Anyone who has ever bought a LEGO set knows how expensive they can be. And for good reason, a lot of engineering goes into them. And good luck getting the more popular items. But there is a way around that. Black market LEGO is big business too. Given the demand and cost, I shouldn’t have been surprised. I don’t have the mechanical skills, patience, or room to display them so it’s not something I ever really thought about. But I think they’re cool and like watching builds.
What about you, DeadSplinters, love them, hate them because you’ve stepped on the tiny pieces too often. Have you ever had a Jingle All the Way experience trying to get a trendy set to fulfill a Christmas or birthday list? Or maybe you scored one unexpectedly. As a parent who once found two Furby’s when they were the holiday item, I can tell you there are few greater highs.
Between old school Mechano and Lego, it’s almost the official toy any engineer gets their kids.
My dad bought me one of the first Lego sets that arrived in Canada and I loved it. There was no other toy I wanted to play with because I could build anything my limited imagination could build.
I constantly played with it from 5-13 when my parents thought that I was too old for Lego and took it away (my parents were big into that.)
When Space Lego came out I wanted that. The old Eatons store in Toronto used to have this gigantic Space Lego Display where nerdy kids could stand and drool for hours staring at all the magnificent plastic stuff you could build with that. Sadly, all my begging went for naught. My parents told me I was too old for that (I was 8!!)
These days once in a while I peek into the closest Lego Store and secretly am jealous at the wide variety of Lego they have instead of the basic stuff I had (as a kid I was gobsmacked when they came out with wheels and pivots for Lego.)
I did buy a Saturn V rocket Lego set a couple of years ago but haven’t opened it yet.
Yes, I would piss my dad off by leaving Lego land mines when I didn’t put away my toys in the living room.
Later, he probably got a measure of revenge when I was visiting a friend who had young kids at the time and stepped barefoot on a unnoticed jagged piece and nearly screamed in pain.
My daughter never played with LEGOs. I guess she’s not a builder. But she had lots of Playmobile sets and I stepped on enough of those tiny parts. They can hurt!
I don’t know how you were able to not tell her! You showed some restraint there. I have seen some very cute botanical sets. I wanted to get one for my daughter but she said her cat would just knock it over and destroy it.
This was directed at Not sure why it ended up here.
RIP Eaton’s Toronto. My grandmother used to take us there instead of a playground.
As a kid, I liked Lego in theory but they were painful to take apart. I wish I had a brick separator. Have these always existed?
Not when I was playing with Legos. The separation tool I used was my fingernails.
Did not know this was a thing.
I loved Legos as a kid but luckily grew out of it. My wife saw this plant kit at Costco & wanted it so bad but didn’t buy it because it was expensive. Meanwhile, my daughter bought it for her for Mother’s Day & told me not to let her buy it herself. Next time we were at Costco, she comes up to me with a big smile to put it in the cart & I scolded her, “really? You don’t need that!” She put it back with a frown and I felt like a jerk but my daughter got to give it to her & all was forgiven. They put them altogether & she puts hers under the grow light w/ the other succulents. I told her “you know those don’t grow, right?” One of the grow lights fell over the other day & Legos went flying across the room. Fuck!!! Small pieces everywhere!
https://www.lego.com/en-us/themes/adults-welcome/botanical-collection/faux-plants
Replied to you but it ended up in the wrong place. And won’t let me add your user name in the edit. 🤷🏻♀️
No worries, I figured that was the case.
…in lego movie terms…I would be smack dab in the segment of the audience broadly personified by the one guy with the busted jaw-piece on the helmet whose first thought is always “spaceship?”
…& I know some kids who have star wars kits that include awesome spaceships…so…I may envy some kids a little
…the one I think I coveted the most was probably the programmable “mindstorms” R2D2…that was about 2 feet tall & could bring your drink from the table to the couch if someone put it on a tray on its head?
…either way…I also think kids who have never not known the tool/implement thing don’t know how much of a game changer that seemed like the first time I came across one…the only other one I’ve seen that comes close would be
https://brickit.app/
…point a phone camera at a pile of lego & it’ll tell you some stuff you have the stuff to build
…&…I’d have to search to know the site…but there’s one where you can say “I got given a batmobile but it’s the sucky one & I want this one” (by putting in the ID# for the kit you have) & it’ll give you a part-list (& sell you the parts) to convert it like an aftermarket auto shop?
