Jvvv Posted January 7, 2009 Posted January 7, 2009 Hi, I'm starting my never-ending brick project, and I thought it might interest someone here to give opinions and advice during the project. I have a nice collection of LEGO bricks, and my dream and goal is to make a nice, huge city out of them. The collection weights at the moment about 230 kg (507 lb), so there are few bricks to put together... Few months ago I moved to a bigger apartment, so I have now a whole room for my hobby. I thought that maybe it would be nice to report the evolution of my project here. I've been slowly inventoring my collection over a year, about 200 sets assembled now. It seems my brick containers haven't get even a little bit emptier at all... The sets I've already inventoried are waiting for re-checking (new sets just overall check, older sets must be checked again thoroughly), then I can assemble more sets. Hours and hours I've spent just advancing and developing my sorting and organizing ("oh, these antennas don't fit well here, I must divide them into three smaller boxes by colors"), but maybe it's good for the future(?). Also new purchases have been slowing down the inventoring - sorting few 400g bags of bricks can be very time consuming. I also have a check list for missing parts (I have got some incomplete sets during my bigger purchases during the last year), which takes also time to check every time a brick bag containing miscelanneous bricks arrives to my home. And nowadays I also weight my new bricks... This photo shows how the tables are made. On the wall there are two little shelves. In the photo there are assembled sets bagged, now there are some brick boxes there. On the left there is a door to a little storage room, where are all my boxes and incomplete, inventoried sets. This is the view from the storage room door. One table has been added in the middle of the room after the picture was taken. And here's the another long wall of the room. On the two upper shelves there are about 50 boxes with special parts sorted. In the drawers are some smaller parts, in the middle shelves there are 2xX plates organized, and on the floor are the basic 2xX bricks. I'll post some new photos soon, maybe also links to my inventories so far. Feel free to comment and ask if anything comes in mind. Greetings, Ville, Finland Quote
Shadows Posted January 7, 2009 Posted January 7, 2009 Wow, this looks to be a long and complicated project! You seem to have the organizational part of things well under hand, perhaps that's something you can share along the way, giving everyone tips that might help their own collections/towns/displays. Beyond that, please keep us updated as you go, it should be fascinating to follow your progress. Is this going to be completely City/Town based, or do you plan to incorporate other themes as well? Quote
Jvvv Posted January 7, 2009 Author Posted January 7, 2009 Yep, sorting has been my middle name through last years... I'll take more detailed photos about my sorting system and other stuff asap. I think the city will be quite City/Town-oriented, but since I have a lot of Space/Licensed/Pirate/Castle/Other sets too, maybe I might make some weird additions, too. Quote
rriggs Posted January 7, 2009 Posted January 7, 2009 You seem to have the organizational part of things well under hand, perhaps that's something you can share along the way, giving everyone tips that might help their own collections/towns/displays. Yes please! Whenever I try and sort things out I always think that there must be a better way... and I'm sure I'm not the only one! All tips and advise is always welcome! Cheers Rog Quote
Sandy Posted January 7, 2009 Posted January 7, 2009 Your room needs curtains. Otherwise, that collection is to die for! It's great that you have so tabletop space - I usually build my MOCs on the floor of our study/guest room, where I keep my bricks. Quote
Pate-keetongu Posted January 7, 2009 Posted January 7, 2009 Sounds Intersting! Are you going to post this to the Palikkatakomo forum? Quote
Jvvv Posted January 7, 2009 Author Posted January 7, 2009 (edited) Curtains? What are those?! :D I'll think about the curtains, though I'm thinking of covering walls (near the window, too) with my set boxes. We'll see. Today I got over 20 clear plastic boxes more from job, so sorting may continue at home! (But first to local flea market to check any good brick offers) Edited January 7, 2009 by Jvvv Quote
Dadster Posted January 7, 2009 Posted January 7, 2009 I'd kill for a room like that... I have some bits on my computer desk, but large and lengthy building consists of me breaking away from the wife and kids and heading to the attic (in winter...) Quote
