How did you get your wife hooked on the Lego hobby?

[Legoist]

In this thread I want to ask the married guys who share their Lego hobby with their wives: how did you manage to raise her interest in this hobby?

That of course assumes you were originally the only one of the couple to be hooked on Lego...

Note that the question applies also if you aren't technically married but just in a relationship.

At the same time I ask the girls who were brought into the hobby by their husband/fiancee/boyfriend: how did he manage to take you on board?

Clearly, I have a wife who needs conversion Note however that I'm not yet heavily into the hobby myself due to severe lack of time (two toddlers), and one reason I would really like to hook her is so that she would in return boost my own interest too. It's just that I am hoping we could all share at least one nice hobby the whole family together, something a bit more creative than watching movies and playstations.

By the way, more than hearing reasonable but imagined suggestions, I would like to hear the story of how Lego became such a shared hobby for you two!

Edited January 16, 2010 by Legoist

[MetroiD]

She'd heard legends of this pile of cardboard boxes which contained the most important part of my childhood treasure. Then one day we went to my old house and opened the boxes. She said, "This is a treasure indeed, you can't let it just lie around here and collect dust or risk a thief breaking in and stealing it all. We're taking it home."

So I didn't really do a single thing to get her into LEGO. The next day after we'd opened the boxes, she took a toothbrush and started cleaning every single brick in warm water until they finally looked playable again. Of course, I helped too, but... it was definitely a heartwarming moment for the LEGO-loving kid in me who'd forgotten his ways. Now she says that she knows every single nook and cranny of mine, and I'm not sure if she only means that in the LEGO sense!!!

[polarbomber]

my missus is always complaining about boxes and sets all over the house .

i even bought her medieval market set for xmas 2 years ago , but she wasnt interested in watching me build it for her ,

i use her love of shopping to help me .

an example would be , toys r us n.ireland had got in 10 endor sets the week before xmas , i went down and picked all 10 thinking ebay profit , the manager came out and said i couldnt have them all , as it was all they had , and you can only buy 1 , phone missus and she drives 1 hour with 2 infants to go into shop and buy 1 , repeat procedure and get 6

an other example , she went with mother in law to graceland on friday , i gave her a lego shopping list , dollars and a google map of all the big stores in memphis , shes been there 36 hours now and so far i have , 4 speeder 8092 sets $24.99 , 8083 battlepack 3 off , camper van $ 8.40 , some creator sets and pirate stuff and a new suitcase to bring it all home ..wallmart graceland are having a half price sale ( never get discounts like that in uk )

[iluvmyelement]

I think a big part of me getting hooked was that my parents bought me tons of lego when I was young. I stopped playing with it by 2nd grade and forgot about it until this year. Then I saw the Lego commercial on TV (the "create something together one") and it brought me back to my childhood and I had to play with them again. I started with Cafe Corner. My next was Green Grocer. Family members bought me Fire Brigade, the Eiffel Tower, the Taj Mahal and some of the Creator houses for Christmas. Now I'm obsessed.

If your wife has no interest in 3D puzzles or never played with Legos as a child, it might be tough. But if they like puzzles - try that angle and get a complex set and ask them to help you.

[Peppermint_M]

Hmmm, a hard one...

I was aways immeresed in Lego as my mother loved it and saw it as the perfect and best value toy. So all I can say is I play with Lego and I will never likely stop.

Now, my mum is a great fan of town, the CC houses and the vehicles and actually built my Campervan when I bought it (next she wants to build the Tractor) so I guess some subtle or not so subtle prods along the lines of "What would you build" may help.

[dr_spock]

The easy way is to marry someone who loves Lego. Failing that, get the kids interested in Lego. She would then be outnumbered by Lego fans in the house. That seemed to work for me. My wife just started an interest in Lego (can't beat them, join them). She and our son started a Lego club at his school as the Brick Mom.

[JayDuck]

Well, my wife wasn't ever 'against' the Lego hobby, so that's a good place to start. My wife had had some exposure to Lego when she was young, she had a few basic sets, but it wasn't something she was really in to.

