Welcome back to “The Conversation Piece,” a BrickNerd series authored by our friends over at the Builder Improvement Initiative (BII), a Discord-based community that helps LEGO builders of all levels get better at their craft through knowledge-sharing and feedback.

This will be a place for you to ask all of your trickier questions about creativity and building out of LEGO bricks. Have a question you'd like us to consider for a future article? You can submit it here. Enjoy!

Can I Have Too Much LEGO?

Anonymous asks: “How does lack of parts impact our building style? What links can be drawn between collection size and the need for original solutions?"

The importance of a LEGO collection’s size has always been a point of debate. Some may be quick to quote a familiar green friend from the 80s: “Size matters not!” After all, it is in the mind—not in the expanse of one’s hoard of plastic—that creativity takes root.

However, these words of wisdom may feel unsatisfying and even unhelpful. In practice, having a larger collection must have some effect. What effects are there, and how do they manifest themselves in our work?

Depending on how your LEGO journey has played out so far, your selection of parts will be very different from others’. Quickly sifting through numerous pictures of “LEGO-toriums” floating around the internet provides a dramatic illustration of this point—from bite-sized to incommensurably large, collections come in all shapes and sizes. With so many interesting new LEGO pieces introduced every year (New Elementary posts a monthly new part round-up to keep you updated!) and a wealth of retired parts and colors, it can be easy to feel the need to constantly grow your collection.

With all this in mind, it is inevitable that your collection will lack the “perfect” piece from time to time. And that is where the obvious advantage of having a large collection comes in: more pieces at your disposal reduces the chances of you missing those pieces. However, working within the limitations of a smaller collection can open the door to—and even encourage—a lot of interesting creative behaviors, ranging from unique part usages to entire building processes and styles.

Collection Size: Do We Really Need More?

As your collecting begins, it can be challenging to feel you have enough pieces to really build something. Smaller collections can feel restrictive which can be frustrating for those starting out. These limitations feel more real upon seeing gigantic creations gain recognition at conventions, on social media, and occasionally even on the local news.

Realistically, small collections mean small creations. But that doesn’t mean you can’t be ambitious; instead, that ambition just needs refocusing.

Brickopotamus’ “Fire Nation Post Office” captures visual interest with simple parts.

Building with LEGO is just another skill that must be developed. With limited parts at your disposal, every piece you use adds significant value to your MOC (My Own Creation). For some, it may be easier to discover new techniques when building within a smaller footprint. The smaller size can allow a builder to focus on the small details, using interesting parts in unconventional ways. Learning the mysteries of LEGO math does not require a large number of parts, and implementing these techniques in your builds can add interesting details.

Take brickopotamus’ “Fire Nation Post Office” MOC, where the use of basic tiles, bricks, and plates along with a handful of SNOT (Studs Not On Top) elements create intricate textures in the wood framing. The build also uses some relatively common parts in novel ways. Oars, found in many botanical sets, make up the shingled roof while candles are used four separate times as railings, scrolls, a lamp post, and small piers!

Smaller builds, such as the one above, can be just as impactful and earn just as much recognition in LEGO circles as larger ones. In many online building competitions, there are size-restricted categories which are often the most popular and competitive. Even outside of these categories, smaller builds commonly stand out among colossal castles and landscapes. Dan Ko’s “What We Do in the Clouds” took second place in the High Fantasy category of the 2021 Summer Joust with a palm-sized entry, efficiently using minifigure accessories and other common pieces to capture a dynamic scene.

Dan Ko’s “What We Do in the Clouds” took home second place with only a handful of parts.

After a length of time, you may find that your collection has grown with you, and what once was a humble bin of parts is now an unmanageable sea. While a small collection naturally imposes its own restrictions by limiting the scale and type of creations you can build, the near-limitless potential of a large collection can be overwhelming. With so many options, where do you even begin?

One approach to working past this creative block is to narrow your options. Building for a contest or challenge can give you external direction by limiting your choices. Seed part challenges turn the creative process into a puzzle, with the goal to make a unique part fit naturally into your build. In addition to size-restricted categories as mentioned earlier, building a certain type of model (vehicle, character, scene, etc.) or within a certain theme (medieval, space, city, etc.) are common contest categories. Working within the parameters of such categories can be the spark you need to get started.

Another approach is to work from references. Whether these references are concept art or other MOCs, they can provide you with a burst of inspiration. Sometimes, it may be a cool technique that you are itching to try out. Other times, it may be a quirky and unique piece of artwork that gets the creative juices flowing. Even if your MOC isn’t a 1:1 copy of the reference, the act of starting with one can inspire new ideas to flourish.

Style and The (Un)importance of Size

Style is a relatively loose term that generally identifies a build’s aesthetic, which is defined by basic design concepts such as color, shape, and texture. Take these dragons by Tyler and Jayfa; both have a fun and fantastical feeling to them but are built in very different styles. Tyler’s “Bubble Dragon” is the essence of cartoony character design with its smooth appearance and playful expressiveness, achieved with round slopes, vibrant colors, and printed eyes. (It was also inspired by and was a winner in BrickNerd’s AdoraBuild contest.)

