Subject:
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Re: Too much Lego?
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.general
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Date:
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Mon, 22 Mar 2004 17:32:21 GMT
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Viewed:
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623 times
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In lugnet.general, Thomas Main wrote:
> The recent discussions about the color change and people's buying habits got me
> thinking about how much we as individuals spend on Lego.
>
> So, what is the minimum amount of money/parts required to really fully enjoy
> this hobby?
In the words of U2, "you can never get enough of what you don't really need." I
think for many, the answer "how much is too much" depends on what kind of stuff
you build and on what you do with your finished constructions.
Personally, I do not dismantle my MOCs, for a couple of reasons. First, the
time I put into building it is worth more to me than the bricks, so I consider a
good MOC to be greater than the sum of the parts. Second, I like to be able to
look back at the stuff I've built over the years in order to see whether I'm
getting any better. (Sometimes a MOC accidentally hits the floor and dismantles
itself, but that's another story.) I am in the process of setting up a
permanent train layout in my basement to display my models. My target size is
to have three 4'x8' tables completely covered with MOCs.
It also depends on what kind of building you do. I emerged from my Dark Age to
build robots, so the bulk of my early purchases were centered around the
acquisition of Technic and Mindstorms sets. As I became exposed to the various
facets of the hobby, I started to build castle and town/train stuff, and even
the occasional space MOC. These subcultures have different brick requirements,
and so my collection expanded to include more variety. I remember when I used
to avoid buying sets that contained minifigs, but now I practically crave them.
Of course, the way LEGO has traditionally sold parts as sets has made it very
difficult to get "only what you want." In order to own 10,000 pieces that you
want to use, one would traditionally have to own another 20-30,000 pieces that
you have little interest in owning. This is another reason why I began to build
a greater variety of models -- to use up some of the "useless" bricks. I try to
take advantage of BrickLink and Pick-a-Brick when I decide that I need a large
quantity of a certain part so that I don't end up with a lot of extraneous
stuff.
I have a pretty decent collection at this point, probably on the order of
300,000 pieces, though I haven't done a thorough audit recently. I like to keep
an eye on what percentage of my collection is in use. It is a balancing act
between keeping enough "raw" brick on hand for my next project (whatever that
may be) and feeling like I am actually using it rather than just having it all
neatly sorted into drawers. I think I have probably only about 15-20% of my
collection built into models or works-in-progress right now. And yet, I rarely
finish a decent-sized project without having to purchase more of something.
Some of my larger models contain about 5,000 pieces each, but most of the
interesting ones contain fewer than 200.
Having purchased a few collections second-hand, I would say that I have rarely
seen a childhood collection that is larger than 10,000 pieces. I also would
have given my left arm to have had that much LEGO as a child. But I also used
to take my models apart back then (many didn't survive the swoosh test) so I
made do with a much smaller collection.
The one positive thing that has come out of the color change, for me, is that it
has caused me to stop buying new LEGO and focus on using what I already have. I
have spent a lot of time sorting and organizing things, because with this much
brick I often find (too late) that I own a lot of stuff that I don't realize I
have. By sorting, I discover these hidden gems and put them someplace where I
can locate them when needed.
I like your idea of defining a "standard minimal LEGO collection" but I doubt
that you will easily find a set of parts and colors that would satisfy everyone.
One variation on this idea is the "what will you make" concept where you
challenge a group to make things using only the parts found in a particular set.
For example, a common goal in robotics is to design things using only the parts
that came in the original RIS set, or with certain expansion sets added in as
well.
- Chris.
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Message is in Reply To:
 | | Too much Lego?
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| The recent discussions about the color change and people's buying habits got me thinking about how much we as individuals spend on Lego. In particular, at least a couple of people in this thread ((URL) admitted to spending between $2,000-$5,000 or (...) (20 years ago, 22-Mar-04, to lugnet.general)
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