WesternOutlaw

Adult Collecting vs. Play

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Well as a young adult, i can say still play with lego, not the way i used to on my childhood, in the matters you could relate things, events and characters with really no connection at all and a complete lack of logic, so i think as growing i cant do that anymore, focusing instead in developing scenarios, stories, and reasonable plots for the things that attracts me.

Or even give another use for the minifigs outside the MOCs, like on boardgames, a somekind of warhammer and stuff like that.

:classic:

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Even though it ruins my "erg" fun, I've merged this topic. :wink:

You mean you got the 'erg' to ruin your own 'erg' fun? :wink:

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I wouldn't really say I collect. I don't actually buy much Lego anymore. So I'd say I play with it. I know it's childish, but I still like to crash the cars, and whoosh the spaceships :blush: . It's quite embarrassing, but I love it!

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:tongue: I was growing tired of the helpful suggestion PMs.

Haha apparently someone thinks they can do your job better than you? :laugh:

Well at least you choose a good thread to merge it into.

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Oh, hell yes. I bust out my LEGO all the time, and have a massive story going containing all my currently constructed sets. (The Skeletons are framing the Power Miners for the Alien's guerilla bombing on Alamut. No, I'm serious.) The themeless LEGO on my desk (My Hoth battlepacks/collectible figs/small projects) are treated as outsiders, most unfortunately. They plan a massive attack on the AT-TE that has held them at bay for years.

Er....where was I?

Oh yea.

Yea, I play with LEGO. :grin:

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I wouldn't really say I collect. I don't actually buy much Lego anymore. So I'd say I play with it. I know it's childish, but I still like to crash the cars, and whoosh the spaceships :blush: . It's quite embarrassing, but I love it!

Whadayamean, 'embarrassing'? We're a community of LEGO fans here. Playing with LEGO is our pastime!

I like to swoosh the spaceships, but not crashing anything. Crashing is in my book the opposite of building, therefore, Crashing =/= LEGO. But that's just me. You sir, are welcome to crash your LEGO if that is how you like to play with your it.

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Whadayamean, 'embarrassing'? We're a community of LEGO fans here. Playing with LEGO is our pastime!

I like to swoosh the spaceships, but not crashing anything. Crashing is in my book the opposite of building, therefore, Crashing =/= LEGO. But that's just me. You sir, are welcome to crash your LEGO if that is how you like to play with your it.

I don't mean it's embarrassing here! I mean in real life. I mean, I don't know any other 20 year olds that like it, so it is quite embarrassing. But that's exactly why I love Eurobricks so much; it let's me know I'm not the only one out there!

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Oh, hell yes. I bust out my LEGO all the time, and have a massive story going containing all my currently constructed sets. (The Skeletons are framing the Power Miners for the Alien's guerilla bombing on Alamut. No, I'm serious.) The themeless LEGO on my desk (My Hoth battlepacks/collectible figs/small projects) are treated as outsiders, most unfortunately. They plan a massive attack on the AT-TE that has held them at bay for years.

Er....where was I?

Oh yea.

Yea, I play with LEGO. :grin:

lol, thats a good story

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not much into playing lately, but I'm trying to get some along time with my collection today. My mother and uncle helped me move a cabinet into my room and I'm working on getting some lego organized. I'm hoping to finally get some stray pieces a little better organized.

In a way, the thought of lego building levels for the lego MBA thing is really fasinating to me but if the price is 100 bucks(2 payments of 50 bucks), there's no way i'm going for it. That's 2.5 times more then the lego brickmaster. I did love the lego brickmaster subscriction the first year I was on it but then the second year had to many Bionacle and star wars :(

If I could of choosen to have more creator/city and less starwars/bionacle, I would of loved BrickMaster a lot more.

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Oh, hell yes. I bust out my LEGO all the time, and have a massive story going containing all my currently constructed sets. (The Skeletons are framing the Power Miners for the Alien's guerilla bombing on Alamut. No, I'm serious.) The themeless LEGO on my desk (My Hoth battlepacks/collectible figs/small projects) are treated as outsiders, most unfortunately. They plan a massive attack on the AT-TE that has held them at bay for years.

Er....where was I?

Oh yea.

Yea, I play with LEGO. :grin:

I have a storyline, too! Mines has been mostly the same since I came out of my dark ages. It's about a team of humans, old and young, male and female, flesh and yellow, who have moved to Mars to explore it. They live in quite a big, white bungalow (a MOC), and have many weapons and treasures. The house runs on valuable energy crystals (the neon-green jewels from Mars Mission). However, when they arrived, they discovered a race of power-hungry aliens, lead by a cruel dictator and Darth Vader. The dictator lives in a castle (a MOC), and Darth Vader lives in the Death Star. Along with terrorists, the aliens and the imperial army, Darth Vader seeks to own all the energy crystals. The humans team up with the rebels, the Indiana Jones cast, the Castle princess and some collectable minifigures, and they battle Darth Vader's army.

Anyway, interesting story!

