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LEGO |OT6| We Only Build in Black. And Sometimes Very Dark Grey.

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What is LEGO?

LEGO (trademarked in capitals as LEGO) is a line of construction toys manufactured by the Lego Group, a privately held company based in Billund, Denmark. The company's flagship product, Lego, consists of colorful interlocking plastic bricks and an accompanying array of gears, minifigures and various other parts. Lego bricks can be assembled and connected in many ways, to construct such objects as vehicles, buildings, and even working robots. Anything constructed can then be taken apart again, and the pieces used to make other objects. The toys were originally designed in the 1940s in Denmark and have achieved an international appeal, with an extensive subculture that supports Lego movies, games, video games, competitions, and four Lego themed amusement parks.
Source Article





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The Lego Group began in the workshop of Ole Kirk Christiansen (7 April 1891 – 11 March 1958), a carpenter from Billund, Denmark, who began making wooden toys in 1932. In 1934 his company came to be called "Lego", from the Danish phrase leg godt, which means "play well".
It expanded to producing plastic toys in 1947. In 1949 Lego began producing the now famous interlocking bricks, calling them "Automatic Binding Bricks". These bricks were based largely on the patent of Kiddicraft Self-Locking Bricks, which were released in the United Kingdom in 1947. Lego modified the design of the Kiddicraft brick after examining a sample given to it by the British supplier of an injection-molding machine that the company had purchased. The bricks, manufactured from cellulose acetate, were a development of traditional stackable wooden blocks that locked together by means of several round studs on top and a hollow rectangular bottom. The blocks snapped together, but not so tightly that they required extraordinary effort to be separated.
The Lego Group's motto is det bedste er ikke for godt which means 'only the best is good enough'. This motto was created by Ole Kirk to encourage his employees never to skimp on quality, a value he believed in strongly. The motto is still used within the company today. The use of plastic for toy manufacture was not highly regarded by retailers and consumers of the time. Many of the Lego Group's shipments were returned after poor sales; it was thought that plastic toys could never replace wooden ones.
By 1954 Christiansen's son Godtfred Kirk Christiansen had become the junior managing director of the Lego Group. It was his conversation with an overseas buyer that struck the idea of a toy system. Godtfred saw the immense potential in Lego bricks to become a system for creative play but the bricks still had some problems from a technical standpoint: their locking ability was limited and they were not very versatile. In 1958 the modern brick design was developed but it took another five years to find the right material for it. The modern Lego brick was patented at 1:58 p.m on January 28, 1958;bricks from that year are still compatible with current bricks.
Source Article
Shamelessly stolen from Wetwired's OP for the last Lego thread.





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Click the logo to be taken to the Lego home page for the theme.



All currently available Lego themes





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In addition to all the regular themes, Lego also has sets and sub themes aimed at adult fans of Lego (AFOL) and those with deeper pockets.



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Ultimate Collector Series
Once reserved for just Star Wars, the UCS series has branched out into Super Hero territory and beyond in the past couple of years. Featuring absolutely massive and intricate builds, these sets are made to be displayed with pride.
They are also on the pricier side, ranging anywhere from $200-$500+ a pop.



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Modular Buildings: Prices range from $150-$300 MSRP
Released at a rate of one per year for the last several years, the modular buildings are designed to mimic buildings seen on a normal downtown street. Beginning with Cafe Corner, a new building was released each year to keep the street growing. Beginning with Green Grocer (now OOP), the buildings started to feature extensive interior details. Like the UCS sets, these tend to spike in price once going out of print.
These sets also feature a fantastic price per brick ratio, as sets average 2000+ pieces for only $150-$200. The newest Modular, Assembly Square, was their biggest and most expensive yet.



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Lego Creator Expert: Prices range from $80 MSRP and up
From miniature modular buildings to the Ferrari. From Winter Cottages to Tower Bridge. These sets, usually identified by their blue boxes, are timed exclusives to Lego stores and feature very detailed builds and high piece counts. These sets also spike in price in the after market after going out of print.





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One of the most iconic pieces of Lego, and what helps drive the collector craze. Not only do many sets come with unique mini figures, but Lego also releases a line of unique figures. Each series consists of 16 different figures, and it is a mystery as to what you get in each package.