If you're looking to get your girl interested in Lego (assuming she's resistant to the idea), you might try to find an additional 'hook' to interest her. For instance, my wife has always been a fan of the original Star Wars movies. When the Star Wars Lego line debuted, I went out when the sets hit the stores, and my wife (girlfriend at the time) went with me. I picked up the X-Wing, and to my surprise, she got herself a Snowspeeder! (Looking back on it, I wonder why it took me three more years to marry her. )

Another thing you might try is simply building something together. A structure with multiple sections might be a good place to start, and have fun with it. My wife likes to put things together in silly ways, and when we put together our Winter Toy Shop, she did this:

so that's how we set it up on the shelf.

[Davey]

Getting Stacy into LEGO was pretty easy for me and a very similar story to MetroiD's. While moving out of our respective parents' houses, we came across my LEGO collection. We knew it was worth keeping, but weren't sure what to do with it (as I was still in my dark ages). So, we brought it home...and promptly started building all of my old sets to see what was missing in terms of pieces. Miraculously...we weren't really missing anything. About this time, I started to find the online LEGO community and we started communicating with some AFOL's that lived about 2 hrs away. We met up with them for the first time at a local model train show in about 2006 (I think?). After seeing their displays, Stacy and I were both hooked and really jumped back into the hobby with both feet.

So how did I get my wife hooked...I introduced her to the online community and other AFOL's. Luckily, she's pretty accepting. I'm sure she will jump in here and talk about why she got so hooked on the hobby. I was lucky and she has always been interested in building to some extent. Having access to a larger collection seems to have magnified her interest significantly.

-Davey

[Stacy_ToT-LUG]

Like Dave said I was into building as a kid (my brother had a decent sized collection and was kind enough to let me play) and when we brought his collection to the house, I was hooked again. The beauty of the bricks is that I could build something, tear it apart and try something completely different - or I could just remove a section and change it to fit my needs. It was the toy that had unlimited possibilities.

Now, building with LEGO is a creative outlet for me. For someone who doesn't have much skill at drawing or painting, LEGO is a way for me to relay my ideas/vision in a medium that I can easily manipulate. If your wife is an artsy or creative type, this might be a good angle to try.

~Stacy

[Brick & Mortimer]

My girlfriend never played with Lego as a kid because her mom thought it was a "boy's toy" (this is kinda true ).

Prior to coming out of my dark age* I told her about my Lego collection which was (and is still) stored in my parents attic.

When I passed my driving test she got me 8132 Night Driver as a surprise. This was so sweet, considering she never played with Lego but knew how enthusiastic I talked about it .

Soon after that we decided to rebuild my Black Seas Barracuda.

Come to think of it, I think it was her idea .

Now we build sets together. Since they are usually rather big (modulars and all), we each build one "side" of the model.

We put the main baseplate and the instructions in the middle and we each build what's on "our" side of the instructions/model.

Love is...

Building a Lego set together

She only warnes me from time to time not to "overdo it" (in terms of money and available space that is )

Love is...

To warn your boyfriend not to buy too much Lego, but still enjoy building it when he does

*I always considered buying the 5522 Golden Anniversary Set and Cafe Corner as the end of my dark age.

Now I think I never actually had a dark age, I never stopped thinking about Lego, I just stopped buying sets.

[k_peek_2000]

My GF hates my lego hobby with a passion. And truthfully I havn't taken it really all that far. I pretty much buy regular sets, and that's it. I DID however convince her to let our children play with lego because it is a healthy toy to play with :)

[Sandy]

Hey, what about us girls who didn't need a man to convert them?

I haven't been able to get my boyfriend excited about LEGO, even though he had much more of them in his childhood than I did (sadly they were all stolen from their basement when he was a teenager). But he still greatly admires my MOCs, especially the Harry Potter -themed ones (since he's a huge HP-fan, an admin to a fansite and all).

So yeah, to me this is still a very solitary hobby. None of my friends really know about it either, just the closest relatives.

