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How much has your criteria for buying changed since you first started collecting?
MaffyD
Member Posts: 3,579
Okay, so when I got out of my DA, I thought I'd made some pretty clear-cut decisions on what I was going to buy, on a case-by-case basis anyway. You may all laugh at this, but it was: Star Wars only, one decent example of a set (not a polybag), only iconic spaceships. And for UCS they have to the most iconic of all! You can read the rest of this post when you stop laughing! :-)
As time went on, that has changed quite a bit (understatement of the decade, as far as I'm concerned) and now I find myself really annoyed that:
- When I started out I could've had the mind-set I have now about what I would be collecting (hindsight being 20/20 I can forgive myself this), or...
- That I didn't 'stick to my guns' and maintained my ambivalence to other sets that caught my eye.
What makes it worse is that I pride myself on being thorough when it comes to things that interest me, so I'm amazed that some of the sets I now want I hadn't even heard of when they were released. My only comfort is that I hanker after only 1 set that appeared from before my DA, and all the others are from 2000 or later (which doesn't help the cost issue, but does solve the availability issue).
My excuses are that a decade ago I was both earning a lot less than I am now, and at various points we were going through some pretty tough times as a family so plastic toys weren't high on the agenda.
Anyway, I just wondered what other people's thoughts were on this. It would be nice to know that I'm not alone!
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Comments
Then I started looking at sets as it is just the same price to buy a set sometime than pay for all the minifigures included in that set.
Another aspect then comes along which is the "its a bargain" buys. You know you are just looking at Lego in the Supermarket aisles when you spy a set at 50% off. You never really wanted that set but now you have to buy it as it is a bargain. So you end up with more and more. I intended trading a lot more for the bargain sets but end up building and keeping them.
Then there is the sets that you never even considered but they look so nice you have to have them. I never really liked any of the Ninjago stuff but when I read about the Temple of Airjitsu it just had to be purchased.
So is anyone else stronger willed and has stuck to what they first intended?
I bought the #76029 because I wanted one Iron Man minifig... After picking up #76021 on sale, I started bricklinking the rest of the avengers, then ant man, then guardians, then baddies for them all to fight. I've just finished collecting the rest of the iron man variants, including the iron patriot.
I didn't think I was ever one to collect the minifigs without the sets that they came in, so I do own all of the nickelodeon TMNT sets. I wish that I had picked up figs only for some of them.
Not sure about thousands but yeah, circumstances!
I'm currently worrying about how my priorities might change in the future as well now! I look at a set, think "No, not on my list." And I'm sure I've made the right decision, but I originally thought I didn't need all the Quinjets (and I thought long and hard about it too), but now I have the latest two I look at the first one and.... well, you get the picture.
Am I making the same mistake about my current wanted list? I've decided to not buy any Episode VII Star Wars spaceships, but what if a UCS one is released? And if I decide to get that, do I suddenly have to reassess my decisions about other sets?
Finally, has anyone hankered after a set for a long time, then to finally look at it and think "No. I've done enough here. This one will stay on eBay." and take it off their list and be happy about that? I've done it, and to my credit I can't remember the name of the set now - but only one set ever out of the list I've made.
I've completed my Classic Space collection to my satisfaction, I have all the Minecraft sets, including the micro-world ones and during that time I discovered Ninjago, mainly for the buildings and dragons, Winter Village, Modulars, LOTR, TH, Ideas, TLM and am now dipping my toes in Technic.
I have managed to steer clear of Star Wars so far, apart from getting a Stormtrooper minifig in a book, and I fully intend to keep it that way!
But, the wife bought me the VW Camper for father's day or Birthday, which opened my eyes a little - apart from the flagships Technics set, I'm all about 'system', but tend to go for the larger, more complex sets, fairly irrespective of the theme.
After leaving my classic space and town Lego behind in my dark ages, I came back with a vengeance when Star Wars sets appeared. As an incurable completist, there was no way that I would not collect all the sets.
In the past, for anything other than Space or Star Wars, I might only get a single set from a given theme, just to have a representative sample. More often than not, that single set grows into owning the entire collection...I'm really working hard not to backslide too much on this. So far, Chima, Nexo Knights, and the newer Ninjago sets are only represented in my collection by a promo polybag or two. I'm steering well clear of things like Elves and Angry Birds.
