Adult Fixie-skidders of LEGO

Like many, I've never stopped liking building things from LEGO, but inevitably all the old LEGO went up to the attic as other things took on greater importance. Now I enjoy building things when I visit my nephews. My proudest moment came when my five-year-old nephew called one of the things I'd done 'brutally cool'. Here's a recent spaceship.

@Dammit has just got himself the Saturn V Rocket, and naturally we expect a report. :)

Anyway, there must be others on here.

1 Attachment

thread needs @lego

Thereisdozensliterallydozensofus.gif!

Yes, I am a fan too but so far mostly of the preplanned kits. I don't have the free hand experience of my other half e who has a room just for her Lego.

Yep, After building the Technic 911 GT3 RS last Christmas, i've since dug out and started refurbing a lot of my old lego from the depths of my parents attic.

I'm also sitting on a wad of john lewis vouchers, the need to spend them on lego is real

I'd love to have an old stash to dig out. Once we stopped playing with ours as kids, my mum passed ours onto other families. (She was the head of the local playgroup so big into not letting things go to waste)

Yeah, i think i only kept some select bits, i vaguely remember selling some to buy a new bike a long time ago.

Most of the stuff i have is late 80s / early 90s, some technic some normal lego. This thread is maybe the incentive i need to get on with rebuilding it!

I thought the days of free hand tinkering were killed off with kits but I was delighted to see a real random collection of bricks in my nephew's collection when he was still into it a few years ago. (He's got a girlfriend and a drum kit now. Not that these are incompatible with Lego but, er..., anyway...) I spent far too long knocking up whatever this is, complete with Boba Fett as rear gunner:

I'm tempted to get a couple of Technic sets but equally tempted to spend the money on a scalextric setup.
#Middleagedchild

I had that plane - I'd totally forgotten about it!

I'm currently selling a load of old Pirate lego that we had as kids (couple of forts, castles, ships). It's been excellent rebuilding it again. They were the main theme that we got heavily into.

It's funny rebuilding them how most of the parts are pretty generic; compared to some of my daughters modern stuff which has loads of specially shaped parts that I think you'd struggle to find a place for when building without instructions.

2 Attachments

Dammit got the Saturn V? I am very envious.

I got this for christmas...

Also partial to the Star Wars stuff...

Don't sell! You'll regret it.

An obligatory theme of this thread is complaining about current LEGO, so here goes. :)

compared to some of my daughters modern stuff which has loads of specially moulded parts that I think you'd struggle to find a place for when building without instructions.

Oddly enough, there were a lot of specially moulded parts in the 90s, too, to the extent that LEGO felt they had to reduce the number to reduce production costs. I can't help feeling that they're back with a vengeance, though--all those special licences that they get for films and so on. Pirates may well have been able to do without much of that stuff. I go back a bit further and my favourites are still the grey Knights sets and the grey-and-blue Space sets. I really don't think that this is because they were around when I was at an impressionable age, but because I felt the balance between generic and special bits was just right then.

It was interesting to be in the LEGO shop in Leicester Square the other day. That wall they have of parts was completely ignored (probably because it's always a tiny selection of parts and they can't even use all of the wall since some of the slots are much too high up for people to reach--a bit of a misconception, really), whereas the minifigures stand was besieged by people three deep. I personally don't like all that customised faces stuff (I don't think children need that at all), but it's hugely popular and probably one of the main reasons for the LEGO resurgence.

LEGO today seems completely overpriced, and judging from what my nephews have, it seems as if you rarely get chunky bits in any series apart from Creator and Minecraft, but mainly flat bricks with which you can't really build anything.

I got this for christmas...
Also partial to the Star Wars stuff...

I think these are good, but adult toys. Children can play with it briefly before breaking it and being unable to repair it without looking back at the instructions (and sometimes not even that).

I've got a massive box of LEGO in the attic at my mums. All random bits and a mix of Technics/normal.

Suddenly have the urge to play with it.

I rescued the plane from a cupboard in my parents house, took a little while to find all the parts that had entrop'd to the surrounding shelves, but well worth it.

I received the Porsche GT3-RS for Christmas 2016, that joined one of the Ferrari F1 cars that Lego released a few years ago on my shelves in the sitting room.

I've got a map of Mars that I might put a small shelf beneath, for the Saturn V to go on - wrong planet I know, but there is a connection between the two. I discovered that you can buy display cases made for the Lego rocket, which entertained me.

I'm personally amazed by how much they are able to do with the standard parts. That Beetle ^ is built very nearly entirely with standard Lego bricks despite some very weird angles. The curved wheel arches are specific to that model and that's about it. It's an amazingly inventive and a total joy to build. For £65 I also think it's good value. It has 1167 pieces. I also have the red T1 camper which is equally fantastic

Lego generally is very high quality, you NEVER get a duff brick. And even small models have a deceptive number of pieces. I think it's fair that they charge a premium for well designed models that are made to last.

You're absolutely right, of course, about not selling. We've held onto the stuff for almost 30 years, it's been through and played with by four brothers but now parents downsizing, small london house etc etc etc.

The Pirates definitely have a lot of special bits compared to the earlier sets - the boat hulls, the cannons, etc. But those two forts linked above are almost all flat / block pieces; and building them was quite different to the new super-hero stuff that we've got in the house, where one single use specialist block will solve a load of angles completely on its own (and which you'd be in trouble if you lost).

The old instructions have a pleasing level of ambiguity in places as well!

The classic space stuff was great, we have some of that that'll be hitting ebay at some point soon too.

For price, that fort above still had the price tag on the box - it was £40 in 1992, which is about £75 now. It had 608 pieces, so possibly the value is better now (given 1167 pieces at £65 for @StandardPractice 's beetle - licencing costs on the marvel / star wars stuff probably makes a big difference though)

I was torn whether to get the beetle or the mini...(or both)

It's amazing the prices on ebay for some of the out-of-production kits.

Cheers for the heads up @dancing james - good to see fellow Dixie skidded AFOLs (I used to think I was a bit Lego crazy until I googled that last term...)

Our living room has an embarrassing amount of Star Wars Lego now. The kids and I love it, my wife suffers it!

I used to think I was a bit Lego crazy until I googled that last term...

Some of the people who seemingly dedicate their whole lives to LEGO come across as a wee bit ... one-dimensional. :)

I have to say that I've concluded it may be better not to show the more extreme AFOLisms to small children--I think they'd find it quite overwhelming and disenchanting. Then again, maybe some kids would be inspired by it, I don't really know. I think I would have found it frustrating had I known about how adults deal with it/had that kind of thing been around or prominent when I was small.

my wife suffers it

She sounds as if she may have embraced the Dark Side.

The classic space stuff was great, we have some of that that'll be hitting ebay at some point soon too.

Is that the sort that's now worth a bomb?

Best thread.