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Yes I still play with my Lego, although not as much as I use too but I still vroom my cars and swoosh my planes. I do feel childish playing with it but I say to myself, "I don't care." and continue playing :grin: When I was a kid me and my friend would make bases and battle each other, now I collect and set up more than I play but the excitement of buying and receiving new Lego has never gone :grin:

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I have a storyline, too! Mines has been mostly the same since I came out of my dark ages. It's about a team of humans, old and young, male and female, flesh and yellow, who have moved to Mars to explore it. They live in quite a big, white bungalow (a MOC), and have many weapons and treasures. The house runs on valuable energy crystals (the neon-green jewels from Mars Mission). However, when they arrived, they discovered a race of power-hungry aliens, lead by a cruel dictator and Darth Vader. The dictator lives in a castle (a MOC), and Darth Vader lives in the Death Star. Along with terrorists, the aliens and the imperial army, Darth Vader seeks to own all the energy crystals. The humans team up with the rebels, the Indiana Jones cast, the Castle princess and some collectable minifigures, and they battle Darth Vader's army.

Anyway, interesting story!

that's one heck of an involved storyline! Great stuff.

I like to create worlds (i write a lot too) and I find that Lego helps unlock my creativity when I'm feeling the creative block.

I love watching my son play with the sets I build and I sometimes join in too but it's not like it was when I was a kid. Not sure why, i think it's the billion and one things racing through your mind each day. Having said that i do find lego relaxing and stimulating all at the same time.

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No play here, just "product testing". :classic:

Errr.... Yeah, that's what I do too! Just product testing.....

Cheers

Rog

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I don't play much anymore aside from vehicle swoosh tests. I suppose over the years I internalized active play - creating storylines about the MOCs and minifigs. Building (MOCing) is my purpose so I collect bricks, not sets.

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I haven't caught myself actually playing yet, but I like setting my sets up in funny constellations and use them as room decoration (or dust detectors. Ahem.). It's much fun to see how friends react when they see it. Most of them turn out to be quite the Lego fans themselves - or at least they were when they were kids. It's nice to share childhood stories then.

Edited by Miss Kyle

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Great topic. I only call myself a Lego collector as a cover for the amount of playing with Lego that i do! :grin: Because, as some other ppl have said, it's often seen as a bit embarrassing. Ah well.

Interesting to hear that a lot of ppl keep their sets together for quite a while. I very rarely have a set on display, it's pretty much just MOCS (in various states of completion) and minifigs on my shelf. I often assign various minifigs "build team" duties on MOCS in progress. Atm i am building a scale replica of my house - i have a blue spaceman checking levels and measuring spaces, 2 dwarves laying floorboards and building walls, and a viking patrolling the grounds for any stray zombies. The cows and pigs are enjoying the grass in the backyard i've just laid out too. If they keep it up i might have to order some more green plates and vegetation! :wink:

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Hmmm.. Do I still play with my Lego? Lemme see.. I think the closest I actually get to playing is swooshing my gunships and starfighters, imagining as if they were in the movie/series scene where they are based on, and sometimes even with the childish sound effects. I guess it's not bad to delve into the inner child in you every once in awhile. :classic: But I only do that at the confines of my bedroom, alone, and only in rare times when I'm bored and have nothing to do. But mostly, my time spent with my Lego is purely MOCing, MODing, and collecting. Recently however, I haven't had much time to do those either due to busy life inside and outside EB.

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What an interesting thread.

I got back into Lego about six years ago and up until a couple of years ago I was a collector, buying the sets and enjoying the builds and a brief bit of play but then leaving them on happily on display.

The Power Functions Bulldozer would have been the first model for a long time that I played with fro a more extended period. How could you not want to drive that thing around and see what it can do.

Unfortunately it's currently disabled with PF parts doing Emerald Night and City Tram duties but that leads me to what really increased my Lego play level and that is Lego Trains. The whole experience beyond static display is playtime in my view.

That includes of course running trains, sending them on interesting journies, stopping at stations, insisting on shunting cars to build trains instead of lifting them off the track, the "oh the humanity" that I think and sometimes say when I have a train crash. Track laying is also a playful activity, finding a way round the furniture and making interesting routes for the trains to follow.

And then comes MOC'ing.

This was actually a hard step for me to take because I'm still a collector and up until recently had taken great care to keep assembled models together and not mix up pieces. I still do for many models and have so many carefully opened and not flattened boxes now it's getting a bit ridiculous but I can't seem to break the habit.

I still find MOC'ing an interesting term because in many ways it actually just means playing with Lego like I did as a kid, making my own creations. My first real MOC'ing as an adult was to buy heaps of the Crawler Crane sets to serve as railway trestles up to the bridge from the City Bridge Transport I'd bought a few years before I even had any trains, knowing I wanted to run one across it some day.

What really did it for me though was EuroBricks and the inspiration provided by the many superbly talented individuals who's work you can but aspire to. This site provided the impetus to get some ideas out of my head and into reality and inspired me to take on a bigger project of my own.

Oh dear, like some other posters, this topic has got me rambling.

Summing up, whilst it's not entirely the same as child's play, I think all Lego building is play and Lego Train and Power Functions sets encourage adult play. I like to think of myself as a big kid anyway.

:classic: :classic:

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I have to say that I am now solely a collector. I'm not sure if its because I am an adult now or on the fact that I can't sit comfortably in my Lego room, err, I mean city. :tongue: No room to "play" :sad: I am quite content creating a "busy" city or adding a few details to existing sets. So I guess that still counts as play. I've thought about playing with sets if I had adequate space. Maybe if I had a bigger room or a giant table, something for more comfort for some one thats 6'3". I guess I'll find out one day :classic:

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