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Assembling a Lego brick collection piece by piece
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Legos have been around since 1949. Originally marketed as the Automatic Binding Brick, the toys were re-designed with a new tube gripping concept and introduced to the toy market in 1958. Kids and adults now have over 2500 different elements to choose from and the Danish company has produced a total of over 300 billion pieces in their fifty plus years in business.
A variety of different product lines have been introduced over the years - Technics, Duplo, Creator, Bionicle, etc. Many different themes have provided kids and adults the opportunity to explore their imaginations including Star Wars, Castles, Mars Mission, Pirates, and Indiana Jones. The huge variety provides endless opportunities for all of us to become designers, architects and inventors from the first minute we snap a couple bricks together.
Lego was my favorite toy as a child and my bedroom was adorned with sets - the police station, king's castle, and different spacecraft. The Legomen always beat the Armymen in war. When I had a book report due, Legos often came to the rescue to bring my diorama to life. Pulling them apart with my teeth made my parents cringe. Stepping on tiny pieces stuck deep in the carpet strands made them scream.
Set #6080-1: King's Castle
Legos can be quite expensive when purchased new at the store. Many of the big sets could easily run $75-$150. I was fortunate as a child to have accumulated several thousands pieces and dozens of sets but I wanted more for my kids. So, I started searching garage sales and thrift stores for used collections almost ten years ago. They're all over the place and usually at a fraction of the cost. If you're afraid of germs, a quick soak in some bleach water will quickly eliminate any concerns. With every find I became more and more intrigued by the toy. Rarely, did the lots come with instruction booklets or original boxes. So, I wondered what sets could be built. How were the pieces originally purchased?
Unless you're a collector, few people look closely underneath the bricks. Each individual piece is inscribed with a unique number - an ID. This discovery led me to one of the most amazing sites on the web - http://www.peeron.com/. After any garage sale purchase, I could pull some of the more unique pieces, log them into the website and determine the set they came from. An instruction booklet is also available for download to step you through the build. If pieces are missing, the element IDs can be noted and purchased directly from a Lego vendor. For any set, the site includes date produced, number of pieces, suggested retail price along with a full inventory of pieces with pictures.
ex. Set #6080-1: King's Castle - click here
For true Lego enthusiasts, members can log their full inventory and determine potential builds based on the entire history of Lego sets and elements.