[Cecilie]

I have the opposite problem: I'm a girl who has just come out of my dark ages, and I'm having trouble getting my soon-to-be-husband hooked But he's mostly accepting (although he does think I spend a bit too much money on it, hehe...), and he did ask to build a small set I bought the other day (and I let him of course), so it's a better start than with my ex, who was mostly the reason I entered my dark ages (he didn't like that sort of "childish" behaviour No wonder I had to dump him ). So how did I come out of my dark ages? Well, I had a lot of LEGO sets as a child, and it was always at the back of my head during my dark ages, and then one day I guess I just couldn't resist any longer after seeing some cool AFOL MOCs online

[Fugazi]

So yeah, to me this is still a very solitary hobby. None of my friends really know about it either, just the closest relatives.

Interesting, this is what prompted my question about who are the people you tell about your Lego interests.

My wife is mildly interested in Lego, she had some when she was younger. She does seem to like the Star Wars minifigs, of which I have none. I wonder if I should buy her some... but maybe she's just showing polite interest, not that she really would like to save some of their own

[Shadows]

Hmmm... this topic does seem both a bit sexist and manipulative, to tell the truth, but I can understand the desire to share something with someone who might not already be interested, so taken in that light it's not so bad. Just don't try to be sneaky or tricky about it or I can guarantee you, it'll backfire in the long run. You can't make anyone like anything forever.

With Alice, I just made a point of trying to find the things in LEGO that I thought she would be interested in and exposed her to them casually. Not all at once or you risk overwhelming someone, just a little here and there. "Hey, look at this pony!" or "What do you think of this set?" and, fortunately, it was like discovering a hidden natural interest she'd just never explored and next thing you know, she was showing me auctions and sets.

That's about as lucky as you can get.

[Blackheart Brit]

When i was dating my wife I had many 12 inch GI Joes on bookshelves on display. I had many small Joes too. I had a few older Star Wars LEGO sets and so she knew what she was getting. As we dated and got married GI Joes started to die down and I was buying the Comics more than the figures and then it was replaced by Stikfas for about a year. At this point we had moved to AZ from Californis and all my Joes were packed away. After a year we moved into our house and I broke out the old LEGO boxes and it has been five years of building since. My wife likes it more than GI Joe or other stuff because my daughter "plays" LEGO with me. It is very gender neutral. She plays with the Princesses and female minifigs and I get to play with the males. She loves the Castles and Pirate Ships and my wife has no quelms about this hobby.

[Chris Phipson]

Getting Stacy into LEGO was pretty easy for me...

So how did I get my wife hooked...I introduced her to the online community and other AFOL's....

I was lucky...

-Davey

Like Dave said I was into building as a kid (my brother had a decent sized collection and was kind enough to let me play) and when we brought his collection to the house, I was hooked again.

~Stacy

I cut down the responses here to save space. Dave and Stacy, I consider you guys to be among my closest friends, Lego or otherwise and I am so thrilled for both of you that you two have found a common interest (again, Lego or not) that can only strengthen your love for each other AND the brick.

You guys (Sterlings) KNOW my situation. Like one of the posts before, my wife hates Lego with an unholy passion. While I don't really think it's the Lego itself that she hates, it's more about spending time together. I've slowly over the past couple of years been able to get her to "accept" that Lego is my hobby, my passion and has been part of my life (in some way, shape or form) longer than she has (we've been together for about 13 years and married for 11). Once I put that thought in her head, she started to calm down a bit. She's still not "happy" about the hobby of course, but at least now I'm not getting dagger eyes every time I mention the holy brick. HAHAHA

(please note, some of the tone here was for comedic effect... although there is some truth to every comedic exageration)

My advice on this matter is this. Your wife (or husband or girldfriend or whatever) is going to feel however they feel about the hobby one way or another. The majority of the time, it has NOTHING to do with "Lego" in particular but just the simple fact that it's "your hobby" that drives the other person (gender is not part of this equation) nuts. One example, I work with a guy who completely understands where I come from on this hobby. His passion is old radios and "boom boxes" and his girlfriend hates (and I mean HATES) his hobby. Just goes to show that it's the person, not the choice of hobby (most of the time).

