Unpopular LEGO Opinions

Modeltrainman

560Heliport said:

Astrobricks said:

^ Some color is kind of a relief on that one!

Should I build another in every color I have? :)

And a Toy Story UCS Millenium Falcon.
In unpopular opinions, I haven't had time to sort by part yet.  *whispers* It's still by color.

560Heliport

Me too! The main colors are further divided into plates, plain rectangular bricks, and everything else. My loose Technic parts are mostly sorted by part, though. 

legobod

Not having a big collection I stack parts by type and colour to save space and bag the similar ones together

MrShinyAndNew

Modeltrainman said:

In unpopular opinions, I haven't had time to sort by part yet.  *whispers* It's still by color.

Sorting by part makes it hard to build stuff when you need a specific colour. Sort by colour, then by part. Maybe that's an unpopular opinion, but I can't understand why you'd sort by part unless you're 100% colour-blind.

560Heliport

MrShinyAndNew said:

Modeltrainman said:

In unpopular opinions, I haven't had time to sort by part yet.  *whispers* It's still by color.

Sorting by part makes it hard to build stuff when you need a specific colour. Sort by colour, then by part. Maybe that's an unpopular opinion, but I can't understand why you'd sort by part unless you're 100% colour-blind.

The idea is that it's easier to find, for example, red 2x4 bricks in a bin of 2x4 bricks than in a bin of red pieces.

KungFuKenny

MrShinyAndNew said:

Modeltrainman said:

In unpopular opinions, I haven't had time to sort by part yet.  *whispers* It's still by color.

Sorting by part makes it hard to build stuff when you need a specific colour. Sort by colour, then by part. Maybe that's an unpopular opinion, but I can't understand why you'd sort by part unless you're 100% colour-blind.

For small collections it won’t matter, but I found color sorting untenable once my piece count grew.  These pics may demonstrate why... 

When your part  collection exceeds a certain threshold it will be very difficult to find the exact red piece you need in a bin of thousands of random red pieces ( as mentioned by @560Heliport ).  When I’m MOCing I want to be able to find the right part quickly and not wade through tubs of loose parts.... (side note: there are some pieces that I have in large quantities, necessitating sorting by piece and then by color).

Mynatt

I have things sorted by color and while at first I thought it was a burden, I have found it to actually be better in some ways. By having all of the same color mixed into one place I tend to find alternate methods/pieces that turn out to be better than the piece I was initially looking for. Good enough justification for me. Cool new alternatives to builds.

Kinda surprised sometimes by how many people are against sorting by color but I also completely understand how it's harder to find what you are looking for.

Astrobricks

I built Tower of Orthanc second-hand from an unsorted pile of black pieces. That alone will keep me from sorting solely by color.
When I get too many of a part to fit in a reasonable sized bin, I split colors into 3 categories; monochrome (white, gray, black), primary and bright colors, muted colors (think more “natural”, like tan, brown, dark green, sand green, etc.)

Fizyx

Like @KungFuKenny said above, I mainly think sorting tends to come down to a question of size, with a secondary question of what your main building goals are.

On the size note, I think that sorting follows a pretty natural progression:

1. Not sorted -> 2. Sorted by color -> 3. Sorted by color and general size -> 4. Sorted by color for most parts, but by part for more common parts -> 5. Sorted by color for uncommon parts, but by part for all other parts -> 6. Sorted by color AND part nearly entirely (EG by Element ID)

(I think I would also call out that 5. is likely slightly amorphous, in that I would expect that many or most of the pieces being sorted by part at this point at likely also being sorted by color [As I said above, this would be sorting by Element ID].  So you don't have just 2x4 bricks, you have 2x4 bricks in White, LBG,DBG, Black, Red, etc,  The important thing is not necessarily an exact definition of the steps, since the lines between them generally blur, but more just the more general direction/ideas you use as you are organizing pieces :) )

There are, I think, some natural thresholds there too, with sorting by color starting in around the 5-10k piece mark, and real sorting by part starting around the 50-100k mark.  I can not imagine actually managing a collection in excess of 500k or so without heavy sorting by part, although some sorting by color for the more rare parts likely makes sense until you start getting past the 1 million mark.  (Caveat, even for the largest collections, some grouping for things like minifig pieces or very very rare parts likely break this mold.)

