Need some advice on 90s space collection shaping / pruning (TimeCruise

[NateStraight]

(EDIT: Errr... that title should read .. "Timecruisers out?)" )

Brand new user; apologies if this forum isn't right.

I just pulled all my old space sets out of the closet to start playing a bit with my son (ok, also by myself). I'm looking through what I have, what I missed, and what I'm interested in doing with them, and wondering if anyone more familiar with the current secondary market (and any trading forums?) could give me just a little bit of advice.

I have pretty much every set from the first Space Police run on into the UFO series (about 1989 to 1997 or so, I guess), with the major exceptions being the Unitron sets and the first large SP ship. I have a few Futuron sets, plus quite a few of the Aquanauts and Aquasharks (think I might have a few of the Aquazone Aquaraiders somewhere, too). Then I've got everything but the Time Train from the Time Cruisers series.

I'd like to look into picking up some of the 90s space stuff (or the Futuron sets) I missed, and/or some of the missing Aquazone sets. I'm also interesting in building up a small collection of some of the more modern sets (some Creator houses, some of the Lone Ranger sets--used to love the Western theme but those sets belong to my brother, some various City stuff) for my son. Looking at the Time Cruiser stuff, I'm not entirely sold on its value within this plan as scoped; the sets don't seem particularly useful for parts along this vein given the cobbled-together theme. I'm not averse to the BURPs, and a few scattered parts look fun / useful, but seems they'd be pretty cheap on a per-part basis.

I see they're not very valuable on the secondary market, though, but it still might be nice to generate some cash to turn into something I'd rather have / wish I had got as a kid. Would I be missing out on anything especially interesting (rare / useful bricks, etc?) that I'm overlooking (I am familiar with the bulk of what's "rare" / "useful" in LEGO, so this is just a "what's happened in the last decade?" question) by sending the Time Cruiser stuff on to someone who'd enjoy it? I tried looking through the brick inventories on Brickset to see if any of the Time Cruiser pieces besides the minifigs were restricted to just a few sets, but seems their inventories for these sets don't have the same functionality as for most other sets.

Is the trade forum here a decent possibility for turning the whole theme lot into something else? Seems I'd do better that way than to sell piecemeal on eBay and eat fees everywhere (I wouldn't expect the whole lot to sell as well as the sets individually on eBay, yes?). Would it even be worth my while, value-wise, to try to get rid of these, or should I just do whatever I can with the bricks and chalk them up to weird taste as a teenager?

The other question is what is my best bet for relatively cheaply (also getting the most useful "stuff" for custom builds) fleshing out this collection if I don't want to pursue everything at once: The Futuron stuff (missing the larger vehicles / bases); the big Space Police ship (also missing 1-2 smaller SP1 sets); the Aquazone stuff (the large Neptune base, the later stuff in the series); the Unitron sets (sans the Monorail for now, presumably... whomp whomp); the Insectoids (the last "golden age" space theme I don't have, which would be cool to have); something else?

Thanks.

Edited September 2, 2014 by NateStraight

[Big Sal]

Space from Futuron to Insectoids, Aquazone, Time Cruisers, Western and Creator houses - your collecting goals are basically identical to what mine were a couple of years ago

I don't have many answers for you, especially when it comes to selling. I remember Insectoids being very cheap to collect (with the exception of the rare promo sets, but they're easily ignored) a few years back, which I assumed was down to it not being particularly well-regarded. Whether it's still cheap or not I don't know, but may be worth a look if you like the sets yourself. Of course, some of the parts are quite 'specialised' so may require some creativity to work into MOCs.

In terms of sheer quality, I'd personally prioritise completing your Aquanauts and Aquasharks, which are among the best sets ever in my opinion, particularly the Neptune base. The later Aquazone stuff isn't as good, and can be hard to find, at least here in the UK.

This probably hasn't been much use in answering your questions, but I couldn't resist chiming in since our tastes seem so similar