ficbot

Eurobricks Ladies
  • Content Count

    41
  • Joined

  • Last visited

About ficbot

Profile Information

  • Gender
    Female

Recent Profile Visitors

510 profile views
  1. Hi everyone! I have to pare down my Lego Friends collection a little to make room for a baby :) I'm hoping to find a local person (Toronto/GTA) who is interested in taking the whole thing. I still have about 15 sets to part out and bag, but here is round one for an idea of what I have available. Small Sets: $5 Each Lego Elves 30259 Azari's Magic Fire Lego Friends 30101 Skateboarder 30103 Emma's Car 30105 Stephanie's Mailbox 30108 Summer Picnic 30112 Emma's Flower Stand 30113 Stephanie's Bakery Stand 30115 Jungle Boat 30203 Emma's Mini Golf 30205 Popstar Red Carpet 30398 Adventure Camp Bridge Medium Sets: $10 Each Lego Elves 41071 Aira's Creative Workshop Lego Friends 3930 Stephanie's Outdoor Bakery 41002 Emma's Karate Class 41011 Stephanie's Soccer Practice 41031 Andrea's Mountain Hut 41089 Little Foal 41091 Mia's Roadster 41098 Emma's Tourist Kiosk Large Sets:$25 Each Lego Friends 41007 Heartlake Pet Salon 41085 Vet Clinic Lego Elves 41076 Farran & the Crystal Hollow Jumbo Sets: $40 Each Lego Friends 41057 Heartlake Horse Show 41093 Heartlake Hair Salon Lego Elves 41075 Elves Treetop Hideaway Total for all the sets would be $330 and you would get dibs on my second batch once I have gone through everything. I am also willing to trade for toys in the Magformers, Magnatiles or Fisher Price Little People series. Thanks for looking! I hope a Toronto-area Lego fan can benefit from my nice collection.
  2. ficbot

    Your LEGO regrets

    My stepson is four and we build Lego all the time. We have a little ritual when he stays over where we all have a cuddle in the morning and then his dad goes back to sleep for an hour and he comes to the Lego table with me :) I am glad I came out of the dark ages before he got into Lego. My one regret is that I did not discover my passion for the Friends Lego right away. I have been sorting out my pre-Friends stuff to pass along to my stepson and there is probably about $200 I wasted on Lego before I learned to specialize. Most of it is vehicle-themed because I liked the 3-in-1 sets to learn how to build. I did learn from them, but I can't really use so many wheel parts now. My stepson will enjoy these sets so I am not complaining too much, but I did waste money on Lego I didn't need. Now, I only buy the holiday sets and the Friends sets.
  3. My four-year-old stepson only got into Lego in the last year, but he is very into it now, and this is great! He does not like to follow the instructions and prefers to build his own things. The problem is that he is not very careful about the pieces. After his last visit, I tried to put some of the sets back together and was unsuccessful; some of the pieces he lost were quite large, I swiffered under the couch and everything and can't find them. I have no idea where he put them. He has his own box of Lego, but he is curious fellow and likes to see how they are made. So his preference is to take one of our grown-up Lego sets, take it apart to see where all the pieces go, and then incorporate his own things. This is the part we are struggling with! We don't want to be Lord Business as it were,and say 'look, but don't touch.' And we don't want to squash his creativity. But some of our 'grown-up' Lego was very expensive. My husband is struggling to put back together his Ghostbusters car. A few key pieces are missing, and they aren't the kind of pieces we can replace from what we have on hand. Am I a horrible person if I tell the little guy that he can mix and match the pieces, free reign, with his own stuff at his Lego table, but if he wants to play with one of Daddy's sets, he has to do one at a time, at the kitchen table where we can help him? I feel awful for even asking this because we love him to bits and would do anything for him. But...he makes such a mess, you know? Can I balance this somehow without being the terrible ruiner of ruination who squashes all his dreams?
  4. My four-year-old stepson was here for a week and made a mess of the Lego :) It's fine; we wanted him to play and have fun, and I love that unlike his same-aged cousin, he can build without instructions and use his imagination. Now, I want to put things back though. And I am wondering what to do about sets which don't have instructions. For instance, he has this red construction box which comes with an 'idea booklet.' You have to take apart the one idea to build the next one. Short of building every idea in the book, I am not sure how I can determine which pieces belong to this set. The reason I want to part them out into sets is that I have found with him, he likes to take apart things. I think he is not comfortable yet with a big pile of pieces. But if he sees a cool build he likes, he will take it apart and improve it a little. My camper van got demolished for example because he took it, played with it for awhile, and then decided he had to take off the door so that the robot wings would fit. Since this is how he seems to play, I am hoping that if we can put together some of *his* stuff for him, he'll take that apart and leave my husband's Ghostbusters car alone :) So my goal is to try and return as many of his pieces as possible to his own bin, pick out the stuff I think he borrowed or stole from others, return them to their origin places, and be left with only his stuff. Problem is, a few of these sets are general piece packages and I am not sure how to determine their parts collection. Ideas?
  5. ficbot

    Lego themes that we would like to happen

    I want a library or bookstore! And I know they have a deal with Disney so this might not work, but I think my stepson would go nuts if they did anything Minions.
  6. ficbot

    What sets have good parts for landscaping?

