Today I wanted to introduce you to a very interesting service for LEGO fans that just launched today. It is called MOC Nation: Designer LEGO Creations. It basically allows LEGO fans to submit their own LEGO models, and if chosen by the staff, they become available for purchase via the MOC Nation website. Below is the full press-release with more info. (UPDATE: this service is no longer available.)
MOC Nation Launches to Bring LEGO Enthusiasts’ Dreams to Life & Offers Kits to Recreate Limited Edition Designer MOCs at Home
Casting custom LEGO creations as works of art, new website brings designs from top independent LEGO designers to fans around the world.
Aliso Viejo, CA — MOC Nation (mocnation.com) – a website for lovers of LEGO, design and art – launches today to showcase and sell kits of the best independent designer LEGO creations from around the world. A MOC (My-Own-Creation) is an original work of art built with authentic LEGO elements. MOC Nation handpicks unique creations from top MOC designers, features them on the website, and offers kits containing all of the elements and instructions needed to recreate the MOCs at home.
The MOC Nation website uses rich photography and video to showcase each MOC. The designs are rated by level of difficulty to build and playability; ranging from display-only to fully playable models. Most MOC Nation kits contain between 150 and 900 individual pieces.
“The talent and imagination among MOC artists is incredible, and it inspired us to bring more MOCs to LEGO fans and design lovers everywhere”, said Jason Gutierrez, MOC Nation cofounder. “Our process for selecting the MOCs and developing the kits is pretty fast. There’s so much passion for MOCs in the fan community, so it’s exciting to be able to offer exposure and quick access to these truly inventive creations.”
While there are distinct categories of MOCs – such as sculpture, mechs, architecture, and others – across these categories, creativity and a unique vision are the common elements of the designs selected for MOC Nation.
Designer Felix Jaensch is well-known in the LEGO community as a gifted designer of MOCs. “I got my first LEGO – not DUPLO! – set when I was three years old, and of course I tried different modifications with those few parts on the very first day”, said Jaensch, creator of the Red Fox MOC featured in the MOC Nation launch. “It’s so cool to see how the MOC community has grown and to see other LEGO fans building my MOCs for themselves.”
MOC Nation was created by Matt Gutierrez, Jason Gutierrez, and Andrew Capener – three AFOLs (Adult-Fans of-LEGO) with backgrounds in ecommerce, entrepreneurship and design, and a passion for all things creative. The idea of MOC Nation was born in the summer of 2015. When not building their favorite MOCs, the three founders can be found hunting waves at various beaches in Southern California. MOC Nation is located in Aliso Viejo, CA.
Although there are similar services already available online, the uniqueness of MOC Nation is that while designers earn royalties on each set sold, they don’t have to worry about creating instructions, supplying LEGO elements, or packaging and shipping their custom kits. All of that gets taken care of by the staff of MOC Nation. Also, as you can see from their currently featured models, their focus in on high quality custom LEGO sets and sculptures. You can check out their website for more info at mocnation.com.
So what do you think? How do you like the idea of MOC Nation? Do you think this is a useful service? What kind of custom LEGO models would you like to see them carry? Would you consider submitting some of your own models? Feel free to share you thoughts and ideas below! 😉
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Hi,
the idea is pretty appealing but considering the parts used currently in the models (mostly basic bricks you can get around 2-3 cents) and the resulting ppp (around 40 cents), I am not sure if anyone will ever buy one set of those… Also, the models picked are not really impressive…
Finally, I am wondering what is the % of royalties to expect as a MOC designer!
Cheers,
Pascal
Good points. They just opened shop today though, so it will probably take a while to attract enough models, and build up their audience. I would say that a service like this will mostly appeal to buyers who are not expert LEGO builders themselves. Just people who want to have an interesting sculpture at their office, or something like that. And from the sellers’ side, most people who are expert builders have their own website to sell instructions or kits, so again, we are talking more about casual users, or people who want to expand their offerings via different channels.
As far as the royalty structure, this is what they say on their website: 15% of the net receipts. Net receipts are the profits from the sale of the MOC minus all costs, returns and allowances (including cash or credit refunds made to customers, rebates, and other allowances off the actual sale price). Here’s an example: If your MOC is selling for $25.99, the royalty would be approximately $2.29. This is just an example and can change based on several factors including but not limited to: the number of parts your MOC contains, The cost of each part, cost to create instructions, packaging costs, labor costs.
There are other services similar to this (i.e. MOC Shop at BrickLink), so there is obviously an audience, especially around the holidays. Whether MOC Nation could become successful time will tell. I will keep an eye on them. 🙂
Its another opportunity for those of us not involved directly with Lego to show their talents and creativity. I’d be interested to see what the royalties would be. At this stage of my Lego -itis, I’m in no way creative enough to do this, but some of the creativity I’ve seen there are plenty who are.
Thanks
Michelle, I have copied the info about royalties as a previous response, but you can also find it on their website at this page: https://help.mocnation.com/hc/en-us/articles/218657697-How-do-designer-earnings-royalties-work-
Wow, these sculptures by MOC Nation are so awesome!! I love the fox that they made! I hope they start making CATS!!! Please, CATS, CATS, and kittens too!!!
I also wish Lego would make more sets with cats in them. There are some, but there are far more sets with dogs and horses. Come on, people love cats!! Let’s start making cat sets comparable to the doggie day care and horse sets that are out there. How about a cat shelter? Also, I hope Lego starts making more styles of cats, such as a sleeping cat in a basket. And how about a Siamese cat?
Yeah, Mocers… Give the audience what they want… (Although I kinda feel a cat moc is more vulnerable due to cats jumping around with more or less of a disregard on what’s on the shelves besides them…)
Cats actually have a really funny relationship with LEGO. At least that’s what I heard from my cat owner LEOG friends. Or it is mostly the cat owning both the humans and the LEGO. 🙄
Okay, more cats! 😀
Thank you for this post. Very interesting.