What do you do with your Legos?

[Grimmy]

Serious question I've been wanting to ask... All our sets are still assembled. Started around Sep 2009 spent at least $1k U.S. Our favorite: Winter Toy Shop and Imperial Flagship. Yesterday I bought Brickbeard's Bounty (even though I shouldn't have because I'm saving money for a Suzuki GSXR750) I was afraid of it being gone forever as it's been sold out until recently and Pirates is being disco'd. No not the bad 70's stuff, I mean discontinued. My niece really wanted the "Market Village" as so did I, so I got that too. She likes the girl minifigs and the houses in it. We started building it but are done for today. Our moo cows are getting along great by the way. :) Don't know where we will put all these sets. We also got a Valentine heart for $5. The Imperial Flagship is huge and on the shelf as is the Troll Warship which is around as long as the other ship. We also got some other castle sets.

What do you do with your small sets, and favs? As a kid, I'd build it, play for a few days, break it up, then build my own creations. But the sets they have now...I'm blown away! The minifigs are especially awesome! I feel at times that I can't bare to take apart any of these sets, especially our 2 favs. But we are running out of room and could use the bricks for building. The only building Legos we have are pick-a-brick large cups and a couple tubs. So we don't have many wheel types or head light bricks, plates, and we definitely don't have enough bricks to make a 16x16 house in one color. Our houses look like rainbow Bright lives there. As a kid though, my houses looked like that as well. Never had enough of one color to make something.

I think I'm getting addicted... I was afraid of this after reading the, "How much is your Lego collection worth" thread. I fear I may become one of you lol. I have an interview coming for an apartment too so I gotta make sure I have money for that and a new vehicle.

[edit] P/S Specifically, what did you all do with your Winter Toy Ship since the holidays are over? Did you put it in a big box built? Did you break it up and rebox it? Did you sell it or did you just break it up and mixed it in with your other Legos?

Edited February 7, 2010 by Grimmy

[no_skill]

Most of my sets get built and segregated according to theme. After a while on display and a period of destruction at the hands of my children, I rebuild them, then partially disassemble them and store them in plastic containers or cardboard boxes with sets of the same theme. I’ll do the same with a MOC that I am particularly fond of.

When I have time and feel like it, I’ll pull out the boxes from that theme and arrange some sort of set-up (like a big city scene). Once I am done, I again let my children have at it for a while. Usually before thing are reduced to complete rubble, I’ll once again intervene, re-build, then partially disassemble for storage. We don’t have the space for me to leave a display set up for an extended period. I wish we did, so I could keep refining things.

If I have a set I am not particularly fond of, I will either MOD it into something I like well enough to include with the rest of the stuff in the cycle, or I’ll use it as a brick pack.

My children and I have about equal amounts of LEGO, by the way. It’s mostly in a different theme (like Star Wars), so when my stuff comes out, they always have lots of fun with it.

I wasn't lucky enough to get a Winter Toy Shop (it was gone too fast). If I did, it would be in with my Town rotation like the other sets I'm fond of.

[Perterz]

I don't really buy sets for the sets but for the parts + I place a lot more BL orders for parts than I buy sets.

But some sets are bought for display, as I collect AND build the modular houses.

I have a couple sets I still want to have for the set, eg Taj Mahal, Fallingwater etc

Those sets could be displayed but also could end up like this Winter Toy Shop

I will not mix any of the complete sets I buy with the pile of loose parts I buy!

[Grimmy]

Thanks for the replies and the pictures too! I love seeing pictures as they really put things into perspective. I think I will put my winter Toy shop into a box like you did there and use plastic resealable bags for the loose trees and figs. I hope they bring it back next Christmas so I can build a double decker version. That's a nice shelf area you got there. I have a shelf that I may be able to clean the top off and put some sets on but I notice they get pretty dusty after a while.

My niece has plays with the Imperial Flagship and I just rebuild the areas that break like the front and the weaker areas that often break off. Her little friend came over and they had some crazy adventure where all the cannons and weapons taken and locked in the cell lol. Her friend must have just seen Star Wars because I kept hearing that the Pirates had kidnapped Princess Leia and they had to save her. I don't even have any STar Wars Lego sets or minifigs lol. Although I want some. Took me some time to rebuild everything but it's no worry...although when her friend's little brother comes over...watch out! lol He has broken some of her toys accidentally. He takes everything apart I mean EVERYTHING! I think that would be termed as "reducing to rubble" lol the heads, legs, whatever, everything, is taken apart and stuck in the most odd places. Looks like a Lego bomb exploded in the room. He's too little for some of her toys. He is 4. Little kids are adventurers in a new world always exploring curiously.

