06.20.11
So I bought some legos…
Legos are one of the toys I always loved playing with as a kid. They were usually the most exciting thing under the christmas tree and one of the most played with toys in my closet. They are also very expensive. One of the biggest advantages of growing up and getting a job is being able to afford things though, and a few weeks ago I realized that I could now afford legos. Lots of legos. After two weeks of shopping on eBay, I now have about 65lbs of them. Ebay is nice because you can get bulk lots, instead of sets. Sets tend to cost about $20 a pound, where you can get bulk for $5-7 per pound. Since I wanted bulk lots with lots of castle pieces (which are highly desirable) I ended up paying an average of $6.10 for mine.
The first thing I did upon receiving my legos was to rebuild some of the more complete sets that were in the pieces. The spider, offroad vehicle and submarine seen in the pictures are three of these. Of course, the main thing I wanted the bricks for was to build my own creations (MOCs), and first off is a castle! I’ve never built anything large with legos before, so I’m learning a lot about what designs work well and what don’t as I build. I started with only the most basic idea for the castle; my next one will be designed rather than just thrown together, but I wanted to start simple.
1 – The start of my castle’s rocky base. On the left. I was already planning for a den/cave of some sort.
2 and 3 – building the dragon’s lair. I ended up replacing two of the cliff blocks inside with “mossy” versions, as I ran out of cliff blocks to use on the outside.
4, 5 and 6 – a rough outline of the cliff’s base. The individual cliff blocks will be moved as I actually build it in. It takes a TON of gray blocks to even just fill in between the cliffs. I’m amazed at the size of the collections of the people who build without cliff blocks. The inside cliff blocks are just supports, so I used blocks of odd colors and ones with stickers on them there.
1 and 2 – The dungeon of the castle. Used a ton of black bricks, as I didn’t want to be able to see the cliff blocks around it when it was done.
3 to 6 – Finishing building the outer cliff, and using black plates to cover the top. I chose black just because it was the only color where I even began to have enough plates. Even with 65lbs of blocks, I continually run short on certain things.
1 to 4 – Building the pathway up. There will be a drawbridge connecting the two cliffs at the top. I’m nearly out of dark gray bricks now, so the other side of the pathway will be filled in with whatever leftovers I can find. My camera really doesn’t like it when I take pictures with the lamp shining on the legos.
At this point, my castle weighs 10.8 lbs and has roughly 3000 pieces in it; 5 times as many as my largest official lego castle. And almost all of them are dark grey. Fun!
My cat doesn’t like legos. When you dump them out, it makes terrifying sounds. Here, he shows his mastery of the dreaded legos, while also showing his love of boxes.
Legos – sorted. This took about two days. Some of my legos arrived pre-sorted, but most were all mixed together. I sorted by type and color. If you have ever done inventory, this is a lot like that; only everything is all mixed together to start with.
I’ll update again when the castle is done or near done!