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Buying legos

lowlylowlycooklowlylowlycook Registered User regular
edited March 2009 in Help / Advice Forum
So recently I've been building stuff out of Legos for my nephews and niece to play with. Between my old pieces and some they inherited from their other uncle/aunts they have a good number of pieces but IMO you can never have too many.

Since the very idea of following instructions and actually building whatever is pictured on the box is a dark heresy that needs to be purged from the world with fire, I'm pretty sure that buying most of the themed boxed sets isn't going to be the way to go.

Things I've considered:
  • Buying some "Creator" sets since these seem more generalized.
  • Buying sets that have been looted of mini-figs from Ebay or BrickLink. Seems you can save almost 1/2 the price on StarWars sets.
  • Buying bulk pieces from Ebay or BrickLink. Seems sort of risky and hard to spot deals.

I've also been playing around with Lego Digital Designer. Seems cool but I was wondering if anyone knows a good place where people share their creations. Also it seems like some of the pieces I used to use all the time are out of production. In particular pieces that consisted of two 2x6 plates hinged together seem to have been replaces with smaller bits that can be put together as a hinge. Also I don't see the large circular turning pieces.

Anyway, I hope some Lego fans here can lend me some expertise on how to best acquire more precious, precious bricks.

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    OrogogusOrogogus San DiegoRegistered User regular
    edited February 2009
    Is there a Lego store near where you live?

    http://stores.lego.com/en-US/default.aspx#

    There's one near my parents' home, and it was pretty neat. There was a thing where you could buy Legos by the cup, filling them from these bins in the back of the store.

    As far as I know, the most popular site for sharing creations is http://www.brickshelf.com/

    I'm also fond of this Lego Battletech site: http://www.brickcommander.com/

    Orogogus on
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    illigillig Registered User regular
    edited February 2009
    2nd on the Lego Store....

    I went to one on Long Island, and you could buy pieces in bulk by weight

    illig on
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    oncelingonceling Registered User regular
    edited February 2009
    I pick up bags of lego from Value Village here in my area. Sometimes you have to filter out some mega blocks and such but there's a lot of bulk lego available and the bags (about the size of a plastic shopping bag) are only a few dollars.

    As for sharing creations, they do that a LOT on the lego site itself, have you checked it out? Using LDD people upload a lot of stuff to the "Factory Creations" section of the lego site.

    onceling on
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    TerrendosTerrendos Decorative Monocle Registered User regular
    edited February 2009
    I check out The Brothers Brick occasionally to marvel at the ridiculous stuff some people make. Sometimes I wish I were that talented. It wouldn't be so good for sharing creations though, unless you're that talented.

    It has given me several ideas for stuff I wish I had the bricks to build, though.

    Terrendos on
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    lowlylowlycooklowlylowlycook Registered User regular
    edited February 2009
    Thanks for the advice so far, guys. There are 3, 3!, Lego stores in Chicago but that isn't exactly close. Maybe I'll make the trip sometime. Anyone know how the bulk prices at those compare to ordering parts from Lego.com?
    Terrendos wrote: »
    I check out The Brothers Brick occasionally to marvel at the ridiculous stuff some people make. Sometimes I wish I were that talented. It wouldn't be so good for sharing creations though, unless you're that talented.

    It has given me several ideas for stuff I wish I had the bricks to build, though.

    Yeah, I would never even photograph anything I make, mostly because I can never be bothered to even try and control the colors I use.

    lowlylowlycook on
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    TerrendosTerrendos Decorative Monocle Registered User regular
    edited February 2009
    I used to try, but I'd always run out and give up, using anything I could.

    On the other side of things, I've been working on a couple of things in the Digital Designer to turn that around. One's a fancy modern bachelor pad. The other is a replica of the Crucio Siege Tank from Starcraft 2, but that one got stymied once I realized I'd never let myself build it unless it could actually transform and I can't figure out how to make the middle tread do whatever it's doing in the little transform-clip. Maybe if I took it back to an old-school Siege Tank I'd have an easier time.