Jvvv Posted January 8, 2009 Author Posted January 8, 2009 (edited) Sounds Intersting!Are you going to post this to the Palikkatakomo forum? Hi, sorry, didn't see your message earlier. I was posting my own message at the same time yesterday. I've been thinking, and maybe it could be a good idea to write same version in Finnish, too. And to Palikkatakomo, of course. Yesterday I had the whole night for my collection. Like so many times before, I made some good finds on the way home, so the whole evening I used to assembling new sets and sorting second hand bricks. These were my shoppings yesterday. First, I assembled those new sets, listed those to my collection, listed their boxes into my Box Inventory List :D and placed the sets on my collection tables. Then I checked those second hand sets: 3 Creator Pods and HP Hippogriff set. 3 of them were complete, but one Pod remained incomplete and I had to put it to the quarantaine shelf waiting for missing bricks. Then, one bag at a time I sorted the bricks in those brick bags into small boxes, by brick type. In the photo you can see Fences, Special Colors, Slopes, Inverted Slopes, 6wide Plates, 2wide Plates, 1wide Plates, 1wide Bricks, and several boxes containing bricks to go into same container tray. Here are few other pictures: Huge bag dump in the middle is already assempled and once inventoried sets, waiting for re-check. On the right there's a pile of boxes from new sets that I bought during December. Here's that new table that wasn't in the first post pictures. It was my kitchen table, but when I bought a "new" one, this one had to go. Fortunately it was just the same height than the other tables in my hobby room, so I didn't need those wooden supports under that middle part of my table collection. Smaller storage wall Ground level: Baseplates 2nd level: Tan, orange and OldDarkGray bricks and tiles with patterns, which are sorted by type into cardboard trays 3rd level: Minifigs (under construction), at the moment just legs sorted by colour 4th level: Special colors 5th level: Technic and some special parts, like hinges, small turntables etc. Upper tray container on the right: some parts sorted by type and color (headlight bricks, 1x2x1 panels etc) Lower tray container on the right: empty, will be filled with minifig stuff Bigger storage wall All the small bricks sorted (small plates, (grill) tiles, accessories, headgear, Light&Sound parts, weapons, small animals, chairs etc). Lower there are 2*X plates, and on the floor there are those blue Ikea boxes with 2*X bricks. Some other photos featuring some of my boxes and the incomplete sets shelf: Edited January 8, 2009 by Jvvv Quote
Eilif Posted January 8, 2009 Posted January 8, 2009 (edited) Wow, I thought my collection required alot of sorting... http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=22165 ...but your sorting project fills me with awe, and on top of that, you are rebuilding and inventorying sets! Kudos to you. I'll be watching this one with interest. Edited January 8, 2009 by Eilif Quote
WhiteFang Posted January 8, 2009 Posted January 8, 2009 Wow, I thought my collection required alot of sorting... http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=22165 ...but your sorting project fills me with awe, and on top of that, you are rebuilding and inventorying sets! Kudos to you. I'll be watching this one with interest. Nice project. There is huge sorting which need to be done. I will love to start mine too. This is indeed challenging. I was about to find Eilif's topic on this. It seemed, he has placed it here. Quote
Jvvv Posted January 8, 2009 Author Posted January 8, 2009 Eilif, I read that thread of your's when it was active with great interest, and that was one of the reasons why I decided to make this thread for my own project. Sorting IS great fun. There's nothing like a 10 kg of unsorted lego bricks bought somewhere, crashing them on a table and beginning to find any complete sets there.Can't wait the next time (and money for that). Quote
CP5670 Posted January 9, 2009 Posted January 9, 2009 Your setup looks great. I like how you have some of the old Brick Kicks/Mania Magazine posters on the wall. Quote
Bounty Hunter Posted January 9, 2009 Posted January 9, 2009 Wow! you must have a huge budget. Well I cannot wait till this is finished? Have you bought any baseplates? or you going with plates? Quote
WhiteHexagon Posted January 9, 2009 Posted January 9, 2009 You're a real organiser I can see So when does the sorting stop, and the building begin? Do you have a rough idea of what you are going to build? It sounds like you are trying to use original sets only? or is there another reason for all the sorting? Quote
