Have you ever attached a regular brick to the side of a Technic part? Have you ever jammed slopes under a plate to conjoin 2 plates? Have you plugged plates in the space underneath arches to create a vaulted ceiling? Did you realise all those methods are illegal?
While LEGO espouses creativity and boundless possibilities in creating and recreating your LEGO sets, it does come with a caveat that certain unwritten building rules must be followed to ensure quality build and brick durability. Each brick is designed to interlock with other bricks and can only interlock with them only for so far, because certain out-of-the-box interlocking may cause damage that’s why it’s not sanctioned by the LEGO Group. This is called the so-dubbed “Illegal Builds.” Illegal builds are what many MOC (My Own Creation) designers do in building awesome original sets usually done for exhibits or as personal eye candies at home. These designers defy the conventions observed by LEGO-employed designers in order to capture the vision they have in mind. They claim to see beyond what the original designers see, and thus create a so-called better end result.
These unorthodox methods of building may indeed produce what you want to achieve, but since they’re not designed to be interlocked that way, it may put stress on the bricks and cause them to wear faster or even break. So it’s a case of proceed-at-your-own-risk type of build.
However, while LEGO professionals discourage this type of building, many LEGO enthusiasts think that LEGO bricks possess limitless versatility and don’t see anything wrong with the said practice. This is countered by anti-illegal build people who stress that one would only have to be more creative to achieve their vision than to resort to illegal builds.
It’s also noteworthy that while illegal builds may be tolerable to some, there are some who even go as far as mutilating each brick just to adapt to the look they want on their set (ouch!). Now, that’s totally unholy especially to the purist builders!
While the topic of illegal builds may continue to polarize LEGO enthusiasts and remain controversial, the one thing that it offers is that there’s really so much more than meets the eye. It thrills a builder to think that you can always recreate what you have already recreated, so to speak.
Disclaimer: Photos borrowed from the web