Build Your Own Plus Size AT-AT

[Mamma Mia Bricks]

Completed it!

Only 2 pieces were missing from the Bricklink orders, got very lucky. 

The worst thing of the build was my wife that kept asking "How much was this?" and "Where is it gonna go?" 

Will take pictures with a professional camera later, now off to some rest and order the two missing pieces and some sand blue bricks.

 

[LL924]

Well, I completed the build this past week.  Excellent!  The model really has some heft and is a great size.  If anyone is wondering about the proportions on this AT AT - they are perfect!  I also really like the articulation on the head/neck area, as it gives a good range of motion, all things considered.  I have never built 75054, and I probably never will now, as I think it would be a let-down after this one.  Great job on the design, and thanks so much for the accurate and available instructions.  As others have done, I sprinkled a few DBG tiles around on mine for variety.  I took a picture as General Veers was about to meet his match, and the encounter required a bit of rebuilding after!  Have fun with this build everyone!

 

[Hell_Hawk_33]

I must say I'm in awe every time I see pictures of the completed build. It is beyond impressive. I put the BrickLink list together to see what kind of a cost I would be looking at. Sadly I can't afford the $1000+ to build this right now, so I guess I'm stuck hunting for a 75054 to modify. Perhaps over time I'll acquire the necessary pieces a few at a time. Until then I'll keep enjoying the pictures posted here.

[Raskolnikov]

Awesome picture, LL924!  Thanks for sharing.

Quote

Sadly I can't afford the $1000+ to build this right now,

$1000!  Jeez.  I thought you could get it for like $250 USD (although I guess the $ symbol is used for Canadian, Mexican, and Australian currencies, as well, but still...) perhaps one of the stores you were looking at had something severely overpriced. 

[Hell_Hawk_33]

48 minutes ago, Raskolnikov said:

Awesome picture, LL924!  Thanks for sharing.

$1000!  Jeez.  I thought you could get it for like $250 USD (although I guess the $ symbol is used for Canadian, Mexican, and Australian currencies, as well, but still...) perhaps one of the stores you were looking at had something severely overpriced. 

I am speaking in the Canadian currency. I thought I could get the pieces for cheaper but I guess not. Here's a couple screen shots of the top few results on BrickLink when I search for the complete list of parts, just so you know I'm not crazy.

I am new to BrickLink, but I followed the links on the first page and exported the parts list to BrickLink. I then created a new wanted list in my profile and selected the "Buy All" option. I'm pretty sure I didn't make an error as it seems a straight forward process.

 

Edited March 27, 2017 by Hell_Hawk_33

[Richpepperell]

2 hours ago, Hell_Hawk_33 said:

I am speaking in the Canadian currency. I thought I could get the pieces for cheaper but I guess not. Here's a couple screen shots of the top few results on BrickLink when I search for the complete list of parts, just so you know I'm not crazy. I am new to BrickLink, but I followed the links on the first page and exported the parts list to BrickLink. I then created a new wanted list in my profile and selected the "Buy All" option. I'm pretty sure I didn't make an error as it seems a straight forward process.

 

You might find doing a few colour swaps makes a big difference. I found swapping a few LBG parts for DBG had a big impact on cost (at least in the uk).

[Raskolnikov]

Quote

I am new to BrickLink, but I followed the links on the first page and exported the parts list to BrickLink. I then created a new wanted list in my profile and selected the "Buy All" option. I'm pretty sure I didn't make an error as it seems a straight forward process.

Hrm, I am actually not the best with Bricklink lists or using Rebrickable, since I tend to "window shop" for parts that look useful, then free build.  But I think there's definitely more you can do to get the price down.  Are all those totals from single stores?  I think you have to do a couple different orders to optimize price, and I think Rebrickable has tools that can help with that.  If you go to the "buy parts" tab of the Rebrickable page for the AT-AT, it shows a few options.  One store has all the parts for $1,136 USD, which is ridiculous.  But if you scroll down, you can see that one store has 240 out of 260 lots (i.e., unique pieces) for just $240 USD.  Only a few stores carry the Scala dish, so if you buy all the other parts from them you're going to get killed on price on other parts.  I heard that it's hard to get all the big hinges from one place, too.  But most of the parts should be really common and should end up close to the $.10/piece mark.

For example, that one store you linked has the pneumatic T-shaped piece at $.80 CA, and I know you can find them for .03$ USD at some stores.  $.23 is steep for a 1x1 plate, too, and since the build has 47 of em that adds up.  You can definitely find those for less than $.10 per at other stores.

Anyway, I know the loonie has taken a beating recently, but definitely don't pay anywhere close to $1000.  Consider international stores, too.  Maybe someone better than I am with rebrickable or bricklink can help more.

[technic_addict]

9 hours ago, Hell_Hawk_33 said:

I am new to BrickLink, but I followed the links on the first page and exported the parts list to BrickLink. I then created a new wanted list in my profile and selected the "Buy All" option. I'm pretty sure I didn't make an error as it seems a straight forward process.

