Question about collecting

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Mitchell78s
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Question about collecting

Post by Mitchell78s » Fri Aug 19, 2016 9:31 am

After buying some Lego at an estate sale I have decided to start collecting. Does anyone have any advice on what types are the best to start collecting? I'm new to this, so any ideas to help me start with be very much appreciated.

Thank you

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captainrex803
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Re: Question about collecting

Post by captainrex803 » Fri Aug 19, 2016 10:00 am

Lego Star Wars sets have a large following, and would be a good theme to begin collecting, especially sets with rare or uncommon Star Wars minifigures.
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Brick & Blue
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Re: Question about collecting

Post by Brick & Blue » Sun Aug 21, 2016 7:53 pm

Collecting as in leave in the box and never build and just collect money and vale? Super Heroes and Star Wars.

Actually collecting? Whatever you think is pretty. :)

lego the hutt
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Re: Question about collecting

Post by lego the hutt » Tue Aug 23, 2016 3:09 pm

Mitchell78s wrote:After buying some Lego at an estate sale I have decided to start collecting. Does anyone have any advice on what types are the best to start collecting? I'm new to this, so any ideas to help me start with be very much appreciated.

Thank you
I would recommend focusing one or just a few themes you enjoy. You will quickly learn that you can't buy everything due to cost or space etc. Decide what you want to focus on..

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Re: Question about collecting

Post by StClair » Tue Aug 23, 2016 7:37 pm

lego the hutt wrote:
Mitchell78s wrote:After buying some Lego at an estate sale I have decided to start collecting. Does anyone have any advice on what types are the best to start collecting? I'm new to this, so any ideas to help me start with be very much appreciated.

Thank you
I would recommend focusing one or just a few themes you enjoy. You will quickly learn that you can't buy everything due to cost or space etc. Decide what you want to focus on..
Great advice. I do collect things from multiple genres (others do too I'm sure) but some themes or genres I'm very selective about what items and minifigs I keep because it is so expensive to collect everything. Medieval and historic themes are my favorite. I've seriously limited myself to what I buy in the Star Wars theme. Only some of the most important characters (Han, Leia, Chewie, Luke, Ben, Darth Vader... ) and some of my favorites. There is no way I'll ever collect all of the Jedi characters ever created and I collect only enough "troopers" to build small scenes in the future. I collect most of the DC comic minifigs (I don't need every variant or even every character) but with Marvel (because of my budget) I've limited myself to only some of my favorite characters. For instance I had to have Hobgoblin and didn't really like the Ghostrider minifig so I sold Ghostrider and his bike. My son is confused about why I sell some minifigs and don't keep them all. Now if they expanded the Doctor Who theme I'm not sure if I could resist trying to collect them all (and armies of some) :-D

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Re: Question about collecting

Post by Neo » Wed Aug 24, 2016 12:14 am

Lego will sell different types of Lego in different parts of the world - this is called market localization.
For example, Lego will sell its soccer team mini figure sets only in Europe and its Asian Lunar new year sets only in Asia.

There are local -regional taste in Lego as well - in Europe - especially in Germany - Lego Technics is most popular While in the USA the Star Wars Lego Theme is most popular.

Lego mini figures is the most popular Lego reseller's market... but Lego mini figures are also the most boot legged (illegally copied) Lego market as well. Lego minifigures are also the biggest third party customization market - especially for realistic military mini figures since Lego has a marketing rule not to do realistic modern realistic military minifigure and sets..

Gender wise - Lego has been historically been oriented to boys but the new Lego theme Friends series is oriented for girls

Age wise - Lego Technics and Lego Robotics is for kids ages 12 and up while Duplo is for kids ages 3 and down. Lego Junior is for ages 3 to 5. Regular Lego is for ages 5 to 12 approximately. Dacta and Lego Education is the educational arm/type Ultimate Collector Series (UCS) and Creator master level sets are designed and priced for adult fans of Lego (AFOLs)

Professionally - If you are a teacher - you can get a discount or grant from Lego education. educational lego sets like "serious play" or dacta or robotics have educational material course work stuff that comes with it.

