How do you build your Lego sets?

[Wonderpants]

These days, Lego sets all come in numbered bags, and with the larger sets ( I only buy SW UCS sets now), that's probably not a bad idea.

But to me, that's always seemed rather boring. I grew up tipping the sets out into a heap and hunting through them for the parts as needed, and it's a habit that's stuck with me (I built a bricklinked UCS Falcon like this and am working through the UCS SSD the same way). To me, half the fun in building a set is sorting through the pieces like a puzzle and grabbing the next few parts I need when I see them.

So where do other people stand: organised or chaotic building?

[Deathleech]

When I was younger they didn't have the numbered bags so I did the more chaotic style back then because it was the ONLY way to build a set. After I came out of my dark ages, every set I had bought had the numbered bags so I started doing it that way and got use to it. That is until I got a few Ideas sets that didn't have numbered bags and built them recently. I forgot what a pain it can be trying to find a certain pieces when they are ALL piled together.

It literally took me twice as long to build the Ghostbusters Ecto-1 as it did the Hobbit the Battle of the Five Armies set I had built a week earlier. They both had almost the same number of pieces, but the Hobbit set had numbered bags while the Ghostbusters one did not. Now I am not sure which way I prefer. I like taking longer to build a set so I get more enjoyment out of it, but at the same time it also means sitting there searching much longer for that one piece to continue your build. With the numbered bags everything is broken down more so this doesn't happen nearly as often, and when it does it only takes several seconds to find whatever you need.

[Mutant Orc]

Depends on the size of the set. I normally stick to the numbered bags, but I have no objection to mixing them in small sets, however after building a Medevil Market Village without numbers I'm not likely of building a large set without following the numbered bags if possible except maybe on a special exception to do with my mood at the time.

[bonox]

usual process is to sort everything into the individual parts bins and then start building. For second hand sets, tip them into a bucket, wash and dry, sort into parts, then build.

I sort all parts by type. I don't understand the sort by colour thing - much easier to find a colour in a bucket of 9L beams than to find a 9L beam in a bucket of dozens of red beams.

Mind you, i'm mostly building MOC plans with three to four thousand parts, of which 200 types are unique.

[ekobor]

I don't like the numbered bags, the search is one of my favourite parts :)

[HawkLord]

I usually go with the numbered bags, as I don't have a lot of time to sort through everything all piled up. Plus, I find some colors get confusing, so it's alittle easier to not mix them up too much. Man, I sound old...

[LRDark]

Laptop with related film/game/show, glass of water, pair of tweezers for potential stickers, and brick separators just in case. I almost exclusively dump all pieces into a large pile, sometimes multiple or a whole wave of sets at once; I always do smallest set to largest set. The build is my favourite part, so I don't mind taking a whole day to put a wave of sets together.

I save minifigures and accessories for last as a dessert, separating them into piles of heads, headgear, torso, legs, body wear, and accessories. I pick a head at random and complete the figure from there.

[Deathleech]

I sort all parts by type. I don't understand the sort by colour thing - much easier to find a colour in a bucket of 9L beams than to find a 9L beam in a bucket of dozens of red beams.

Mind you, i'm mostly building MOC plans with three to four thousand parts, of which 200 types are unique.

Sorting by parts can lead to dozens upon dozens of piles, and some will only have a few pieces in them. In most sets it's easier to sort by color as you get far less piles and they usually have few enough pieces that still are manageable and easy to find what you want. Of course in your case that might not be the case MOCing since that involves many more parts than an average set has.

[bonox]

yes - and I have 200 piles, but because i've got a lot more of each part than I need for the particular build in question, they all go in the drawers, stacker bins, paper cups etc and you pull them out as needed.

You can collapse them adequately though - putting long length with short length in one pile makes them easy to distinguish and all pins and axles in one pile isn't too much of a headache.

I guess as I get older (i'm definately in the last half of my life now) and the constructions get really big and complex, i'm less inclined to spend hours looking for the one kind of part over and over again.

Edited May 22, 2015 by bonox

[legoguy1984]

I prefer chaotic most of the time, will do one set at a time though. Last time i mixed all my newly bought sets and I struggled to tell the difference between grey and pearl grey parts finally resorting to part numbers to make sure I had used the correct colour. Medieval Market Village was a bit of a pain without the numbered bags and having one part in dark navy blue that looked like black didn't help much. So in the end it really depends on how I feel at the moment of building and I'm glad that we have the choice at the end of the day.