 

I believe I paid around $300 to $350 shipping included from Canadian sellers (excluding Technic parts which I had).  I did have to adjust a few parts to used and bought from 5 different stores to get the best price.  There are some sellers which are WAY overpriced.

[Forresto]

Definitely. American here, but even when I was shopping for parts Rebrickable offered options that ranged in the upper hundreds. I don't know about Canada but I imagine there must be cheaper options.  

[Hell_Hawk_33]

8 hours ago, technic_addict said:

I believe I paid around $300 to $350 shipping included from Canadian sellers (excluding Technic parts which I had).  I did have to adjust a few parts to used and bought from 5 different stores to get the best price.  There are some sellers which are WAY overpriced.

You may be onto something here. I scrolled down the list of stores to some that only had 200-220 lots and yeah, I think if I do divide up the list and buy from a few different stores it will indeed save money. I assumed if you bought all 260 lots from one seller that would be the best bargain but it just goes to show what a novice I am at this.

[LL924]

1 hour ago, Hell_Hawk_33 said:

You may be onto something here. I scrolled down the list of stores to some that only had 200-220 lots and yeah, I think if I do divide up the list and buy from a few different stores it will indeed save money. I assumed if you bought all 260 lots from one seller that would be the best bargain but it just goes to show what a novice I am at this.

You might also try the "auto fill" button on BL that is supposed to automatically check all possible store combinations for the cheapest total cost. You can choose "best value" or "fewest stores". I chose best value and bought from 7 stores. Was a little more overall shipping but still much cheaper than buying from just a few stores and overpaying on many parts. 

 

[Hell_Hawk_33]

2 hours ago, LL924 said:

You might also try the "auto fill" button on BL that is supposed to automatically check all possible store combinations for the cheapest total cost. You can choose "best value" or "fewest stores". I chose best value and bought from 7 stores. Was a little more overall shipping but still much cheaper than buying from just a few stores and overpaying on many parts. 

 

Thanks for the tip. I'll try this feature out and see what it comes up with.

I sorted through my inventory tonight and came up with 10% of the required pieces. I got them put aside so I guess you could say I am started on this project.

[legolijntje]

5 hours ago, Hell_Hawk_33 said:

You may be onto something here. I scrolled down the list of stores to some that only had 200-220 lots and yeah, I think if I do divide up the list and buy from a few different stores it will indeed save money. I assumed if you bought all 260 lots from one seller that would be the best bargain but it just goes to show what a novice I am at this.

Yup, it's not always the cheapest solution to buy everything at a single store. I have set up my store filters at Rebrickable and Bricklink so that it only shows stores in the EU (because of shipping costs from the US etc.) and there's almost always the same store that has the most lots available for a given MOC or wanted list. It's store in Portugal and it has a huge inventory. However, the it also has huge prices...  Like, ridiculously high. I've seen so many parts that they (try to) sell for €9,99 while the average price is more like €0,50. So many times that store pops with for example 150 lots for €700 while the second store has 145 lots for €85 or something like that. And to my surprise that store has a lot of customers and they're all very positive. Well, I always read it's difficult to have a Bricklink store (especially the part to make enough money to make it feasible to invest in more inventory for the store) but with prices like that I'm pretty sure it's a piece of cake  I've black-listed the store btw (on Bricklink and Rebrickable), the prices are way too high.

Anyway, that was a bit off-topic. But it's a bit of a waste to delete my little story now 

[ClassicBricks]

Very nice! I'll have to dig out my light bley parts again.

[Hell_Hawk_33]

I was browsing Canadian Tire (a store in my country that sells automotive things, household products, tools, paints, garden products, sporting goods, and some toys). I found some AT-AT Microfighters on the shelf so I grabbed two of them. I only wanted the two minifigs for this project, but after dumping out all the pieces I was pleasantly surprised to find about 50% I needed for the plus size AT-AT.

[Forresto]

40 minutes ago, Hell_Hawk_33 said:

I was browsing Canadian Tire (a store in my country that sells automotive things, household products, tools, paints, garden products, sporting goods, and some toys). I found some AT-AT Microfighters on the shelf so I grabbed two of them. I only wanted the two minifigs for this project, but after dumping out all the pieces I was pleasantly surprised to find about 50% I needed for the plus size AT-AT.

I've had a long day at work so when I read this I thought you said you got 50 percent of the parts you needed for this AT-AT from the micro fighters and was like...What did I do wrong? I could've just got the micro fighters?!   

[Hell_Hawk_33]

3 hours ago, Forresto said:

I've had a long day at work so when I read this I thought you said you got 50 percent of the parts you needed for this AT-AT from the micro fighters and was like...What did I do wrong? I could've just got the micro fighters?!   

Haha, wouldn't that be nice?!

Also placed an order through Pick-a-Brick on the LEGO Shop for 1545 pieces. I went that route first as I'm a sucker for VIP Points. Will get the rest shortly through BrickLink.

