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Subject: 
Re: Too much Lego?
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.general
Date: 
Tue, 23 Mar 2004 00:04:11 GMT
Viewed: 
690 times
  
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.  In particular, at
least a couple of people in this thread
(http://news.lugnet.com/general/?n=46284) admitted to spending between
$2,000-$5,000 or more per year on Lego.  Frankly, this struck me as a HUGE
amount of money to spend on Lego.


According to Peeron, I've dumped about $150 a month into my collection in the
short time since emerging from my dark age a very short time ago, so I'm sort of
playing catch up.  A big "ditto" on the issues of personal taste dictating what
would be considered a "HUGE" amount to pay, not too mention salary, etc.  I tend
to go to the movies 2-3 times a month.  Including a few rentals and the monthly
DVD purchase or two, that puts my movie habit at a little under $1000 a year.
Of course, that doesn't include home theater upgrades, taking a friend or paying
for my girlfriend, gas to drive the hour to the really nice theater, etc.  This
could probably be considered huge to some people, but it's one of the luxuries I
enjoy at the cost of not having a nice car or the latest fashions (neither I
would really want anyways).  Compare that to other hobbies, and you can find
that the average "hardcore" LEGO collector spends very little next to a private
pilot or most serious musicians.  Not that bad for such a lasting hobby.



So, what is the minimum amount of money/parts required to really fully enjoy
this hobby?  For me, I've decided that 50,000 parts is nice.  But I could make
do with less, I'm sure.  In fact, the parts that I've actually been using to
build with for the last few years total 35,000 (others are in sets - yikes!
that's a lot of parts in sets!!) and almost half that number is in basic bricks.
Is it easier to reduce the number of parts required if you concentrate on one
type of building?  (say, eliminate Technic and trains if you build mainly System
stuff)  In the end, how many parts could you comfortably build with?  I'd like
to say 10,000.  That seems like such a nice, round figure.  It would be neat to
me to see if someone could build an element collection for around $1000 that
contained about 10,000 parts and have that become a standard element collection.
People would build from only those parts in those quantities and see where that
would take the hobby.  Certain decisions would have to be made of course.  How
many of the 10,000 would be basic bricks, what colors would be used (using all
would be too expensive), which specialty elements would be chosen (not many
SPUDs, I imagine).  Does this idea have wings?  What are some alternate thoughts
about minimal, full collections?

This is an interesting question, because there are so many factors to account
for.  A person's style, availability of specific parts, the concept of buying a
set for parts and ending up with some "left-overs", etc.

However, the concept loses some punch in the face of some of the things I've
seen done or attempted lately.  While it was awe-inspiring to see the 25-foot
long U.S. Capital we had in the Potomac store, I've seen stunningly cool minis
comprised of seven elements.  How do you apply a number or equation to what is a
good model?  While I love my 4483 AT-AT in it's 1000 piece glory, Leanna prefers
the mini, which she claims is "cuter".  What is the litmus test?  Personally, I
don't believe that there is one.  And since I'm on the topic, that's why I spend
what I do, and why I'm happy with what I have.  It's the ability to exceed our
own expectations and make remarkable things with what we have in front of us,
and then to build upon it, that makes LEGO a hobby worth spending money on.

--
Thomas Main
thomasmain@myrealbox.com


Brian P. Gefrich



Message has 1 Reply:
  Re: Too much Lego?
 
(...) % smile. That's the only thing that matters. (21 years ago, 23-Mar-04, to lugnet.general)

Message is in Reply To:
  Too much Lego?
 
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 (...) (21 years ago, 22-Mar-04, to lugnet.general)  

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