I did break down and get a Jurassic World set recently. Just one little set, it can't hurt anything, right? (Of course, that's what I said about Harry Potter once, and I seem to have all of those sets now...)
You just need a Tower of Orthanc now. Sorry, sorry. I'll stop now.
Or will I? :-) Well, yes, I will if you ask me to.
I'll either get it, or I won't and that will depend on available funds for LEGO and other planned purchases this year...
At the moment, I only have a few planned purchases, two of which are fairly large:
#21127 The Fortress
#21128 The Village
#60134 Fun in the Park
Summer Ultimate Nexo Knights figures
It remains to be seen whether my grandson will share this view. So far he's most interested in sets like #6742 and #8561 because they have nifty little cases to put the parts back into, and parts like 42284/42291 that make a boulder he can hide stuff in (too many DCTC toy reviews with Kinder eggs). He was a big fan of Minions, so the only sets he has chosen himself are not even LEGO - but he said "please" and I suddenly was overwhelmed with "these are the toys you are looking for" as we made our way to the checkout counter.
Then Harry Potter came along.
i then had to have the superheroes, then the next licence and next...... so my tiny collection snowballed into an obsession.
Apart from a few angry birds and the new hoth set I should have all the licenced figures made apart from SW Ep 1-3.
in the past I'd have liked to rewatch Ep 1-3 but am scared that it might make me want the figures from them as well.!!!!!
i need help!!!!!
Soon after I started trying to find classic monster figures to go with my new purchase and that led me to CMF. What started with a few monster figs soon became the entire CMF line. There were a couple of frivolous years there where I just seemed to buy anything that came along. I also bricklinked several projects, including a Green Grocer, as well. It was getting out of control.
I'm much more focused with my purchases now. At some point I remembered that I got into this hobby so that I could share something with my kids. That was all it was ever supposed to be. My intent was never to turn into a collector. I still buy much more than I should, but I mostly stick to Creator 3in1 these days bc I feel that theme better represents what I wanted this hobby to be: a creative outlet that I can share with my kids. I can't do that with a "collection". I won't let my four year old deconstruct or play with a $300 UCS set, but I can do it with a creator house or the like.
In 1999, I got a job, and started posting online at LUGNET. And I started buying everything. My assumption at the time was: "I'm going to buy ALL the Star Wars sets, ALL the castle sets, ALL the space sets, and a good chunk of town, pirates, trains, etc, that came out. Maybe not quite everything from those other lines, but most things.
But, go figure, LEGO was independently deciding to also release a LOT MORE every year.
So in my mind, LEGO was still churning out 1995-levels of sets, when in reality, they had about doubled their offerings. And they weren't going to stop there.
But it didn't take long to realize that no, I definitely was NOT going to collect EVERYTHING. I was on my way to collecting every Star Wars set, when LEGO came out with this:
$150 for ... a bunch of basic bricks in basic colors and a statue that I hate and won't ever display? ... Aaaaannnnnnd... I'm done.
I still bought pretty much everything from the lineups that I really liked, though. I bought ALL the Orient Expedition sets in one go, and similarly all the Rock Raiders sets, and Knight's Kingdom I sets. And bunches more.
THEN in 2004, the color change hit, and it was all over. I was sort of looking for an excuse at that point anyway, because my collection was becoming unwieldy. But with the color change, I had an excuse to stop buying stuff (up until then I would buy pretty much anything with gray, dark gray, tan, and brown-- 3/4 of which changed in 2004).
So, now I just buy most of the really-really-cool stuff. The adult targeted sets like UCS, Expert, Modular Town, etc. And the occasional other set here and there. I've still got a big collection, but I've long since given up trying to collect anything completely, apart from a few scant bits here and there. It's better that way.
DaveE
When I came out of my dark ages around 2008, I decided I was only going to buy select sets I wanted when I was younger. I began with the mentality that new Lego was too specialized and had lost it's charm it once had. For about a year or so I strictly bought old Space, Town, Pirate and Castle from ebay, mainly sets from about 1987-1993. I also bought a couple bulk lots off Craigslist which filled in most of my classic Lego collection.