I believe the second question, what your main building goals are, serves to shift around those thresholds more than they change the actual progression of how parts get sorted.  For instance, if you want to build creatively and are not highly directed with specific building/design goals, I think that it makes sense that for most people, you collection would be more resistant to increasing levels of sorting complexity, since you want to have more variation easily on hand to just build with.  However, at some point you are likely to still need to begin increasing the complexity of your sorting just because you won't be able to find that one part you want otherwise.  On the other hand, if you a very focused builder who plans out your builds or builds with very specific goals, you may find yourself into more in-depth sorting with a much smaller collection as you would likely find it more important to find the exact parts you are looking for than to have a wide variety more easily on hand.

Finally, even at the point that you're separating by color AND part almost entirely, I think there are still options based on organization by color/part.  That is, you can still keep all the same color together, with colors separated by part, OR you could keep the same parts together, sorted by color.  Personally I feel that parts together, sorted by color is PROBABLY the most usable method for the largest possible collections, but I have a feeling that size, you do whatever works for you :)

That's just my two cents though, based on my own experience as my collection has grown, and reading about how other people organize their collections.  Definitely open to differing opinions on this though! Like I said at the end, at some point sorting and organization is really going to come down to what works for you!  (Holy crap this ended up being way longer than I intended.  Can you tell that I've thought about this WAY more than I should have? My mother would have a heart-attack if she knew I actually thought this hard about organizing ANYTHING!)

Astrobricks

Of course there are always the "weird" parts that you don't have enough of to sort by part. I have "small weird" and "big weird" bins.

FollowsClosely

I have a column of 6 drawers of weird/unusual/unloved pieces. They are sorted by sized and category such as plates, curves, burps and transparent. I don't go there very often. 

Fizyx

Not sure how much everyone else does this, but I definitely sometimes buy pieces off Bricklink when I'm in a shop and I run across a piece that is weird or unusual, just BECAUSE it's weird or unusual.  I hardly ever build with them, no idea what I'm going to do with them, but there's just something fun about those kinds of pieces in general that I just enjoy going and playing with them sometimes.

EDIT:  I think my favorite weird piece I got just because it's weird is this birdcage with bird (if anyone was wondering :P ):

Mr_Cross

Paging @Fizyx to the unusual parts thread!

What a fantastic element!

mic27

Fizyx said:

EDIT:  I think my favorite weird piece I got just because it's weird is this birdcage with bird (if anyone was wondering :P ):

Omg I got that birdcage in my very first LEGO set, Mickey's Mansion. And I still haven't found any use for it 20 years later. Nor do I understand why a mouse had a pet bird.

Mr_Cross

mic27 said:
...Nor do I understand why a mouse had a pet bird.

The whole fabric of anthropomorphised entertainment is torn asunder if you start asking questions like that.
...or these:
Why doesn't Donald have trousers?
Goofy is a dog, but Pluto is a dog too?
Why does a Mouse have a dog for a pet?
If you open the car door, is there a brain inside?
:-P

CCC

What the hell is Goofy? One of my favourite parts of Stand by Me.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=gV69pYdTHSg

KungFuKenny

Fizyx said:

EDIT:  I think my favorite weird piece I got just because it's weird is this birdcage with bird (if anyone was wondering :P ):

That is a great piece - it comes with my #3788 Paulette Poodle’s Living Room...

Which leads to 2 points:

1.  One of my “unpopular opinions” is that Fabuland is awesome and not creepy at all and...
2.  Why is a poodle vacuuming if poodles don’t shed?

klinton

KungFuKenny said:

2.  Why is a poodle vacuuming if poodles don’t shed?

Birdseed. That s*it gets everywhere!