Or is it? Many figure out tricks to decipher which figure is in which bag. One method is to know the dot code that is embossed on the packaging itself. This one is a bit trickier than the good ole feel method. Just feel the bag to figure out which figure is inside. The trick is to feel for unique pieces to certain figures, such as the unique wings that are on the Man Bat figure show above, or Santa's sack of toys. Is it an exact science? No, but it will help you get the figures you want to complete your collection.
There is also an active community in here for trading figures among users.



Wanting to display your mini figures? Our very own Wetwired, Lego Nut Extraordinaire has one of the coolest methods for displaying your collection:
Wetwired's Flickr Gallery of Minifigures

The frames are IKEA Ribba Frames.
 


What is the VIP program? It is a program at LEGO stores and on LEGO.com where you earn points for every dollar spent. For every 100 points, you get $5 in credit to use later at a LEGO store or on LEGO.com. Basically a free 5% rebate to use later.
Occasionally (usually October and March), LEGO runs double VIP days, where you earn 10% back instead of 5%. This is a great time to buy tons of stuff and accumulate points to redeem later.

In addition to earning points to use later, VIPs also sometimes enjoy exclusive sets like the wonderful Mini Modulars, and also get early access to new sets. This year VIPs were allowed early access to Palace Cinema, Tower of Orthanc, Ewok Village, and others.

TLDR: It pays to be a VIP member. And it is FREE.




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Below is one of the single most useful things you can own if you are into Lego.
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The new and improved Lego Brick Separator. You can buy it on its own, but over the last year Lego has been putting them in most moderately expensive sets, so it is easy to amass a collection of them.


What can you do with them?

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Easily separate bricks. Whether it be plates, bricks, or jumper plates.


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Use the flat edge to pop flat tile pieces off. Great when disassembling the Modular series.


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Use the technic peg at the top of the tool to remove axles and pegs.


But for the ultimate use of them, you need two of them for this dirty little secret:
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Use two to pull apart plates that are together, including the ultra annoying 1x2 tiles stacked on each other.




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So, now that you have amassed a large collection of plastic bricks, how do you store them? And how do you sort them?

There is no perfect or official way to sort your collection. But there are several popular methods for keeping your stash of bricks organized and neatly out of the way (to avoid fights from significant others).


1) Sort by type, not by color. If is far easier to find a red 1x1 brick in a sea of randomly colored 1x1 bricks than it is to find that brick in a sea of identically colored bricks of all sizes.
-Exception: If you have significant quantities of one particular color of a certain type of brick. It usually works out better to make a separate stash for that one brick in that one color. You will know when you get to that point. This is the preferred method of Wetwired and some others on here.

2) Organize bins by type: this is an extension of the above idea. Keep all your 1x? bricks separated in their own area, and all your 2x? bricks separated in another. Labeling your drawers/bins with what style (1x? tiles, 1x? bricks, 2x? bricks, wheels, windows, etc) makes it easier to find the parts you need quickly. Having a drawer with a pocket for wheels, and a pocket for 1x2 plates while your 1x3 plates are in another drawer just adds confusion.

However, once you hit a certain size to your collection, why not separate by both color and piece? Many GAF members have stuff sorted by color, but in each color bin it is sorted by piece.

It really is all about what works best for you. These are all merely suggestions to get you started down the road of sorting and storage. What works for one member may not work for others.

Again, it is all personal preference. Some prefer to keep their sets separate and in Ziploc bags. Some like to lump their entire collection together.

The three most popular methods (outside of custom cabinets for those lucky people) are:

Stanley Sortmaster
Small, stackable bins with adjustable pockets inside. Easy to stack in a corner or slide under the bed. Also fairly inexpensive, and easy to keep buying more as your collection grows.


Plastic storage drawers
Small, shallow, and easy to put on a table. These are clean and out of the way, and easy to label. The only issue is if you want to move the cabinets. The backs are usually open, so tilting the cabinet can result in pieces spilling out. However, if you don't move the bins much, these are very clean and easy to organize pieces.


Third is to use lots of these guys:

Separate containers for each piece type (or however else). This is nice because you can pull out only what you need, and if you need a larger bin you just dump your smaller one into the larger one and can keep expanding. Easily labelled, and cheap to buy as well. These are also nice to use when building a new set. I particularly like dumping a bag into a separate bin. It keeps things organized like they came in the box, but I still get to dig for pieces like all the psychos that mix them all.

