Review: MOCHUB kits
Posted by Huw,
Last month I introduced you to MOCHUB, a website at which you can purchase kits of MOCs by talented and accomplished builders.
To enable me to evaluate its service, I was asked if I'd like to receive a set for review, so I chose a small one, Great Tit, by Felix Jaensch (182 pieces, $37.95).
In addition to that, the company also sent me bouquet of red roses by Felix Jaensch (962 pieces, $159.95) and Trench run pursuit by JK Brickworks (469 pieces $109.55).
Alice and my wife have now built the former two so it's about time I posted a review, not so much of the models themselves, but of MOCHUB's service and what you can expect when you buy a kit from there.
Packaging
The kits arrive in a thin but sturdy cardboard box.
Printed instructions are not provided: instead you receive an envelope with details on how to download a PDF version, either from the MOCHUB website, or the designer's.
The parts are bagged up in zip-lock bags. Here's the contents of the bouquet of roses box.
The Great tit box is obviously smaller, with fewer bags and pieces.
The zip-lock bags are branded WLWYB, which is the name of the company's BrickLink and BrickOwl store.
The models
The bouquet of roses is designed to be held in the hand, perhaps as a wedding posy by a hardcore AFOL. It looks stunning when completed, but I am told it was a right PITA to actually build it, particularly the roses which have many single stud connections.
It comes with a bow and long 'stems' but we removed them and put it in a crystal vase, where it looks superb.
If you were doing anything other than displaying it in this way you would need to glue it as it's a bit fragile!
The Great Tit was a much simpler and quicker build, although we had a couple of cheese slopes missing, and extras of a two other parts. That was not a problem for us but could of course be for others. I suspect contacting MOCHUB would yield some being sent in the post, but that would of course delay your build.
I'm a big fan of brick-built birds and I think the tit looks great! I would have preferred a brown, rather than tan, 'tree', though
Verdict
MOCHUB makes it quick and easy for buyers who want to build MOCs designed by others to get all the parts needed to do so.
The kits are not cheap by any stretch of the imagination and it's almost certainly going to be possible to spend time on BrickLink sourcing the parts yourself for less. But, if you value your time, or money is no object, you will find that MOCHUB provides a quick, easy and efficient service.
Thanks to MOCHUB for providing the kits for review. All opinions expressed are my own.
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29 comments on this article
Very much appreciate you & your family trying out these kits and bearing through the rose-building pain! Those roses are a very effective build.
The missing pieces are somewhat disconcerting... This is a premium product, with a pricetag to match, and is likely to be given as a gift; there should be no mistakes.
Good review! I can't say I'm overly interested in the subject matters themselves and the prices are a bit too out of my price range, but I can definitely appreciate the work that's gone into 'em.
The only thing that strikes me as a bit unnessesary are the bricklink-store-branded ziplok bags (especially if it turns out they produced them especially for this and it's impacted the price), but I have a feeling they probably ordered a bunch a while back and are still using 'em up - I know I'd do exactly that if I was in the same boat!
Great review, thank you. It's interesting to see how many good-quality initiatives are sprouting up in the Lego-related universe, and this is certainly a worthy one.
However, for that money I would expect a well printed color instruction booklet. And no missing pieces.
BTW The rose set is just beautiful.
Are there any illegal building techniques involved?
I have tried contacting MOCHUB twice since the initial post on here about it, no response. I tried their web form and e-mailing directly. Anyone else had luck? I wanted to find out how they manage a MOC that requires custom decals.
I recently got the Trench Run Pursuit, the only parts issue I had was that one of the LBG cheese slopes was replaced with a LBG 35464 ROOF TILE 1X1, DEG. 45, W/O KNOBS.
No big deal though, and the model turned out excellent!
Given the price tag involved, it's a bit off-putting that there's no instruction booklet and some missing pieces - especially as this was sent for publicity purposes!
Maybe I’m drunk, or just have lockdown fever, but do the pictures of the roses look 3D to anyone else??
Too rich for me. I quite like the BL sourcing part as well
I've never dealt with purchasing mocs before, but a 20 cent parts-per-piece ratio seems absolutely ridiculous.
I built the Trench Run from instructions he had on rebrickable. I had a lot of the pieces already as many were small and plentiful. I Bricklinked the rest and it wasn’t more than two orders totaling far less than 20 cents a piece. A very cool build. Thanks for the excellent review.
For those of us that know how to use BL, this service is a bit unnecessary, however, there are many others who don't know and don't have the time to source parts so this service is perfect for them.
The price tag is definitely high, but you need to consider that each time the servicer buys the parts the cost won't be the same each time and they are probably buying from multiple stores, which means lots of shipping to pay. Also, these parts are mainly coming from BL, not LEGO.
I really hope MOCHUB organizes there shop because right now it just a cluster of MOCs. Either way, looking forward to how MOCHUB progresses.
I can't find this to be popular consider the price and the model themselves. There are plenty of official Lego sets already and like someone have mentioned if people want MOCs they can just bricklink themselves.
To me, it would be much more economical to do like most people--sell the instructions alone. I'm sure many of us probably own the majority of the parts, or else Bricklink them in a heartbeat. Else, and especially with no physical copy of the instructions provided, it's extremely overpriced.
