I lost all my lego collection !!

[brann]

Hello,

I spent a few years abroad, and left all my legos with my family for safekeeping ... Now I'm back, and through a combination of dire circumstances that don't really matter here, my whole Lego collection has vanished ; not a single block remains :(

I'm mainly a Castle MOC aficionado, and I'm looking for advice as to how I can kickstart a new collection from scratch without being a millionnaire. I'm planning on spending around 1000€ to start with ...

Which sets (used or new) are good value for money in the Castle universe ? Should I buy bricks in bulk ? For example I probably had about a hundred of BURPs, I guess it makes sense to buy those in bulk 

Thanks a lot for your help !

Brann

[Littleworlds]

Hello Brann. I'm very sorry to hear your collection vanished. A lot of Lego fans spent a significant amount of time, money and dedication on their collection and I think its fair to say that everyone who reads this feels with you.

Personally I would go for a mixed approach. For specialized parts (shields, weapons and armour, for example and properly themed minfigs) I would look at bricklink, for more common ones, definitely keeping my eyes out of bulk Lego. There is still the option to sell on the ones you don't need and to minimize the financial impact that way. And maybe you are lucky and you get your hands on a castle-themed bulk... who knows. 

From the newer ones, the harry potter sets are definitely worth a look. Sets like The Great Hall offer a nice solid build, that doesn't really needs to be modified to fit into the castle-theme, and also have a decent value for the money.

Good luck on restoring your collection!

[Aine]

That's sad...

I believe that most importantly you should think hard and long what now. I was in a similar position - not really lost the lego, but rather emerging from dark ages - and it's pretty easy to go astray with purchases. If you'd be able to make some kind of plans, some project ideas, this might guide and save you a lot of wasted time, money, and energy.
For example, I'd buy bricks in bulk, because you need them, you need a lot of them, and there's not much sense in buysing them piecemeal, moreover if they are 2nd hand and thus may be damaged. Same goes for horses (and similar low-tier specialized stuff) that you may easily hoard form BL. Weaponry and helms can be quite easily obtained, even the older stuff.

Minifigs and specialized items like shields and whatnot are the worst. Horse bardings, vintage shields in above-average condition, printed torsos, all the stuff that makes the distinct factions, is kinda harder to get, namely in solid condition. In your position I'd try to think out what exactly you need, and what timeline to follow. E.g. you can make a really decent 1980's Faction Wars with mere 40 figures, ten of each of the Crusader, BFs, F-men, and BKs. If you mix a few civilians here and there and a token female for each faction, you can have lively world with skirmishes, rural lfe, court intrigues, and whatever else. Sure, it will be a limited world, but you may always expand it. Unless you happen to lay your hands on some sort of must-buy (like someone selling a whole collection), I'd definitely wouldn't buy heaps of figs and stuff, mainly because they a) tend to suck qualitywise and b) are expensive. Yes, it's much more economical to buy six figs from one person and pay one postage, but you may acquire lots of figs as a "by-product", it just takes a patience, determination, and luck. Simply finishing every BL purchase by searchng through the respective seller's minifigs might yield good results. It's not reasonable to buy 1€ minifig and pay 4€ for postage fees, but if you already payed 30 bucks for bricks and the postage is cheap or even for free, why not throw a few figs, shields, heads, bardings, whatever else into the mix...?

I wish you good luck! These stories are always saddening, even though we don't know each other. I would urge you to not make any hasty move. It's bad enough that you've lost everything, but it'll be even worse if the newly purchased stuff would either drain you financially or make you frustrated in years to come. After all, it's not meant for a few weeks of fun, but you're gonna build a collection that might give you pleasure for a lifetime. Rather make it a nice one from the very start!

Cheers!

Edited September 1, 2019 by Aine

[JopieK]

Welcome @brann and sorry to hear about that. Honestly I would not know where to start, but your suggestion to get things in bulk would probably a good one. Maybe also try to find discounted sets with parts that are suitable for castles as well... But the problem are minifigs etc of course. I suggest you also enter LUGBulk (e.g. through FreeLUG they probably do that too) that hopefully is run again around the end of the year for 2020. It helped me to get nice parts in bulk e.g. for building trees etc.