I've never sold any of my LEGO; definitely lost/broke pieces along the way, but it is the one childhood toy that I've never parted with even a portion of. My LEGO Collection is broken down roughly by era as follows: 1. 80s Stuff: Everything my brother and I had from childhood is in 3 giant Sterlite bins, sets broken down and all pieces mixed together. Assorted Town, Castle, Space, and trains. At one point in our childhood, we had all of our sets "built" and carefully preserved, then one day we decided to break them all down and go nuts (I think after seeing Mad Max and we wanted to build our own crazy post-Apocalyptic vehicles and stuff). The years that followed were full of just random creative builds and was when I truly learned to love LEGO. My brother held on to the bins for a long time but recently bequeathed them back to me, to give to my daughter when she gets old enough. I cannot wait to see what she comes up with and what we come up with together! 2. 90s Stuff: As my brother got older/into high school I found myself mostly on my own in the LEGO realm, at least in terms of getting new sets. Rather than merge these newer sets in with the rest of the pile, for whatever reason I decided to leave them built as designed. I have a handful of these, more or less complete sets, mostly Town/City, stowed away in ziplock bags, also to share with my daughter when she is of age. 3. "Adult" Years: I bought a few random sets over the years, very sporadically - just things that caught my eye like cutesy Creator robots or the first wave of Bionicle. Then I stopped buying LEGO for a long time until about when my daughter turned 1 and we got her into DUPLO. She loves those, plays with them everyday, and her interest renewed my interest. So I've bought a few random sets that I think look cool, some for me, some to save for her so we can build them together. I've only saved boxes for the Ideas sets, everything else I just throw away after it gets opened and built. I would love the Hobbit/Middle Earth stuff - I think my brother and I had at least as much Castle stuff as we did Town/City, and those pieces/sets always look fun to me! If it were me I might seriously consider breaking them all down and building my own creations, if I had more time. If you keep the instructions you can always build the originals again!
Haven't posted in this thread for a while, and I'm in a medieval mood. This is gonna be kind of long. Now that it's RenFair season in Colorado, I've unpacked and rebuilt my 2010/11 Kingdoms sets, and I have to say that it remains my favourite of the modern Castle themes, thought it's hard to define why. The previous Orcs & Dwarves sets, of which I admittedly only have a couple, were fun; LOTR and Hobbit took up the Castle theme 'slot' for a couple years and I have a fair collection of those, but it's not the same; and the more recent 2013 Castle series just...didn't really do it for me. There's nothing terribly new or quirky about the building techniques in Kingdoms, nor many exceptional new pieces (for the time), but the builds themselves are solid and playable without a lot of gimmickry, the color schemes of red/white and dark green/silver really work for me, and the minifigs are both plentiful and well-equipped. The 2010 Kingdoms series was another line I almost completed - didn't get the big $100 castle, missed some of the polys and accessory sets - and I'll offer some retrospection: Jester and Wizard - the impulse sets for Kingdoms 2010 were fantastic, IMO. Unique characters for the line, the first jester and only second wizard I've ever owned, and good accessory builds for them both. The jester's stage stands alone, and the wizard's gear plays well into furnishing the Prison Tower. Target Practice polybag - another fantastic impulse-level set, personally. Another crossbowman for the Lions and a bit of scenery was certainly welcome. Knight's Showdown - good little battlepack. Two knights, plenty of gear and the new bucket helm; the little catapult is reasonable, and the Dragon's seemingly-throwaway weapon rack once again fits neatly into the Prison Tower... Prison Carriage - two-to-one advantage for the Lions in the minifig department, but a black horse, a couple different helms, and more gear made it worthwhile to me. The cart's build is a little wonky, but it's easily adapted. Threw the unicorn horn from the barding in the Tower's treasure chest, seems like the kind of thing the Dragons would keep around. Outpost Attack is quite a good medium set; now we're getting into structures, and I appreciate the classic platformed tower. 2x1 bricks for crenellations, an unobtrusive play feature in the breakway window. I even like the catapult - gives the Dragons some heavy artillery, and it's a simple design with modest ornamentation. I like the lack of Uruk-hai spikes here. Prison Tower Rescue - ah, the biggest Kingdoms set I bought. It's nice to see the 'bad guys' get a substantial structure, even if it isn't the big castle. Not just a facade, some interesting use of pieces to create architectural style, good rooms and nooks and crannies; again, very minimal in the way of gimmicks. The portcullis is smooth, the dumping cauldron isn't on some huge mechanism...it's all good. Good to get the Lion princess here, as well as the different torsos for the Dragons. Once more, lots of weapons and accessories for everyone. Some spots my seem a little bare at first, but see my comments about some of the smaller sets - the token Dragon bits fit right in as furnishing. Don't know if it was deliberate, but it feels that way. Bang on, Lego. Only set I made a minor mod to too; just relocating the ladder/gate from the bottom of the 'stone' staircase to the top, thereby both closing it off better and providing non-imaginary access to the rampart with the winch and catapult. 2011 Kingdoms, only bought one set at the time and I kind of regret it, given that it's one of the few time the Castle theme has gotten 'civilian' sets. Still, I got the Blacksmith Attack, and he fits right in. New (at the time) bucket and chicken, a rare use of Heroica weapons in a System set, and some simple yet neat mini-builds for things like the forge and anvil. The waterwheel gimmick is (again) simple and non-intrusive, and about the only thing I wanted to to was scrounge up an extra clip to make use of one of the Heroica weapons as a sign. So yeah, 2010-2011 was a good year for Castle fans. I guess it's the genre I'm most oldschool about - give me good solid structures, well-equipped minifigs, and minimal gimmicks. Knights, bowmen, wizards, royalty, what other play features do you need? And looking forward, I would love to see a revisit to this area using some of the new techniques and pieces that have cropped up since then, like the 'brick' bricks and more sculpted pieces. Bonus byline review - I did pick up the 2013 Forest Ambush as more of an accessory pack than anything, and it's not bad. Treasure, one of the then-new dogs, a couple pairs of knights in different colours with their gear. There is a little bit of gimmick-creep, but the falling tree is pretty subtle, and they at least disguised the flick-fire missile as a crossbow emplacement. So I've some visiting Blue knights with the Lions, and some Red mercenaries for the Dragons.
