Building rituals

[jd5775]

Do you guys have any building rituals?

A few of mine:

-I have to wash my hands before building a set

-All polybags must be kept separate and not sorted

-For airplanes I like to switch the red and the green lights. I don't know why.

Anyone else?

[Captain Becker]

Washing your hands? Well thats weird. Why you even need to do that?

No i havent any rituas actually, all i need is something music while doing something.. and thats not necessery even. So all i need is clean floor, (I build the MOC`s on there or in my PC table) Perfect alonless and bricks and the idea on my head Nothing special i guess.

Captain Becker

[prateek]

I just move the blanket and sit on my bed so none of the pieces get lost in the blanket.

[AndyC]

As a child I was forever getting complained at for having Lego all over the floor. Naturally as a grown up, I still build sets by opening all the bags and pouring pieces out all over the lounge floor. Although I did slightly regret that with the UCS Millenium Falcon as there wasn't an awful lot of spare floor left to sit on!

[squiz]

I know what you mean with the switching lights thing. I sometimes switch pieces where it doesnt have an impact on the overall set. Makes my model different yet the same

[Brickdoctor]

-Must have Imperial March playing

-Must have coffee or green tea nearby, but a safe distance from the computer playing the Imperial March

-Must have brick separator close at hand for replacing plates when I confuse dark bley and black due to TLG's instructions

-Must have source material of model on hand if I plan to keep it together so I know what to mod out or in

Even though I'm generally a law-abiding citizen of the Lego World, I

-Must have good lighting for color differentiation, since I never sort my LEGO before building

-Must have protective goggles, since I always shoot blunt shooters, Zamor spheres, flick-fire missiles, etc. at my face

Wants:

-Want to have a piece of Astroturf, so I can build my set in the grass

EDIT:

On the serious side of things, I actually like to build my set on a sheet stretched over a low table, which minimizes the risk of bouncing parts and sub-models getting lost.

Edited September 4, 2010 by Brickdoctor

[XimenaPaulina]

Interesting topic! Lemme see... I think I only have one:

- Dump all the pieces together in the carpet without sorting by color then build! (no, seriously I really do that)

Oh and one more thing:

- Let the wife sleep/do something else to prevent any disturbance to the building process.

[Admiral Ron]

Hm, an interesting topic indeed, there arent many things i do. I just make sure to open ALL the bags and double check to make sure ALL the bricks are out. I cannot count how many times I have had to go through the garbage to find bricks somehow hidden in the polybags. I also have to have a light on, to make out the difference between dark grey and black. I guess thats it

[Vindicare]

The only things I do are :

If bags are numbered, I only dump out that bag. As opposed to all pieces being sorted.

If bags aren't numbered, I dump them all out in piles according to they're polybags. I don't sort like colors or pieces like most.

[wolfwing]

Only just got back into it all, but with the apple tree house I put each bag into a pile, *though ended up leaving the slopes in their bags since there was alot of pieces and bags and ran out of places to put piles* I'm going to be getting containers or such to put them in. Thats what my 5 year old nephew did when we made the anakin speeder thingie, he got two containers, and dumped each bag into one being careful to keep them seperate. Sure helped, heh though not as much fun as when I was his age and just dumped them all on the table and did the old hunt and connect method.

[Mr McGow]

This is what I do:

- Prepare build area - usually my spare table in living room

- Turn television to a music channel or if a Starwars set put on movie pertaining to set.

- If at night, place brewski in reaching distance

- Have quick perusal of instructions

- Distract my two cats with food - although they still get into the box, sit in the middle of the build, play with round pieces etc

- Sort set by colour and if a bigger set, subsort by pieces (plate/brick/other)

- Build away with a song in my heart

[LegoBuilder]

Interesting topic. This is what I do.

1. I would clear my desk.

2. If the bag is numbered, I would open that bag first.

3. If not, I would open the bag and pour them into some container. Be Careful about the small parts. I don't want to run into a situation where all the small parts spll out while opening the bags.

[Plissken]

- I used to build sets in my bed, but I changed that for the kitchen table. It's better lighting in the kitchen.

- I open all bags and put them together, the search is part of the fun for me.

- Always build the Minifigs first.

I think that's it for me.

[dr_spock]

I could clear my desk for a building area.

Empty the bags one at a time if numbered. All of them if not numbered and do a rough sort.

I would put on my reading glasses or bifocals to read the instructions and see the small parts.

Build away. If my hands get too sweaty, I would wash them. (No air conditioning in my house).

[prateek]

Build away. If my hands get too sweaty, I would wash them. (No air conditioning in my house).

Me neither

I try building in my mom's room, where there is a window AC, or just avoid building new sets in the summer.

[Magnus the Great]

I clear my table, place any tools I might need on it, set up additional lighting and wash my hands before I build. As a child I used to eat potato chips, peanuts or maybe a sandwich while bricking.

Later I got a feeling that the grease on my fingers is bad for the minifig torso print. Don't know if it is true, but no dirty fingers touching my Lego!

