Buying Sets for Parts

kbw

My son has been obsessed with the LEGO Masters show. He’s 6 and has really been more motivated than usual to build a bunch of things. He’s always liked building things on his own and doesn’t really care for following instructions and building most sets. We’ve gotten a couple Classic boxes and I really find those underwhelming in terms of parts. Since LEGO stores aren’t open we can’t go and do the pick-a-brick thing. I thought it might be a good idea to get a set or two to just use for the parts. I assume a lot of you do this either to sell or use for future projects. I wanted to ask if you had any advice as to which ones tend to be best options for this sort of thing or which ones have a good selection of useful items. I realize this probably isn’t the best overall value proposition, but it was an idea to scratch an itch while we are sitting in the house. Thanks in advance!

madforLEGO

I think it depends on what he is looking to build. For example, Sets like #76108 offer superheroes AND a ton of parts to use for building modular like buildings (if you can find that set for retail or under anymore that is) or the creator buildings sets (but those are better value IMO if you find them for at least 20% off, if not 30-40% off). If he is into vehicles, then Speed champion sets may be the way to go as they are loaded with car parts and typically can be found for about 10-20% off at times (especially now on Amazon). If helicopters and jets, superheros again as many sets have those parts in abundance (especially helicopters as LEGO apparently loves them).

So I would say pick sets to part out that he either also wants the figures in, or you could always turn around and sell off the figures and keep the parts.

I will say this thought, wait for sets to be at least 20% off. At least for me, that helps me find it easier to break up the sets just for this or that as I did not pay full retail to do it.

Many sets can hit 30-40% off, but lately that does not seem to occur a lot. One may have to wait until either stores cry uncle and need to move stock to free up warehouse space OR when stores will likely need to make large sales to drive demand back to stores once many countries loosen the stay at home directives.

Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately for LEGO) Masters came on after Christmas when a lot of deals could be had on many sets.

kbw

Thanks. I appreciate the info.  He kind of likes the idea of building houses and the things to put into the houses (beds, appliances, etc). I made this really awful looking espresso machine and he loves it.  He puts it onto the Lego truck trailers so the mini figs can have their morning coffee.
He also wants to make animals and trucks.  He tried to make an octopus the other night and got annoyed because we don’t have enough pieces lying around. Brickset had these great mini build series on the website.  I started looking into those, but again, not the right parts.
I messed around online a bit and there are a fair amount of $15 Creator 3 & 1 sets that are on sale for like $11 or $12 at Target.  I was checking the parts listing for a few of those and they have some good stuff in them - lots of sloped pieces and hinge/joint stuff among other things.  May grab a few of those.  I like the idea of the Creator buildings.  I don’t want to do a modular, but the 3 & 1 stuff could be a good possibility.  

panchox1

^ sounds like you're on the right track! 

Bumblepants

Don't sleep on Friends sets, they can often be had on good discount and have a lot of nice parts for buildings etc.

Most of my 'for parts' buying centers around the price. When Lego Movie 2 sets were 50-75% off I got a lot of those for example. Another option is if the minifigs are valuable they can be used to offset the price as well.

CCC

What to buy also depends a bit on your motives. If you want lots of similar parts at a low price, but multiples of one licensed set when on a discount. The minifigs can often be sold off to offset most of the costs of the set, making the parts free or almost free. Multiples obviously mean lots of the same parts, so useful for building a collection of you need lots of the same parts.

catwrangler

When I was a kid, some of my most sought-after parts were those that enabled articulation: hinges, tilt-bricks and bar/clip combinations. These days, ball-joints are also really handy: look for any set that builds a mecha or robot (eg #70665) as they're often good parts packs generally.