Idea for a website/database, looking for input

natro220

When building the UCS Falcon, I had a few pieces left over that I had no idea where they belonged. This gave me the idea of a website/database that would tell you which instruction step pieces are used in if you have them left over after a build. I know this happened for me with the Death Star too, I had like 2 light gray 2x2 bricks left over and couldn't figure out where I missed them.

Do you think this function would be useful to you? How would it best be implemented? Integrated into another existing website such as Brickset/Bricklink, or Rebrickable? Or something stand alone? Thanks for your ideas and thoughts on this!

Paperballpark

Honestly? It's a nice idea, but I think it would be virtually impossible to implement without an absolute shit-ton of work on your part.

Sure there's PDFs of instructions on the net, but there'd be no easy way of going through them to catalogue which pieces were used where. You'd have to do it all by hand. For every page. For every set.

Fizzlemesexy

It is in bricklink already. Its not 100% accurate because different waves of production contain different extra parts, but its does exist.

Fizzlemesexy

Double post

Joseph

^^ But bricklink doesn't tell you what step it's from.
^^^^ I agree it's a great idea (you might even be able to find what set a certain construction of bricks came from with a little more work), but once you take into account all the time and effort it would take, I'd say it's nigh impossible.

binaryeye

Fizzlemesexy said:

It is in bricklink already. Its not 100% accurate because different waves of production contain different extra parts, but its does exist.

I'm fairly sure the OP is referring to parts that should have been used in the build, not the extra small parts that LEGO always includes.

natro220

binaryeye said:

Fizzlemesexy said:

It is in bricklink already. Its not 100% accurate because different waves of production contain different extra parts, but its does exist.

I'm fairly sure the OP is referring to parts that should have been used in the build, not the extra small parts that LEGO always includes.

Correct, that is what I am referring to. I agree that it would be a lot of work, but it would be a lot easier for most of the more recent sets, as each step lists which pieces are used above the illustration. The more tedious ones would of course be the sets from 20-40 years ago, where like 20 pieces were added to the model in one step, without the box telling you what pieces are used for the step.

Fizzlemesexy

^ohhhhh!
Very, very cool!

gifinim

You could always do it as a collaborative site, where people can upload the data and others do a double/triple check before it's published. Given the size and helpfulness of the LEGO community it would help enormously.

cheshirecat

what happens when the same piece is used on many steps? for large sets the a list of possible steps could be enormous and for the pieces likely to be missed, common, small etc its likely to be one used a lot throughout the build.

natro220

That is true, but at least it would narrow it down to say 10 steps instead of hundreds to look through to figure out what you missed. There could be something built in where when you click on the piece you missed, it automatically takes you to the place in the PDF instructions where that piece was first used, then when you click "next" it will take you to the next instance, and so on.