There are also Virtual bricks - you don't need to own Lego to build with Lego if you have a computer. There are two computer aided design programs that can help you build with virtual Lego (1) Lego digital designer or LDD and (2) Ldraw. both can be downloaded for free.

There is a Lego Train people types that buy, own, and setup mini figure scaled Lego Trains - often called L-Scale Trains or Lego Scale Trains.

There is also a legit third party market that supplements the Lego Robotic division


collecting Lego.helpful tips...
======================

1) Initially favor getting complete sets or creator classic sets because they are balanced so it is easier to build stuff with.

2) initially only buy in bulk when you can inspect the lego you are buying - buy lots that are only real Lego. When you find non-Lego parts in your bulk/estate lot - separate what you believe are non-Lego parts from what you are sure are your real Lego parts. Before throwing away your non-Lego part make sure they are non-Lego by posting the part on a forum for help or looking on the internet - Most Lego parts have the Lego name on them but some Lego parts like Technic connectors do not have the Lego brand name on them. Non Lego parts often don't connect or hold up very well compared to real Lego parts. Avoid buying from goodwill over the internet since a good portion of their bulk lots have non Lego. The absolute worst of the worst of Lego clones is best lock - avoid that stuff like the plague - best lock is bad stuff.


3) use peeron, bricklink, and wikipedia Lego databases and learn their way of classifying Lego parts.

4) For inspiration, the best Lego creations are often custom creations called my own creations or MOCs. The best way to see them live is to go to a Lego show like Brickworld or Brickfair Or see them on the internet websites via youtube flickr or mocpages or eurobricks.

5) the best way to hold a collect spare individual Lego parts is keep them sorted by color, by shape, by connection type, by function, and by theme. Keep sorted Lego in plastic ziplock bags - the size of the plastic ziplock bag can vary in size from a tiny jewelry ziplock bag to a 2.5 gallon ziplock bag. The best way to hold these ziplock bags are in a modular shelving system like the ones made by Iris, Sterlite, or Ikea. and finally to build from a sorted Lego collection very quickly - label your lego ziplock bags and shelving system

6) if and when you figure out how to store and display completed Lego models/mocs that you have collected that works for you - share it with the overall Lego community -- this is still something that is so unique that there is no wrong way of doing this.

7) if and when you build your own custom Lego models (mocs) share it with the overall Lego community either on youtube, flickr, mocpages, eurobricks, and toysnbricks.

8) the best way to learn about Lego is from other Lego fans. And one of the most interesting ways to do this is by joining a local Lego User group

9) the best way to jump start with Lego culture is to watch the DVD - A Lego Brickumentary (2014) OR read the book "The Cult of Lego" by John Baichtal and Joe Meno.


HTH
Walter Lee

Nosam111
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Re: Question about collecting

Post by Nosam111 » Tue Sep 06, 2016 5:53 pm

I think I might have a rare Darth maul mini figure I have looked at pictures of all the darth mauls and none of them look like mine and if anyone has any ideas of what this is let me know and I'm new so I don't know how to add a picture

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Re: Question about collecting

Post by Brick & Blue » Tue Sep 06, 2016 7:44 pm

Nosam111 wrote:I think I might have a rare Darth maul mini figure I have looked at pictures of all the darth mauls and none of them look like mine and if anyone has any ideas of what this is let me know and I'm new so I don't know how to add a picture
Any of these sets contain it?

http://brickset.com/sets/tag-Darth-Maul

Nosam111
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Re: Question about collecting

Post by Nosam111 » Tue Sep 06, 2016 8:28 pm

It looks like the original one except it has white teeth that are visible

Brick & Blue
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Re: Question about collecting

Post by Brick & Blue » Tue Sep 06, 2016 8:42 pm

Nosam111 wrote:It looks like the original one except it has white teeth that are visible
I think he is this one with his hood on....

http://brickset.com/minifigs/sw650/Dart ... gs-(75096)

Not overly rare, he was in a wide release set, however still $15-$20 on Bricklink.

Nosam111
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Re: Question about collecting

Post by Nosam111 » Tue Sep 06, 2016 9:08 pm

This is what it looks like
https://goo.gl/photos/YHqmWqX5qBt3Cq8H8

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