Do you improve your sets?

[SWMAN]

I will add a piece here and take one away there, but I try not to mess with them. I am a bad MOCer, so I leave the set design to the professionals.

[Lord Admiral]

Typically, sets are decent enough that I can live with the way they are. At the most, I'd try to incorporate any of the left over pieces.

However, there was one series where I practically had to mod every set I bought: Alpha Team. Man that was one horrendously designed line. It had great pieces, don't get me wrong; I'm a big fan of the old school hinge canopies. They just weren't assembled correctly or coherently. The models were weak, fragile, and certain features were completely pointless. Fortunately, I got all of the sets heavily discounted from KBToys (or perhaps because it was a terrible line that they were all in KBToys). Better yet, I was able to mod every set I needed to into something fairly acceptable without drawing on pieces outside of the set.

Otherwise, I really haven't had a need to do more than a bit of touching up every so often. Admittedly, there are a few sets balancing precariously on the edge--mostly factory sets--but I'm keeping them as is for now.

[Eilif]

As i was rearranging my collection this morning. I wonder if many people improve their sets by making it better by making it more realistic or chucking out bits that the ship doesnt need.

When I build a set, and it has sat around on my shelf for a while, there are generally two ways for it to go.

1) It gets scrapped or canibalized for other MOCs, after which it will be sorted into my collection

2) It gets modded/improved into something I can use on my layout.

There are exceptions, a few sets remain on display for a long time mostly because I haven't had a use for the pieces yet, and one or two small sets (the tanker from Town Plan) may make it into my layout intact.

In my opinion, most LEGO designs are in some way limited by price-point and piece count, and offer plenty of room for improvement. Not to say they are bad sets -quite the contrary in fact- its just that we can make them even better.

My preference is I dont do it, I like to keep them the way lego intended.

If this is your reason, then you should know that LEGO's intention has always been to have their sets be modified, destroyed, and rebuilt into something completely different.

[LEGOscum]

If this is your reason, then you should know that LEGO's intention has always been to have their sets be modified, destroyed, and rebuilt into something completely different.

I take your point but I believe that the set contained in the instructions is the end all and be all. I've decided against modding the UCS Star Destroyer, even though it needs extra support on the hull plates.

Edited May 30, 2009 by LEGOscum

[paul_delahaye]

Rarely,

I usually keep one set as original, then i sometimes get another copy of it (like the cement mixer, or the green and white cargo trucks) so I can mod and improve them.

I do like converting my models to right hand drive :-)

[mikey]

I do like converting my models to right hand drive :-)

In the UK, I think that is an essential modification!

[Dadster]

Oh yeah - I do this all the time. Sometimes its just a matter of changing colored pieces out, but other times, I'll redo a whole section/ area to what I feel is "the right way".

[HumanPackMule]

I'll frequently mod my sets with small adjustments such as connections, interiors, and armament(castle sets mostly). I'll also add my personal colors if they need them.

[JimBee]

Not usually with an intention. I sometimes take pieces off of my sets for MOCs, and then I forget which pieces I took. For example, my Republic Cruiser is mostly all regular red now because I replaced the dark red (that I needed for a MOC) with regular red. I rarely ever modify sets, because I usually like them how they are and I'm a purist in that sense.

[posades]

Small improvements as well; for instance, I'll add armor racks and other details to my castle or change a color scheme to better fit the surrounding buildings/scenery.

[Raphy]

I don't buy sets that need improvement ;)

[Zzz]

I usually improve my SW sets, most often to a limit where I spend more money on the parts I need for the mod than I did for the set. And quite often I found myself at a point where I wonder if I should better start my own MOC, cause 90% is modded or so. The only SW vehicle I didn't mod yet is the later B-Wing, but there are plans for a small landing gear..

[Brickthus]

Sometimes I mod Technic kits, especially if a particular feature could be better.

For instance, the steering on Combine Harvester 8274 had insufficient rake so it needed fixing.

Steering rakes are generally inadequate in large Technic kits, being demonstrative rather than fully implemented. The exception is F1 cars because full lock is still not much angle, so the full rake can be implemented without the steering and suspension parts tripping over each other.

I have also added to car chassises in the past. I think that was the idea - that Technic builders should learn from building the chassis and then take it forward by adding their own vehicle body. I wonder if the trend towards having the complete car in a set followed the reduced attention span of kids nowadays.

I also remember adding to my Classic Space 924 on its 2nd or 3rd build. It didn't follow the colour scheme but I was young then, with a much more limited collection of parts!

Mark

[Navy Trooper Fenson]

Because most of my sets are from Star Wars and Indiana Jones, I like to take Flick-Fire missiles or other senseless lasers away or swap some pieces from the model that are unnecessary or could be used otherwhere much better.

Like the new AAT. I took a Flick-Fire missile and shortened it. The little speeder was taken apart and one half of the parts was used to make a wall for the back of the model. Inside is every grey brick, that is not visible swapped with a coloured brick or just taken away. From the dish at the front were the 4x4 round dish in light bley and the black 2x2 round plate taken away, because they tended to fall of and it looks much better. The dish falls of when I open the cockpit, but without anything in it, it is not necessary to open it.

It is a real plague with my modding. I only own 6 models that I didn´t mod (GGs starfighter, Magna Guard Starfighter, 2x Clone Scout walkers, Droid Gunship, Echo Base (2009) and the spider walker) and that only because I rebuild the AT-RTs, the HMP and GG fighter were EXCELLENT and I didn´t had any time to mod the other sets.

[VBBN]

Most times only the larger sets, like $50 and up. The rest are either kept intact or used for parts.

[Luke McAwesome]

Nope, never have.

However, I was thinking about fixing up the "ejector seat" in Agent Chase's Turbocar.

[JCC1004]

I usally don't, but if it's really needs it, yes.

[SeaKing61]

I tend to mod my sets to right hand drive and sometimes add equipment etc. With Star Wars sets I used to mod them all to be more realistic, getting rid of the front openeing hatches on the TIE, adding more realistic landing gear on the X-wing etc. But that was back in 99/00 and i don't really buy SW any more. I usually mod things to make them more realistic, but I try to keep Lego's main design in place

Laurie