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I have recently added Stack-On sorting bins. They can easily be found at hardware stores or online.

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The 12x12 Sterilite drawers are also very handy. Inside are the Ziploc brand plastic food containers in different sizes. Only thee Ziploc ones seem to fit perfectly though, and should be the shorter height ones.


Again, there is no perfect solution. You gotta do what feels right for you, and what you can do with whatever space you have in your home.

A gallery of my storage methods.

Or take a gander at Ryuuroden’s awesome storage drawers.

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The best thing about Lego is the infinite replay ability of it all. You can take a set apart and rebuild it, or you can take it to its logical conclusion and begin creating your own sets. This is referred to in fan circles as MOCing.
Links to galleries are provided as well. Thank you to the posters that wanted to share!


Wetwired's genius at work:
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He even got it made into an actual set!

Dark Knight Rises Batcave by Brent Waller, on Flickr

Some of Wetwired's work on display.

He almost got an X-Files set made, but it failed the LEGO Ideas inspection.

Mulder and Scully with Mulder and Scully! by Brent Waller, on Flickr
Even if it didn’t get made into a set, it still got the seal of approval from the people that really mattered.

My Bookstore MOC:
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Gallery of images of the Bookstore

My Steampunk Airship MOC (which Ryuuroden will shame by turning the idea up to 11 in 2016.)
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Dwarfing the Sea Cow

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Oh, and I have a remote for it. :)


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Gallery of my Halloween diorama for 2013, which utilizes many Monster Fighters sets.

Halloween 2015 MOC
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Ryuuroden’s amazing work:
A gallery of Ryuuroden’s MOCs

His comically massive Orthanc MOC.
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There will be no dawn for men!

Kotaku reporting on his ridiculously awesome work.


SiegfriedFM’s brilliance at play:
Neo Classic Pirates: Black Seas Barracuda
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Shaana
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Author's home
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These sets are ones that are usually very well regarded by many of us here on GAF. Many I will personally recommend, and others I have not secured yet but come highly recommended by other users on here. Links and prices are for LEGO USA.






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There are obviously many more that come recommended by users on here. Feel free to ask for other suggestions from all the fine people here.



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There are additional waves of Batman sets due to release this year, as well as movie tie in sets for Justice League, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, Spider-Man: Homecoming, and Pirates of the Caribbean.

Rumored UCS or Expert sets include a massive POTC ship, carousel, Star Wars Snowspeeder, and a new revision to the UCS Millennium Falcon.





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Minifig or Minifigure - The official name for the little LEGO men and women.
MOC - My Own Creation, the term used in the community to describe your LEGO creations.
Stud - The name given to the little protruding round circles on the top of LEGO bricks.
AFOL - Adult Fan of LEGO
TFOL - Teenage Fan of LEGO
TLC and TLG - The LEGO Company and The Lego Group respectively.





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(Click the pics for purchase links)
Stuff for kids and adults. Some contain exclusive mini figs inside (great for collectors and thieves), while some feature great building ideas and MOCs that many of us cannot begin to dream of creating ourselves.













LEGO BATMAN, OUT!
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And for those that might be jumping into LEGO GAF for the first time, a fair warning:
We are all enablers in here. Your wallets will not be spared.
 

Plum

Member
New thread time! I'm going to start building the Parisian Restaraunt in celebration...

...I was going to anyway I didn't need an excuse.
 
I got a couple of the LEGO Batman minifig bags and I'm pretty concerned that this is only the beginning, especially with the movie out Friday.
 
I walked into a 99 cent store because I work next to one and buy my energy drinks there and there was the lego dimension figures, so....I bought every version they had despite not owning the game. Really fun
 
Saw The LEGO Batman Movie, it's excellent. Not as excellent as The LEGO Movie, but there's not much that is really. The cameos (if you can call them that) feel a bit more forced in this than in Emmet's adventure, so the plot can feel a bit disjointed. But then who really cares when you're laughing that much?

Noticed some changes between the movie sets and the retail ones, like springs on Joker's Lowrider in place of elastic bands.

Overall though, probably going to end up buying everything. Knowing how the sets fit into the story has made a lot of previosly meh sets quite desirable now.
 

ghostmind

Member
Sounds like Walmart and a 3rd party contractor massively dropped the ball with the "LEGO Batman Movie Experience", with many of the 600 Walmarts that had been listed as participating having no knowledge of the event, nothing to show, no activities, and none of the giveaways. Needless to say, people aren't happy and LEGO has apologized on Facebook.

