Advice: Starting out

[chump]

Maybe you just found yourself in the LEGO Store for the first time ever. You pick up a Simpsons House or maybe a modular building or a UCS Star Wars set. Suddenly, you're hooked. Nay obsessed. "I must have more." but where to begin?

This is a thread to post advice to a person restarting out in LEGO.

The assumption that they have some budget but not unlimited. And that they are interested in building, not collecting.

[chump]

LEGO Collectible Minifigs are fun and easy to pick up and a gateway entry to reigniting your LEGO obsession. However, it can get expensive very fast and if your goal is to build LEGO it's going to take away budget from acquiring bricks and actual building blocks. Don't feel compelled to buy them all. Buy the ones you like or will use.

This is a BrickCon video from a few years back, but if you're into minifigs you can probably relate. Some language is NSFW, but done in jest.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ejPxWTCA1Ug

[AC]

If building with Lego is your passion then the Modular buildings or Creator Expert sets are the way to go. Even if the buildings themselves don't appeal to you the brick count value is there. I recommend building the sets even if you don't like the model as the techniques used are amazing and can be used to create many other models of your own design.

[Hamslice]

To add on to what Allan said, I always build the sets I get, even if they're small and or I'm just going to harvest it for parts.
I have learnt so many nice little techniques from sets. With builder sets like Starwars UCS sets, learning how they achieve certain angles has been a big help as well.

[chump]

It's tempting to try and buy something from every theme that appeals but choose and stick to a single theme at first. Creator sets are a good way to go as they have at least three builds to choose from and the pieces are usually versatile enough to build lots of other things. A former LEGO employee took 5867 Super Speedster and wrote two books adding an additional 10 vehicles per book from that one set. http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=424724

Also buy multiples of the same set if you can. This will allow you to have the colour palette to build bigger and better without making your creation looking like a mishmash of colours. Good examples of this may be the Creator houses where you'll probably be able to build a second story or if it's only the building front, it will allow you to enclose it.

Using a site like Rebrick.com will show you what other people have built using a single set.

[peterk123]

I'd recommend reading Lego: A Love Story. Its a good read.

http://www.amazon.ca/LEGO-Love-Story-Jo ... 0470407026

[chump]

I'd recommend reading Lego: A Love Story. Its a good read.

http://www.amazon.ca/LEGO-Love-Story-Jo ... 0470407026

Thanks, I've heard it's a good read. And welcome, peterk123, after 2 1/2 years making your first post! I know our public side of the forums is rather quiet so hopefully we can change that up a bit.

Based on that, I guess today's tidbit of advice is to find a group of AFOLs to let your LEGO geek flag fly. With The LEGO Movie and the two LEGO Stores, the hobby has become more mainstream now amongst adults. A lot of people, myself included, found it hard at first to talk about LEGO with other people. But then you go the net and find that there are whole online and offline communities of people who love and build LEGO.

Some people see LEGO building as a solitary recreation and prefer the anonymity and let their hobby remain purely online. Others prefer the social aspect and like to meet up in person if they have a LEGO User Group nearby. A chance to connect with others to learn and grow. Choose whatever works for you.

[chump]

Mentioned in another thread. Get to know the Pick a Brick wall at your nearest LEGO Brand Retail store. You can use the crowd source updated website www.brickbuildr.com to look at what has been reported to be on the wall there.

Have an idea of what you might want to build. Also think colour schemes, what I might want to build with it and how does it fit in with my existing LEGO (it might not, not that is a bad thing)

Buy lots of a single useful element. When you purchase a set, you might get 1 or 2 of a particular element, maybe more. On their own, they may not be all that entirely useful, but when you've got 200 or 1000 of an element, suddenly it opens up possibilities. Maybe it can be used as roofing, maybe a wall of those levers can be added to give texture to a project, as I've seen done with a spider. Tiles and plates for flooring or framing.

There are some pieces that you really don't need tonnes of, but I'm sure that the moment I say that, someone will prove me wrong and make fantastic use of the piece and I'll want to go buy lots of it.