Anybody who’s been in the LEGO community for long will have noticed that it’s full of weird and sometimes confusing jargon: AFOL, Dark Age, MOC, greebles, illegal connections, and a host of other unique terms. Today I’d like to introduce you to another one of these terms: namely, table scraps.

Table scraps are pretty much exactly what they sound like - they’re the misfit bits and pieces that get left behind in a build in a pile on the table. These can range from interesting connections and parts usages to custom minifigures and scrapped builds. However, as useless as table scraps might sound, I’ve found that they can actually be quite interesting and helpful.

I have several shelves full of these various bits and pieces, roughly arranged from increasing size as you go down. In general, I tend to be a pretty well-organized person, but this is the one area of my building space that I allow to be messy - after all, the whole point of table scraps is to let your imagination flow unhindered. Ted Andes also talked about this topic in his excellent article “Sorting, Schmorting Creativity and Chaos,” which played a large part in inspiring this article, so I highly encourage you to check that out.

A table scrap could be inspired by an interesting way to use a specialized element. I often get ideas for how to use a part in a cool way but don’t feel inspired to build an entire creation around it. For example, in the image below, I was inspired to use crown pieces to make pine cones, Wonder Woman’s skirt as tissue paper in a gift bag, and a Galaxy Squad robot head as the body of a robotic duck.

Or they could just be a cool connection or parts combination, as in the example below.

Alternatively, table scraps could be entire segments of builds that you don’t have the motivation to finish in the moment but don’t want to completely scrap either. For example, below you can see the beginning of a Superman scene that I never got around to finishing and some sort of elven structure that I got frustrated with and set aside for later.

I’ll often mess around with minifigure-combos when I’m bored, and if I’m happy with how they turn out I’ll often set them aside in case I find a use for them later. Below you can see a retro space Mandalorian, a sorcerer, and a steampunk gentleman.

Or your table scraps can be absolutely crazy. Disco bulldogs, anyone?

A few months ago, I started working on a spaceship build, but got unmotivated and dissatisfied with the build. However, there were several components that I was really happy with, so I kept these bits when I deconstructed the WIP in the hopes that they’ll come in handy someday.

It doesn’t even have to be anything in particular - I have no idea what the build in the image below represents, but I liked it enough to keep it!

So as you can see, table scraps can cover a pretty broad range of sizes and styles. Below are some additional random table scraps I have lying around.

You might ask, however, what the point of table scraps is? Why do I keep all of these random assemblies lying around? Whenever I’m feeling uninspired or am not sure what to build, I’ll go over to my table scraps shelf and I often find myself inspired by something I see there. For example, I wanted to enter something in the 12x12 category of the recent Brickscalibur LEGO contest but wasn’t sure what to build. However, I’d had a table scrap of a pink monolith lying around in my table scraps for several months, which ended up inspiring me to build the creation below.

Additionally, I’ll often get stuck on a portion of a new build I’m working on when all of a sudden I discover that a table scrap I have is perfect for what I need. For example, I built the trees in the MOC below almost a year before the rest of the creation for a build I never ended up finishing. However, I was pretty happy with how the trees had turned out so I set them aside with my table scraps. Then, when I started working on the rest of the scene and was adding foliage, I realized that those trees would work perfectly - which was extra helpful in this case as I was on a bit of a time crunch to complete the build!

Hopefully, this gives you a good idea of all that the term “table scraps” encompasses and some of the uses that table scraps can serve. I’m always surprised by how much I end up taking advantage of my table scraps and how useful they’ve been for me. So, before you go and break that MOC that you’re frustrated with or destroy a small side build because it’s not relevant to what you’re working on right now, I would implore you to set those ideas aside; you never know where they may take you in the future.

Best of BrickNerd - Article originally published February 21, 2022.

What table scraps have found their way into your MOCs? Leave your thoughts in the comments below.

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