Your not going to be able to change a persons mind no matter how hard you try. Your best bet, is to try to find the happy medium between your hobby and your (significant other). I'm still looking for my happy medium, but I think I'm getting much closer.

Hope I didn't discourage too many with this post. I wish ALL of you that are trying to find that middle ground the best of luck. And to those of you that have already found it, you are an inspiration to us all!

~ Chris.

[Grimmy]

I'm not married and actually I'm single at this time. I'm interested in this topic. Hope you don't mind me chiming in. I'm into psychology and always interested how people think. I've always been one to go out with girls who had a lot in common with me and always worked together on things. The type that often says they have more guy friends then girl friends. The girls who like horror movies and zombies. (I was tallking to one recently who works at Gamestop) I don't know how different I am then the average person but I tend to go out with girls who are creative and are into art or sing, something like that which coincides with what I do. I know most of my friends keep there things separate. They go out to sports games and the girlfriend goes do her thing, at the end of the night they are together and go out on dates too. But me, I'm the type that for example, I ride dirt bikes, so when I find a girl that rides dirt bikes or motorcycles I go nuts with excitement haha. Take the Tomb Raider character who is a girl, she shoots guns, goes raiding tombs, but later at night might go to a nice restaurant dressed all nice. All my ex girlfriends are the type that do stuff that is often stereotyped as "guy stuff" and they say things like, "I can play and get dirty playing baseball with the boys or I can be out dancing in heels."

Is that weird? Maybe just less common? I only ask because I've been on some dating sites and I never see other guys say that they are into that type. Ironically though I do see some girls who put down that earlier quote in their bio.

I don't know I guess what I'm trying to say is that my girlfriends tend to be my buddy too lol. We'll go to the comic book store together, collect the same things, get into each others interests. I don't see a lot of people do this though. I've always liked movies like Run Lola Run, Bonnie & Clyde, stuff where the guy and girl are a team. Yeah I know they rob banks too but well I think you know what I mean they depend on each other, lol.

It would make me sad if a girl were to thing my stuff was evil lol. Haha yesterday I was asking this girl, "So do you let your boyfriend play with your Legos?" haha it just sounded so funny.

Edited February 28, 2010 by Grimmy

[puddleglum]

I have been slowly softening my wife up to LEGO over time. It helps that our son (almost 4 now) is really getting into it, she builds with him more and more. But I know I'm slowly winning her over, she proudly posted this on her Facebook profile the other day. :-)

[RohanBeckett]

I just happened to post the other day a 'welcome' post (in the Technic forum, where I mostly lurk!)

http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=38959

As you can see by the story/pictures... I built a MOC of her car, after we'd been dating a few months...

a couple of months later, I won an 8868 Airtech Claw Rig on Ebay, and I brought it around her place (she was living in an apartment above a garage then!), and we both have fond memories of building it together, on the floor, in front of a pot-belly fire, while watching a movie! (can't remember what the movie was! haha)

She was quite amazed at how complex the build was, but thoroughly enjoyed it, and we ended up raiding all the Remote Controls in the house for batteries, just to fire up the motor/air compressor, to play with it!

Later, I bought her the Creator 'Roaring Roadsters' kit, and she built that first (all three models.. dragster, 4x4, then finally the main model!)

I'm very fortunate, in that she appreciates my hobby.. in fact, one of the things she's always said, is that even after getting married, it's important that both of us keep doing the things we loved doing, before we were together... Her with her Mini Moke... road trips, etc.. me with Lego.. Scuba Diving, etc

And although living together now.. with mortgage, and first child expected in 2 weeks.. and a LOT more mindful of budget... she still says 'if you see a set you like.. just get it... don't regret it.. and then see it on ebay in a few years time for $$$ more!'

:)

Rohan.