So, a couple years ago my eye was caught by Lord of the Rings lego and I officially became an adult fan of lego (AFOL). In the AFOL world they call this leaving the dark ages -- the time between when you stop playing lego as a child and when your interest is renewed as an adult.

Many AFOLs go on to buy loads of sets and build hugely elaborate MOCs ("my own creation"). I don't really have the cash to do that, so I'm more of a window-shopper AFOL, but I do allow myself to buy one largeish set (~$100) a year, plus the occasional small set.

I don't really play with them like I did as a kid, and I love them too much to take them apart and build my own stuff. I'm more of a collector/display person than a player/builder. If I had thousands of dollars to spare I'd love to buy the huge quantity of bricks necessary to build my own stuff, but alas, I don't.

I know there are a few other AFOLs on the board, and the Lego movie may have awakened some other DLPs to Lego's awesomeness. So I thought I'd make a thread for general discussion of sets and also any original creations you've made/seen.

So:

What sets do you have?
What sets do you want?
What themes are your favourites?
What sets/themes would you like to see in the future?
Do you make any creations of your own?
Have you seen any awesome creations on the internet?

I'll post my answers as a separate post.

---------- Post automerged at 04:46 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:20 PM ----------

What sets do you have?

I only have four sets (since my reawakening). I really need to go through my old Lego, look up instructions online and rebuild what I can, but sorting the pieces would be a nightmare. Not to mention all the missing pieces XD

The biggest set I have, and one that I absolutely love, is the Medieval Market Village. Here it is, sitting on my parents' window sill back in Wales:



I just love this set. The detail and styling are just great.

The other sets I have are significantly smaller, and all LotR sets. I think they'll go rather well with the market village (which can be Bree) when I take them back with me to the UK:



In that picture you have the Orc Forge, Gandalf Arrives and the Council of Elrond. I've got to say, I absolutely love the Gimli minifig.

I now have most of the LotR minifigs I really wanted, though I'm still missing an Aragorn (don't care too much about Boromir, Legolas or the other Hobbits).

What sets do you want?

On the wishlist of sets I'd love to get but will probably never buy due to price and/or discontinuation:

Ewok Village



Diagon Alley



Orthanc



Helm's Deep



Metalbeard's Sea Cow



And all of the modular buildings:



However, as I said, those are really all out of my price range.

Realistically, what sets?

There are three sets that I'm trying to decide between at the moment for this year's "big purchase".

The first among them is the Parisian Restaurant, one of the modular buildings:



On the plus side it's visually stunning, an interesting build, incredibly detailed inside and out, has a great brick selection, and a low price/brick. On the downside it's out of sync with the medieval theme which is my preference, and is rather beyond my price range. It's only because it's so much cheaper than the other modular buildings that I'm considering it all at (a smart investor would buy it to sell a few years after it's discontinued).

Option two is An Unexpected Gathering:



It's cheapish, fits the theme of my other sets, and I love green and brown bricks (also grey and sand, but none of those here). However, it's smaller than I'd have liked for my so-called "big set".

Option three is Pirate Ship Ambush:



This one is a bit bigger, has Aragorn, and is still within my price range. Plus, boats are cool. But I'm not sure if I actually like the look of this boat in particular. The side is too low.

Notably, I could get both of the LotR ones as the same price, more or less, as the Parisian cafe. But I'd still have ~1000 fewer bricks!

Alternatively, I could pay an elevated price for the discontinued Helm's Deep. It's £130, the same price as the Parisian restaurant, but again has 1000 fewer bricks. But then you always pay more for licensed Lego, and I love the theme a lot more.

HUM... to be continued.

---------- Post automerged at 05:09 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:46 PM ----------

Skipping to the last question as the answers to the others are obvious from the above.

Have you seen any awesome creations on the internet?

Loads, but there's one in particular I feel is amazing:



It's just mind blowing. The detail and scale... I dread to think much much the bricks cost for it lol. The full thread detailing its construction is here.

 

What sets do you have?
My collection as of ~mid 2012, since then I've obtained a few uncompleted sets. It's about 130 sets strong and counting. I\ve also have about 50 Exo-Force and Bionicles that I'd like to sell on ebay or bricklink.

What sets do you want?
My wanted list. Mostly Space, Castle and Pirates pre 2000.

What themes are your favourites?
Dragon Knights,
Ice Planet 2002
Launch Command

What sets/themes would you like to see in the future?
While the latest sets were getting better (after the travesty that 1998+ were) I still prefer the older sets (now that I'm on my own I'll buy those sets that I was denied all those years ago ).

Do you make any creations of your own?
From time to time, mostly I toy with Technic electric engines and build myself some crane, cable carts, tanks etc...

Have you seen any awesome creations on the internet?
Anything by this guy.

If anyone else around here is interested in older sets (or just wants to obtain missing parts) - there's this great lego market bricklink. Find your set of choice, see the inventory number for missing parts, create your wanted list of parts/minifigs/instructions/sets and someone ought to have what you need. I've got about 15kg of leftover parts to go through, catalogue and post over there. You can find me by my username

 

Man, I had the Ice Station when I was younger. So awesome. Of course, I always wanted the older stuff that my brother had, because when I was younger what was cool was determined by my older brother, but I see now that Ice Planet was great.

That's a nice site to keep track of what sets you have. I'll have to go through and see if I can find/remember all my old stuff!

 

It's the only Ice Planet set I'm missing...


I even managed to obtain #1704 (limited edition, US only). Brick by brick.


There are two other sites I'd recomend to any LEGO collector:

Brick Instructions If you've lost or destroyed your building instructions.

Peeron. I've made a direct link to #1704 as an example. It's a useful site for checking set inventory and obtaining instructions. It's also connected to the Bricklink market as well as some wholeselers (bricks in bulks of 100 or 1000 for larger projects).

