The Nickel Guy Posted February 10 Report Share Posted February 10 So I forked out $32.00 and am getting 201 pc of Lego which by my estimation will nicely display 115 marbles on a set of 5 black steps which fit on a dark gray base. I had as much fun figuring this out mathematically as I will building it. Anyway, of course I will update this with my image of the display here in the thread when this gets here and is assembled. It will be a good photo background too I hope but if black isn't a good color for pictures, I still think it will still look better than pink or orange in a display cabinet later on. I think it will show off the marbles better too. So here's the stuff I got and here's the plan. Note, I have never built a thing with Legos. Don't laugh . . . . OK you can laff Sideview 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
disco005 Posted February 10 Report Share Posted February 10 That's a really fun idea! 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deiti Posted February 10 Report Share Posted February 10 👍 sweet 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
akroorka Posted February 10 Report Share Posted February 10 1 hour ago, The Nickel Guy said: I had as much fun figuring this out mathematically as I will building it. I bet that you did😁. I do lego in a south facing window just to soak up some sun during the winter. I am working on Mona Lisa now--just fun stuff that keeps the brain from fogging up too much. Marble--On!! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Nickel Guy Posted February 13 Author Report Share Posted February 13 This is getting somewhat silly, a little funny. My blocks showed up and the base is arriving later today. After consulting a 6+ year old child Lego engineer, I find I ordered the wrong base plate. The one showing up is for BIGGER lego blocks! Oh, I can use it for sorting and pictures I suppose but I had to order 32 x 32 dot 10x10 inch base plates to work with the much smaller 200 bricks I already received. Then, I realized I needed another 200 pack of blocks so I got 200 gray blocks to add to the 200 black ones. I plan to alternate colors to make it a bit fancy. I am only going to have 8 leftover blocks with the new plan. I ordered 4 base plates since they are flimsy and I already expect they will need support. I think they will stack on top of each other so several stacked will make a strong base. The marbles have will have less elbow room but more opportunity to be placed on the steps in different places. Well, this sure turned out to be an expensive project! New revised plan. Shows the absolute most marbles I would be able to display. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stonehenge4242 Posted February 13 Report Share Posted February 13 Excited to see finished product!! 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Nickel Guy Posted February 14 Author Report Share Posted February 14 Thanks! I feel like I enrolled in either occupational therapy or pre-school. I am keeping the gray base plate that arrived today even though I don't have a single next size up Lego block yet. (shown below with the bag of 200 smaller black blocks) I'll be keeping an eye out for them locally or maybe buy them down the road some time. A yard sale or Craigslist? These two size items are not compatible in any way but I thought they were. The description said they were but what they meant was this knock off brand was compatible with "Lego" brand pieces. A large or small marble will stay put on either size though when centered within any 4 pegs. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Nickel Guy Posted February 17 Author Report Share Posted February 17 On 2/13/2025 at 6:13 PM, stonehenge4242 said: Excited to see finished product!! So, I got all my little Lego wannabee pc's and assembled this twice. The first looked really neat but did not do well with marbles on it for pictures. These are just my least wanted mibs I had in a box and used them. So I took it all apart and put a lot of the black on the inside and kept the top all gray. I remembered that most of my best images come from a gray background. These were just a few marbles I had laying around loose. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stonehenge4242 Posted February 17 Report Share Posted February 17 Wow!! That is epic 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LevvyPoole Posted March 2 Report Share Posted March 2 On 2/10/2025 at 12:11 AM, The Nickel Guy said: So I forked out $32.00 and am getting 201 pc of Lego which by my estimation will nicely display 115 marbles on a set of 5 black steps which fit on a dark gray base. I had as much fun figuring this out mathematically as I will building it. Anyway, of course I will update this with my image of the display here in the thread when this gets here and is assembled. It will be a good photo background too I hope but if black isn't a good color for pictures, I still think it will still look better than pink or orange in a display cabinet later on. I think it will show off the marbles better too. So here's the stuff I got and here's the plan. Note, I have never built a thing with Legos. Don't laugh . . . . OK you can laff Sideview I've also been wondering how I can combine these 2 special interest of mine...I look forward to seeing your display once complete 😀 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LevvyPoole Posted March 2 Report Share Posted March 2 On 2/14/2025 at 1:01 AM, The Nickel Guy said: Thanks! I feel like I enrolled in either occupational therapy or pre-school. I am keeping the gray base plate that arrived today even though I don't have a single next size up Lego block yet. (shown below with the bag of 200 smaller black blocks) I'll be keeping an eye out for them locally or maybe buy them down the road some time. A yard sale or Craigslist? These two size items are not compatible in any way but I thought they were. The description said they were but what they meant was this knock off brand was compatible with "Lego" brand pieces. A large or small marble will stay put on either size though when centered within any 4 pegs. You might find this site useful if you're not already