[THERIZE]

I always use bags with numbers. I actually never sa one without numbers except those promotion sets that you get on events. The searching is terrible for e. Some times i end up searching for pieces that are right in front of me! No i will NEVER want a sent with not numbered bags.

[AmperZand]

When I was a KFOL, there weren't numbered bags, but I wouldn't have wanted them pre-sorted even if there had been. I enjoyed hunting for parts.

As an AFOL, I'm a numbered bag devotee. I go so far as to pick parts out of their bag rather than dump them on the table. Hunting for parts doesn't have the appeal it once did.

[Jared]

Woah woah woah, hold up. Building LEGO "sets"? Ahahaha, haven't done that in a loooooong time! However, I tend to build mocs much in the same way, with all the pieces spread out on my table (ideally, typically it's the floor) and then hunting down the parts I need in an ever-expanding pile of pulled parts. A bit of a mixture of both is probably the healthiest thing. Balance, or somethin', right? ;)

[dr_spock]

I use the numbered bags if available. If bags aren't numbered then it's search the pile. For 10030 UCS ISD, I did a quick rough sort into different piles. Otherwise, it could be like looking for a needle in a haystack for the smaller pieces.

[Tariq j]

I tend to use numbered bags, personally I just find it much easier.

[DarthBley]

I prefer numbered bags as ive become lazier; building a bricklinked falcon as well as other projects wo numbered bags can be a royal pain in the megablocks.

So much so that sometimes its faster for me to go cannibalize other sets looking for one part i know i have, versus looking for hours for that one piece sitting amongst 5000 others...

Oh snaps it automatically autocorrects curse words. would never have thought to replace a$$ w megablocks haha

[legotrainfan]

Especially with bigger sets, I'm glad that there are numbered bags. It would be very time-consuming to build a large set without having those bags. Despite the bag system, it still takes me a lot of time to build a modular building, but I enjoy every single second of the build. However, I wouldn't want to spend more time on a modular.

[Vorkosigan]

MMV is a good example of why numbered bags are a good idea. It especially has a lot of small pieces similar to a modular, and it was a bit of a pain to sort through them all. I could definitely see a kid getting frustrated. I do sometimes mix smaller sets though when the set is like 300 pieces but they still divide it into two builds.

[mandylions]

I pour everything together, whether it's a MOC or from a box, 40 pieces or 4000. I tried sorting by color once but felt that was even worse on the eyes than the huge pile. I like to extend the build as long as possible, so this works for me.

[paul_delahaye]

I tip them all out and hunt for the bricks during the build steps, I find this adds to the build experience, now as an adult, some of the sets would just be speed builds if I just used the numbered bags.

I especially do this on the flagship technic sets, 2000+ pieces, makes the build last 8 - 10 hours usually.

[VintageLegoEra]

Both ways

[rollermonkey]

When I came out of the dark ages, the giant R2D2 was the first set I'd ever seen with numbered bags, and I enjoyed the novelty of it.

I was starting to find numbered bags silly when I bought Tower Bridge... And cursed TLG for three back-breaking days of building because it doesn't have them.

I think numbered bags are desirable in larger sets, say 1000 pieces and larger, but the trend of smaller and smaller sets down to below 300 pieces is unnecessary.

As to how I build, I open the bags in a set or a number, but don't tip them out. I find that the occasional ten-minute search for that one piece still occurs plenty enough for me. I just don't have time to spend hours on end building a set, and after too long, it actually gets painful for me and I have to stop. Normally the completion of a number is within that threshold even on the largest sets.

Edited May 25, 2015 by rollermonkey

[mediumsnowman]

I much prefer numbered bags. The last set I can remember building without them was 10231 Shuttle Adventure. It took me forever just to bike the little car! However I never bother sorting by piece or color. I find it enjoyable to find a piece mixed in a manageable sized pile.

[masterX244]

For me the standard method is to use 1 box per bag of the set, using that method avoids to search larger amounts of pieces since bags have some sort of pre-sorting. after some build-time you get that pattern so you have to think less on what goes where

[legoman19892]

I put on a blindfold, dump tbe bricks into one pile, and start connecting pieces.