A lesson to be learned here - stick with TRU, at least they run these events with their own staff, and get it right most of the time. Walmart just doesn't care.
 

Taisaijin

Member
It Begins! Excellent OP as usual.

Pretty sure we'll be forced to move on to OT 7 as soon as the new 10179 pics leak.
 
Brilliant OP - love it

Bought a £3 Cinderella Poly yesterday so I have a Cinderella for her castle but not sure if mixing a mini doll with the minifigs in the set is pure sacrilege?
 

Andrin

Member
Great OP Phonciple!
Just one small nitpick: when you copied over the text about the VIP-program from an earlier OP you forgot to change some things.

In addition to earning points to use later, VIPs also sometimes enjoy exclusive sets like the wonderful Mini Modulars, and also get early access to new sets. This year VIPs were allowed early access to Palace Cinema, Tower of Orthanc, Ewok Village, and others.

Might want to update that, or people will think that they still have a shot at picking up Orthanc or the Ewok Village ;)
 
I keep forgetting this community exists, so time to subscribe!

I have the Tie Striker to build, but I'm not sure I have enough space. Anyone have any thoughts on the build quality?
 
Just been getting back into LEGO again. Haven't gotten bit by the bug where I've gone crazy buying again but I picked up the Millenium Falcon, Clay Face, and the giant Ant-Man set thanks to recommendations here. Had a blast putting them together the other week.
 
Great OP Phonciple!
Just one small nitpick: when you copied over the text about the VIP-program from an earlier OP you forgot to change some things.



Might want to update that, or people will think that they still have a shot at picking up Orthanc or the Ewok Village ;)
Doh!
 

Ponn

Banned
Friendly reminder those excited for Batman movie and just finding thread Lego stores and Lego Shop @ Home web store are running great promos this month.

Free with any purchase Lego Batman Movie posters. A new one every week, first week of Harley Quinn still available. Next 3 are Batman, Batgirl and Robin. Not sure in which order.

Feb. 10th is a free Batman Movie polybag with 2 figs. Tears of Clown Batman and Disco Batman, free with any $75 purchase.
 
Brilliant OP - love it

Bought a £3 Cinderella Poly yesterday so I have a Cinderella for her castle but not sure if mixing a mini doll with the minifigs in the set is pure sacrilege?

No way. I mix yellow heads, flesh heads, minidolls and even a few Fabuland.

I went and saw Moana/Vaiana and it was amazing, so now I'm going to pick up the boat set. Although I will wait to see if the promos kick in tomorrow.

Also, Phon, would you mind adding my Ideas link to the OP? It's gotten some serious traction through the Gaming side thread, but some more can't hurt:

https://ideas.lego.com/projects/166219
 
Got a few of those Lego dimensions packs since they were only 99 cents. I don't even have the game, just wanted the figures and parts lol.
 

DrForester

Kills Photobucket
In reference to the OP title, I love that the LEGO Batman Batmobile has a single bright pink brick used in its construction.
 

magawolaz

Member
Happy new thread!

No way. I mix yellow heads, flesh heads, minidolls and even a few Fabuland.

I went and saw Moana/Vaiana and it was amazing, so now I'm going to pick up the boat set. Although I will wait to see if the promos kick in tomorrow.

Also, Phon, would you mind adding my Ideas link to the OP? It's gotten some serious traction through the Gaming side thread, but some more can't hurt:

https://ideas.lego.com/projects/166219
Supported, very nice. Have you tried posting it on reddit?
 

mu cephei

Member
I succumbed this Christmas, and finally admitted that the Lego I'd been buying for my niece was really so I could play with it. So she got me some for Christmas lol.

I like City/ City Jungle and Star Wars atm.
 

mclem

Member
From Brickset's review of the Belle BrickHeadz figure.

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If all of them go together this way, these will be a great way to stock up on a lot of those SNOT bricks that debuted with Brick Bank last year.

...did they have to put a pink brick where the brain would be?
 

Mengy

wishes it were bannable to say mean things about Marvel
I need to read this thread more often, I just forget to keep up with it. Strange seeing how I'm a huge Lego fanatic and I built stuff all the time.
 
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