 

Here's my collection:

http://brickset.com/sets/ownedby-Taure

I think I got everything. No doubt if I tried to build all of that now, there would be innumerable missing pieces.

 

I just watched the LEGO movie last weekend and had already resolved to find my old sets... this thread is even further motivation. I never followed the instructions, though, always was more interested in creating things myself. I'll try to post some pictures soon!

 

I haven't seen the film yet, but in a year or two when I'm living in my own place (most likely with my girlfriend) I'm probably going to start building/collecting again.

Until then, I've played about half of the games and really enjoy them. I've not built or bought any sets in quite a long time since I gave over several containers that were 2-3 cubic feet a piece and full to the top to my younger brother.

Looking at this stuff linked here is so cool though

 

I want this:



and this:



Also the LEGO games are awesome. I personally played the Star wars and Harry Potter ones. Tried playing the Movie game... but it just fell flat what whit not using lego animation but inserting film footage into the game.

 

I was a huge fan back in the day. Hell, I imagine that if I got my legos out, I'd still be a huge fan. I never had any of the kits though, other than one big ass battleship one. I just had thousands of the "regular ones" that came in the big buckets and freestyled.

 

That's pretty much all I want. I'm not exactly "reawakened" with Lego, but someone got me a Millennium Falcon "midi-scale" set a while ago and this has made me want a big-ass Star Destroyer like in those pics. I have no idea where I'd put it, but I don't care.

If they had one I'd like a Normandy SR-2 set from Mass Effect as well.

 

Like this?

Also

1)Hang the Destroyers from your ceiling.
2)Hum the Imperial March every time a girl asks why they're hanging from your ceiling.
3)If she laughs, she's a keeper, if she doesn't....well....her lack of faith and all that.
4)???????
5)Profit?

 

So, I just finished working my way through the Lego back catalogue on Brickset, selecting all the ones that I really like (and don't have). Here's the list.

It's only 76 sets, but they're generally big ones, so the RRP of the lot comes to around $6000, lol. And that's RRP, mind -- most of them are discontinued so you pay a lot more if you want them.

It would come out as 62307 pieces (plus the 7755 pieces I already own).

In addition to the obvious sets (ones already mentioned above, LotR/Hobbit, big sets that absolutely everyone wants like the Imperial Flagship), these are the highlights of my "most wanted" list:

The Temple of Anubis



Came out near the end of my Lego period as a kid. Always wanted it but by that point I was moving onto other things like video games and didn't want to waste a birthday with Lego. Have always loved Egyptian themed stuff though.

Incidentally, those are printed bricks, not stickers. Which is why the set is now very expensive...

And then there's:

Galactic Peace Keeper



Getting this would satisfy decades-old sibling rivalry lol. My brother had it, and I always coveted it with prejudice.

Anyhoo, enough about "if I won a lot of money" purchases. Let's turn to...

Your favourite childhood sets

I generally destroyed sets pretty sharpish after constructing them, as I was always about using Lego to tell stories. The vast majority of my mini figures were original characters formed from mixing and matching other minifigure parts, generally with very descriptive names (e.g. a badass robot who could beat anyone in a fight who was called "Single Combat").

As a result I don't really have any great attachment to sets in particular, with a few exceptions:

Fire Breathing Fortress:



It had a dragon, it had a wizard, it had knights, and it was a castle. So many invasions/sieges were played out here.

Sheriff's Lock-Up



At the time I wasn't a huge fan of the theme, but the set had huge play potential and loads of great unique pieces.

Super Nova II



Small, but the best spaceship ever.

 

Am I going to have to whip out my cock for this thread? I don't actually have a list of what I own, but I will work on it.

I posted this in a previous thread, but here's my tower of orthanc, my most recent mega-set build. http://imgur.com/a/VptYO

Here's my desk:
There's the tower of orthanc, the black pearl, and the queen anne's revenge on display. And a panda, because pandas are awesome.

Here's my super star destroyer sitting under my plasma. There's a better pic in the PYP thread back last march.

I estimate I own approximately 300 sets, with maybe 50 put together right now. Right now it's mostly just my space ships (I own nearly all the pre 2012 ones) and all the LotR sets (I own every one that was out when I last looked, so I know I'm missing a couple). I don't have anything particularly rare - no millenium falcon or 3rd edition Hogwarts, but I do have some sets that are 20+years old. I also have tons of old shopping catelogs from 1994 through around 2004, and it's a blast to look through them. I coveted the castle sets from that era (I used to have a huge kingdom set up, but room constraints made me take it apart), and have bought many of them, though I had a few back in the day like the fire-breathing fortress posted earlier. I have enough bricks to do an epic MOCs, but dont really have the space or time

 

Yeah but, you know, smaller. Also in Cerberus colors. It looked cooler in ME2 than 3, I thought.

Well where I'm living now you're not allowed to hang anything from the ceiling. Especially something big like that. Besides, I think I'd always be afraid of it falling and shattering all over the place.

 

Obviously there wasn't enough money for a camera that was better then a potato?

Also looks awesome.

 

Holy crap Orthanc is huge. I mean, I knew it was big, but that's the first picture I've seen with it situated in a room rather than against a white background.

Wow.

 

The sprog has a dozen Technic and three Mindstorms sets (though the controller went bad on one).

You need at least two of the latter, else your robots can't battle one another (totally lame).

 

All the money was spent on Lego, obviously.

 

Well, at least Lego has amazing resale value (so long as you keep it in good condition). So you can justify it to yourself in the same way you would buying a house XD

 

Bukay, I think that was the only one I had of that set. The Station, that is. Still, it was pretty awesome indeed.