LEGO and Other Building Block Systems.

[squirrelarmy]

There seems to be quite a lot of Lego fans on here so thought I’d start a thread where we can chat about it. 
 

I’ve got quite the collection and I’ve tinkered around with a few of my own designs too. 
 

This is something I’ve been working on since last year, I might try and get it designed before the Glastonbury festival takes place. 
 

 

I’ve also been slowly building a rather large collection of Star Wars ships and buildings. 
 

 

 

I’ve added to the collection since then but will resist the photo spam for now!

What else do people have?

 

Edited January 4, 2021 by squirrelarmy

[SheffJeff]

Fucking hell squirrel... that's a serious collection!  Kudos mate! Some serious time and money gone in there.

I have nothing close in comparison and sadly nowhere to put them so they're virtually all back in their boxes or living at my mums (apart from the Disney castle I bought my daughter which I had to put together myself as she's only 2).  When I eventually build my backgarden pub I'm gonna take serious inspiration from this. That star destroyer at the top is an absolute beast! 

[MrZigster]

2 hours ago, squirrelarmy said:

Set one up. @Ozanne @grumpyhack @RobertProsineckisLighter @SheffJeff @Tranquility of Solitude @Toilet Duck and I know he hasn’t commented but @crazyfool1 also has an interest.

Used to love Lego so much. Had tons of sets as a kid. It'd be worth a fortune now. Had the original Lego Family which I believe is sought after by collectors. My train set-up (with the old blue rails) used to fill the living room. I was particularly fond of a motorised set I had that only consisted of yellow and black bricks.

All got sold to pay towards a racing bike for a Christmas and Birthday combined present one year (think I was about 13/14), which I promptly crashed into a stationary car about a month after getting it.

One of my biggest regrets ever as an adult is not still having that Lego.

Pretty positive the last time I saw any Lego live in front of me was @crazyfool1 and his hat.

Edited January 5, 2021 by MrZigster

[MrZigster]

Cocked up the above post.

Used to love Lego so much. Had tons of sets as a kid. It'd be worth a fortune now. Had the original Lego Family which I believe is sought after by collectors. My train set-up (with the old blue rails) used to fill the living room. I was particularly fond of a motorised set I had that only consisted of yellow and black bricks.

All got sold to pay towards a racing bike for a Christmas and Birthday combined present one year (think I was about 13/14), which I promptly crashed into a stationary car about a month after getting it.

One of my biggest regrets ever as an adult is not still having that Lego.

Pretty positive the last time I saw any Lego live in front of me was @crazyfool1 and his hat.

[jump]

The Lego Pyramid stage is cool!

 

There's a comedian/actor Nick Offerman who does a joke in his stand up about how the sexiest thing him and his wife do is jigsaw puzzles (there was an exact punchline to it but I can't remember what it was) so me and my missus started doing a jigsaws because of that. Whilst she loves doing them now I'm bored of them and want to try doing Lego instead/for a change. I was looking at a few like the Batmobile, Jurassic Park and a bottle in a ship but they are fucking pricey!

 

 

Edited January 5, 2021 by jump

[Ozanne]

Looks awesome mate!

Does anyone know if there ever was any Star Trek Lego?

[1986]

I feel like the topic starts and ends with that first collection. Insanely good.

I have quite a lot but I've been in a perpetual state of buying and trying to sort into some sort of uber display in my spare room. Then covid happened so had to share the space with a desk for working. It's still ongoing.

Biggest sets I have are the ferris wheel (built) and the Nintendo (not built).

Also have a lot of Star Wars but haven't sprung for any of the big big sets yet. Mostly cus I like a mix of figs and ships and the cheaper ones cater to that better.

Also have every series of the collectable minifigs from series 11 onwards, including the non numbered series, Simpsons, HP etc.

6 minutes ago, Ozanne said:

Looks awesome mate!

Does anyone know if there ever was any Star Trek Lego?

Sadly not, think Lego's first licenced sets were Star Wars back in '99. Unless I've totally missed them they never did any Star Trek.

[squirrelarmy]

13 minutes ago, Ozanne said:

Looks awesome mate!

Does anyone know if there ever was any Star Trek Lego?

Megabloks has the license to produce Star Trek sets. They have made a large Enterprise set but hasn’t been available for sale for quite a while. You may be able to find one on ebay but like Lego once a set becomes discontinued the price rises rapidly. 
 

Normally you can find out of production sets quite easily from Chinese manufacturers. For whatever reason Star Trek doesn’t seem to be that popular in that market. 
 

I have a large Optimus Prime that isn’t Lego as they don’t have the license for Transformers and the build was quite a lot of fun. I will keep a look out for any Star Trek sets. 
 

[squirrelarmy]

8 minutes ago, 1986 said:

Also have a lot of Star Wars but haven't sprung for any of the big big sets yet. Mostly cus I like a mix of figs and ships and the cheaper ones cater to that better

Check out the recently released Cantina. I’ve just finished building it and it has a fantastic selection of minifigs and a couple of small speeders. I’m in the process of adding lights to that set and will post some pics once I’ve finished doing that. 

[1986]

2 minutes ago, squirrelarmy said:

Check out the recently released Cantina. I’ve just finished building it and it has a fantastic selection of minifigs and a couple of small speeders. I’m in the process of adding lights to that set and will post some pics once I’ve finished doing that. 

Its a beautiful set isnt it? I'll look forward to your pics.

There are some real one of a kind figs in that one but there are also a lot of repeats, don't need another version of New Hope Han and Luke, or C3PO and R2. I'd be all over the cantina customers though.

