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My daughter saw some beautiful and interesting tensegrity (tensional integrity) LEGO models on the Internet:

enter image description here

enter image description here

and she would like to get one for her birthday.

We've got a few Harry Potter LEGO sets at home, but the only chain I've found was from "Hungarian Horntail Triwizard Challenge - 75946", and it's probably too long.

What would be the easiest (=fewest sets) or cheapest way to get the required bricks and chains?

I live in Germany, and I've found a custom set with original bricks for 30€, for the simplest model.

enter image description here

I really like the yellow castle above, as well as the Ninjago one. Does anybody know how much it would cost to build them?

Finally, this one (The Impossible Apartment Complex by Jeff Friesen) also looks really cool:

enter image description here

Any hint would be welcome!

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Tensegrity Sculpture by JKBrickworks has free instructions. Here you can also get full list of elements you need to build it.

enter image description here

Rebrickable has few more "tensegrity" models. All come with instructions and part lists as well as estimated part cost. Example for model shown above:

enter image description here

As for acquiring parts there are multiple ways. If you are looking to purchase missing elements only I would suggest following options (in no particular order):

  • LEGO PAB (Pick A Brick) online store
  • LEGO B'n'P (Bricks and Pieces)
  • Bricklink
  • BrickOwl

Each creation/MOC onRebrickable has "Buy parts" tab, which use Bricklink and BrickOwl shops. Or you can use "add to wishlist/wanted list" options available for Bricklink and BrickOwl from Inventory tab.

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  • Excellent! Somehow, I didn't manage to find those websites in my Google searches, they look great. Thanks.
    – Eric Duminil
    Jun 8, 2021 at 9:03
  • I ordered a set thanks to Rebrickable/BrickLink/TheBrickTime. Just curious : the shop had 12 * "Light Bluish Gray Plate 1 x 2" for 6c€, and hundreds for 18c€. Do you happen to know why? They were both new, and had the same reference number (3023).
    – Eric Duminil
    Jun 10, 2021 at 12:15
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    @EricDuminil hard to tell, could be a lot of reasons: old inventory (newly added items were ooffered at better prices), some "marketing", also thinking that if you need 20 of these, you would get the rest priced higher, than look at some other store (as it would cause additional spending, like shipping, some other costs and so on), and many other. You may be surprised, that some items in same condition and color may be priced from several cents to several euros.
    – Alex
    Jun 10, 2021 at 12:48
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Lack of chains should not be a showstopper for such a project, as any flexible, non-expandable material can work instead. You may use LEGO strings, like those included with Spiderman sets with the tubular grip sections or the plain one: enter image description here

Or in their absence even plain, 3rd party string can work, either tied to, or gripped between LEGO bricks: enter image description here

I have had success with rubber bands and pneumatic tubing as well, so grab anything suitable and start building :)

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    @Downvoter, how would you improve this post?
    – zovits
    Jun 10, 2021 at 8:27

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