Edited February 7, 2010 by Grimmy

[Davey]

For Stacy and I it's a bit of a mix. Usually we will build the set at least once. If we like it once it is built, it might find it's way onto our layout as a semi-permanent fixture. Examples of this are: Cafe Corner, Green Grocer, Train Engine Shed, BNSF Locomotives, etc. In addition, if we like the set, but it doesn't fit on our layout (eg: Death Star, UCS MF, etc.) we try and find somewhere in our house to display it as part of our decor. We are using LEGO in our decor more and more at home and our friends seem to really get a kick out of it when they come over to hang out.

If we're not too keen on the set design, then the set generally gets broken down and pieced out into our collection. Most of the smaller sets fall into this category but we do have some small cars and what-not out on display. We keep the instructions in folders which are in file-boxes and are sorted according to set number. The boxes themselves get stored under our layout table...although we might need to figure out a new solution soon due to the sheer number of sets we have acquired. The other thing I make sure to do is catalog all the sets and pieces we buy so that I have a better idea of what is actually in our collection. This helps significantly when planning larger MOC's or series of MOC's.

Glad to hear you're getting addicted like the rest of us. The more the merrier!!!

-Davey

[Legoist]

The better the set, the harder it is to take it apart. The problem is that nowadays there are really a lot of beautiful sets around, compared to the past

[def]

My room is overflowing with Lego now. It's everywhere. It's not a good situation.

My current favorite sets stay built, mainly on a shelf I put in. It's a mishmash, and the shelf is looking a little unsafe at this point. On my scanner is the Home One set. In the window sill, little Indiana Jones vehicles, and mini Star Wars ships. The new Millennium Falcon is on a pile of books. The Republic Gunship, Drawbridge Defense, and Green Grocer are just sitting on the floor. I bought a wheeled rack to store other stuff. The top has a bunch of town, and other stuff built. But it's overstuffed too.

More toward the thread's real question, with the sets I break down, about one third I separate into containers for me to do something with, and the other two thirds I assume I want to make again at some point, and can't bring myself to break down.

I do build sets I like twice. The Republic Cruiser and Republic Gunship I built three times, so I'm glad when I don't mix sets.

It's gotten silly now, so I need to slow down... I didn't buy any sets in January. But I bought five in December, and need to get Blackbeard ship this paycheck while it's still around, and that arc fighter, and the City Corner....By the time I get all I want, the summer line will be out...

[Lordofdragonss]

1. Build the set

2. Play a little *swooosh* *pew pew* *You will die you human bastard!*

3. Rebuild it

4. Play a little again *Mwahahahah! I was a Little sub once, but now I am a Mighty robot who wants rule the world!*

5. Mix with other Lego

6. Go for pieces

Thats all, I still enjoying playing with Lego as well building with it. But I have some sets and minifigs that I have still in their original set glory- Fenris wolf still stands on my desk collecting dust xD

Edited February 8, 2010 by Lordofdragonss

[gotoAndLego]

When I only had a couple of sets I usually broke them down right away to build MOCs, but now that I have more the ships I really like usually stay together (Tantive and Gunship spring to mind). Other than that I mix the pieces with my others, although they are semi-organized. While still in my dark ages I had built a really long shelf in my bedroom, once I started buying sets I foolishly thought it long enough to hold all my SW ships. :D

[Big Cam]

I buld my sets, display them for a week or two, and then I dissasemble them and store each set in it's own ziploc bag and then store all those in a big rubbermaid bin.

One day I'll get the guts to mix everything and build a crazy MOC.

[drdavewatford]

A few sets I have on permanent display at the back of my desk - Green Grocer, Cafe Corner, Market Street, Fire Brigade, with some railway track running in front of them upon which Emerald Night sits.

A few other big sets I build, display in varous locations in the house for perhaps 6 months, then break up, put back neatly in the boxes, and store away to make space for other sets. At the moment I have the old UCS Tantive IV Rebel Blockade Runner, UCS Millenium Falcon, UCS Yoda and a MOC UCS TIE Fighter on display, although soon Tantive IV will be disassembled to make space for something else, and the others will eventually follow one by one.

I also have a few smaller sets built, generally for a few weeks at a time, before breaking them up to make space for something different. Most recently I've had the Santa Fe Super Chief locomotive and observation car, MINI Republic Gunship and Wookie Attack bukt and on display, although they've all now been broken up to make space for some new sets.