familiar. https://www.bricklink.com/v2/main.page 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Nickel Guy Posted March 2 Author Report Share Posted March 2 1 hour ago, LevvyPoole said: You might find this site useful if you're not already familiar. https://www.bricklink.com/v2/main.page Oh thank you very much, I'm lookin now. LATE EDIT: The only thing that drives me nuts is that I can't figure out what size bricks go on a larger baseplate; The small ones I have used, maybe 1.25 inches long, to make my bleachers type display shown above fit on small pegs on a 64x64 peg square which is probably only 10 inches x 10 inches. The big baseplate I have but want bricks for is probably about 13.75 x 16.25 inches but is only 22 peg by 26 pegs so I think I want bricks that are about twice those I used in scale and maybe 2.5 inches long? I remember stepping on much larger Lego blocks when there were a lot of kids around many years ago. 😬 I think some of those cuss words still can be faintly heard orbiting this planet every couple years. What are the bigger ones called besides just bricks? 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LevvyPoole Posted Monday at 02:05 PM Report Share Posted Monday at 02:05 PM 13 hours ago, The Nickel Guy said: Oh thank you very much, I'm lookin now. LATE EDIT: The only thing that drives me nuts is that I can't figure out what size bricks go on a larger baseplate; The small ones I have used, maybe 1.25 inches long, to make my bleachers type display shown above fit on small pegs on a 64x64 peg square which is probably only 10 inches x 10 inches. The big baseplate I have but want bricks for is probably about 13.75 x 16.25 inches but is only 22 peg by 26 pegs so I think I want bricks that are about twice those I used in scale and maybe 2.5 inches long? I remember stepping on much larger Lego blocks when there were a lot of kids around many years ago. 😬 I think some of those cuss words still can be faintly heard orbiting this planet every couple years. What are the bigger ones called besides just bricks? Oh, yeah, I just realised searching through there is really tricky as there are really specific names for everything. I think what you need to do is start measuring everything by the stud size, instead of actual measurements. For example, a common size for a base plate would be 16 x 16 (I think you need to include the spaces in this sort of search term.) So, for your bricks, you might be after 2 x 4. Flat pieces are categorised as plates and what, for some reason me and my kids refer to as "puffed up", would come under bricks. Another way to find things is to look at some online lego instructions (can be downloaded from lego.com) and the parts list at the back will have all the part ID numbers, which should be able to be used as a search term. Hope this helps. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Nickel Guy Posted Monday at 02:53 PM Author Report Share Posted Monday at 02:53 PM Thank you very much for your thoughts and for taking the time to type them up here. I will get to the bottom of this. When I do I will explain it here of what I have learned on the different size baseplates and blocks that only work together with their own kind. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LevvyPoole Posted Monday at 02:57 PM Report Share Posted Monday at 02:57 PM 3 minutes ago, The Nickel Guy said: Thank you very much for your thoughts and for taking the time to type them up here. I will get to the bottom of this. When I do I will explain it here of what I have learned on the different size baseplates and blocks that only work together with their own kind. This may be a step too far for you (and I have no direct experience of using this) but this exists...https://www.bricklink.com/v3/studio/download.page 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Nickel Guy Posted Monday at 04:47 PM Author Report Share Posted Monday at 04:47 PM I did download that last night and it was not very user friendly. Then I uninstalled. Oh I'm sure I could have tackled it in time but I won't be using it. My brain already works like that. 🤪 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LevvyPoole Posted Monday at 10:44 PM Report Share Posted Monday at 10:44 PM And if you're feeling really creative you could add some of these... https://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem.page?P=27925&name=Tile, Round Corner 2 x 2 Macaroni&category=[Tile, Round]#T=S&O={"iconly":0} I'll leave you to it now. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Nickel Guy Posted Wednesday at 01:52 AM Author Report Share Posted Wednesday at 01:52 AM On 3/3/2025 at 5:44 PM, LevvyPoole said: And if you're feeling really creative you could add some of these... Those 2x4's under your marbles look to be the scale I used. I am judging that by the looks of the marble size. They look to be 5/8th mibs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
akroorka Posted Wednesday at 02:06 AM Report Share Posted Wednesday at 02:06 AM On 3/2/2025 at 5:57 PM, The Nickel Guy said: I remember stepping on much larger Lego blocks when there were a lot of kids around many years ago. "Duplos"---I still step on them when the great grandkids are on their way home--OUch!! --even on carpet with socks on. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Nickel Guy Posted Wednesday at 04:19 PM Author Report Share Posted Wednesday at 04:19 PM 14 hours ago, akroorka said: I still step on them when the great grandkids are on their way home--OUch!! --even on carpet with socks on. I step on dog treats and chewy sticks. Gotta wear army boots to be safe around my house since the kids are gone. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LevvyPoole Posted 8 hours ago Report Share Posted 8 hours ago On 3/5/2025 at 1:52 AM, The Nickel Guy said: Those 2x4's under your marbles look to be the scale I used. I am judging that by the looks of the marble size. They look to be 5/8th mibs. Sorry for the delay- just some sparklers I had to hand to show the example, slightly bigger actually- between 21/32 and 3/4. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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