I then made my first visit to a Lego Store...at least my first since I had rediscovered my love for Lego. My first purchase of new Lego as an adult was the Boeing Dreamliner model. It was on clearance, had a TON of pieces (more than any set I had previously purchased), and looked like it would be a fun build and also serve as a nice display piece.
Building that set and opening the new bags, and following the crisp new instructions brought back a flood of wonderful memories. The next month I purchased Café Corner and Green Grocer, and the following month with May the 4th, I purchased the 10179 UCS Falcon when it was 25% off (crazy to believe for a while that set was $375). My collection has exploded in the years since, and I tend to only buy the advanced models or the occasional original trilogy SW set now. Funny how perception changes over time.
So my initial goal was "collect all Minecraft sets", naively assuming that would be a small collection.
As time went on, I added Architecture, Modulars, 3-in-1, and various other sets that looked good. Oh, and Mindstorms.
As my Lego horizons expanded, and as the Minecraft theme added sets I wasn't wild about, I've now pulled back on Minecraft even to the point of mildly wishing I hadn't bought a couple sets that are still sealed.
I am already realizing that I need to become more selective, mainly due to finite space.
So my plans has gone from "all Minecraft" to fairly broad, to now trying (and sometimes succeeding) to be selective and just buy sets I really like. And sets for MOCing. And... sigh.
It wasn't until I had regular access to the internet, found ebay and brickset, coupled with a greater disposable income that I really started collecting, buying older star wars sets I hadn't seen and didn't know I wanted until then. Although I did buy a lot I stuck to just star wars but then we had children and I started to buy city sets and duplo and then pretty much everything and anything!
Over the last couple of years I have tried really hard to only buy sets I really want, or feel my children will enjoy, and am happy to accept that if a set goes eol and I haven't got it then it's not a big deal as I don't have the space or funds for everything.
I am also better now if I see a 50% set I can leave it on the shelf, most of the time, well some of the time anyway! My criteria is now much like when I started in that I only go out of my way for sets I really want it just encompasses more themes.
That was it - the end of my dark ages...
After that I needed the retired X-wing poly so I had both the largest and smallest X-wings that LEGO had ever made. Then I needed to complete my Microfighters collection with the remaining OT sets from Series 1 and 2.
Since then I've added some OT minifigures and keychains to my collection and most recently the Imperial Shuttle Tydirium.
My criteria for buying has become (and remains) to only buy OT sets and minifigures that I truly love and have room to display.
Then in 2014, I refocused and decided to stick with what I truly want and not what I only sorta, kinda, maybe, might want or what's on sale (sales killed me early on). That allowed me to pass on entire themes, which was a very good thing. The problem is the themes I do like are the ones that release the most sets...Town, Star Wars, Superheroes, CMFs, and in the last few months - Ninjago.
Overall, my purchasing may actually be the same, or possibly even up, but it is definitely sticking to what I want as a part of my collection. There isn't a Lone Ranger, Minecraft, Galaxy Squad, Nexo Knights, Bionicle, latest Castle line, Friends, Elves, Princesses, etc. set that wasn't a free polybag promo to be seen in my collection and that, to me, means I've at least stuck to my guns somewhat.
I was a Little League baseball coach for 10 years and I used to buy lots of poly bags to hand out to the kids as game incentives....going from 1st to home took on a whole new understaning
The disney CMF are really the only items I've been interested in lately. I want to like other things, but the crossover from my interest into lego doesn't really seem to work...ie: 60's Batcave
Two slight changes:
- I was fairly sure I'd never buy any Ninjago, but have recently succumbed to the mildly steampunk aesthetic of Final Flight of Destiny's Bounty, and have my eye on Temple of Airjitzu...
- As others have said, I'm getting better at not buying any old set just because it's on clearance. It took me a while to learn this though!
It has meant that some sets I would have purchased without thinking before don't get a look in but others that I would not normally consider are finding there way into my collection.
<< The only winning move is not to play. >>
When I collected as a kid I was all about acquiring sets that were both intrinsically cool and had cool pieces for MOCing. In practice this involved buying a lot of cheap Space sets. Now I'm a bit more strategic (and have more disposable income) so I'm more likely to plan my set-buying ahead and focus on a few bigger sets. And I think a lot about which sets that appeal to me anyway will have lots of good pieces for castle-building.