Captain Pirate Man

How do you prevent the dreaded "giant bucket of random legos"

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As many of you, I am a AFOL, as well as a parent of little lego heads. Ever since the lego movie was released, I have officially become Lord Business. I keep my legos organized, I build the sets then leave them together. But children in the other hand don't seem to share that mentality. My daughter for example wants ever set she can get, but could care less to build most of them. She just wants certain random pieces for her own creations. Which I can respect her ability to build her own creations, that's part of the fun. But ever since I've discovered brick links, I'm like "no build the set, and if you want a certain piece from that set, I'll just get you another one." That compromise has helped immensely. But honestly her biggest problem is that she has a giant tube of random lego pieces. It takes freaking forever to find pieces in it, which in turn sucks a lot of the fun out of building. Even in my youth, that was my biggest complaint, searching for pieces in your collection.

I realize many of you have really organized collections, but that's not really possible for a 10 year old, so I'm not looking for that answer. I'm more or less looking for some creative feedback, or just sparking the discussion, what to do with the giant tube of random lego pieces?

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I am very very very guilty of this.... about half of my collection is just randomness the other half is color sorted...I need to spend a day or two sorting...

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As many of you, I am a AFOL, as well as a parent of little lego heads. Ever since the lego movie was released, I have officially become Lord Business. I keep my legos organized, I build the sets then leave them together. But children in the other hand don't seem to share that mentality. My daughter for example wants ever set she can get, but could care less to build most of them. She just wants certain random pieces for her own creations. Which I can respect her ability to build her own creations, that's part of the fun. But ever since I've discovered brick links, I'm like "no build the set, and if you want a certain piece from that set, I'll just get you another one." That compromise has helped immensely. But honestly her biggest problem is that she has a giant tube of random lego pieces. It takes freaking forever to find pieces in it, which in turn sucks a lot of the fun out of building. Even in my youth, that was my biggest complaint, searching for pieces in your collection.

I realize many of you have really organized collections, but that's not really possible for a 10 year old, so I'm not looking for that answer. I'm more or less looking for some creative feedback, or just sparking the discussion, what to do with the giant tube of random lego pieces?

If you actually want her to learn stuff and be creative, this IS how to do it!! This is exactly all I wanted as a kid, just give me piles of this stuff and let 'er rip.

I've actually become very disgusted with myself as a adult with my whole attitude of: Don't mix those!!! Keep the sets together!!! Etc.

I think that the kids who have a crap tonne of lego and have it all mixed up are the normal ones. The ones that keep all of the sets individual are the screwed up ones. (We're talking 10 years olds & not adults here). Some of the fun is not finding the part and improvising.

Until I get more Lego than I know what to do with, I guess I don't understand what's behind the concept of sorting pieces by colour. It's not that my pieces aren't sorted, but I have brilliant colour sensitivity. X1 bricks go together, X2 bricks go together in a bin, plates go together. Fences are sorted by type. Tiles, modified tiles, slopes (most colours mixed again), etc, etc, etc.

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I loved it as a kid just to pour all bricks on the floor and play with them. As it was not only good for working with my hands, i sorted and grabbed also bricks with my feet. I've got real flexible toes still haha :-)

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Another way to look at it is time sorting is time not building. :wink:

That's my thing, you spend forever looking for one piece, it can really suck the fun out of a project. I personally love legos New numbered bag system.

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I realize many of you have really organized collections, but that's not really possible for a 10 year old

Sorry, but I disagree with that statement. It is possible for a 10-year old to keep her collection of bricks well organized, just like any AFOL -- and maybe even better. It's just a matter of discipline and method. Kids can really learn that and it's not at all damaging to them. Actually, it's pretty good for them in the long run.

If you teach her to keep different bricks in different storages, she'll learn that in no time. Say, for instance, that 2x2 bricks should go in one box and 2x4 bricks in anoother. She's already MOCing, so she'll get that really fast! But that's something you have to teach her. I got some experience with cognitive sciences, and an imaginative, creative kid to whom you taught some method can realy go a long way, well above otgher kids the same age -- not to mention what she can do as an adult. Try it.

My tip is to go by category: 2x2 bricks, 2x3, 2x4... All in different storage compartments: Boxes or bags or whatever. If you want her to be very thorough, go for different colours after sorting the bricks as for studs and type (2x3, plates and bricks...).

so I'm not looking for that answer. I'm more or less looking for some creative feedback, or just sparking the discussion, what to do with the giant tube of random lego pieces?

I'm on the side that sorting and looking for the exact brick you want is ery important. Identifying and categorizing are two very important skills. It may seem horrible for us AFOLs, but it's good for the kids. It only seems horrible for us because we already got method, which they still lack.

