PaddyBricksplitter Posted March 8, 2015 Hi all I've been looking through my collection and lamenting the lack of coloured pieces. I'm sure most new guys get to this point. My collection is around 8 months old or so and I seem to have more whites greys and blacks and very few colours like tan, dark red and the primary colours. For example I have more grey and black brackets than I'll ever need. My queries are as follows. What is the best way to build up more interesting colours? Should I concentrate on one colour and seek out as many sets as I can in that colour? What advice would experienced collectors give regarding how they built up their colour resources? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Peppermint_M Posted March 8, 2015 Depending on the parts you want then PaB or Classic can help. If you want other shapes then examine the themes and keep an eye out for sets going on clearance. I have a lot of colours after grabbing Ninjago on clearance. Mixels are awesome for certain shapes and colours too! If possible, keep a lookout at discount stores, some of them have odd sets at a decent price. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
PaddyBricksplitter Posted March 8, 2015 Is PaB at the Lego shop at home site? What is classic? Depending on the parts you want then PaB or Classic can help. If you want other shapes then examine the themes and keep an eye out for sets going on clearance. I have a lot of colours after grabbing Ninjago on clearance. Mixels are awesome for certain shapes and colours too! If possible, keep a lookout at discount stores, some of them have odd sets at a decent price. I've not bought any Ninjago. I usually look at City, The Lego Movie and Star Wars sets. I guess I should branch out, it's just I'm not into the Ninjago mini figs and Chima too. They seem not very re-usable to me. Is PaB that section on the Lego site? What is classic? Mixels now that's a good idea, thanks. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Iria Posted March 8, 2015 (edited) Is PaB at the Lego shop at home site? What is classic? I've not bought any Ninjago. I usually look at City, The Lego Movie and Star Wars sets. I guess I should branch out, it's just I'm not into the Ninjago mini figs and Chima too. They seem not very re-usable to me. Is PaB that section on the Lego site? What is classic? Mixels now that's a good idea, thanks. There is PaB at Lego online shop as well as PaB at Lego stores. If you have a Lego store neaby I'd recommend checking it out (you pay for a small or large cup and fit as many bricks of your choosing from the PaB wall. This method is much cheaper than PaB online, but there is much less variety. Peppermint's suggestion about buying Classics is good too. Classic is a theme of Lego that has sells a variety of boxes with mixed parts. The price per brick is a bit cheaper than PaB online and most sets. Here is an example of the Lego Large Creative Brick Box from the Classics theme. It has a large variety colours. I bought some of these creative brick boxes last year when I started getting back into Lego, they are useful, though this years boxes look more useful (last year there were mainly basic bricks in the boxes, so this year looks better IMO). You should check out the other boxes in the Classics theme as well. Edited March 8, 2015 by Iria Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
PaddyBricksplitter Posted March 8, 2015 There are no Lego stores in Ireland unfortunately :( Those classic boxes seem like a good investment. Lots of colour variety! I think that the large creative box will be my next buy. Thanks a lot Iria. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
mpfirnhaber Posted March 9, 2015 Grab a few Creator sets, they usually offer a good variety of basic pieces in lots of colors, and they typically have a very good price-per-piece ratio. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Peppermint_M Posted March 9, 2015 Like I said, it all depends on what colours you want. Ninjago had plenty of lime and white parts in the sets I bought for that purpose, Chima had tans and browns I wanted. On clearance they made sense at the price to build up my colour banks. I am not a Harry Potter fan but I bought the Knight Bus for all the lovely purple. You can always sell on minifigs to finance new sets or to offset the cost of what you've bought. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
