Do you Buy any of your Mechs?

Title says it all really. Just today I put in a pick-a-brick order for all the bricks necessary to make the UGM-7. It came to about £16.50, in comparison to what it would have been before - about £30.

Well? Do you buy your, or anyone's, mechs?

Wow, you actually bought the pieces for a UGM? That's awesome!

I've made a few orders for mech pieces myself, but I haven't gotten any more in quite a while. I think I've gotten four orders in total: my first LDD project ever (when it was LDD 1.0 and had a black background), an XT13, an XT30, and a parts back with armor and weaponry for the UXM-1s. I would get more, but aparently my lego collection is already large enough, despite most of the pieces being fairly useless for mech building.

I have really started to collect some pieces to build a mech. I even bought two of those storage things for Lego that have 44 holders each. I just got some bricks in the mail recently and started building few weapons and part of a leg. I might post a few pictures of them soon.

Personally, I would love to buy a model of my Conka or JackRabbit. And personally, I wouldn't mind getting a UGM myself. It's a pretty good frame.

My dad said he would buy me a set if I kept my grades up!

BiO wrote:

Wow, you actually bought the pieces for a UGM? That's awesome!

I've made a few orders for mech pieces myself, but I haven't gotten any more in quite a while. I think I've gotten four orders in total: my first LDD project ever (when it was LDD 1.0 and had a black background), an XT13, an XT30, and a parts back with armor and weaponry for the UXM-1s. I would get more, but aparently my lego collection is already large enough, despite most of the pieces being fairly useless for mech building.

Too much LEGO? Lemme guess, your parents won't let you get any more. I got the same problem.

Same here, but I get around it. More recently I have been buying less LEGO, but occasionally I will splash out on a set or two (like how at Christmas I purchased every single new Ninjago set with my pocket money ).

Eroomdivad wrote:

BiO wrote:

Wow, you actually bought the pieces for a UGM? That's awesome!

I've made a few orders for mech pieces myself, but I haven't gotten any more in quite a while. I think I've gotten four orders in total: my first LDD project ever (when it was LDD 1.0 and had a black background), an XT13, an XT30, and a parts back with armor and weaponry for the UXM-1s. I would get more, but aparently my lego collection is already large enough, despite most of the pieces being fairly useless for mech building.

Too much LEGO? Lemme guess, your parents won't let you get any more. I got the same problem.

Yeah, you guessed it. Another contributing factor is that I don't currently have a steady source of income; hopefully that will change soon. Lego doesn't rank as high on the list of things I'd like to buy as going to a movie with my friend (she asks me pretty much every week ) and PC games on Steam (generally on sale, Steam has some wicked prices when that happens.)

BiO wrote:

Eroomdivad wrote:

BiO wrote:

Wow, you actually bought the pieces for a UGM? That's awesome!

I've made a few orders for mech pieces myself, but I haven't gotten any more in quite a while. I think I've gotten four orders in total: my first LDD project ever (when it was LDD 1.0 and had a black background), an XT13, an XT30, and a parts back with armor and weaponry for the UXM-1s. I would get more, but aparently my lego collection is already large enough, despite most of the pieces being fairly useless for mech building.

Too much LEGO? Lemme guess, your parents won't let you get any more. I got the same problem.

Yeah, you guessed it. Another contributing factor is that I don't currently have a steady source of income; hopefully that will change soon. Lego doesn't rank as high on the list of things I'd like to buy as going to a movie with my friend (she asks me pretty much every week ) and PC games on Steam (generally on sale, Steam has some wicked prices when that happens.)

You go to a movie with your female "friend" every week? Friendzoned... (No offense or anything BTW Andrew, I'm just making a funny)

Nah, it ain't like that.

Anyways, this is getting a bit off-topic.

BiO wrote:

Nah, it ain't like that.

Anyways, this is getting a bit off-topic.

Just a bit...

As for the actual topic we were meant to be conversing on, I'm planning on buying a BrickLink and Pick-a-brick order with minimech building parts like t-pieces and super-erlings. Once I get around to it (translation: gimme a few months).

well, continuing with the original purpose of the thread, no, I've never bought any of my Mechs (or any Mechs at all). my Mechs are typically held by a thread in certain places (I'm still not sure why I made the Behemoth buyable...), and I rarely have the money to buy something worthwhile anyway.

however, once my skill with building Mechs increases high enough, I'm considering attempting an MBS in real life...