As I see it, you have to paths: Teach your kid method and discipline (separating bricks by type and keeping them organized) or letting her go through the processes of identifying and categorizing while sorting among her bricks. As she is already MOCing, I'd say you can teach her method and discipline without damage. It may even provide her with what she needs to go straight to what she wants do do (MOCing), and mking her aware how discipline can make life easier.

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It depends on quantity. I have most of my collection sorted, but I might need 2 weeks to finish it 100%.

Start by having multiple big tubes. Mostly bricks, plates, specialized, small, minifigures/accessories.

That was what I did when I was young and it was fast enough for a 10k bricks collection or so.

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Is the complaint about 'taking forever to find a piece in the bucket' just your complaint or both yours and your daughters? That will affect my answer.

I'm not sure how big the mixed bucket of Lego at your house is, but would it be feasible to have a mixed bin just for your daughter? If she herself is interested in sorting, then I'd still recommend a 'low level' of sorting, for example a pile for basic bricks, a pile for plates, a pile for all the little pieces and a pile for other interesting bricks. The more categories a kid has to sort through, the less likely they will stay organize, especially when it's time to dismantle their MOC.

For a lot of kids, I think having to go through a methodically stored system to get the piece you want would take away from part of the fun of playing with Lego. The act of having all the pieces in front of you and sifting through them can is part of the fun and stirs the imagination. It of course depends on the kid and their own play style, but I doubt I would have spent as much time playing with Lego as a kid if I had to open a bunch of small drawers and compartments just to find a compatible brick to a project. It would also have been a chore to have to dismantle my creation and sort all the pieces back to their proper place. It's so much easier to just toss the whole MOC back into the bin once your done playing with it.

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It is both of ours complaint. She needs help putting together larger sets, let alone looking for random pieces, she will just give up. The lonely mountain set for example (which is 800 pieces or so from my memory). She didn't open 1 bag at a time, she instead opened all the bags then tried putting it together. Which she wanted to give up half way through it because looking for pieces killed her momentum. My wife had to step in and help her complete it. Which this seems to be her biggest problem consistently, looking for pieces kills her momentum, which I can relate to that because that was a problem I had/have.

But the more organized my wife and I try to make her with her legos, the more she gets an upset look on her face. She wants to do things her way, but at the same time she admits she hates searching for pieces.

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I've acquired a lot of lego over the last three months. I'm fairly organized, but I went nuts looking for 6 X 4 X 1 tinted windscreens last night. I nearly checked all of my lego transactions to ensure that I had actually purchased them, and didn't just think that I had. They were put away, just not where I thought.

If sifting through pieces proves too difficult or there's no motivation to sort, it might be that lego's just not her thing. To enjoy time with my nephew, I often sift through and sort his parts as he builds. He likes that and I'm not stealing his thunder it's good bonding time. It relieves me from the boredom of ensuring that he's doing everything right, because those little mis-steps kill you sometimes.

My mom (grandma) got him the 4645 set and he's had it assembled wrong for 12 months + now. I was just playing with his lego on the weekend and was trying to work the conveyor, and it's dead, I asked him about it and it's always been dead, he was off by one technic hole and it immobilized the whole thing. I was actually going to re-engineer it for him until I got a good look at the instructions.

Seriously . . . I would help her while educating her, just sort by colour if nothing else. Then finish the big set and encourage some "free play" the whole point of this stuff isn't to build by the book and then play at that age. It's build by the book, learn as you go. Then break out the pieces and make something completely unique. Also . . . at that age consider something more universal for building like City. The pieces in some of these other sets are usually extremely specific. If you look at an old school set like 7715, you can build a passenger train out of it. You can build a freight train (it's in the instructions) you can also say: "screw the train" and just build a building out of the thing. The pieces work extremely well for that. I still remember trying to build a fire station with nothing more than a fire sticker and a yellow ladder that was specific to fire stations at the time.

Patience can be a problem, but it's something that she has to learn to overcome by herself, it's part of growing up and eventually becoming an adult.

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See, I had about two gallons of LEGO growing up and I credit it for innovation and creativity. Can't find/ don't have a piece? Try something else! Finding interesting parts can spark ideas. A rummage bin is the best.

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My son liked to open all the bags and dump them in a big pile on the floor too. Then he went looking for pieces or asked me to go looking for the pieces when we build together. He had eagle eyes. I'd be trying to find the piece for him and he would say dad it's under your nose and grab it under my nose. Some kids got it and some adults don't. :laugh:

Maybe suggest she try opening the bags into individual piles for each bag. Number the piles if the bags are numbered too. It is not quite maniac sorting, but cut down the mountain to search in smaller hills.