[VaderFan2187]

3 hours ago, Forresto said:

I've had a long day at work so when I read this I thought you said you got 50 percent of the parts you needed for this AT-AT from the micro fighters and was like...What did I do wrong? I could've just got the micro fighters?!   

You're not alone. I read that too. 

[Raskolnikov]

Btw, someone on reddit (u/FatumStultorum) made a UCS sticker graphic for the model, available here:  http://imgur.com/Y8IHQ4Z  I'm told it can be printed in 2.5 x 5 inches to fit the tile.  I haven't printed one myself, but it looks pretty good to me--thought I'd share it in case anyone wants to use it.

[Hoth Rebel]

I bought the AT-AT sticker from Brick_Ster on Ebay (€4). The one from Reddit is 'cleaner', but I don't mind more text. Printing stickers is quite expensive here too. 

The Brick_ster sticker:

  

[caperica]

On 3/27/2017 at 7:20 PM, Forresto said:

Definitely. American here, but even when I was shopping for parts Rebrickable offered options that ranged in the upper hundreds. I don't know about Canada but I imagine there must be cheaper options.  

Yeah, I had about half the parts beforehand, and Bricklink is saying i will only need about $100 to complete. I used that auto-select for "best deals" and made sure that all the pieces were in the "new" category. I decided not to build it with scrap pieces first, because i'm going to end up buying the pieces anyway.

Has anyone ever heard of a 6 by 6 tile? I found one on the floor in Goodwill, and had put it on my 75054 (The top front panel, after I widened the angle of both front and back side panels). It said Lego on it, but no i.d. number.

Speaking of widened side panel angles, has anyone though of doing that on this? It has the same issue as 75054 did: In the movie and cross-section book, the line between the front corners of the cockpit and the front of the side panels should be parallel to the line bisecting the AT-AT, or at least close. In this and 75054, the gap between the front of the side panels is very small. I plan to mod this, but just something to think about.

Edited April 13, 2017 by caperica
misspell

[Lobot]

1 hour ago, caperica said:

Has anyone ever heard of a 6 by 6 tile? I found one on the floor in Goodwill, and had put it on my 75054 (The top front panel, after I widened the angle of both front and back side panels). It said Lego on it, but no i.d. number.

It's likely to be either 6881 or 10202 (link)

For anyone who's not used to Bricklink, I'd strongly recommend that you shop around and possibly keep track of things via a decent Spreadsheet.  I've Bricklinked 2 x 10179s plus a 10143 and I found Excel invaluable!  A 'Wanted' list is also a great feature and can save a lot of keying.  Usually it's best to keep the volume of orders as low as possible and to find stores within your own country, otherwise shipping can become very expensive! 

My approach was to check the each part cost on the main LEGO website (both 'Pick a Brick' and the 'Replacement' as they often differ!) to find a benchmark price.  Typically they're a lot more expensive for smaller parts, but they used to be quite reasonable for larger plates, Technic beams etc so it's worth doing some research.

 I then trawled through Bricklink for potential suppliers.... my strategy is to initially focus on the parts that you need a lot of, and search for stores with decent prices for them.  Often smaller/newer stores are very competitive and I've usually found that their service is on a par to larger/professional ones!  If you then open the store (when you're logged in) and click on the 'Shop' tab and 'Wanted List' it should populate with everything that's available which is on your list!  There's a setting which allows you to include/exclude lots which don't meet the volumes you need (e.g. if you want 50, but the store only has 40) which can be useful.  Each time I've always ordered everything I could from Bricklink, and then made a final 'tidying' order from LEGO for anything that was cheaper, or I'd needed a few of.  Bear in mind that plates etc weigh quite a lot so it may be cheaper to source them from LEGO as they have a fixed shipping charge, even if the part cost is actually slightly higher initially....

[Davenocheese]

I was able to order about 98% of the parts from one BL store for circa €250 which arrived recently, just waiting on a handful of key pieces to arrive so I can get under way! 

Thanks again to Raskolnikov for creating this wonderful MOC and legolijntje for making it possible for anyone to build it. I'm also loving the little mods with the sand blue, will definitely be incorporating those changes myself. 

Edited April 24, 2017 by Davenocheese
Grammar / Spelling

[Hoth Rebel]

Still need to find some time to build the 3rd, but I did make a 96x96 studs (80x80 cm) lay-out (on paper/LDD) as a display model with the 3 AT-AT, 2 AT-ST mods and some rebel trenches. 

Decided to go for a 'smaller' studs base as I would like to focus on the AT-ATs and Imperials. Will be posting pictures when I've completed it, but I think that could take a while haha.  

Edited April 24, 2017 by Kevii23

[Smitty500]

I just looked through your instructions, I really like this build. Maybe someday I will attempt this. It's funny, all you basically did was double the size of the set to be a more accurate scale.

 

Can I ask, how you  made your instructions?