Fizyx

klinton said:

KungFuKenny said:

2.  Why is a poodle vacuuming if poodles don’t shed?

Birdseed. That s*it gets everywhere!

The glitter of pet foods.

MrJackson

My wife had a couple of things of bird seed in the shed. I walked in the one day to organize the shed, thinking it would be a quick endeavor. FOUR HOURS of cleaning up the birdseed that a squirrel had apparently gotten into that was in every nook and cranny in the shed was enough to convince me to 86 having bird seed out in the shed. 

It's just the worst. And then we have the bird seed cakes in the holder outside and the squirrels like to hang from them upside down, mocking us.

Charmiefcb

Reminded me of this
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFZFjoX2cGg

560Heliport

Charmiefcb said:

Reminded me of this
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFZFjoX2cGg

I just watched that last night! I find it cheaper and less stressful to simply feed the squirrels; the birds that also show up are a bonus!

bookmum

No one must question why Paulette Poodle has a pet bird when some of her fellow Fabuland citizens are birds. Never question it. Never.

CCC

I bet she eats chicken too.

klinton

CCC said:

I bet she eats chicken too.

She's a dog. She'll eat her own poo if you let her.

MrJackson

Can we discuss that gorgeous vacuum cleaner element? That mould is a thing of beauty.

KungFuKenny

MrJackson said:

Can we discuss that gorgeous vacuum cleaner element? That mould is a thing of beauty.

One of my favorite articles on New Elementary 

( written by @DeMontes ) looks at unique Fabuland elements just like the vacuum cleaner...
https://www.newelementary.com/2019/12/fabuland-old-rare-lego-parts.html?m=1

Charmiefcb

bookmum said:

No one must question why Paulette Poodle has a pet bird when some of her fellow Fabuland citizens are birds. Never question it. Never.

Maybe they like the kinky stuff in Fabuland.

bookmum

@Charmiefcb in my Fabuland world I coupled up (or 'shipped' as they say these days) some very interesting pairs. Ricky Raccoon and Lisa Lamb. Gertrude Goat and Robby Rabbit....

MrJackson

@KungFuKenny I've read those articles on New Elementary and they're really well done. Fabuland gave us a couple really neat pieces, especially those exhaust pipes that were in a couple sets - especially the chrome ones in Hot Rod Club.

andhe

Fizyx said:

... I hardly ever build with them, no idea what I'm going to do with them, but there's just something fun about those kinds of pieces in general that I just enjoy going and playing with them sometimes.

EDIT:  I think my favorite weird piece I got just because it's weird is this birdcage with bird (if anyone was wondering :P ):

It's got a really awkward footprint but I've got one on a pedestal in a rooftop garden I built on the roof of the Detective's Office....

560Heliport

andhe said:

Fizyx said:

... I hardly ever build with them, no idea what I'm going to do with them, but there's just something fun about those kinds of pieces in general that I just enjoy going and playing with them sometimes.

EDIT:  I think my favorite weird piece I got just because it's weird is this birdcage with bird (if anyone was wondering :P ):

It's got a really awkward footprint but I've got one on a pedestal in a rooftop garden I built on the roof of the Detective's Office....

Pictures, please!

MrShinyAndNew

KungFuKenny said:

For small collections it won’t matter, but I found color sorting untenable once my piece count grew.  These pics may demonstrate why... 

When your part  collection exceeds a certain threshold it will be very difficult to find the exact red piece you need in a bin of thousands of random red pieces ( as mentioned by @560Heliport ).  When I’m MOCing I want to be able to find the right part quickly and not wade through tubs of loose parts.... (side note: there are some pieces that I have in large quantities, necessitating sorting by piece and then by color).

Yes, if you sort strictly by colour and nothing else, then it won't scale very well, but I take a different approach:

OldTownBricks

what kind of organizer is that?

MrShinyAndNew

OldTownBricks said:

what kind of organizer is that?

