accio brick - the lego harry potter comm

As the title suggests, I've finished the digital model for the Butterbeer Truck and posted it on Mecabricks. As we don't have the instructions of parts list, it's a best guess, and unfortunately Mecabricks doesn't check if the parts are current or exist in a given colour, so I've eyed it and gone by best guess on both counts. I'll probably update it once the instructions are published if the inventory feature is working again over on MB.

Feel free to incorporate it into your digital Hogsmeade builds.



Ron tries to valiantly face the tragedy of an empty cup while Hermione battles the vicious foam.

Gingerwitch's Butterbeer in Hogsmeade - Ron's coming up Empty. Digital build from Mecabricks using the lego Butterbeer Truck from the lego Harry Potter 2025 Back to Hogwarts Event.

ETA: Oooo! The 200th post to this comm. Not bad, Ginger, not bad.

And now I've completed the provisional model of the new Diagon Alley set on Mecabricks. It's a cute build. 76439 Lego Harry Potter Diagon Alley: Ollivanders™ & Madam Malkin's Robes and once yet again, they've changed the naming conventions in contrast to last year's set, eliminating the 'Diagon Alley' bit and including the second shop in the official name. No idea why, they're just making my OCD tendencies go bonkers. (Actually, I do have an idea why, and it's because the main stores are included in the D2C 75978 Diagon Alley set, so they're undoubtably trying to boost visibility for the 'hook' sets in the Diagon Alley-lite series, but that still doesn't soothe my desire to have it all nicely match. Marketing peeps, you know this is just going to cause the tidy little spreadsheet of sets to fail, right? feh) ( Read more... )

Continuing what is now a tradition, I've tried to reverse engineer the lego Harry Potter Potions Classroom build on mecabricks, and I've come reasonably close. The neat thing here is you can see how it folds together. Key things to note,
1) I didn't bother too much with the hinges where I can't see what they're doing anyway; I'll just wait for the instructions to sort them
2) There must almost definitely be a rail piece under the chalkboard to facilitate sliding the module into the new Great Hall set, but again, too much guess work is involved as to what goes where at this point.
3) not all parts are available on mecabricks, and some substitutions have had to be made in the digital model. they've been documented over on the build's mecabricks page.
4) the validity to some of the criticisms of the modules: a) what do you do with the modules you remove, particularly as they aren't stackable? b) unlike the lavatory, corridor and Huffepuff common room, you can't see the inside of the Potions Classroom when it's folded together.( Read more... )

Not Harry Potter lego news, for a change, but there's a new Gift With Purchase (GWP) available as of tomorrow (which generally means midnight. No clue how quickly this set will disappear from the shelves, but if you were thinking of making any large lego purchases, particularly the Jazz Club modular (which, so cute!), now would be a good time to snag them.

The lego Icons, 40586 the Moving Truck with 301 pieces GWP is officially available from 21st February through 03rd March 2023 with purchases upwards of 180 EUR in Germany (the amount can vary depending on your country). Those dates can vary, too. Generally speaking, when it's sold out, it's gone and won't reappear, so if you want it, place your orders sooner as opposed to later.

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I'm running a touch late for the occasion, but I've designed a digital lego set for milotzi: McGonagall's Quarters. (You can find it over on Mecabricks.) It converts the 76382 Hogwarts Moment: Transfiguration Classroom set into the Gryffindor Head's chambers while keeping the hallmarks of the Moment theme - all builds must be storable in the closed book format.

It's an interesting set of constraints, none of the builds can be wider than 4 studs, and a volume of no more than (roughly) 225 bricks. Unfortunately neither the stickers nor the book covers are in the Mecabricks database, so I've built the cover and simply had to do without the stickers. They'd be used just as they are in the original set.

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Anyway, I was thinking of you, M. Hope you had a nice day. 😘

... and I've put yet another build on mecabricks, Filch's Office.



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Recently I've posted a number of things I created on / using mecabricks. I thought it might be nice to share how to do that yourself, so here's everything you need to know to get started using mecabricks (and then some)... It's a practical guide, illustrated by building a little model. (You can spoil the result and look at it here, or just wait and see what takes form.)

Firstly, what is mecabricks? It's a free site on which people can view and create three dimensional virtual (digital) lego models. It stands out compared to other CAD software that lets you do this because it doesn't require you to install any software (it's strictly an online service) and because of the library / community that results from that. People aren't creating their models at home on their own computers and then looking for places to share them (and scattering them all over the internet, like IG, flickr, imgur or even livejournal, say...), that's all built in. They've provided an absolutely staggering range of pieces to work with and have a significant part of the official lego catalogue (here's the HP section) covered in their database, and then there are a wealth of MOCs (my own creations) on top of that. Have you ever wondered what a set looks like from the other side? You can see that here. For example, all of the official advertising for the 76386 Hogwarts: Polyjuice Potions Mistake only shows the set from one side. On mecabricks, you can rotate it at will and see it from any angle, including (with judicious zooming) from within the model. (It will look better if you click the gear icon at the top of the picture and select "BOUNDARIES" and "LOGO ON STUDS".) Or maybe you're looking for ideas for builds of your own; there are plenty of them here.

The journey starts at the mecabricks.com homepage, where you'll bet greeted by something like this:




If you've used CAD programmes in the past and are feeling confident, here are the basics in a nutshell:



tags: functions, tldr

And here are all the gory details... ( Read more... )

tags: functions, navigating, visibility


And to wrap things up, an overview of the keyboard shortcuts:



tags: functions, shortcuts, tldr

And I've been busy over on mecabricks again and completed another model...

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