Once I've built the sets I take a ton of photos of them plus their boxes so I have a nice photographic record. Eventually I hope I'll have built and photographed all my sets, although since I seem to be buying sets more quickly than I'm assembling them and then taking them apart, I may never catch up......!

So in answer to your original question, I build a few, display them for a while, photograph them, and then break them up and carefully store the pieces in their original boxes afterwards to make space for other sets.

Dr. D.

[dr_spock]

1. buy set

2. build set

3. play with set

4. mod set if necessary

5. set doesn't fit into the town plan, part it for MOCs

6. put set on shelf

7. dust set from time to time

[MarcusV3]

All the creations in my table town are just displayed based on theme, I have an area for Town, space, and castle. The reason I say "creations" and not sets is because none of the buildings in my town are purely from Lego (with a few exceptions like vehicles and other small things). Either I have modded all of them in some way or their MOCs of mine. Specifically in Town I have a section for modulars and normal buildings (no back but all are "modular" because I have them hooked up like modular buildings). And I still buy lots of sets it's just I usually change and improve them. Also I tend to honor my favorite sets by giving them a bit of my own touch

Favorite Buildings I've modded:

Green Grocer (Changed the 2nd floor into a dentists, and made the third a full on apartment for my sigfig with a couch bed and flatscreen)

Cafe Corner (Made an interior with cofeemaker, blender and fruits, cup shelf, tables and stools, and a counter oh and I changed the cup in the front to chrome mmmm!)

City Corner (made the whole building bigger, changed into my normal town's modular standard, added LOTS more tables and chairs for the second floor, added a bed and dresser on the third)

Agents mobile command center (Changed into a building instead of a truck, made into modular standard of my own town)

Castle (Changed into a kind of great wall of china style (much smaller obviously ) and added little bits of interior inside)

And for your specific question, my favorite mod of all! I changed the winter shop into modular building standard (much bigger!) which allowed me to add lots more toys on the inside and for the second floor I made it into a candy store! (You can imagine my disappointment that the Grand emporium's 3rd floor is a candy store as well! But I suppose that's another thing to mod about that building ) The outside kinda looks like a gingerbread house on the 2nd floor but that fits in with the "candy" theme! I swapped the white for gray on the roof (Which I loved about the original set so I saved it) so it isn't limited to winter either! It's one floor shorter than all my other modulars but I think the shortness and V shaped roof give a little bit of variety to the street (which also happens to include Fang my vampire club, A Bakery, a zoo, and of course my family's manor ) It looks BEAUTIFUL next to green grocer and the others!!!

Edit: Oh and bye the way I have a whole basement to devote to my lego town so it's gotten pretty big!

Edited February 8, 2010 by MarcusV3

[MrTools]

i have some i like to display, others i build and take apart later. Right now i have the power miner collection on display with a few star wars sets (that i don't plan to scrap)

1. buy set

2. build set

3. play with set

4. mod set if necessary

5. set doesn't fit into the town plan, part it for MOCs

6. put set on shelf

7. dust set from time to time

That is about right.

Edited February 8, 2010 by MrTools

[Grimmy]

I love the pictures. In the future I would like to get all the buildings and put them on a shelf like that. It sounds like many people are doing:

1. Build Set

....a. Keep on display for a little while or leave built, play with. Then store away together so nothing gets mixed with other sets.

....b. Take apart and mix into the Lego tub.

Seems a little bit like a waste though to leave a Lego set packed aside. Then again since the value goes up so high after the set is discontinued I guess it's a good investment.

You all helped me decide, I packed the Winter Toy Shop away (with the advent calender) in a good box.

The Dwarves Mine, I think I'm going to mix the pieces into the Lego tubs. I really like it but can use the pieces and have no room. I love the figures! Dwarfs and Trolls are awesome!

Agents sets I'm going to mix into the Lego tub. The figures are great and the vehicles are nice but not my favorite themes.

The Troll Warship, undecided what to do. Might take apart and make my own ship.

Now...The Imperial Flagship! I LOVE SEEING IT DISPLAYED! Heck I love holding it lol the top of the sails hit the ceiling when I hold it to my eye level. That thing is awesome! I wish we had it on Christmas. People were surprisingly interested in the Winter Toy Shop, Advent Calender, and wowed at the Troll Warship but they would be AMAZED at the Imperial Flagship! I think people remember Legos as being smaller sets. The only time as a child that I saw something big and amazing was once in a long while when some new Toy Store opening had some big custom Lego creations to draw people in. Having something like the Imperial Flagship makes me feel like I have something special. Similar to I bet what it would be like to own a big building like the corner cafe which I will get. How many people as a child built a building like that? I've always wanted to open my own cafe so I think I might get that one first. I will open a Lego one.