ArtBin 9101AB or Flambeau T9101 (it's available under various brand names). I pair it with the 9007AB (T9007) and the single-compartment variants.

Charmiefcb

I hate brick build weapons for minifigs. I hate mini builds on figs in general. I also cannot stand tying knots around hooks with Lego string/rope in sets. I have passed on sets because of that.

The_Rancor

^ Don’t get the new AT-AT then!

lkliment2

I don’t necessarily know if it’s unpopular, but I miss the days of ~2005 when you used to be able to see the actual figs in their little plastic cutouts on the box. I can understand why they got rid of them, partly due to theft and partly due to the elimination of light up figs (and dinos), which were a focal point of them, but all the same it was a touch I find very nostalgic now. 

Charmiefcb

I missed the 2000's Lego as it was my dark age but I miss the flaps on boxes from the 90's.

Fauch

a few technic sets have them, or am I mistaken?

Oldfan

The good thing about today's boxes is that you can flatten them easily for compact storage.  But I agree, the older boxes with the front flaps and display trays are much more "enjoyable" packaging and I'm happy to get boxes for my older sets whenever I get the chance.

Astrobricks

Fauch said:

a few technic sets have them, or am I mistaken?

Yes. The #42055 BWE has them. Although it's retired now. Not sure about current sets.

CCC

Modern boxes are also more recyclable. Given they are getting rid of plastic bags inside boxes I cannot see them adding thick strong plastic windows and blister packaging.

legobod

^ Cardboard windows, sorted. 

Astrobricks

legobod said:

^ Cardboard windows, sorted. 

Well, cellulose windows, like in envelopes are recyclable.

browny333

560Heliport said:

PPP ratio is meaningless to me! What matters is what kinds of parts am I getting for my money? 1x1 studs and cheese slopes just aren't worth much. I want parts and colors that are new (to me). I don't mind stickers: sometimes I use them, sometimes I don't. I save unused ones for possible use in a MOC. I wish they gave us extras.

New ones on the way you might be getting them

JudgeChuck

Here's one... @lessjunkfood mentioned in another thread that he didn't like some of the early post-standard-smiley-face Lego minifigs (I hope I read your post correctly) and I have to agree.
I really do not like minifigs from that era. The early Star Wars, Pirates and other figs of that era leave me cold.
I completely accept that it's a very personal viewpoint that others definitely will not hold but, for me, it has to be either the classic smiley face, or it has to be an up-to-date, fully-featured face. To me, the classic smiley is perfect in its simplicity, while those early progressions from basic smiley to now just look unformed and unfinished. Thankfully, the printing is now, generally, of such good quality that the faces look like a proper evolution of those first, simple ones.
I completely accept that Lego *had* to go through that phase to get where they are now, but I am personally glad that I was in my Dark Ages at the time and missed them entirely.

560Heliport

^ I liked that the classic smiley was there underneath the sunglasses, beard stubble, eyepatches, etc. 

JudgeChuck

560Heliport said:

^ I liked that the classic smiley was there underneath the sunglasses, beard stubble, eyepatches, etc. 

Perhaps, but a lot of figures from that era just *seem* to have slightly smaller eyes and thinner mouths, which makes them look wrong to me. I'm especially thinking of the early Star Wars figures. It's purely a personal thing for me and I'm sure that, if I'd not been in the Dark Ages at the time, they would have looked perfectly fine.
I'm not sure I'm explaining myself very well! ;-)

Edited to add:
I think here's a couple of good examples:
https://brickset.com/minifigs/sw0021/luke-skywalker-(tatooine)
https://brickset.com/minifigs/sw0026/princess-leia

Sorry, they just don't look right to me! Apologies!

560Heliport

No apology necessary, you're entitled to your opinion! I remember when minifigures were unposeable and had no faces. The Policeman I got with #709 Police Boat was amazing: this tiny figure had more articuation than my beloved Star Wars action figures! (There's no excuse for the big-eyed Clone Wars faces, though. They're just weird.)