What was your most challenging build and why?

[Pseudoty]

I searched and didn't see this one but if it already exists mods please merge.

So I was breaking down my Tumbler, selling it as used, and I was just amazed at the level of complexity to this build. It gave me a new appreciation for some of the different techniques that are used when I was taking it apart

So what were some of your most challenging builds and why? This may help others select their next set or help them avoid one.

My top 3 easiest to hardest:

3. United Nations, after 40 years of not playing with Lego I saw this set at BN and those translucent blue tiles were just calling my name, little did I know what I was getting into. As a kid I just did free building never had sets with instructions so I had no clue what that Arch book was or how to follow them. This was deffinetly not the best set to start off with. Trying to fit my fingers in the tiny interior and do sideways building was a struggle but I loved the finished product, still one of my favorite sets.

2. R2, at the time I built the droid it was my first UCS set and second most number of elements behind FB. This set had some challenging building techniques, getting those columns of 1x1 alternating white and blue tiles perfectly aligned put a hurting on my fingers. The most difficult part of the build for me was the mistake of using the ipad PDF instructions. Not only were there mistakes in them but telling the shades of blue apart on R2's dome was a task

1. The Tumbler, the winner by a landslide. This set gave me fits at times to the point I had to walk away and take a few days off, I don't know how you guys who knock these sets out in a few hours do it. The combination of building at night with poor lighting, my old eyes, and all the black elements made mistakes the norm. There were three times I had to do rebuilds plus parts like to move and fall off of this awesome set. I would highly recommend this set to build. I think I will avoid the ToO knowing that the black elements and I do not get along.

Well I hope this post helps someone and I look forward to your responses, I am hoping there is a good sleeper set out there waiting to be built.

[terrymc4677]

Tower bridge for me. Not because it's a bad set. It's beautiful, but the repetition at times was painstaking. It sure felt like an accomplishment once complete though.

[Migration]

10144 Sand Crawler. The actual building wasn't that bad. But I pulled it from an unsorted bulk lot and was using online instructions.

Edited October 26, 2014 by Migration

[kunfuzd]

Technic Mobile Crane MK II... Skipped a step and had to go backwards two or three pages... Major pain!

[Guest brickcrazyhouse]

modular pet shop. the way you make the word "shop" frustrates me to no end. 

[comicblast]

Tower bridge for me. Not because it's a bad set. It's beautiful, but the repetition at times was painstaking. It sure felt like an accomplishment once complete though.

Same here. Building that tower twice felt like an eternity, especially with all the SNOT bricks and tan cheese slopes. Looks fantastic in the end though! Definitely worth it, and I highly recommend it!

[Huskers1236]

10144 Sand Crawler. The actual building wasn't that bad. But I pulled it from an unsorted bulk lot and was using online instructions.

Game over, drop the mic.  This is the answer.  Such a pain in the ass to build this set as it is so structurally unsound until you have it built and even then you can watch it fall into a giant pile of rubble if you grab it wrong.  I don't call this a challenging build because it's hard, but more that it really is a pain and challenging to not throw it across the room.

[jbacunn]

I haven't built any modulars or UCS sets yet but for me it would have to be Robie House. There are 771 1x2 plates in the set. That is not a typo, 771. I worked on it over three days and I loved every minute of it. I love the architecture sets. They are pure lego building at its best.

Edited October 26, 2014 by jbacunn

[Pseudoty]

Game over, drop the mic.  This is the answer.  Such a pain in the ass to build this set as it is so structurally unsound until you have it built and even then you can watch it fall into a giant pile of rubble if you grab it wrong.  I don't call this a challenging build because it's hard, but more that it really is a pain and challenging to not throw it across the room.

Have you built the tumbler?

I built the Sandcrawler and those front columns that would just fall off and trying to get the front hatch and the flaps to align with those ball joints was a pain, but IMO the Tumbler makes the Sandcrawler look like a Mixel

[Quacs]

41999 - tough build, but really fun. Thoroughly enjoyable.

[redghostx]

General Grievous - even complete it feels like it wall fall apart ( and moving it is its own challenge, during and after the build)

8110 Unimog - my first technic build in almost 20 years, it was a challenge building the undercarriage.

Palace sign on the palace cinema. It is difficult to square up the large sign (pet sign x10) and the 2x16 plates tend to bend so after getting a replacement piece I used a rubber band to secure it in place for two days before attaching it to the building.

[Grynn]

4481 Hailfire Droid - from a 20 set bulk lot. It was fairly separated from the others, but semi-built already and in chunks that were built just slightly incorrectly - I foolishly wasted close to an hour trying to reassemble before tearing it all apart and starting from scratch.

 

Not technically one of the worst, but no joke either and certainly my worst experience so far given the circumstances.