[1986]

14 minutes ago, squirrelarmy said:

Megabloks has the license to produce Star Trek sets. They have made a large Enterprise set but hasn’t been available for sale for quite a while. You may be able to find one on ebay but like Lego once a set becomes discontinued the price rises rapidly. 
 

Normally you can find out of production sets quite easily from Chinese manufacturers. For whatever reason Star Trek doesn’t seem to be that popular in that market. 
 

I have a large Optimus Prime that isn’t Lego as they don’t have the license for Transformers and the build was quite a lot of fun. I will keep a look out for any Star Trek sets. 
 

Do you have many non-Lego kits? The only other things i've dabbled in are the McFarlane Rick and Morty sets. Most are still boxed but the one I built just isnt Lego. I think i'm spoiled by the simplicity of their instructions, but the McFarlane set didnt even have stickers that fit the part they were supposed to go on. Kind of half assed.

[Brave Sir Robin]

1 hour ago, 1986 said:

Do you have many non-Lego kits? The only other things i've dabbled in are the McFarlane Rick and Morty sets. Most are still boxed but the one I built just isnt Lego. I think i'm spoiled by the simplicity of their instructions, but the McFarlane set didnt even have stickers that fit the part they were supposed to go on. Kind of half assed.

We've been experimenting with non-Lego kits from AliExpress for the mini-BSRs. Out of 4 sets the only issue has been one block with a lump on it, and that came off with a quick bit of sandpapering. Given how much cheaper they are, and the types of sets you can get - 2 of ours are long retired Scooby Doo sets - I think they're a great option. Perfectly compatible with the real thing.

[squirrelarmy]

5 minutes ago, Brave Sir Robin said:

We've been experimenting with non-Lego kits from AliExpress for the mini-BSRs. Out of 4 sets the only issue has been one block with a lump on it, and that came off with a quick bit of sandpapering. Given how much cheaper they are, and the types of sets you can get - 2 of ours are long retired Scooby Doo sets - I think they're a great option. Perfectly compatible with the real thing.

There are a lot of Lego purists who would rant like crazy at you for considering such a thing. 
 

In real terms it’s just not practical to stick to the Danish produced bricks. As an example, my Star Destroyer isn’t an official set. At just short of 12,000 pieces it’s ridiculously huge. The cost to buy the pieces separately would be well over £3,000 depending on being able to source the parts from as few places as possible. I picked the set up from a Chinese company for just over £300. There was a lot of work to do sorting parts and trying to decipher the instructions but the end product looks pretty good. The part quality is about 95% that of official Lego. 
 

For retired sets I don’t see an issue. My Super Star Destroyer would cost over £1,000 on the resale market now and that’s if you can find one. If you’re buying for kids who are likely to lose pieces anyway it’s worth saving some money. 
 

Where Lego does excel is the quality of their minifigs. For figure heavy sets it’s worth paying the extra for especially for new figs that haven’t been seen before. It also retains it’s resale value far more than bricks from other suppliers. Even the boxes in good condition retain a lot of value on the resale market. 

[fred quimby]

Over Christmas there was a good question on the radio on who built the most tyres in the world

 

The answer obviously is Lego, which I didn't get at the time

 

Great collection by the way. Son used to have a good one when younger, but has been sold now

[RobertProsineckisLighter]

13 hours ago, jump said:

The Lego Pyramid stage is cool!

 

There's a comedian/actor Nick Offerman who does a joke in his stand up about how the sexiest thing him and his wife do is jigsaw puzzles (there was an exact punchline to it but I can't remember what it was) so me and my missus started doing a jigsaws because of that. Whilst she loves doing them now I'm bored of them and want to try doing Lego instead/for a change. I was looking at a few like the Batmobile, Jurassic Park and a bottle in a ship but they are fucking pricey!

 

 

The Jurassic Park gates and T Rex are a really good build. My lad got them for his birthday and I ended up building most of it!

I'll get a photo tomorrow it's a beast 

[Copperface]

[RobertProsineckisLighter]

[RobertProsineckisLighter]

[RobertProsineckisLighter]

And my own Lego.. 

[squirrelarmy]

38 minutes ago, RobertProsineckisLighter said:

I like that JP set. Have you seen the custom jeep that someone designed to match the scale of the gates?

[RobertProsineckisLighter]

19 minutes ago, squirrelarmy said:

I like that JP set. Have you seen the custom jeep that someone designed to match the scale of the gates?

No I've not. I'll take a look and inform the child! 

[squirrelarmy]

8 minutes ago, RobertProsineckisLighter said:

No I've not. I'll take a look and inform the child! 

Handy link. https://bricktasticblog.com/blog/add-a-jeep-to-the-jurassic-park-gate/
 

This is why Lego is an amazing display item. If you don’t like something you can make it better!

[Padjeq]

Your Star Wars collection is impressive. I had the normal Millenium Falcon from a couple years ago. I dropped it on the floor and now it lives in pieces in a sainsburys bag. My main problem with Lego is I need to go for bigger builds each time, and I've run right out of space. I was almost glad when the falcon was obliterated, as it solved a problem. Taller, not wider sets, please lego!

My girlfriend bought me the Central Perk set. I had fun taking photos of it at the start of lockdown, then promptly got bored.

https://twitter.com/padje/status/1243188323906129921?s=20

https://twitter.com/padje/status/1243573259016253447?s=20

Maybe I'll do something with my Kwik-E-Mart next.

Edited January 7, 2021 by Padjeq

[Copperface]

Lego is always current

 

[squirrelarmy]

@Ozanne something that may interest you. Not an official set though. Hopefully they make instructions available at some point.