Note: my LEGO® bricks pages start here!
Since there is no unique official definition of what to do to
be called "LEGO® purist", I try here to give some guidelines.
Classes:
- "excellence": strictly follows purism rules below
- "pure": follows rules below but also "discouraged" stuff
- "exception": like "pure" but with a very few extra
exceptions allowed (see below).
Rules:
- you shall use only original LEGO® products
- you shall not modify bricks and parts (no cutting,
no drilling, no gluing, no painting, no molding, no decaling...)
- rechargeable batteries (to be used in standard LEGO® battery
boxes) are allowed; common batteries are discouraged.
Quality indicators:
- realism
- originality
- detail level
- minifig scale
- functionality (example: what appears as "gears coupling"
must not be aesthetics only)
- coloring.
Building quality indicators:
- minimum (or not any) visible studs
- variety of bricks deployed (colors and shapes)
- not hard at unmounting
- presence of full building instructions or CAD design
- information sheet (hours spent, techniques,
parts inventory, photos of building moments, etc)
You shall use only original LEGO products
- only original LEGO parts: no "clones", no hand-made parts
or accessories
- no scratched or otherwise visibly damaged bricks (scratched
or damaged bricks can only be used in the always invisible
interiors)
- every brick or gadget contained in any LEGO set is fine:
if you need "special" pieces, figures, accessories, then go
for Bionicle, Clikits, Duplo, Galidor, magnet, etc sets;
every official LEGO® product is fine, including keyrings,
shirts, backpacks, set manuals, etc (anyways, use of these
is discouraged)
- stickers found in standard LEGO sets are allowed (even
on different bricks than intended in their original sets)
but discouraged; in any case, they cannot be custom-cut
or partially covered.
Examples:
- allowed: baseplates extracted from Ludo and Tic Tac Toe
LEGO sets (anyways, their glued pieces must not be unglued)
- allowed: strings (custom cutting is discouraged), motors,
flexible parts (tubing, etc), the USB webcam coming from a
LEGO set...
- allowed: magnet minifigs combined with other LEGO
magnet parts
- not allowed: manuals coming from sets
- not allowed: parts of the boxes (including those
containing strings)
- not allowed: electric adapters which do not come from
any official LEGO set.
Exceptions
While these exceptions are generally not allowed, they may be
considered for complex projects:
- high capacity power systems (electric adapters, battery
sets and cables, and so on), provided that they are not too
visible;
- printed labels instead of stickers (to have more realism
and to avoid gluing stickers on bricks);
- LEDs and other illumination systems (provided that they
and their cables are not visible).
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