so.. after building the star destroyer (still wish i had the UCS version), i decided to finally pick up the milano.. but there aren't many stores in my area that still carry it.. well, i found a target that still had a few. when i got into the store, i couldn't believe it, they had it priced at $99.99.. that's unbelievable. that's like $0.15 a brick. much more than i paid for the star destroyer ($0.08 per brick).. luckily they had it listed at $62 on their website so i could price match at customer service. it's incredible how much these damn things increase in value over time.
Kingdoms was an incredibly cool line. The Crown knights prior to that were awesome too. I came in too late for the crown knights and only managed to pick up a few of the smaller sets. but the Kingdoms stuff was amazing. I can't believe LEGO doesn't seriously utilize castle as an evergreen line. It's been...diminished lately. The last series was really kiddish.
There are rumors of a new Castle line in 2016 that will be more like the 2007 fantasy theme, so here's hoping we get some great sets out of it!
I would love a new theme like that. I feel like they did a lot with the old theme, but there was so much more they could have done if they just pushed into Elves too. It would have been incredible. I hope we see more elves and dwarves in the new line.
Big internet high-five, for several reasons. First off, while I now live in the Bay Area, I grew up in Colorado Springs and have fond memories of the Renaissance Festival. Went just about every year as a kid, though I haven't been back since the early 90's. Love that place. At one point I think it might have been the biggest one in the country, though I'm not sure if that's still the case. Second, yeah, the Kingdoms line was excellent. I went completist with that one. Of all the modern Castle lines, that one came the closest, to me, to replicating the feel of the old yellow-box 80's Castle line. I'm not sure why the most recent Castle like (the one with blue highlights) didn't quite hit the mark, but it didn't. It felt lacking in detail, or something, and the large castle set was kind of boring-looking. But Kingdoms was great.
I felt the same way until I discovered the KO's Legit 2014 Exclusive Collector goes for £150 plus on ebay. KO costs around £6 shipped.
Been thinking about the milano and the quinjet. Got a 20% off coupon for tru that doesn't exclude lego like they usually do. And yeah, the ucs destroyer would be awesome. It's ludicrous seeing how much some of those retired ucs sets go for. $5k for the Falcon!? Prices like those make it seem that investment in lego would be a viable one lol.
If there are Lego sets I genuinely regret missing, it's Medeival Market Village and the Kingdoms Joust...
Where did u find the TRU coupon from? Havent got any in the mail, just a booklet with other useless coupons in it.
Jetzt kann sich JEDER einen Ferrari bauen - Auto-News - Bild.de Oh my. That new windscreen piece... Those NEW wheels... Awesome. 10/10
Not gonna lie, the Medieval Market St. is pretty great. It's the closest we've ever come to having a Castle Modular. Nice! Though, man, would have been nice to have that windshield piece when they designed the DeLorean...
I actually have Shazam and Phoenix KO's and even though I spent $3 per, I am kinda meh on them. Phoenix is the better of the two, only downside is that she is glued together. Shazam, was glued too but what really irks me is the completely lopsided print job on his torso and belt. I posted pics in here some time ago. I really want Bizarro but I will just save up and buy an original one day.
Off the front of a babies r us/toys r us mail booklet. Came in a couple of weeks ago, but haven't used it yet. It has all the usual restrictions like no video games, apple products, gift cards, yadda yadda yadda. Just has both store brands on there and 20% off one regular priced item 25% one item when using the r us credit card. Says it's good til the 30th.
Just bought my first Star Wars set today (I wanted the Empire Strikes Back poster ). I've finally succumbed.
They are addictive. They've quickly become the main line I collect, and I started with Power Miners. There's just so much out there for Star Wars right now. You can even choose specific sub themes like Hoth, Endor, OT, PT, expanded universe, etc. I think I gravitate more towards the clone wars stuff, but there's really no boundaries for my interests in SW lego. My next big purchase will be the Tattooine sets I think.