    Terrendos on
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    LewieP's MummyLewieP's Mummy Registered User regular
    edited February 2009
    I've got lots of lego from car boot sales (yard sales?) and charity shops, I've also put ads on the intranet at work - I have shed-fulls of lego now (well, not literally, but several crates of lego, starting from duplo up to technics. I hate lego castle, though, far too annoying to put together.

    LewieP's Mummy on
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    FeralFeral MEMETICHARIZARD interior crocodile alligator ⇔ ǝɹʇɐǝɥʇ ǝᴉʌoɯ ʇǝloɹʌǝɥɔ ɐ ǝʌᴉɹp ᴉRegistered User regular
    edited February 2009
    You know you can order specific brick types and colors in bulk directly from lego.com, right?

    http://shop.lego.com/ByCategory/Department.aspx?d=304

    You can also buy "brick buckets" from the above link, which are, just as they sound like, big buckets of mixed bricks.

    Feral on
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    lowlylowlycooklowlylowlycook Registered User regular
    edited February 2009
    Feral wrote: »
    You know you can order specific brick types and colors in bulk directly from lego.com, right?

    http://shop.lego.com/ByCategory/Department.aspx?d=304

    You can also buy "brick buckets" from the above link, which are, just as they sound like, big buckets of mixed bricks.

    In my last post I even asked about the price difference between ordering online and at the stores. Also the LDD program will even put together a shopping list of parts you used for ordering online. I think it would be easy to become addicted to making "mini" models with LDD then ordering the parts to make them though that.


    Anyway this right here:
    2702777743_c121aafa07.jpg
    is enough to make me feel shame as a Lego builder. What with it's carefully chosen colors and almost total lack of exposed knobs.

    In actuality it is the lifeboat for someone's recreation of the HMS Hood built to minifig scale.
    2934568744_fae2071379.jpg
    o_O

    lowlylowlycook on
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    BlindZenDriverBlindZenDriver Registered User regular
    edited February 2009
    I feel jealous!

    Here in Denmark where Lego is made you can buy it all over but it cost almost twice of what it does state side.

    I even got a newspaper to write about it and question Lego. They just said they charged what the market would carry. Normal for companies to do that but on the home turf. Damn.


    PS. There is also a model of Yamato som where. I think it is about 20 feet long and 3 feet wide!

    BlindZenDriver on
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    thisisntwallythisisntwally Registered User regular
    edited February 2009
    I feel jealous!

    Here in Denmark where Lego is made you can buy it all over but it cost almost twice of what it does state side.

    I even got a newspaper to write about it and question Lego. They just said they charged what the market would carry. Normal for companies to do that but on the home turf. Damn.

    this sounds like an opportunity for.... ARBITRAGE! How much does it cost to ship in bulk to Denmark?

    thisisntwally on
    #someshit
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    embrikembrik Registered User regular
    edited February 2009
    You can try BrickLink (unofficial Lego Marketplace). It's kinda like eBay for Legos.

    embrik on
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    lowlylowlycooklowlylowlycook Registered User regular
    edited February 2009
    I feel jealous!

    Here in Denmark where Lego is made you can buy it all over but it cost almost twice of what it does state side.

    I even got a newspaper to write about it and question Lego. They just said they charged what the market would carry. Normal for companies to do that but on the home turf. Damn.


    PS. There is also a model of Yamato som where. I think it is about 20 feet long and 3 feet wide!

    Long ago I read that people in Japan could fly to Hawaii and buy Japanese made Cameras and still come out ahead of buying them in Japan. And in America Hawaii would be considered a pretty expensive place to live.

    lowlylowlycook on
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    lowlylowlycooklowlylowlycook Registered User regular
    edited March 2009
    So Obs sent me the following PM:
    Where the professional Lego builders get their pieces

    www.bricklink.com

    [/thread]

    After looking around it seems pretty close to the truth.

    Now anyone have experience with both the official Lego Digital Designer and the unofficial LDRAW? How do they compare?

    lowlylowlycook on
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