Lego - what to buy?

[Eagle]

My son is 5 and recently started getting into Lego. It is already a huge hit and he plays with it daily. His aunt, uncle and grandparents bought him all of the Lego City Mining set for Christmas and his birthday. He also has a couple of other small/medium Lego City kits. He is able to follow the instructions and build some pretty complex models.

 

Following advice in another thread, I signed ds up to the Lego Club Jr so we will start getting a magazine in the mail. A couple of books were also recommended to give him ideas of things to build. I had a look at the books and have no idea where you get all the fancy pieces to build the models. Lego has changed a lot from the mostly squares and rectangles when I was a kid! We definitely have some interesting pieces in the kits we own, but ds doesn't want to take any of the models apart.

 

Is there a way to buy a box of fancy Lego pieces that aren't part of a specific model? Is there a specific kit you could recommend that would provide a good range of components to use in imaginative building? Is there a basic Lego book that doesn't require fancy pieces to build the models? Is there anything Lego-related that you consider a must-have (kit, book, accessory, etc.)?

[Arcadia]

Lego online store sells the fancy pieces individually and often in different shades and color.

 

If you have a PC/laptop, you can install the free Lego Digital Designer and let your son design his own creations. You can also order the pieces your son use for his creations from Lego Digital Designer.

 

 

[Dmmetler]

If you can go to a lego store, you can do pick a brick there-a large cup is $15, I believe. It's very, very expensive to buy individual pieces through Pick-a-Brick online, so we only use it for animals, minifig parts, and the like.

 

Bricklink.com is a third party lego resale site, with individual sellers,and they're often a cheaper way to get more unusual parts, but do check at where the seller is. Since Lego is a European company, there are a lot of collectors outside the USA as well-and shipping bricks from Denmark gets very expensive fast!

[Dmmetler]

I'd also suggest getting a couple of big brick boxes. If you go to the Lego Education site, some of the bulk kits there might be a good choice. There are also two sets on the Education side-one city specific, and one fantasy/history specific that are JUST minifigs and specialty pieces, and are worth their weight in gold, IMO for imaginative play. Unfortunately, they are priced about like they're made of gold, too-about $50/set.

 

Sometimes you can get good bulk lots of just bricks on Ebay, but it's something that requires some luck. The best are "My son has moved out, and I'm selling his lego set-about 50 lbs of assorted pieces"-because unsorted legos get MUCH lower prices than sorted ones or lots of just minifigs, just specialty pieces, and so on, so if you can manage to get one of those sets, you've got a huge collection to work from.

[a27mom]

The bricks and more buckets are good for a 5 y/o. They do include some fancy pieces. Also don't overlook the "girl" lego. Lego Friends has a lot of nice pieces in reasonably priced sets. The mini dolls are slightly different, but the rest of the pieces are regular lego, boys can definitely enjoy them.

 

I often find lego at garage sales too, I am looking forward to garage sale season.

[vonfirmath]

My son is 5 and recently started getting into Lego. It is already a huge hit and he plays with it daily. His aunt, uncle and grandparents bought him all of the Lego City Mining set for Christmas and his birthday. He also has a couple of other small/medium Lego City kits. He is able to follow the instructions and build some pretty complex models.

 

Following advice in another thread, I signed ds up to the Lego Club Jr so we will start getting a magazine in the mail. A couple of books were also recommended to give him ideas of things to build. I had a look at the books and have no idea where you get all the fancy pieces to build the models. Lego has changed a lot from the mostly squares and rectangles when I was a kid! We definitely have some interesting pieces in the kits we own, but ds doesn't want to take any of the models apart.

 

 

I can't answer your questions. But I'm 40 and even when I was a kid, Lego had a LOT of interesting pieces in their sets. I hear this complaint a lot about them "We just had squares and rectangles when we were kids" but I think it may be somewhat selective remembering. The farm "set" I had was more just a lot of building blocks and few special pieces. But the next sets we had -- a bathroom and a kitchen -- started in on the special pieces. By the time I started collecting Space sets (early 80s) the special pieces outnumbered the "blocks". But we still managed to make creations out of whatever we had. Though my favorite way of working with them was to make the set with the instructions and then modify it, rather than to start from scratch.