Tyler’s Bubble Dragon uses various round parts and slopes to achieve an adorable cartoon look!

In contrast, Jayfa takes a more realistic approach in “Draconis Bombus,” utilizing various small detail pieces to create textured fur and natural proportions. In both cases, style is achieved through the intentional use of parts and color.

Jayfa’s Draconis Bombus uses many small parts to mimic real-life textures!

By defining style as a product of the type of parts used, a collection’s size is not directly tied to the styles it can support. Larger collections can offer a wide range of parts to choose from, giving you the freedom to achieve a certain aesthetic. However, large collections can also be restrictive if they aren’t curated to your needs, while a smaller, well-curated collection can be just as effective. One million basic bricks may allow you to build large sculptures but prevent you from exploring other building styles. Meanwhile, a small 10,000-piece collection containing slopes, hinges, and plates can provide more room to choose and develop a style. The composition (or the selection of parts) of a collection is what dictates the styles that can be achieved—not its size.

When building a collection with a certain style in mind, the parts you prioritize should reflect that. If you want to build cartoon-style builds, such as the bubble dragon above, focus on round/conical pieces, wacky printed parts, and vibrant colors. For a more organic style, consider wedge slopes, textured bricks, and more muted colors. With mechanical-focused builds, favor clips and bars, Technic parts, and grayscale colors. Don’t be afraid to mix styles together, either!

Some of the most unique builds utilize contrasting aesthetics to make something truly remarkable, such as Care Creations’ “Because the Night,” which combines mechanical and organic styles to create a pair of mechanical romantics with a vague feeling of humanism.

Care Creations’ Because the Night utilizes both mechanical and organic styles to create a haunting depiction of mechanical lovers with a feeling of humanism.

However, most builders see their style develop over time, and may not find the style that suits them years into building their collection. Jerac is notable in the community for his iconic Star Wars ships but has dabbled into other styles in recent years, such as surreal cosmic horrors in “Anagnorisis.” In these cases, your style may be heavily influenced by your collection, rather than vice versa.

Jerac, known for his Star Wars ships, such as his T-70 X-Wing Starfighter…

… has also dabbled into other genres, as seen in the surreal “Anagnorisis.”

NPU: Organic Or Critical (Or Both)?

Highly organized (and typically larger) collections can also make it trickier to incorporate NPU. The organization method often results in looking for specific pieces for a creation rather than experimenting with a family of parts. Smaller collections, on the other hand, tend to be sorted into broader categories, giving smaller pools of various parts to choose from.

Collection size can greatly affect the incorporation of NPU in builds. While NPU is not necessary for making outstanding MOCs (read more about our thoughts on the topic here!), a collection’s size can impact the role of NPU in a build. For some, unique parts can inspire a build. For others, the build inspires the use of specific parts. Often, both approaches are incorporated into MOCs!

With a larger collection, NPU can be chosen based on a desired style. For example, “Ground Control to Major Tomcat” by Miscellanabuilds was built with the goal of creating a cartoon-esque character. Subsequently, much of the NPU was chosen with that in mind: large, round parts such as buckets, wheels, and even balloon panels make up a majority of the build, and few sharp corners are to be found.

Miscellanabuild’s Ground Control to Major Tomcat achieves a cartoony appearance through the use of NPU such as buckets, wheels, and large hot air balloon panels!

When you have a smaller pool of parts to draw from, every element you use has more impact on your build. While this may create restrictions in some cases, this can also be a source of creativity and NPU may exert a strong control on the appearance of a build. For example, LegoModulexFan’s Slice of Life: Townhouse has a watercolor-esque aesthetic, inspired by an artwork he had seen online.

LegoModulexFan’s Slice of Life: Townhouse wonderfully showcases how parts can influence the style of a build when NPU becomes a matter of necessity!

Wanting to replicate the colors of his reference, parts from his limited collection were chosen for their uncommon hues and then integrated into the build. Because these uniquely-colored parts were large and oddly shaped, they also provided interesting textural contrast to other parts of the creation. The charmingly rough and messy style of the final build is, in part, a product of the unique parts used. Coincidentally as the subject of a recent BrickNerd article, you can read more about the build process here!

Drawing Inspiration From Your Collection

Two equally important relations exist between tailoring our collections to our build styles and the reverse, developing our build styles with the parts we have. A larger collection size often allows for a wider range of build possibilities and styles. However, a small collection can also be effective when we allow the parts we have to dictate the style of our builds.

No matter the size or composition of your collection, some restrictions can help guide a design process. Developing builds and building styles takes practice. Challenging yourself to approach your parts differently by restricting yourself to different criteria (limiting the number of parts, colors, types of parts, etc.) can lead to new ways of building. Contests are also a great way to direct inspiration toward a particular prompt or theme and give opportunities for smaller collections to compete alongside those with larger collections.

If you’ve read this far, thank you! And if you were to take anything away from this article, it would be this: everyone’s building journey is different. While the size of your collection may factor into this, your approach is what will truly dictate your ambition, style, and parts usage. To quote our green friend once again, “Trust your mind, you should.”

Maybe he was onto something after all.

Have a question for a future article in The Conversation Piece? Let us know in the comments below!

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