We profess to be purists
We do? I don’t think I ever actually took that oath.
Ben likes to order third party stuff like mohawks and mushrooms; we’ve allowed this in our displays.
Pfft, more like I’ve allowed your displays to have my awesome third-party stuff.
– Tim (and Ben?) has ordered leaves in colors (say, white) LEGO does not provide; I’m not sure whether we’ve used them in displays though.
False. (That’s my Matt imitation.) http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItemIn.asp?P=2417&colorID=1&in=A
Tim’s Steelers tree uses yellow leaves that must’ve come from altbricks and has been in displays. I used 9 different altbricks leaf colors in the park at Greenberg this past November. I’ve been working on buying other colors for Space Trees.
I think it’s fair to say that third party / custom / aftermarket bricks aren’t as much of an issue as actual competitor’s bricks. If you start using MegaBloks, KREO, or any of that junk, expect endless hazing up to and possibly including excommunication.
This is definitely true. In the case of BrickFair, this is actually explicitly stated. The Lego community loves to mock MegaBloks; I am always more hesitant because I am aware that really Legos are a rich kid’s hobby, and that not everybody can afford them. (They also sometimes make some cool parts that I wish Lego would make.) I gave tons of them to my nephew as a cheap source of basic bricks, and he used them all the time; now that he’s moved on from Lego I recently donated them all to GoodWill. But for our purposes MegaBloks are not adequate, their colors aren’t as bright and their clutch power is terrible. As far as I know Kre-O isn’t any better, and their guys look stupid. I also picked up a Laser Pegs set at Target a year or two ago and it was very disappointing, you’re not likely to ever see them in a display.
I’ve been buying third-party for at least 8 years, so I have stuff from quite a few places: BrickForge, Brick Warriors, Citizen Brick, CrazyBricks, altbricks, customBricks, ME-Models, LifeLites, BrickCircuits, BrickGadgets, Cape Madness, Chrome Bricks, BrickTW, arealight, minifigcat, aaaaaaaaaaand… maybe that’s it. Most of them have already made it into offical SteelCityLUG displays. That stuff tends to be expensive, so I’ve bought pretty small from all of them, except altbricks, which I have a lot of and plan to keep buying from.
I did go in on the ME-Models metal rails kickstarter, including the larger radius (I did not go in for the plastic ones but I might in the future); I know Josh did too but I’m not sure what he ordered.
