Inspiration?

[Aviah102]

Hello, this post is for anyone interested in helping me out. I am finding it increasingly difficult to either putting an end to my lego collecting or continuing my collecting while completing other goals and such at the current time. If i were to quit collecting legos it would seem like such a waste of money and I suppose time as well. Although, with a lot of other things that need to be done, which includes finishing high school and thoughts of college, it is sometimes hard to find inspiration to continue collecting, especially when I do not have much time between work and school. Any advice regarding such matters would be greatly appreciated (i apologize for such a weird topic/post).

[Aviah102]

If the topic seems to be to strange to just answer, then how about making your reply related to what inspires you (you= anybody) most to use or do something with your legos.

[porschecm2]

I am finding it increasingly difficult to either putting an end to my lego collecting or continuing my collecting while completing other goals and such at the current time.

Haha, join the club.

But seriously, the one thing I would suggest is to just stop buying new stuff, and build MOCs with what you've already got.

Cm2

[Aviah102]

Thank you, that is very good advice,however, the catch is that i am at a point in my collecting where i have a somewhat extensive amount of legos, but not necessarily enough to build most of the things i want too. Thanks though.

[porschecm2]

You are ailed by nothing that is not common to man.

At least, man as he's known around here.

Perhaps limiting yourself to only a few new sets each month would be an alternative.

Cm2

[ottoatm]

Yea, I've been here many times... I've got several huge tubs of bricks now (small to some of the other collectors here, but a lot for me) and MANY times I've stopped myself to wonder what the heck I was spending all my cash on... the solution I came up with? Buy it when you want, and make yourself spend some of your extra cash on other fun stuff too (dvds, ballgame tix, snowboard, etc). It's GOOD to be distracted from Lego from time to time.

Also, since so few of us (compared to football fans or video game fans) exist, I know I feel a little strange spending so much on little plastic toys... sometimes I even stash them in a closet and out of sight if a lot of my friends are coming over.

But it's a little funny because most of my friends & my girlfriend, I've found out, have a secret desire to build something, just not the courage to do so.

So if you're feeling strapped for cash, take a break... reign in your building ambitions and just enjoy what you've got! It's not as exciting, but it's cheaper, and maybe even better for the builder in you in the long run!

[quiksand]

I hear you bud. I've been through this before, and actually go through this quite often. What you may need to do is just throw your Lego in bins, and just hide them away for a while until you clear your head. It sounds like you got a lot going on in your life right now, and you don't want your Lego's to become a burden, that will only make it worse. Don't feel bad, just realize that you have to have prioritizes, and sometimes Lego will be at the bottom of that list, and sometimes at the top. That is just the way life is. Tomorrow is another day, remember that.

[Fry_slayer]

hoya... dont ever sell ur LEGO for temporary down period man, u will regret that when u are up to it again and as some one said before to Blasterman -- They never came cheaper than already owned

A hint: DVDs and Computer games will get outdated, game console will die out, LEGO on the other hand, are non-biodegradable. But seriouly though, find something else to do beside LEGO, u will appreciate them more when u come back

[Section8]

I came out of my 'dark age' last year during my second year of college. I stumbled upon LDraw and installed it and made a few designs, then showed my friends. They were impressed; my roommate soon installed it, and my other friend brought back his huge tub of Lego to build with. My collection is not very large, but I am adding to it by maybe 8-10 sets a year through retail, bricklink, and ebay. While I'm at school I design models on LDraw (evidenced by my LDraw-only Brickshelf gallery) and browse the internet for good deals; while at home I actually build models, and catalog my old sets to see what's missing.

Getting rid of your legos now would be mistake you may regret someday. Even if you don't bring them to college with you, you still have breaks and such. If you don't have time then, believe me, Lego bricks last a long time, the majority of my collection is approaching 15 years in age and still work and look fine. I don't spend the vast majority of my day building with them or designing on LDraw; I get maybe an hour or two here and there late at night when I've finished my work but am not tired yet. To me, it's an hour well spent.

[Aviah102]

Thanks for all the advice! It actually helped a lot, i've completely turned my thoughts around and became almost instantly inspired to use them more then ever before...well there is one problem, a thought so far off and strange that it is intriguing why it is bothering me. I did research after an environmental science class and found out that if our world keeps depleting our oil supplies as we are, in 10-50 years we will have absolutely no oil left. Since the whole lego dilema has been of my top concern, i was left actually wondering how transportation would work in general, in the future, let alone the shipment of well let's say legos.

[chump]

Not to mention that plastic is made out of oil. So really it's not a problem, since there would be no Lego to transport!

Things don't have to be black or white, allow for shades of gray (no colour debate intended). Be happy with the Lego that you do have. It's only a waste of money, if you allow yourself to think it is. Think of the value and great memories that you've got from using your Lego and ask yourself it's worth the money you paid for it, or that you would get from selling it.

[Lord_Of_The_LEGO]

Be happy with the Lego that you do have. It's only a waste of money, if you allow yourself to think it is. Think of the value and great memories that you've got from using your LEGO.

Wonderful advice. If this was a LUGNET post I'd spotlight it!

[bannear]

I have found some times even in my short period of building/buying Lego, that I have to walk away from the Bricks to get a fresh perspective - Hard to do as I have 9 - 5 drawer rolling bins of it sitting in my living room and office and pieces that my son and I play with are all over the house. But what I do is roll them into a closet - out of site and then come back to them when I become inspired again. Right now I have them rolled away - so I know how you feel! And my money is going to bills I need to pay ...
I used to work on old cars and have done the same thing - get fed up with a problem with a car - then walk away before you bloody your knuckles or get so frustrated you sell the things or ruin things - i dented a pristine car once because I got so upset - 5 hours of body work to repair my moment of frustration ...
You wouldn't have Lego if it wasn't interesting for you and you wouldn't have collected if it didn't mean something to you. Right now you are looking at other things that are also important - maybe more so while your life makes some decisions for you. I guess what I am saying is let the frustration guide you - don't collect now but wait till you are into it again - inspiration can come from the wierdest places.
Remember good friends don't mind if you don't talk to them everyday - or if you have to go away for a month or a year or two - or?
Lego will always be an old friend you can pick up at any time - and the figs don't care how long its been.
Do what you need to do now and later
Play Well -
SirBert

[chump]

One might, on the other hand, say that JoJo and his humungous collection lead some people to be frustrated because we don't have enough pieces to build what we see. Don't get me wrong, I love his stuff, in particular his modified Black Seas Barracuda and his white statues.

To counter, I pose another builder to you to draw inspiration from, Nathanael Kuipers, who only uses pieces from just one set (almost always Designer or Technic) to create completely different creations. His designs inspire others to make do with what we have in front of us. Fortunately for us, he has accepted a short position at Lego (Technic) so we should see some awesome designs soon.

http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/galle ... aldesigner

The thread will slowly be made into a book called "Zen and the Art of Lego".

ETA: Aviah102, I don't know where your most recent post went, but this message was in response to that message:

One of the greatest things about this site is that you can admire all of the creations of fellow lego artists. An example might be looking on in awe at some of JoJo's spectacular castle creations.

[ottoatm]

The thread will slowly be made into a book called "Zen and the Art of Lego".

LOL

You might be right... I'm seeing a lot of good perspective here and finding it interesting that a lot of collectors seem to think the same, from time to time.