[Aanchir]

Well, since I come from a family of three kids (one of whom is my twin brother whom I've lived with all my life), most of my rituals involve dividing a new set up between two or more people.

The main trick we use is alternating steps. First, we agree who does the first step. The person we agree on does one step, then the next person does a step, and so on. But there are some exceptions:

• When doing a subsection where the numbering starts back at one, if there's just one piece callout box for the main step, then the person who has the main step does the whole subsection.
• If there are piece callouts for each sub-step, then the person who had the main step decides who does the first step of the subsection, and we continue to alternate.
• Either way, once the subsection is done, the person whose turn the subsection started with gets to attach the completed subsection to the main model, and the next step goes to the person after them in the progression.

Naturally, this gets a bit annoying in some instruction booklets where LEGO is sloppy and continues with the subsection numbering after the subsection is finished.

Additionally:

• If it's just me and my brother, and there are two subsections that are perfectly symmetrical, we each do one of those subsections. We tend to do these simultaneously, based on the instructions for one side, so the build goes faster
• If there is a callout that indicates multiple identical sections (for instance, "2x", "3x", etc.) we divide them up equally between us. If there is a remainder, it goes to the person whose step the 2x or 3x would otherwise be on.

It's a complicated system, but we're all used to it, and it saves us a lot of griping over who gets to build what part.

[user]

I usually go to my front room open the box and mix the pieces together so it takes longer because my parents always complain when I get a $20 set and build it in under 10 minutes. I then play with the set a bit then modify it beyond recognization!

[super curry max]

Ever since I was a kid every new set I got I would try to build just from the box art and see how close I can get and have as little pieces left over as possible. Most of the time I'd have tons of plates and flat pieces left over. And for the Fright Knight castle it was just a mess. But I'm hoping one day I can do it exactly right.

hasn't happened yet though. :(

[kostasm13]

First of all, I find a clear space in my desk. Books, pens etc go away!

Then I use 3-4 small bowls to put the very small parts such as pins.

The largest parts remain in the box and the rest on the desk.

And of course I wash my hands first!

I never categorise the parts like you do in the reviews. I like the searching

and the swearing when I can't find a part!

[rriggs]

My key steps are as follows:

1. Clear table in living room

2. Wipe table if the wife has been lazy this week

3. Cold drink nearby

4. Apple TV on in background for music

5. Wash hands

6. Carefully open box damaging it as little as possible

7. Get instructions and stickers out and separate - Check sticker sheet for damage

8. Open all polybags into one huge pile of pieces - Ignoring bag numbering

9. Assemble any minifigs first

10. Build least interesting elements first and build up to most interesting - For example, a truck I will build load, then trailer then cab as that's generally the most interesting.

11. Pick up pieces again and again after cat knocks them onto floor - I would shut the cat out but the wife forbits this

My birthday very soon so I plan on putting these steps to good use!

Cheers

Rog

[The Yellow Brick]

My key steps are as follows:

1. Clear table in living room

2. Wipe table if the wife has been lazy this week

3. Cold drink nearby

4. Apple TV on in background for music

5. Wash hands

6. Carefully open box damaging it as little as possible

7. Get instructions and stickers out and separate - Check sticker sheet for damage

8. Open all polybags into one huge pile of pieces - Ignoring bag numbering

9. Assemble any minifigs first

10. Build least interesting elements first and build up to most interesting - For example, a truck I will build load, then trailer then cab as that's generally the most interesting.

11. Pick up pieces again and again after cat knocks them onto floor - I would shut the cat out but the wife forbits this

My birthday very soon so I plan on putting these steps to good use!

Cheers

Rog

For some reason I always build the minifigures last, and I also Put the tyres on acar before the building instructions even tell you .

[rriggs]

I also Put the tyres on acar before the building instructions even tell you .

I do that too! I think it's because I dislike doing that bit so it has to be out of the way first. Also, it doesn't feel like "real" Lego building?

Cheers

Rog

[SlyOwl]

Tip everything into a big mess on my bedroom floor! It's how I've always built sets, no matter how big or small, and it kind-of sets it apart from MOCing, which always takes place at my desk.

But first, before even opening the box, I pore over the box pictures. I recall looking at my Skull's Eye Schooner box for more than two hours when I first got it a couple of years back.

I do like to take care opening the polybags, making sure I tear them along the rim: because it feels right that way.

So yes, I indulge my nostalgia when opening sets - and it is ritualistic!

[Lego_Hero]

I don't have anything crazy, but I do like to build the set as fast as I can, as though I were racing someone. I think that comes from having a two-year old in the house. My daughter LOVES walking off with pieces. I finally broke down and gave her my yellow bricks, but she ended up just hiding them throughout the house. If I leave the closet door open, she rummages through my minifigs for who knows what, leaving disassembled characters everywhere in the spare room.

While I don't keep anything on display (still a closet AFOL), I like to build every set I buy at least once before sorting the pieces into my collection.