I would totally be down to do a Pick-a-Brick inventory for a GSX frame, but GSX hips don't work in real life. I'd have to putty the hose head that's used as the hip pivot so that its circumference is uniform instead of tapered, like this...

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Were it not for this thing (and I have proof-of-concept'd this joint in real life), I could make a ton of GSX variants with real LEGO bricks. Unfortunately, I'd also lose access to a huge amount of color variety that you only get in LDD Extended. :/

Yeah, I'm about ready to strangle the guy who had the brilliant idea for that hose...

Have you perhaps tried to reverse the hose and the clip? From what I've seen, you could still apply the hip armor, just at a different angle. Flipping those two pieces has saved me with IRL builds before.

I'm also liking your signature you've got going there. Seems like it's got the potential for a rotator with multiple variants.

BiO wrote:

Have you perhaps tried to reverse the hose and the clip? From what I've seen, you could still apply the hip armor, just at a different angle. Flipping those two pieces has saved me with IRL builds before. .

It doesn't matter if that hose is connecting to the hips or the upper legs; that taper means it can't get enough traction on the peg holes. No exceptions. There isn't enough surface to grip.

Forte wrote:

BiO wrote:

Have you perhaps tried to reverse the hose and the clip? From what I've seen, you could still apply the hip armor, just at a different angle. Flipping those two pieces has saved me with IRL builds before. .

It doesn't matter if that hose is connecting to the hips or the upper legs; that taper means it can't get enough traction on the peg holes. No exceptions. There isn't enough surface to grip.

Then it's probably just the setup you're using. I've been able to bypass that by moving the end part of the hose (right past the taper) so it's overlapping the clip or peg hole, providing the traction it needs.

With slightly over a thousand bricks for my newer models, I don't really think buying them is a really good idea

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Once I get back to the states I will attempt to buy the parts for my Gundam Serenity. But first I have to build a steam locomotive for the wife since "Trains" is something that we can both get into. And then convince her to let me, while continuing to restore my 1978 Corvette... Yeah... Anyways, since I have never built mechas in real bricks before, how is it? Is it fun, a pain in the HELLO, or both? I would think that designing them in LDD first would probably be the best so that any kinks get worked out before the real brick version.

TF Twitch wrote:

Once I get back to the states I will attempt to buy the parts for my Gundam Serenity. But first I have to build a steam locomotive for the wife since "Trains" is something that we can both get into. And then convince her to let me, while continuing to restore my 1978 Corvette... Yeah... Anyways, since I have never built mechas in real bricks before, how is it? Is it fun, a pain in the HELLO, or both? I would think that designing them in LDD first would probably be the best so that any kinks get worked out before the real brick version.

actually, I find that it's a lot easier to just let the ideas flow IRL so you don't have to build it twice. I tend to try an idea and if it doesn't work, I scrap it and try, try again until the model is finished IRL.

TF Twitch wrote:

Anyways, since I have never built mechas in real bricks before, how is it? Is it fun, a pain in the HELLO, or both? I would think that designing them in LDD first would probably be the best so that any kinks get worked out before the real brick version.

It's better to build in real bricks, that's for sure...but making a "concept" of what you want to build in LDD is also a good idea. Of course, you won't end up with the exact same thing IRL, because of the weight issue with real bricks. Mecha's are hard to build, since they require a good and stable frame, and parts that are not worn out(Unlike my two real brick mechas on MOCpages, they can barely stand cuz' the ball joints are so old). Also, there are tons of techniques that you can't do in LDD, only IRL.

Thomas_Z wrote:

TF Twitch wrote:

Anyways, since I have never built mechas in real bricks before, how is it? Is it fun, a pain in the HELLO, or both? I would think that designing them in LDD first would probably be the best so that any kinks get worked out before the real brick version.

It's better to build in real bricks, that's for sure...but making a "concept" of what you want to build in LDD is also a good idea. Of course, you won't end up with the exact same thing IRL, because of the weight issue with real bricks. Mecha's are hard to build, since they require a good and stable frame, and parts that are not worn out(Unlike my two real brick mechas on MOCpages, they can barely stand cuz' the ball joints are so old). Also, there are tons of techniques that you can't do in LDD, only IRL.

Mithryl Altaire advised me a while ago to build a stand for mechas that cannot support themselves, which I am going to. And I know that there are several IRL techniques that cannot be used in LDD, such as using minifig arms/hands in very unique ways, which I look forward to doing. I just think that making a "blueprint" in LDD would save time as far as trying to figure out what bricks go where and whatnot.