April 11, 2021 - Buildinst has been here for 10 years!

It was exactly 10 years ago when I launched website buildinst and now it enters the second decade. It started with building instructions for 4 models built out of 2 different sets. Today there are building instructions for 271 models built out of 112 different sets at buildinst. So let's look at important milestones in history of this website:

• April 11, 2011 - Buildinst gets online with 4 building instructions for formula 1 built out of set 5763 and rabbit, frog and dachshund from set 4916. Building instructions for these models currently available at buildinst are not originals from 2011 because I updated them when I was moving website to new domain. They were not the first building instructions I ever made either. I made my very first building instructions as photo sequence in December 2010 and they are still available in my brickshelf gallery.
• May 9, 2011 - I added the first building instructions for Technic model - wasp built out of set 8048.
• October 16, 2011 - I added the first building instructions for model built by another designer - motorbike build by Morten from set 5763. At the beginning I planed to make building instructions for models from other builders because I thought I couldn't create enough models on my own. It turned out later that I underestimated myself so I've lost interest in making instructions for models from others. There are only 3 building instructions for models from other designers at buildinst now - can you find them?
• November 25, 2011 - You can download building instructions in PDF format from this date. Initially they were available only as online slideshows.
• January 18, 2014 - This day I shared my "LEGO story" with you. It got update in June 2017 and I think it is good time to update it again.
• April 27, 2014 - I gave you option to donate money for development of buildinst via PayPal. It turned out to be very ineffective because almost nobody uses it.
• November 6, 2014 - I added ratings for models so you can imagine how difficult to build, playable, solid and stable is model that you are going to build.
• December 31, 2016 - I added the first building instructions for Mindstorms model - CLEV3R CAR built out of set 31313 and it became my most famous model.
• June 30, 2017 - Buildinst moved to this new domain, it got new content management system and number of building instructions exceeded 100 including instructions for models from themes like City, Friends and Star Wars.
• April 16, 2019 - I introduced premium building instructions - paid instructions for bigger and more complex models. There are 11 premium building instructions in total at buildinst now. This way of getting money for development of website proved to be much more effective than PayPal donations I mentioned above so I will continue in it.
• October 5, 2019 - Number of building instructions at buildinst exceeded 200.
• April 11, 2021 - Buildinst celebrates 10th birthday!

Now I prepared two charts for you - left one shows number of new building instructions (blue columns) and number of site updates (red columns) for each year and right one shows growth of total number of building instructions on site (blue line) and number of different sets that are covered with alternative models (red line). As you can see the most productive year was 2017 when I moved buildinst to new domain and added 60 new building instructions. On the other hand the least productive year was year before it. In 2016 I added only 7 new building instructions and made 2 updates in whole year. It was mainly caused by moving to new flat and working on its renovation. I was also working on new website and other projects ralated with LEGO so I didn't have enough time for updating buildinst.

These all facts were about history of buildinst but what can you expect in future? Well, I plan to add more building instructions. :-) I was also thinking about making more videos, writing reviews of sets that might be good for building alternative models and finishing translation of site into Russian language. All these topics are interesting but not as much as building new models and creating building instructions for them from my point of view. So you probably won't see anything like this happening in nearest future unless I find someone who would do it for me. If you are interested in doing reviews or videos of my models or in translating content of this site from English or Czech into Russian language, please let me know via email and we can make a deal.

It would be bad celebration without gifts so let me introduce you 10 special alternative models that I found in my archive. All of them got building instructions with "10 years issue" label to commemorate 10th birthday of buildinst. The first couple of models are buggy and car built out of set 4939. They are the oldest models I built that I found in my archive and they were really between my first attempts to create something out of LEGO bricks (the only older models were few animals built out of set 4884). I built them in 2007 before I found all those cool SNOT (Studs Not On Top) techniques so they are pretty basic. They also started my fear of building ordinary cars because model called "car" looks just like another ugly buggy...

Next model is retro convertible built out of set 4955. I built it probably in 2009 and it is bigger and looks better than previous two models so you can see some progress. It features simple interior and opening doors. I don't have any pictures of physical model and I already don't own set 4955 either so you can look at just these two renders of it. I liked set 4955 much because it was neither too small nor too big. I also started building another car inspired by Shelby Cobra but never finished it.

The forth model is propeller plane built out of set 8048. It is one of ten alternative models I made from this set and the first plane of this kind I've ever built. It spins its propeller when you push it around. Its tail is made mostly from axles because set 8048 lacks liftarms. There is one more alternative model from this set without building instructions - T-Rex trike and I don't plan to create them. This model doesn't look too good and its functions doesn't work properly.

If we move to year 2014 we'll find two models that I built in order to get job in LEGO company. I applied for designer in Creator team and made alternative models for sets 31008 and 31025. So I turned mountain hut 31025 in gold mine. It features three separate locations connected together by little story: Tim the gold digger returns with his dog by canoe to hut in mountains. He dreams about better life that he could buy for gold from his mine. He goes to hut and takes lamp and pickaxe to keep on digging in mine. But when he is coming in it he wakes up bear sleeping there...

Then I took set 31008 and turned it into building concept called "Custom Trucks". This concept is based on building from modules and it should help children to build their own creations. I built one front module and three different rear modules to demonstrate it. You can combine these four modules to get dump truck, rocket truck or tractor truck or you can take just one module (rear or front) and build rest of the truck with your own imagination. So in the end you don't have to build from scratch (it can be pretty difficult) because you have something to start with and when you get enough confidence you can build whole truck on your own. In 2017 LEGO released few sets featuring building from modules in Creator theme (31054, 31055 and 31060) but I think they didn't understand its potential. Their idea was just something like let's give children easy way how to make strange looking vehicles by combining parts of steam engine, race car, truck and planes.

Last two models were created last year when friend of mine asked me to build something from DOTS theme. Since these sets contain a lot of little tiles and just a few useful parts I had to combine two sets to get enough bricks for building alternative model. I chose sets 41905 and 41906 and built helicopter and propeller plane out of them. Both features spinning propellers or rotor blades and enough studded surfaces for placing little tiles. To be honest when I was adding all those quarter tiles I found out this theme is definitely not for me. And that's all Folks! ...at least for now. ;-)