    Lego Friends setOlivia;s Treehouse has a lot of foliage. Too much, as it turned out; after doing that one, I overdosed on foliage and loathe it now.
  7. At first, I bought too much but now I have narrowed my interests to just the Friends line, and I don't buy the super-big ones. He has narrowed his interests to just the architecture ones, Minifigs and the occasional set for a kid (although for his kid, we are passing along many of our early-days stuff, we just put it in a nice box and he doesn't know it is gently used) :-) I must admit, I find these 'understanding wife' sorts of conversations very strange. Why would I not understand and support his interests, and he mine? The only comment I had on the Star Wars stuff was that he should reduce it so that he has space to actually display it somehow (many crates stacked in the closet does nobody any good) and that we are not frat boys duct-taping stuff to the wall, so any posters he had just be suitably framed (which they were already). But why would I object to him enjoying stuff? As for money, we each have fun money every month. He can spend his in whatever he wants to, why would I care or object? He spends most of his on baseball cards and I spend mine in art stuff and LEGO Freinds.
  8. ficbot

    Storage and Sorting LEGO

    I just moved my main stuff into these drawer things I found in one of our closets. It is so much better! It has three drawers so it is a bit heavy to get to the table, but once I do get it there, I have everything I need. Before, I kept running back to get just one thing and it was a lot of effort.
  9. ficbot

    2015 Friends Sets - Rumours and Discussion

    Does anyone know how much the hotel will cost, so I can prepare myself? :)
  10. ficbot

    MOC: Elves and Hobbits

    That is so cute! I love the bed!
  11. ficbot

    2015 Friends Sets - Rumours and Discussion

    The hotel is the only one I want; the pop stars theme does not interest me at all. I am a little worried about how expensive that hotel looks though...
  12. Update: Here was my haul: Lego for School! by ficbot, on Flickr Tub 1: JK classroom Tub 2: JK classroom Box 1: Grade 2 class Box 2: Grade 3 class Pick-a-Brick: To be divided up into each of the above Minifigs: To be divided up Mixels: For Grade 3 Class I was very impressed with those two new tubs. They had a large assortment of pieces including wheels, slopes, propellors and other goodies. I wish it had come with a few people, though. Those minifigs were a lot of work to open up, distribute etc. and when it was all done, each class only got a few. The store would not let me buy more than 32 minifigs in one purchase... Anyway, my total was only in the high 300s and I was told I could spend up to $500, so I may go to Toys R Us and get some baseplates too. And I may go back and get something for the Grade 1 class. Their teacher declined to request any (she says they never play with it and are obsessed with MagnaTiles instead) but when she sees everyone else's stuff, she may get jealous and change her mind :)
  13. Thank you, everyone, for the suggestions. The Lego Education process seems a little complicated. You have to call, get a rep and work through them. The principal told me to just go ahead and buy myself. The Lego retail store I spoke to told me there is a limit of 32 minifigs per transaction, so I am going to do that, two boxes of basic bricks to share, two starter sets for the K classes, and some pick a brick containers. Should be a fun shopping day!
  14. I am a K-3 teacher at a small private school and have been given a rather enviable shopping assignment: buy more Lego for the school. We run a club every term for each grade level, and we were overwhelmed by the turnout for the Lego Club. We had to borrow every Lego bin in the school, and some of them were in a pretty sad state. We have an annual grant from the parent association for each teacher, and it MUST be used that year, or it is lost. I suggested that since I had not used my whole allocation, I could refresh the Lego bins in each classroom. This was met with an enthusiastic response, and I was told that another teacher is not planning to use his, so I could buy pretty much whatever I think is best and money is no object (!) Of course, I do want to keep costs reasonable and maximize what I get for what I spend :) I am aiming for more open-play stuff as much as possible; we have had specific kits before and it has been pretty much impossible to police their use so that pieces don't get lost, mixed with other stuff and so on. Also, while the Lego does get heavy use as a free play activity, we are hoping to do some more learning-oriented stuff with it. I have seen some great printables on using Lego to teach math, for example. So, with that said, here are the classrooms I am buying for, what they have now and what I plan to buy. Can you suggest any tweaks or additions to my plan? 1) Pre-K. Nothing. A parent donated several vats of Duplo some time ago and we got so much, we had to have some get donated away because we didn't have space for it. The Littles are good. 2) Junior Kindergarten. This is a shared room used by two classes. They presently have a large bin of Duplo that they love and use, but they also have some kids who are ready for the regular Lego. One of the teachers expressed an interest in the starter kit for girls in the pink box. The boys will play with it too, don't worry! 3) Senior Kindergarten. This is another shared room with much the same setup. They want the girl box too, and also 'some of the people' so I will throw a handful of minifig bags into their stuff unless there is a cheaper way to get a lot of people. 4) Grades 1-3. Each of these three classrooms has a bin of mixed pieces. I was thinking I would buy a large set like the Builders of Tomorrow box and split it between them. I also am going to get a few Pick a Brick containers (1-3 depending on what pieces interest me) with stuff like wheels, the printed computer pieces, doors, windows, flowers etc. and share those between the classes too. The Grade 3 is a special class (the oldest class at school generally has some special privileges) and I was thinking I might get them a Mixels set too, to use as a special (supervised) activity. As I said, we have not had great luck with things requiring special pieces and structured directions, but I understood that the goal of the Mixels series was to get them to mix and match the pieces to build their own creatures once they are done, and I like that concept. I am also thinking of making some inspiration booklets for each class, with pictures of things the children could simply make with just the basic pieces. A lot of the children have Lego collections at home, some of which are very expensive and well-stocked. But they are used to following instructions. When they use the Lego at school, our goal is to break them out of the rut and get them to play creatively. What do you guys think of my plan?
  15. ficbot

    What kind of budget do you set?

    Usually $100 between my fiancé and I, since that is what we need to get the free giveaways. Some months, I spend more and some months, he does. I mostly only buy Friends and Creator, he buys architecture ones and sometimes City. I also want the new Elves series.