Eilif Posted January 9, 2009 Posted January 9, 2009 Eilif, I read that thread of your's when it was active with great interest, and that was one of the reasons why I decided to make this thread for my own project.Sorting IS great fun. There's nothing like a 10 kg of unsorted lego bricks bought somewhere, crashing them on a table and beginning to find any complete sets there.Can't wait the next time (and money for that). Thanks, glad to help inspire you. Be sure to keep updating this topic. I found that feedback from EB was one of the best things for keeping me motivated and on task I don't sort for sets, but I completely agree about digging through unsorted bricks. Whenever I get some from the resale shop I go through and take out the minifigs and all the "special" stuff that goes in my drawer organizers. It's like christmas meets a treasure hunt where you're never sure what you're going to get. Sorting the rest of the bricks is not quite as fun for me, but it is great to be sorting your regular bricks and realize that you suddenly have enough of a brick type for it to actually be usefull in MOCs. Quote
Jvvv Posted February 23, 2009 Author Posted February 23, 2009 Nothing remarkable to announce, but a little bit updating. I have re-inventoried few sets and purchased too many new ones. (Over 240 kg now) Last weekend I sorted the building instructions of the inventoried sets into plastic pockets and organized them in folders - one dust-collecting-box less now. Here's my collection on LUGNET so far: http://guide.lugnet.com/set/mlist.cgi?m=3260 And my re-inventoried collection at Brickset (not including all sets, like LUGNET list does, but pictures are always nice): http://www.brickset.com/search/?OwnedBy=Jvvv Quote
Devious Posted February 24, 2009 Posted February 24, 2009 I am in awe of your collection. Can I just ask, where do you get your storage shelves? Quote
Jvvv Posted February 25, 2009 Author Posted February 25, 2009 Those two shelves fastened to the wall are just random shelf plates on top of random shelf holders. So far they have stayed on the wall, though there's a massive tunnel construction under our apartment block (several huge explosion clusters daily). Luckily the worst part of the construction is over, so maybe there won't come a day when I must collect thousand of bricks and fallen shelves from my floor... The shelf standing on floor is a upper part of living room book shelf, the lower part is holding my vinyl records together in another room. I'm planning of buying one whole-room-length shelf for my set boxes, could save some room in the storage room... Quote
Dadster Posted February 25, 2009 Posted February 25, 2009 Tunneling under the apartment building?! Cool! Quote
pr0visorak Posted February 25, 2009 Posted February 25, 2009 I wish you good luck on your project! That is a really big room you have! Quote
Devious Posted February 26, 2009 Posted February 26, 2009 Those two shelves fastened to the wall are just random shelf plates on top of random shelf holders. So far they have stayed on the wall, though there's a massive tunnel construction under our apartment block (several huge explosion clusters daily). Luckily the worst part of the construction is over, so maybe there won't come a day when I must collect thousand of bricks and fallen shelves from my floor...The shelf standing on floor is a upper part of living room book shelf, the lower part is holding my vinyl records together in another room. I'm planning of buying one whole-room-length shelf for my set boxes, could save some room in the storage room... OK thanks, and again, amazing collection, good luck Quote
Jvvv Posted February 26, 2009 Author Posted February 26, 2009 OFFTOPIC: About the tunnel construction. This is how it will be: I live in that leftmost lower apartment block just at the edge of the cliff. At the moment the road goes to the left from the houses, not in a tunnel. They are taking the open land for apartment buildings and park areas. In yesterday evening's explosion only the windows jingled, no stuff was falling anywhere . So they have digged enough under my LEGO room, finally. Or so it seemed. Quote
drdavewatford Posted February 26, 2009 Posted February 26, 2009 Personal question, Jvvv - do you have a wife ? If you do, she must be REALLY tolerant ! Awesome collection, and it's interesting to read the comments on this thread. Non-AFOLs don't seem to understand that sorting Lego can be enjoyable, but it can be one of the best aspects of collecting. Keep going ! Dr. D. Quote
Jvvv Posted April 14, 2009 Author Posted April 14, 2009 A little update message. Re-inventoring has ended and now I'm doing the main work, assembling "new" sets. 266 sets so far inventoried. drdavewatford: Sorry about the delay. I have a girlfriend, and she has been very tolerant and kind about my hobby, though she doesn't yes fully understand it's hugeness. I try to take photos about my sorting this week to clarify my sorting system. Quote
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