I really love that Coal/Black Tit MOC, and the rose bouquet (or was that "bucket"? *g*) looks impressive too, but honestly, missing pieces with such a small set and so few parts? For that price? That's inexcusable. And particularly embarrassing in a publicity review sample. With those one would expect extra care being taken to get everything right.
There are some jewels on MOCHUB. Some designers check the bricklink costs and availability. Please check the designer Jan Müller with the KNIGHT RIDER set with functional scanner light and some WALKING DEAD inspired sets, for instance the WINNEBAGO! And not so expensive. The best is the 2CV which got kind of famous in Hungary.
;)
If you think the flowers were hard, try building the seats in 10258 London Bus!
I was looking at their website and saw that they sell a Power Functions upgrade pack – $130. However, you can buy all them individually from LLEGO.com for $53 roughly. Now, I don’t mind charging a bit of a premium for the ease involved with not having to source the MOCs, but more than double the price for just the Power Functions seems a little ridiculous.
I can't understand why the website doesn't have the sets sorted into style or categories, I got bored looking at different cars and upgrade sets for cars.
I recently Bricklinked the Trench Run Pursuit for $32.08 + $7.00 for Jason Allemann's instructions.
Some of the pieces are coming from Lego.com's Pick-a-Brick and Bricks & Pieces options, so I will get VIP points for those. The only piece not available directly from Lego is the inverted 2x2 radar dish printed with the Tie Fighter window.
MOCHUB charges $109.95 for the kit plus $14.95 for shipping for a total of $124.90.
I could assemble three for less than the MOCHUB price ($7.00 + 3 x $32.08 = $103.24), and use the remaining $20+ to buy all the parts necessary to add the JK Brickworks expansion motor pack to one of the models.
It's convenient to be able to buy all the parts in one place, but for models like the Trench Run which have a parts inventory list on Rebrickable that can be directly exported to a Bricklink Wish List, it's foolish to spend that much more money.
The set name "Great Tit" is funny.
@HandPositions said:
"If you think the flowers were hard, try building the seats in 10258 London Bus!"
Why?
I just built this set recently, there was nothing hard about assembling the seats. It was just a bit repetitive but the building steps themselves were dead easy.
Those flowers otoh do indeed look like quite a hard and (fiddly) build.
Those prices are absolutely insane. Yikes.
@Plastic said:
"The set name "Great Tit" is funny."
I expected more "flesh" pieces, though. ;)
This site would have more potential if a lot more top designers listed on https://rebrickable.com/designers/ placed there product there, at the moment there is only Nico71? But as others have said the prices seem to have a large margin, I think they need to find a way to source large volumes of bricks directly from Lego at a discount or something similar to reduce costs and really make a difference compared to doing yourself.
For all you juveniles chuckling about the name of the bird:
https://www.rspb.org.uk/birds-and-wildlife/wildlife-guides/bird-a-z/great-tit/ :-)
They don't seem to approve any new submissions, a shame since their selection could really use some variety.
@FuddRuckus said:
"I could assemble three for less than the MOCHUB price ($7.00 + 3 x $32.08 = $103.24), and use the remaining $20+ to buy all the parts necessary to add the JK Brickworks expansion motor pack to one of the models."
I think that issue is because 70% of the proceeds go to the designer unless he specifically asks to get a lower cut.
@Huw said:
"For all you juveniles chuckling about the name of the bird:
https://www.rspb.org.uk/birds-and-wildlife/wildlife-guides/bird-a-z/great-tit/ :-)"
I found it mildly funny too, but to me more interesting was the name itself, as when I was young, people in the UK that I knew called this variety either black tit or coal tit (which would have been a more or less direct translation of the German name "Kohlmeise" - Kohl in this case referring to the black cap as in Kohle = coal instead of Kohl = cabbage).
@Judge_Fudge said:
"I think that issue is because 70% of the proceeds go to the designer unless he specifically asks to get a lower cut."
I am all for Jason Allemann of JK Brickworks getting paid for his designs--I've purchased instructions for three of them.
The MOCHUB markup remains quite high and has been noted before, a pack of five power functions elements with an MSRP of $52.45 is being sold for $124.99 + shipping. Is "designer" Racing Brick getting a 70% cut of that?
https://www.mochub.com/moc/42079-upgrade-pack-power-functions-elements
Returning to JK Brickworks, the MOCHUB markup for Allemann-designed sets are very inconsistent.
The Rebrickable estimated price for the Classic Duck Pull Toy (which I have) is $48.83 while you can order it from MOCHUB for $69.95 + tax--that's not a bad deal for a full kit there. That set has the smallest markup and Allemann made his instructions available for free so he's hardly making anything.
Meanwhile the Rebrickable estimate for the Trench Run is is $51.58 compared to MOCHUB's $109.95 before tax--and as I mentioned previously mine cost under $40 after paying $7 for instructions.
Sisyphus Rebrickable is $185.19 vs. MOCHUB $289.95.
Swimming Dolphins Rebrickable $96.86 v. MOCHUB $249.95.
I've always found Rebrickable estimates to be on the high side, so these prices remain incredibly beneficial to MOCHUB.