Some Photos

^My art table has been taken over by Legos instead of clay lol.

^My niece's room. Room is very clean EXCEPT for this one section. She stays over on the weekends so we won't be finishing the MM until next weekend.

^ ...and along the floor you can spot Lego cars like in this pic.

[Peppermint_M]

Buy set, build set, if set isn't that good but could be improved: mod, if not very good nor improveable through mod: take apart for MOC, may MOC an improved version if set had a cool concept. If the set is hands down awesome, it stays in one piece. Sets stay together as long as I feel like it, sometimes years, sometimes not even hours. Lifespan depends on my not needing parts included in the set. I am the same with my MOCs, some stay together as long as it takes to photograph, others stay until I need a part and my favourite stay until broken by accident.

[Johan J]

As a kid any given set except for the Technics, once built and played with was taken apart and poured into the LEGO-bag for whatever MOC I would make up 'til I was 15.

When my dark ages ended I kept the SW-sets in the cupboard, the AT-ST and AT-AT is still there.

Town and train is built, displayed a couple of weeks, then put into the boxes S@H ship. (I've run out of them though now). Only once have I put everything up, most can be seen here:

.

I'm right now trying to get everything stashed again.

My plan is to bring my town up twice or trice a year. I'm playing with Bricklink.

More sets will be displayed from now on.

[prateek]

It depends on the size of the set. If it's a small set, I'd keep for about a week and then disassemble it. If it's bigger, then I'll keep it built until I want the parts from the set.

[Rock]

When I was a child, I would build the set and then later rip it apart for pieces and make my own creation. Now I just build the set once, put it on a shelf and never touch it again. Thats why all of my Lego is in mint condition.

I haven't really done anything creative with my lego but down the road I will most likely go on pick-a-brick or bricklink to make a diorama or two.

Edited February 20, 2010 by Rock

[lightningtiger]

That's a tough question with more than one answer, if it's Star Wars I build to keep, usually as is only MODing sometimes to improve it's look or function. Now City goes two ways, some things get built and left for my son to play with (of course I must repair/replace pieces etc.,.) and somethings get MODed or totally new MOCs get done for my country town. Old themes like IJ and Speed Racer just get ripped apart for MOCs in said country town WIP.

I'm a conformist! !

[RileyC]

For my Star Wars sets I display them on shelves in my room. I have got a few Indy sets which seem to be in different parts and not just one big thing like a ship that Star Wars has a lot of. The Indy sets are on a base plate so the parts dont go missing. The city sets I have are just on the bench because there isnt enough space to put them anywhere just yet.

[Legononymous]

All of my sets are complete. I've only taken them apart for a few MOCs. I'm thinking I need to buy a bigger home with an extra room or basement. lol

I haven't gotten to the point yet where I can just take them apart and have them in bags. Nor can I mix the used LEGO ( ones I've bought from other people ) in with the new sets that I have. Don't know that I'll ever pull that one off.

One thing I do however is keep my minifigs in little baggies. None spend time in their actual vehicles or planes. Not sure why I do this either.

[Rufus]

I like to display my models, space and missus permitting. Because of lack of space, I tend to display one theme at a time. At the moment it's Star Wars Original Trilogy with a ROTJ slant (because of the recent Home One and Endor sets). Next will be prequel trilogy, when I get round to it. I always have one or two UCS sets around too.

The sets that aren't on display I break up, put the pieces in freezer bags and store in the original boxes. This isn't an ideal solution as the boxes aren't very space efficient, plus I worry about the instructions so I've started keeping them separately in box files. If it were possible to flat-pack all the boxes without destroying them, I'd do that.

[Izzy]

I start by building the sets, after a short amount of time my 2 year old slowly (or very quickly) starts to dismantle the set and it ends up in one of a few massive plastic tubs filled with loose pieces.

I very recently went through these tubs and sorted everything out into separate drawers and baggies etc. Today I am going through all said drawers and bags to find the pieces to the Shrieking Shack so I can rebuild it. It is taking forever!!! Which is really making me rethink how I have sorted everything. So yeah....

Buy, Build, Limited play time and display-ability, then back to the drawing board so to speak for my sets.