 

 

7784 UCS Batmobile would be a close second - my 7 year old son helped me, and black on black on dark grey on black on grey on dark grey on black on every page made all four of our eyes bug out. (Haven't built the Tumbler and not super excited to, for this reason.) Otherwise, it went pretty well over three days' time.

[Yinchuan]

6211 imperial star destroyer. The instructions are pretty lousy and the set is very fragile. Great final product but I did not enjoy the build much at all.

[Sauromosis]

Agree on sandcrawler.

For me, Taj Mahal because it shipped to me in built sections which crumbled on the way. I had to study pages and put small chunks together, argh.

[kenchu2000]

4000007 - Ole Kirk's House

It's only because I bricklink'd this set, and original instruction was never available on Lego web site.  I downloaded the instruction that was created by someone who did it using Digital Designer.  I had hard time to follow the instruction because the step-by-step illustrations look to be out of order.   Usually most instructions would start off with the base and work all the way up.  This Ole Kirk's House instruction somewhat starts with window first, then the wall, then the base and then finally the roof.  I think it took me more than a full half day to build this small set.

[Locutus001]

I guess for me it's the SW UCS Star Destroyer but that's been way back so I do not really remember that much ^.^ I only know that I needed some days off of this built because it just was too much for my younger self.

 

Recently I've built the UCS AT-ST and I really enjoyed the built but since it has been my first UCS built after my dark ages (I never really gave up on LEGO just thought I'll start again when I have kids ^^ but it seems as if I couldn't wait...).

 

Because the UCS AT-ST does not come with an interior I decided to build something on my own (nothing spectacular but I bet I'm rather limited to LEGO pieces when I compare it to some of you ).

After I did build the whole thing it was pretty hard to fiddle inside of this small area, especially since there's this rubber band that takes up a lot of space (I had to replace some of the installments every now and then realizing that the minifigures just cannot stand or sit there because of that rubber band....).

 

I still didn't have the time and more important the space to build and store a modular or something like that (after all those SW LEGOs already need quite some space...) so I really looking forward to build some of them later.

[Bernard74]

Same here. Building that tower twice felt like an eternity, especially with all the SNOT bricks and tan cheese slopes. Looks fantastic in the end though! Definitely worth it, and I highly recommend it!

For me also the Tower Bridge. Added to what was said above, if I recall correctly the bags weren't numbered. Good experience though.

[Huskers1236]

For me also the Tower Bridge. Added to what was said above, if I recall correctly the bags weren't numbered. Good experience though.

Is this true?  I can't imagine building TB without numbered bags. 

[Huskers1236]

Have you built the tumbler?

I built the Sandcrawler and those front columns that would just fall off and trying to get the front hatch and the flaps to align with those ball joints was a pain, but IMO the Tumbler makes the Sandcrawler look like a Mixel

I admit I have not built it, but if it's more fragile than 10144 I don't look forward to it.  The Sandcrawler was a huge pain as more than once did I put some pressure on it to "click" a piece into place and watched the whole thing disintegrate.

[Migration]

I admit I have not built it, but if it's more fragile than 10144 I don't look forward to it. The Sandcrawler was a huge pain as more than once did I put some pressure on it to "click" a piece into place and watched the whole thing disintegrate.

I remember rebuilding the floor at least ten times after the tank treads were put on.

[terrymc4677]

For me also the Tower Bridge. Added to what was said above, if I recall correctly the bags weren't numbered. Good experience though.

  

Is this true?  I can't imagine building TB without numbered bags.

Yes, this is true. I couldn't believe it either when I dumped the bags out of the box. It certainly added to the challenge.

[tractorboy]

Definitely 10018 Darth Maul for me. Largely because of the instructions, which only show the pieces used for each layer of the build, one layer at a time. So you can only see that layer and not the parts used in previous layers. I found myself having to look up images on the net of complete builds just to see what it's supposed to look like at particular points.

Also, if you make a mistake (very hard to), you have to pretty much dismantle it back down to that particular layer and start again from there.

[Yinchuan]

Is this true? I can't imagine building TB without numbered bags.

Better believe it. 28 unnumbered bags with bags inside of those bags...still I would not trade the experience for anything.

IF you build it(and I recommend you do) separate all the pieces by color as well as flat vs regular pieces. Also build both towers simultaneously. It will help out as well as looks pretty cool as you slowely complete the project.

Also do this when you are done (add a bat signal as well!)

[TheOrcKing]

Anything where I get stuck needing to place a ton of 1x1 tiles next to one another. The effort in trying to get them all align correctly is maddening. :frantics:

[Alpinemaps]

8060 Typhoon Turbo Sub - for some reason, I had to take this apart a couple of times, because I couldn't get the thing working correctly.