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Most Useful/Useless Pieces?


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Basically what it sounds like. What are some really useful or useless pieces for building? The Nuva hand pieces are pretty versatile as far as usefulness goes. I think the translucent part of the Vahki heads don't have many uses on the other hand.

 

What are your thoughts?

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No piece is useless! Every day I see a new usage of a part I would never have expected to see used for anything but its initial purpose. I can't chose a most useful piece either, since I find uses in a wide variety of pieces each day.

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Every piece I can think of has a least one practical application that I've seen on a MOC, including squid launchers. For the most useless piece, I'd have to reach back into the '07 playsets - those base pieces were big, bulky, and with an atrociously small amount of connection points (four, all pins).

For me, usefulness lies in the realm of ball joints and small Technic bits.

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Ball joints are monumentally useful for creating small robot types or really pose-able mocs.

 

Jimmy Stringers sound cannon thing is pretty bulky and hard to fit in anywhere...

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I want to join in the "no-piece-left behind" club, but... :P

 

The Inika and Piraka torsos, for a beginner MOCist, can be the most useful pieces in the world. But when you advance on to creating your own torsos, they become pretty worthless. Supposedly you could use them for creative non-torso things, but such large pieces are hard to incorporate and get the details of custom designs.

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I'm gonna be the killjoy that says "the axle/pin is the most useful piece" :P

 

I think the least useful piece is... Hmm, I'm gonna go with "none" like the rest of ya cause I honestly can't think of anything useless. I guess the Matoran feet like someone mentioned earlier? They're too thin and not very good for anything but being feet.

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I don't think I can name a most useful or least useful piece when we're talking LEGO in general. After all, most pieces are most useful in combination with other pieces the only piece that is really versatile on its own is the headlight brick, eight of which can create a Minecraft-esque cube with connection points on all sides.

 

If we are talking constraction in particular, it's still not easy, though the 5x6 torso beam from XT4 gets high marks for packing lots of useful connection points into a tight space. It can be useful for constraction building at pretty much any scale. And if we narrow it down to just BIONICLE, the Toa Metru and Vahki lower torso beams are versatile for similar reasons.

 

Least useful is a tough choice, even when you narrow things down to just constraction or BIONICLE. Most parts are useful for the function they're designed for. I suppose specialized head sculpts with only a single connection point like those in Galidor, Ben 10, Super Heroes, and Chima are bulky, detailed, and hard to use for anything other their intended purpose. Those might also take the prize in general LEGO.

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Most useful? I can hardly narrow that down, since every useful piece like joints, axles/pins, "hand" pieces, etc all play their own role in the creation of an MOC. They're all just equally important when it comes to the concept of building and MOCing. Missing the right piece and have no way of getting it? Chances are, depending on the role the piece plays, you'll have to make design changes just to find a way around the absence.

 

As for useless, Tohunga feet and arms seem to only do their purpose: being limbs. The Tohunga feet just suck terribly and they're really loose at times. The arms won't look good outside of Tohunga use, either.

mindeth the cobwebs

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Most useful? I can hardly narrow that down, since every useful piece like joints, axles/pins, "hand" pieces, etc all play their own role in the creation of an MOC. They're all just equally important when it comes to the concept of building and MOCing. Missing the right piece and have no way of getting it? Chances are, depending on the role the piece plays, you'll have to make design changes just to find a way around the absence.

 

As for useless, Tohunga feet and arms seem to only do their purpose: being limbs. The Tohunga feet just suck terribly and they're really loose at times. The arms won't look good outside of Tohunga use, either.

I dunno, I've seen the left arms used as detail for MOCs in the past. Even one set used them for the abdomen and lower body. The right arms are not so useful as detail elements due to their lack of symmetry, so they mainly function as throwing arms, though the Kraatu set did manage to make this work on a uniquely-designed model. The feet are difficult to find uses for, but they're far from useless since they have a solid four connection points.
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Most useful? I can hardly narrow that down, since every useful piece like joints, axles/pins, "hand" pieces, etc all play their own role in the creation of an MOC. They're all just equally important when it comes to the concept of building and MOCing. Missing the right piece and have no way of getting it? Chances are, depending on the role the piece plays, you'll have to make design changes just to find a way around the absence.

 

As for useless, Tohunga feet and arms seem to only do their purpose: being limbs. The Tohunga feet just suck terribly and they're really loose at times. The arms won't look good outside of Tohunga use, either.

I dunno, I've seen the left arms used as detail for MOCs in the past. Even one set used them for the abdomen and lower body. The right arms are not so useful as detail elements due to their lack of symmetry, so they mainly function as throwing arms, though the Kraatu set did manage to make this work on a uniquely-designed model. The feet are difficult to find uses for, but they're far from useless since they have a solid four connection points.

 

I forgot about the Kraatu!!

 

Though, I guess I stand corrected.

mindeth the cobwebs

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There are too many useful pieces to mention, but hard to use pieces are much easier to name. None are useless, but the following are quite hard to work well into an MOC

 

-the pieces used to hold rubber bands

-Toa Inika heads

-Rahkshi spines, which can only really be used in Rahkshi backs

-Kanoka discs

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Most useful:

DUPLO: 2 x 2 brick

System: 1x2 brick or 2x4 brick (depending on the color)

Technic: standard black friction pin

Constraction: socket (part 32174)

 

This might be "just me", but I find the parts I use the most/sort first/have the most of tend to be the most common parts in sets.

 

Least useful:

DUPLO: play tables

System: boat studs

Technic: either a CD-ROM, an adapter cable, or a "test mat"

Constraction: Toa Mahri cases. I see BrickLink does not even list this as a real part, so I guess I'll give my vote to the Galidor Module.

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DUPLO figures are deceptive - it's very rare that you see them used for much beyond characters, but their hands accept Technic pins nicely. One of the "big ideas" I've been putting off for a long time is building a GBC module where axles are held in place by DUPLO figure hands.

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DUPLO figures are deceptive - it's very rare that you see them used for much beyond characters, but their hands accept Technic pins nicely. One of the "big ideas" I've been putting off for a long time is building a GBC module where axles are held in place by DUPLO figure hands.

Brilliant!

 

The tricky thing about calling a piece "useless" is that the more "useless" a piece is, the more rewarding it is to use it creatively. The term "NPU" (Nice Part Usage) exists in the Lego community just for those sorts of unintended uses.

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Formerly Lyichir: Rachira of Influence

Aanchir's and Meiko's brother

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