Lego

[TheLibrary]

Settle an argument I am having with my cousin.

I like and enjoy Lego. I have a few sets, nothing insane. The most expensive being Hogwarts Castle.

Anyway, I just built some Lego and my cousin was here when I was dismantling it. He ask what I was doing, I thought it was pretty self explanatory and told him I was taking it apart. He asked why, as I had spent so much time putting it together. I said so I can rebuild it again when I wanted to and make a little game out of seeing if I can do it faster next time.

I have always done this. My Mother would buy us "building toys" (not Lego) for Christmas or birthdays and when we had built them and enjoyed them we were told to take them apart, so we could enjoy building them again later. This meant that we ended up with hours of fun all year round, especially school holidays (we didn't have much money so didn't go out much).

My question is; is this weird? He thinks it is.

I think that buying Lego just to build it once and then let it gather dust until you get bored and throw it away is ridiculously wasteful and expensive.

I have been told many times that Lego is so expensive and I am not going to say it isn't. I always thought that yes it is an expensive upfront cost but it is for hours/days/years of fun. I never understood people who complained. Now I'm wondering if most people are like my cousin and just build it once?

AIBU - Lego should be built once.
YANBU - Lego can be built multiple times and is always fun.

I’m in the process of dismantling my Disney castle so I can get all the dust off it. Seriously, how do you keep Lego dust free?!

I mean you obviously will build it faster the second time round so I don't really get that part but if lego is your thing that's great. Lots of worse hobbies to have.

I know this is an odd question but does anyone else have a wish list of sets that they want LEGO to bring out?

The top of mine is the house from Charmed. I mean they now do; The Office, Friends and Seinfeld so they are not averse to making iconic buildings from TV shows.

We have a lot of sets and usually build and display and then dismantle and build ankther set when we want a change. Currently have the big hogwarts, a few lord of the rings sets, friends central perk and the guitar built and displayed. Have Disney castle, diagon alley, some other HP sets to build but no space to put them yet.

My favourite sets are our Christmas sets that we build each year and display as part of the decorations. It's our yearly tradition.

@risefromyourgrave

I have a set of makeup brushes. Big ones for the outside and little eyeshadow brushes to dust the outside!

@TheLibrary

People do it online, make mockups etc of their ‘wish sets,’ it’s really popular! And yes there’s lots of buildings from TV Shows already. Mine would be Winterfell (because I think it would just be so intricate, plus it’s realistic as it’s a very popular show), a building from Buffy (although I couldn’t think of which as the school is just a regular looking school, maybe the Magic Box), and Avengers Tower.

It depends. Box of lego sets from DH's childhood gets played with by DH and DS. However the expensive newer sets are on permanent display. Haunted house, gingerbread house, all 4 botanicals sets, Sonic, Jurassic Park T-rex scene, Central Perk, typewriter, chess set...

Little eyebrow brushes to dust the inside even. Weirdly some of my sets catch more dust than others - I feel like I’m cleaning the Central Perk set constantly.

@Kanaloa
I was trying to think of one for Buffy too, all I came up with was The Magic Box, The Initiative, or maybe even the School Library (if they keep all the weapons in the cage and Giles' office with all the "weird books").

Oh yes, I suppose they could just do a small set like Central Park of the library alone. I didn’t think of that and was trying to think how the whole school would work and be clearly a Buffy set. The figures would be so cool, a double faced Angel, a Cordelia with three possible outfits. And a little Oz to keep in the cage of course. I can keep wishing I suppose!

@DashboardConfessionalI’m not sure what vintage your dh is but old red and yellow Lego from 1978-1988 isn’t safe to pass on. The rest is fine.

I have one of these vacuum attachments for cleaning Lego. It’s great for boxes of bricks which get very dusty too.

You need to build an approximation of what you would like and submit it to Lego Ideas! Then people can vote if they’d like it made. Lego consider any which get 10,000 votes. Lots of the current sets came about this way - look for the Lego Ideas range on the shop website.

Really? I had never heard of this. So you need to build your own mockup of it? Or just make a picture/submit your idea. If I build the mockup kind of seems like they should be paying me rather than me paying them!

I buy my DS lots of Lego. It drives me nuts when he takes it apart as it's now all in colour specific boxes and the chances are lots of bits are missing. I can't understand why he can't build it and put it on a shelf. If he wants to take it apart and rebuild it, fine. But why take all the models apart together and then leave it all over the floor to stand on and get lost.

With the exception of the millennium falcon and police station DS has dismantled his lego and turned it into something else. He never rebuilt the sets in the same way.

Ya BOHT BU. For not accepting people do things differently. It's lego. means. Play good. So you find your way to do that.

As a kid I used to build a set, play with it, change and adapt it, play more, adapt again, play etc. Periodically I would then take it all apart and rebuild with the instructions - always more challenging when you are trying to find the pieces in amongst a few big boxes of mixed broken up sets!
My DCs (6 & 8 yo) build and play with the sets. They have recently started to modify them too. They have yet to dismantle anything either to store or rebuild, but may well do in future.

I don't think any way is wrong if you are having fun/getting enjoyment from it (except the PP who has prevented her DD from building sets. That is weird and rather controlling). I find the build-and-display-only people harder to understand, probably because I hate dusting and Lego has a strong association as a 'toy to be played with' for me, but it is still a totally legitimate way of using it.

The sets people submit are good, but don’t have all the custom made bits, and are usually modified and made more sophisticated by Lego. Have a look on the website and they might have comparisons. I have definitely seen a before and after of the treehouse, for instance.

Oh, and I’m sure the originator does get a cut, or at least a fee!

I've done Hogwarts but found it so boring as it's so...beige.

Just finished the Disney Castle last week but there's instructions online about how to build a gift shop using the same pieces so I'll break it down and do that next.

There's a site that reuses the pieces from sets to make other patterns but I can't remember the name off the top of my head.

rebrickable.com/mocs/MOC-14603/BoltBuilds/the-costume-shop-alternative-to-71040/#details

Here it is. You just put the number of the set into the site and it gives you ideas.

Well this thread has appeared at he right time! I wasn't interested in lego as a kid but now as a 35y/o with a dd5 I have discovered I love it. She got a massive box for her birthday recently and I absolutely love it.

I have a couple of questions if you don't mind...... Anyone have any tips for sorting it? It's currently all in one big box but that makes it tricky when I'm trying to build bits from instructions I've found online.

Also, how did you all learn to come up with random creations that aren't houses or cars? 🤣

My son would build and rebuild it and also play with the built pieces. My daughters liked to build them once and leave it. I can’t remember what I was like but probably once I’d done it once I wouldn’t want to do it again. Different shapes yes, same one, no.

but if you enjoy it then building it again and again makes perfect sense

YANBU I loved Lego, DS 17 loves Lego, he doesn't do sets anymore he designs models in CAD and buys the bricks he needs from bricklink. We had a competition to see who could build the fastest remote control vehicle over an obstacle course.

For those interested in displaying dust-free

www.idisplayit.co.uk

(dust free but not cost free).

@risefromyourgrave we found that showering the models was a great way to remove dust.

I won't buy expensive sets any more. They get built with enthusiasm but then they are played with (fine) and gradually customised and ultimately become ruins. Sometimes I intervene to repair them but it takes hours and nobody else in the family is as invested as me!! There is no way they would be dismantled neatly and put away with instructions. We have several large boxes with all mixed up pieces. Again, I attempted an organisation system (colours/brick type) but none of my children would keep to it. I've given up now!