PaddyBricksplitter Posted March 9, 2015 Like I said, it all depends on what colours you want. Ninjago had plenty of lime and white parts in the sets I bought for that purpose, Chima had tans and browns I wanted. On clearance they made sense at the price to build up my colour banks. I am not a Harry Potter fan but I bought the Knight Bus for all the lovely purple. You can always sell on minifigs to finance new sets or to offset the cost of what you've bought. Yeah this makes sense. I'll keep an eye out for clearance sets beyond my usual tastes. I suppose I could eBay the unwanted mini figs. They do seem to include a lot of them in the Ninjago and Chima lines. I'll check out the set contents, maybe watch some build reviews to see what has the best pieces so I know what to look out for. Grab a few Creator sets, they usually offer a good variety of basic pieces in lots of colors, and they typically have a very good price-per-piece ratio. I just got 3 creator sets in the last few weeks and they do contain interesting parts and more importantly for me plenty of colour :) Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Navy Trooper Fenson Posted March 9, 2015 I run into the same problem as you, many greys and blacks, much white and relatively good amount of tan and brown but only a small shoebox at most of everything else. Not really a problem because as you I mainly buy Star Wars so greys and blacks make sense for the bases and ships but it´s harder to do a Lego model of some other theme on the spot without having to check on Bricklink if I even have the specific pieces I have in mind in the necessary color. Classic and Basic brick boxes aren´t necessarily the best because they use mostly basic bricks which are more for bulking up, stability and simple walls and less for finer details, like say making a grey starship with red stripes. I would recommend normal Creator sets since they are good in having color variety and a large number of different moulds but they are only ever really worth it on clearance and still come with a number of the stuff one normally gets through Star Wars (technic axles/screws and black bit parts for stability). Another strategy could be looking for licensed sets on Ebay. At least in my country sellers love buying complete sets and then put up the figs and models in individual auctions or offers. Prices of the models are then comparable to the value of Classic/Basic boxes, far below 10 cents a piece. Mos Eisley Cantina for ≈20 Euro, AT-TE from 2008 going back when it was new for 36€ and the 2010 Clone Turbo Tank for 40-50€. And Star Wars stuff is mostly on the higher side of this, unlicensed themes like Ninjago go even lower. This strategy is basically the reverse of buying licensed sets and selling the figs. I don´t know which way around would be cheaper for you, I think it is really depending on the set and which arbitrary worth people give to the figures. I would recommend buying the model only from other people and only selling figures of new sets when it´s something where the figures go for 10-20 or more, Jurassic Park could be a good for this due to the dinosaurs. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Orange Leader Posted March 12, 2015 I'm wondering about the best strategy for building up your colours as well. I think It's a good idea to buy certain sets without minifigs, however I haven't had much luck about this buying strategy yet. What I do at the moment is this: I built in two themes: Space (scifi) and Castle (fantasy). Depending on the colours I have already, I start to browse bricklink on colours and look If certain colours have useful elements that I consider to be useful for personal MOCcing. I invest most of the time building up my colours by purchasing individual elements through bricklink. This might sound expensive (and perhaps It is!), but at least I have some freedom in choosing elements instead of having too much parts I won't use when I buy a set for only building up colours. For me, I will never invest colours when this comes to mind: 1. There are not much elements available in the colour; 2. The colours are out of production or rather to very expensive to obtain. The old greys come in mind as well some certain sand coloured parts; sand red is an very notoriously element. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
PaddyBricksplitter Posted March 12, 2015 @Navy Trooper Fenson yeah I've been looking at EBay a lot. I've got the Cantina without the mini figs from there. It's always the licenced sets that seem to appear. Not Chima or Ninjago mores the pity. But I'm keeping an eye out for them. @Orange Leader I've taken to Brick Owl lately and just ordered what I hope will be useful elements in a variety of colours but that can be pricey. I guess Lego is an expensive hobby.. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Sid Sidious Posted March 13, 2015 When looking to buy a set for colors, check a parts lists before purchase. I've noticed on some sets (especially Technic) an overall bright color is obtained using a small handful of bright pieces and a large fistful of grays and black and white. I don't know what the LUG scene is like in Ireland. If you can join a LUG that does LUGBULK, you can get tons of colored pieces for very low cost that way. Some pieces will be cheaper on LEGO's PAB website or replacement parts site than on Bricklink. Make sure to check all three. Education/Dacta offers huge bulk sets with a lot of bright colors. They are often pretty expensive to subsidize the educational material cost, but they sometimes go on sale. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Orange Leader Posted March 13, 2015 Oh yes, the parts list; I do check those always for almost every set that becomes available! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
