wolfwing

I know certain sets seem to be around in one form or another alot, but what is the life span of sets on average? And how often is there a new theme. Seems some of the themes I like more, such as the less fantastical historic themes are out at the moment and things like pirates.

Heh last Christmas while I was in a small store looking at Lego for my nephew I was checking out the lego stuff, but on the opposite wall, was a huge display of playmobil, probably bigger then the lego, far more detailed and such, and got me wondering how many people like it or like both. I prefer lego since you can make any set into something else and combine, while playmobil you tend to be least from how I see it limited to the theme of the sets you buy. Yet looking online and such they seem to be as popular, and lasted just as long. So how does it work? Are they as popular with the older kids and adults as Lego is, or are they popular more for the ease of setting up scenes or such?

Hmmmm maybe quanitiy is the answer get used to sorting tons at at time...anyone willing to send me 200lbs of lego for me to sort into my collection?:> J/k

Well I just bought 12 pounds, so I'm sorting it at a go now, got plans on ways to make it easier to sort later, just need to find some good containers for different things.

I'm planning to get those hobby/workbench drawer sets for the smaller pieces. On technich's do they have much use in building? I know I should keep some of the pins and such for movable lego diarama's and such. How many people use the holed beams for their moc's? Should I keep them seperate, or use them for support and hidden stuff?

heh just got my 12 pounds of lego in been sorting for about 3 hours :> And even with some bionicle/technich that I can put aside to sort later, it's still a very slow process :> How do you guys deal with it all? :> Right now I have ship parts, universal *all in a big box don't have enough smaller ones to sort into smaller piles." barrels/round parts, wheels, slopes/walls, multi angled/overly long slopes, random parts, equipment, and parts that are in pieces that need to be put together..:> And it's still alot just to get 20% of the box done...:> Any tips or what you do while sorting? Right now I'm catching up on my youtube videos, but thats still slow :>

heh ironicly I just got one of those with a single wheel with a pin in it *might be more* in a bulk I'm currently sorting :>

I used too 30 years or so ago, but there is always the small chance of breaking the baseplate, so have to be careful.

I have a old one of those. If I remember right they used a wheel with a pin in it to insert...but might be wrong.

No where near good enough to do anything more then a small entry attempt, but just wondering is there a single place to keep a eye on contests online or on the boards here?

Taking sets apart isn't hard, but mocs...I can see that being a struggle that gets easier as time moves on, at first when you have very few parts and pieces, a single good sized moc might take up half your collection so if you want to build anything else you have not much choice.

Ahhh it's 4071 http://media.peeron.com/pics/inv/custpics/4071.jpg *checked the piece itself for it's #* appears to be a oversized door, it's 2X6X7 Why I was wondering if it was something else since it's pretty big for minifig size. Goes with barred inset 4611.

Update I got my first purchase, a 1 gallon bag of black lego, came with 3 minifigs, a car racer, Indiana jones with glasses*?* and what looks like a Nazi figurine. Only 4 non lego, megablocks and a tyco, good selection of universal, specialized and semi. Two I'm not familuar with they are big black walls with bars across them, duplo? Or some heavily specialized pieces from a set?

Well animals dragons and such I would possibly classify under the expected specialized parts, as long as not too much of the set, like I think most of the viking ones arn't too bad, except fo Fenris was it? Since it is 80% of the pieces and the rest is minifig.

What about desert coloured rocks, cliffs and such, whats a good colour type for that? Was thinking between making towns, and just making scenes in the desert.

Yeah thats what I'm thinking myself, maybe as my collection grows over time I might keep some, but I being able to photograph is nice. Though on topic a bit more, I always felt as a kid and recently when I made the apple tree house a sort of desire to take apart to build something else, and a feeling like I should keep it built a bit longer even though I'm not going to do anything with it at the moment. Though thats what instructions are for for sets, you can rebuild them again later, MOC's and MOD's of course are a bit tougher, why photography is good, though what I've been wondering is, how many photo's are enough. Do you just need 1, or do you need every angle possible, or just the best angle?

I have a couple of sets in mind, one for just interesting, and another for pieces. Interesting is viking fortress, other for pieces and theme is midevil villadge.

Both for content and colours, I know the indians/cowboy sets in the past, but any modern sets that arn't out of print that might have good pieces, or colour schemes that might go well with a western theme?

I've been trying to figure out a system for in my mind for sorting how to work them out. I've been thinking of something like this. Universal, your good in anything as long as your not concerned about colours, or don't mind using them for those hidden jobs. Beams x by 1, planks, the thin X by 1, bricks, X by 2 and so on,the slopes, baseplates and so on. Then you get int the expected specialized parts, plane wings, wheels, windows, doors, decorations and such, things that are hard to avoid. Then the semi specialized, like you see with alot of the space stuff the large canopies, then the specialized stuff, the drills for Power Miners, ship hauls, and other things. I mean some arn't too bad and have their place, but some I just feel were more like they were lazy and you end up with too many pieces that arn't going to be good unless your planning on making something with that exact theme in mind. And as for castle walls, I have a really really old idea book from 1980, http://www.peeron.com/inv/sets/6000-1 Missing the cover and last couple pages :> but if you to the very back of the book, there are castle set pieces, guys have lances, shields and weapons, but the castles built there are all yellow brick and such no walls. Though maybe they had them, but this is more like I remember castle sets from the time *I was 5 so my memories might be a bit shackey*

heh yeah I've not seen any at my walmart, but when I go down to the city for christmas shopping I plan to keep a eye out for that and any other interesting sets. Thanks though I will see if we have that # here.

No one have any thoughts? Trying to decide how much one should avoid when buying for parts, or just collecting in general the heavily or even somewhat specialized pieces. And wether people think in general it was a bad move.

heh I'm not really stressed ;> Just a bit humbling to see some of the collections, going to hopefully by next week have the first bit of new lego and then will start to see what I can come up with, what are some good places to post new creations, partticularly technocolour amalgamation ones?

I remember when I was young I grew up in the days of where pretty much every piece was universal, the only things that were not were wheels and minifigs wich at the time had no arms and solid legs. Then over time they added more stuff and got more specialized. Took a break for a while bought a castle set, only to find out I got 12-20 walls that are good for not too many things except for well walls...and generally castlish walls. Now looking through lego sets you have 4x8 solid walls, many various parts that help to make the products look stylized, but to me it seems you have to build around with these things in mind as opposed to just building. Does anyone dislike or hate sets with too many non universal pieces, where it's all bulky staylized parts that before would have been 10 less stylized parts but you can stick them into anything else? I mean it makes the products look good, and when used they look great, but it doesn't leave alot of room to add to a collection when some sets use alot of parts that are only good for a limited number of things.

I don't mind some specialized and semi specialized pieces, but not a big fan of pieces that have limited use due to their shape or size, a 6x8 solid wall or what ever is always just going to be a wall type thing, you have to build around using it, while 6 1x8 beams you could stick in many places. Or anything else that is overly bulky.

And yeah thats what I was refering to, some of them like the lego truck have small # of pieces for their size, and look to be alot of bigger pieces why I was thinking modular refered to lots of bigger massive pieces that would hamper their being used. I personally like more universal pieces, though some specialized pieces are to be expected.