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@ breakdown,

No she loves legos, but everybody seems to like them for different reasons. She knows just about every piece in her collection, so she knows exactly what piece she wants, so substituting it for something else is not really an option, hence her frustration while looking. As FAR as sets go, she hates following directions, she would rather just build her own things. Which her ability at MOCing is far superior to mine, I'm a pretty much by the book lego guy. Everybody is different.

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That's my thing, you spend forever looking for one piece, it can really suck the fun out of a project. I personally love legos New numbered bag system.

But does it suck the fun out of the experience *for her*

If it doesn't upset her then it's a nonissue.

It is both of ours complaint. She needs help putting together larger sets, let alone looking for random pieces, she will just give up. The lonely mountain set for example (which is 800 pieces or so from my memory). She didn't open 1 bag at a time, she instead opened all the bags then tried putting it together. Which she wanted to give up half way through it because looking for pieces killed her momentum. My wife had to step in and help her complete it. Which this seems to be her biggest problem consistently, looking for pieces kills her momentum, which I can relate to that because that was a problem I had/have.

But the more organized my wife and I try to make her with her legos, the more she gets an upset look on her face. She wants to do things her way, but at the same time she admits she hates searching for pieces.

I see I commented too soon. Is this only a problem when she builds pre-made sets, or does it also make her unhappy when she builds free form?

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when I was a child I had sorted all minifig parts and accessories in a drawer system. guess I wasn't normal at that time :p

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@ cloveapple,

I guess the only time I have really heard her gripe is when putting together premade sets where all the pieces were in her tub. When she is doing her own creations, it doesn't seem to bother her much.

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I have this issue too Captain Pirate Man - although my KFOL is only 6 (7 in June!) so I go easy on the super-organisedness. We have two large tubs of bricks with trays that sit in the top (http://sistemaplastics.com/products/accessories/utility-tray-black) and I ask her to put minifigs, animals, "plant bits" and "interesting bits" in these compartments. It sometimes works! Our lego has no overflowed and fills another cardboard box, but there's nothing I can do about that!

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Have both. When I was young, I had all my pirate sets. I also had a couple containers of random bricks that I just built anything out of. If they have lots of spare pieces they won't really feel the need to demolish well built sets. So buy up lots of bulk lego from people selling them and let them use those for random builds.

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I think that the kids who have a crap tonne of lego and have it all mixed up are the normal ones. The ones that keep all of the sets individual are the screwed up ones. (We're talking 10 years olds & not adults here). Some of the fun is not finding the part and improvising.

Wow.... Thank you for calling me screwed up.

Ever since I was a small kid I kept my bricks sorted and my sets displayed. Even in my Duplo years my bricks, furniture and animals had seperate containers. When I moved on to LEGO I sorted my bricks in a big old toolbox, and when my collection outgrew that I asked my dad to make me a dresser with different sized drawers to sort my bricks. After 21 years I still have and use that dresser. My sets were displayed in their original glory in a 5 m2 city I build in the attic. All my extra bits (from secondhand lots I got from family, basic sets, and even sets I bought as parts packs from my pocket money, as early as age 9) I sorted in the dresser.

But aparently the way I played with my LEGO was wrong... And here I was thinking there was no wrong way to play with LEGO.

Edited by Bennemans

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Wow.... Thank you for calling me screwed up.

Ever since I was a small kid I kept my bricks sorted and my sets displayed. Even in my Duplo years my bricks, furniture and animals had seperate containers. When I moved on to LEGO I sorted my bricks in a big old toolbox, and when my collection outgrew that I asked my dad to make me a dresser with different sized drawers to sort my bricks. After 21 years I still have and use that dresser. My sets were displayed in their original glory in a 5 m2 city I build in the attic. All my extra bits (from secondhand lots I got from family, basic sets, and even sets I bought as parts packs from my pocket money, as early as age 9) I sorted in the dresser.

But aparently the way I played with my LEGO was wrong... And here I was thinking there was no wrong way to play with LEGO.

Impressions are just that . . . . impressions.

My comments are those that I had as a kid and directed towards the original poster who's struggling to understand how his daughter is "playing with her bricks 'n blocks" finding it confounding to common sense. As an adult I play with my pieces and sets as you do, I find it depressing as I do enjoy making custom things, or at least did as a child.

If there was a right and wrong, I'm inclined to believe that following the directions and making the same thing that hundreds of thousands of other people are building is probably the "wrong way" as I believe that the bricks' original purpose was to engineer, create and design.

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I realize many of you have really organized collections, but that's not really possible for a 10 year old

But it doesn't have to be super organized. It could be basics like bricks, plates, tiles, minifigures/minifigure accessories, animals/animal part/animal accessories, technic, and maybe mixed bin.

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