My 5 year old is in full on Lego mode, and we love building things together. I was the same as a kid. Shopping for his Christmas presents, I came across some truly amazing stuff. I guess I'd have to share, right? SWMBO has been warned.
The want is very, very strong.
And THIS. This wins all the things:
That's right, count the windows. You know you will.
My favorite thing about my Legos was that I had all of these shock absorbers and joints and wheel options. A full toolbox full of them. I would make all kinds of off-road trucks and race cars with working suspension and steering. I used to look at cars and try to duplicate how things worked.
Looking at sets today, out of the hundreds in the store I saw only one with shocks. I was also in sticker shock at how pricey even basic sets have become! Clearly they are available somewhere based on this image I found, bu all my store carries is movie-tie ins.
I hope my 5 year old gains an interest, but for now, I am happy with his dinosaur phase because it is much cheaper.
Used LEGO runs about $10/lb. Just saying.
My kids love legos but everything comes in kits now. I remember having buckets of 5000 peices to build with. Closest we have found too that is accessory packs of 500 but its damned exspensive these days.
There's a 790 piece kit. I don't remember a 5000 piece kit. It's never been cheap.
I've been into Technic since before it was available in North America. My little nephew is destroying all of my vintage Technic stuff, but hey. It's a toy. Like pinchvalve, I used to build working models of various things. And you'll find that the addition of 3D modeling tools has really, really pushed the boundaries of what people can do with it.
Personally, I've built the Lego camper. Along with a few of the big recent kits, such as a mechanized loader, the F40, an F1 car and a bunch of smaller ones. For car guys, the current speed champion series is really good value - I have a Porsche 917, 918, Audi R20 and a full pits for them along with a V8 McLaren F1 car. The 917 in particular is excellent.
There's been a revolution in how people build this stuff with "studless construction". Can't say I'm able to do it myself, but it's why the new stuff looks so sleek. Lots of clever little tricks.
I've had the chance to play with a finished GT3 and it's HUGE. I'm not a fan of the kits that sketch out the shape of the car, personally. I'm more excited about the Caterham. I'm pretty sure one is going to be waiting under the tree for me...
Appleseed wrote: Used LEGO runs about $10/lb. Just saying.
Thanks for that; lego by the pound returns some good results on eBay! I had no idea. That seems really cheap. I know where I'll be buying some stocking stuffers for Christmas!!
Lego has never, ever been cheap. I remember blowing $35 of allowance money on a small/medium Technic kit when I was 12 .. that was 28 years ago. That was huge money for a 12 year old then. Equivalent to about $80 now. People think back to prices when they were a kid and forget to adjust for inflation.
There's a Lego reseller in our little town. I try not to go in there, it could end badly for me.
In reply to Appleseed:
Oh man, thanks for that, I just spent 45min online after googling "used lego"
A few months ago I came across a listing on the list of craig for "lego by the bucket." It was pretty close to the house... I ended up not buying anything because, well, before that I never knew lego could SMELL. I mean, dead fish in a used diaper smell. I think the seller was so nose deaf that he couldn't comprehend why it was a problem!
In reply to ManhattanM (fka NY535iManual):
Yikes. Maybe that's why some of the eBay sellers are very specific that their lego has been "cleaned" and "sanitized." If it did come stinking, I've heard putting it in a mesh bag in the top rack of the dishwasher can work to clean it. No experience with that but did use it to clean the keys off an IBM keyboard successfully.
I'm sure soaking them for a night or two in a bucket of bleach mix would work too.
Maybe they'd all come out white and I could make something that was color coordinated for once.
Keith Tanner wrote: a V8 McLaren F1 car.
Did they make a V8 one too? The MP4-29 is a V6 Hybrid.
My young son is really into it. I'm am but currently not since they are expensive, pieces are easy to lose, those mini figures be damned (bully trade at school or YMCA) equals upset kid wanting a new set because mini figures are gone/stolen/lost or traded. Kudos to Lego's for having profit margins better than Apple. Who knew?
The Nat Geo Megafactories episode on Legos is way cool and impressive. All those Megafactories shows I've seen are pretty cool actually.
red_stapler wrote:Keith Tanner wrote: a V8 McLaren F1 car.Did they make a V8 one too? The MP4-29 is a V6 Hybrid.
My bad, then. I thought it was pre-hybrid, but it may be from the first hybrid year. Regardless, it's a really cool little set.
Sine_Qua_Non wrote: My young son is really into it. I'm am but currently not since they are expensive, pieces are easy to lose, those mini figures be damned (bully trade at school or YMCA) equals upset kid wanting a new set because mini figures are gone/stolen/lost or traded. Kudos to Lego's for having profit margins better than Apple. Who knew?
If you have a Lego store nearby, you can get a set of three custom minifigs for $10. I got some extra pit crew for my Audi pits.
Technic is what became of the Expert Builder Series. That stuff was amazing.
What was the short lived line of scale looking models they had in late 80s? I lusted so hard over the white semi with the red and blue stripes.
They have boxes of lego at all the local Wal Marts.. they hide them, tho, since they make more money if you buy a $20 Star Wars lego set than a $30 box of generic lego.. i was disappointed that they no longer come inside a case shaped giant plastic lego block..
Robbie wrote: I'm sure soaking them for a night or two in a bucket of bleach mix would work too. Maybe they'd all come out white and I could make something that was color coordinated for once.
I bought 3 gallon bags of Lego from a garage sale this fall (I always keep an eye out for them, but rarely find any Lego at garage sales...). I have two nieces who LOVE Lego and had a huge bucket with all of the pieces from kits they'd gotten that they just built whatever they wanted out of, so I figured I'd give them some more for Christmas.
I Googled how to clean them, and picked up a couple of mesh lingerie bags and sorted out the pieces that were too big, not plastic (like sails, ropes, etc.), and put it all through the washing machine and then put the bags out in the sun to dry (turning them over frequently). Worked great- they came out squeaky clean.
Appleseed wrote: What was the short lived line of scale looking models they had in late 80s? I lusted so hard over the white semi with the red and blue stripes.
Model Team...? I had the rig and a red/white generic F1-ish open wheeler.
My oldest has all of the race cars from the Speed Champions, I so far have talked myself out of taking the 917 to my office.
I got this one for me: 
gave it to my wife and said your Christmas shopping is done.
I was just in our local lego shop. Its an amazing place. They also sell misc lego pieces by the bag for about $15/bag, which doesn't seem bad.
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