work there is behind.

Anyway I admire generous people like Madoca, but I'm not so, sorry!

[brunojj1]

Since I was mentioned a couple of times I think that I have to give my personal point of view.

....

Now coming to the point, I'm a worker with a thirty-year mortgage a pregnant wife that will give us a baby in a couple of weeks that will become a student with a budget, so everyone has his life problems, but I'm for sure a lucky guy and I can't complain!

...

Thank you Lucio for explaining that in such honest way! Indeed you are lucky thank God and I wish you and your family all the best for the coming weeks!

First of all, Blakbird doesn't sell instructions, at least for what I know, he does an enormous work for the comunity in various aspect for free and I think it's inappropriate to add him in this context.

Sure he does. He is involved in many sales on this website: http://mocplans.com/ . He is generous too, because he still does a lot of free work and helps many people to promote their work and add the value to their MOCs. Since such joint-venture is about sharing money with designers he won´t offer any discount on anything ever.

Anyway I admire generous people like Madoca, but I'm not so, sorry!

If somebody prefers glory and honour instead of money as reward for all efforts - it´s great, hats off! On the other hand I have experienced that there are not many people even willing to say "Thanks" because in our times something that doesn´t cost has no value or is suspected to be a marketing hook.

And by the way - your instructions prices are far too low in my very humble opinion!

[Lucio Switch]

Thank you Lucio for explaining that in such honest way! Indeed you are lucky thank God and I wish you and your family all the best for the coming weeks!

Thanks!!

Sure he does. He is involved in many sales on this website: http://mocplans.com/ . He is generous too, because he still does a lot of free work and helps many people to promote their work and add the value to their MOCs. Since such joint-venture is about sharing money with designers he won´t offer any discount on anything ever.

I did not know of this, however, from my personal experience, I can only thank him!

And by the way - your instructions prices are far too low in my very humble opinion!

From a commercial point of view most of the BI have a too low price, I mean, 15€ for the last Sheepo jeep is to high? Personally no!

Simply I think that is a fair price for both the sides, seller and buyer.

[Lipko]

Yup, instructions making is about the same effort in time (at least for me) as the design itself. So that time could easily be spent on making another MOC.

The reasons why I make instructions for free (okay, no one asked) is:

*In workhours it's a huge task, but obviously much less complicated than designing. So it's almost a relief after the struggling with the design. To put it simply: even if the time consumtion is high, there's a chance that this time wouldn't be spent on designing, but on useless tasks like browsing forums and news portals

*I don't find it justified to charge for my medicore work when there are so many masters out here (though I have to add that I've heard people saying that not every paid instructions/MOCs are high-quality enough to justify the price, even highly praised ones).

Edited August 1, 2016 by Lipko

[Jim]

*I don't find it justified to charge for my medicore work when there are so many masters out here...

Uhmmm say what?! Please don't call your work mediocre EVER again!

Providing free instructions is great, but please don't do that because you think your work is mediocre.

[Lucio Switch]

*I don't find it justified to charge for my medicore work when there are so many masters out here.

It's time to start to stop to underestimate yourself!

[Technic Jim]

If I can't afford something, I do not buy it.

Simple as that.

That makes complete and utter perfect sense. Sure, some builders might charge too much for their instructions, but in the end it is their decision of what the right charge should be; you aren't forced to buy them, so you don't have to if you don't want to!!

Jim out

[WvG_853]

I really appreciate it when builders such as Lucio Switch, Designer Han, Sheepo (just to name a few) take the time to make available instructions for their fantastic MOCs. I think the prices they ask for their instructions are reasonable and I'm more than happy to pay for instructions if this allows me to build some of the great sets out there.

There are other builders such as Sariel that do not make instructions of their MOCs. I understand and respect their reasoning, but it makes their MOCs less interesting for me.

[JM1971]

Not many mocs use parts from one set or even a combination of two sets or more and this limits appeal so prices have to be high, lego used to release booklets to do just this back in the 70's.

A set has 1000's of possible models, 2 sets have more, 3 even more.

Edited August 1, 2016 by JM1971

[nerdsforprez]

In regards to the comments about @blakbird selling instructions I think it needs to be remembered there is a vast difference between selling for a profit and selling to defray/minimize costs.

[Dafgek81]

Congratulations Lucio on the baby that's coming soon!!!