[Arboreal TJ]

We are Lego fans... get that out of the way before I recommend KRE-O's :-p

 

My 6 yr olds love transformers, KRE-O makes very affordable transformer sets that need to be fully broken down to change from a vehicle to a robot. My kids spend hours switching them back and forth. KRE-O's will interlock with Legos, once the imagination takes hold my guys build jet packs and spacesuits for their KRE-O transformers out of Legos. All is well till DH mentions that robots don't need to breathe :-/

 

Lego stores are cool too, if you are lucky enough to live close to one.

[Wabi Sabi]

My suggestion: keep an eye on Craigslist. I once bought a large black garbage bag of old Legos from someone for $50. They were old and dirty after being in someone's shed for a few decades, but the kids had fun washing them. A year later I paid another $50 for two of the large Rubbermaid bins from a woman who was getting rid of her teenaged son's old Legos that he no longer wanted. So, for a total of $100 we have what is easily a couple thousand dollars worth of bricks!

[sillymommy]

Check out eBay! You can buy used Legos by the pound! We've been very happy with the assorted sets we've purchased there. New from Lego, the bricks are about $0.25 each. We've gotten assorted sets on eBay for just $0.03/piece! There's also a Canadian toy maker on eBay who makes compatible bricks at a fraction of the cost of Legos. We like these too.

[airforcefamily]

The pick a brick online is really neat. There are thousands of different styles and colors. IMO they're reasonably priced (most are 10-25¢ each). It can take a long time, several weeks, for the company to pick out your items and ship them to you. The pick a brick at the store is fun too but there are maybe 1% of the choices available online. The small cups (maybe 2 kitchen measuring cups worth) is around $8 with the large cups (about twice the size of the small one) being double that. The mini figure pieces cannot be put in the bulk cups, you can assemble three figures with whatever accessories you want (that fit on them) for $10. The parts are available a la cart online too.

[EppieJ]

This may be deeper than you want to go at this point, but check out the Lego Master Builder Academy. It's a subscription program that teaches Lego building techniques with kits, detailed books and online activities.

 

http://mba.lego.com/

 

Also, if you live near a Legoland, they have (at least when we were there) an area set up with parts of kits that the builders have gotten into for their park projects. They were selling those at $25 for a gallon-size ziplock bag - all you could stuff into it and still close the bag. Couldn't hurt to call and ask. ('course that would mean park entrance fee as well.) Well, it was a thought anyway. :001_unsure:

[Nscribe]

One piece you want to make sure you wind up with is the board to build upon (usually a one foot square), it is actually good to have several of these. Sometimes they will come in the bigger sets, but you can buy them at most toy shops or general stores.

 

Also, mark you calendar and around late September/early October look on Amazon for the "Lego advent calendar". Dd loved each holiday season being able to open a space on the box and retrieve a new piece. Even as a teen, I still pick one up each year for her, it is just fun.

 

A few years ago they started making little single pack figures in foil packages for under $3.00 each. You don't know which figure in the given series you will get, but the kids love trading them. The make great Easter Basket stuffers, Valentines to put with a card, Halloween first treat of the night.....

[Stellalarella]

I have several LEGO builders in my house. What I've found is that they enjoy getting a kit, building it once, and then from that point, the LEGOS just go into a big communal bin and the children build from their imaginations.

 

I think I've seen great value in the kids learning how to build from instructions and then they develop the skills to go and build more complex things.

 

WIth many of my mom friends, there is a pretty strong love-hate relationship with the LEGOS because they can be so challenging to pick up. KWIM?

 

We've been fortunate to have solid surface floors and not carpet--and that makes a big difference in the ease of clean-up.

 

But for me, what I've observed over the past 10 years of LEGO building with these kids is that it isn't a good idea for a child to have more LEGOS than he or she is willing and able to pick up and manage on his or her own power.

[4Kiddos]

I just purchased an 8 lb box of random Lego pieces off of eBay. I would check there! There are so many auctions for Legos there. It seems like the best deals are from real people and not the sellers who are selling "500 pieces from this giant pile". Those more professional sellers are selling to make money while the pictures of a box of random Legos from a person seemed to be the best deal as the people are just trying to get rid of them for a decent price. Hope this helps!