I have never seen a full LEGO movie just clips. But some of the space sets are amazing. I’m fascinated by the working models too, the radios, pianos, etc.
Big Lego fan. In fact, I just went to a Lego convention here on Saturday.
I wasn’t until my wife needed big activities for her old library, so we concocted Lego Day at the Library. A Central Florida Lego group promised to display their stuff, and then backed out at the last minute. (I’m talking Monday when the event was the next Saturday — fucking assholes).
My wife had already advertised the event and said Lego sets would be on display. The kid and I bought and built Lego sets like 20 hours a day for a week. Another librarian and her engineer fiance were Adult Fans of Legos (it’s a thing, look it up) and between us all we put together a very nice exhibit and the event was a huge success. But I’ve still got all the sets.
Subsequently Lego released sets I really wanted, like Batman 66. Currently I’m working on Batman: The Animated Series Lego Art.
There’s a mom-and-pop Lego store that just opened here where you can trade in old sets (complete with instructions) and get new ones. Lot of people treat them like jigsaw puzzles — do them and trade them in.
And finally, I did know about bootleg Legos. Lego has regular contests for fan-built sets and then chooses one to release to the public. A fan built an Iron Giant set and I really wanted Lego to pick that one (voted early and often) but they didn’t. However, enterprising Chinese vendors will put together the sets with directions and you can buy them and have them shipped to you. So I actually do have an Iron Giant, it’s just not real Lego.
Trade in is a great idea. And I can definitely see Adult Fans of LEGO being a thing. They really are more like a puzzle than a toy.
I was surprised too about Adult Lego fans, but I shouldn’t have been. I have seen many an engineer’s or developer’s cube was full of Superhero figures or Lego Mini-Figs.
There’s a lot of NBA-ers who are big Lego fans, probably because that’s the type of salary you need!
They are pricy. And you have to be able to afford a big enough home for the display room.
That’s the problem. I have a bunch stored in boxes assembled or partially assembled. We planned to do rotating displays at my wife’s old library before she lost her job there. At her current library, they have a Lego club, and she keeps trying to convince the staffer that runs it to let us set up a display like once a month. The staffer just keeps saying no. This is after I volunteer to babysit the displays and keep the kids out of them.
It’s a little sad that nobody gets to see them.
The last time I played with Lego was the 90s. It was a castle set, though not very big. I don’t remember having a LOT of Lego, sets or loose. But I am an only child so I had a lot of most things. I’ll be ok 🙂
🙂
I have a neighbor who is crazy for Legos. She convinced her wife to give her an entire room of their house dedicated to nothing but Lego stuff. The main table in there is an ongoing project to re-create our entire farm with Legos. She spends a LOT of dough on those things.
Me, I’m a Lincoln Logs guy.
You have to have a place to display them. After all the work that goes into building the larger sets why would you want to take them apart?
…this is basically the core of the split between antagonist & protagonist in the lego movie, would you believe?
…the forces of “if you take to bits imagine what you could build out of that next” vs “you built the thing so now it’s the thing it’s meant to be & it shouldn’t ever be anything else”
…one of the great philosophical conundrums of the human condition, I’m sure you’d agree…real existential crisis material?
Well that’s deeper than I expected from a LEGO movie.
…they can surprise you that way…the batman one treats the nemesis relationship as unrequited romantic entanglement
…the joker contends he’s the one…batman is…seeing other villains
I’m going to have to watch them now!
Show her this video for storage inspiration…
This was a reply to @luigivuoto
Holy crap. I’m gonna send that video over to my friend. She’ll really appreciate that in a way that I doubt her wife will.
In third or fourth grade I decided I was going to use all my saved birthday and Christmas money to buy Legos.
Then we went to Target or wherever, and I remember all I wanted was the Islanders sets because I thought their catamaran was so cool. Anyways, the anthropology degree was probably obvious at that point if my parents knew what to look for.
I’ve always thought anthropology would be a great thing to study. But a little hard to earn a living from.