I feel like we have spent a fortune on Legos in our house -- probably close to $500 so far. The sets are not cheap... They do such *cool* things with Lego sets these days. Even on eBay; they hold their retail value really well!

They are all over my son's room. He has every Sponge Bob set made and is now starting on the City collection. He's 10 and so this is just beginning!

We've found instruction books online and so he can make a lot of things without buying the sets but you can only go so far with that before you don't have a particular piece... sigh.

They are educational... maybe we have a future building engineer here?... and we feel that it has opened up a world of pretend play for him. He rarely plays video games because he has his Legos!

How many are too many? Where do you draw the line?

My oldest is 7 and we are just beginning to venture into the world of Legos. We already have a TON and I do mean a lot. I haven't bought most of them -- my mom and sister find them on clearance and save them for DS's birthday and Christmas.

I don't mind having a lot if he's going to play with them. He will go up in his room and play for hours. He prefers to come up with his own things to build rather than following the instruction booklets that come with the sets. I have kept the booklets, however because I think when he gets older he will want to follow them. This is the one toy he consistantly plays with and enjoys so I don't mind having a lot of them.

My youngest is 4 and he has already given up Duplo Legos -- he wants the little ones just like his brother. He does have a few small sets of his own but prefers to play with his older brother's.

Sarah.........mom to Jason & Devin

ah, as i write this i can hear my 6 year old making that "swooshing" sound looking for a lego through the thousands he has. we try to download instructions instead of buying sets, but there's always that one special piece that comes with the set!

i agree that the sets are pricey, but it's the ONLY thing my kid likes. he's not into anything else so i know it's money well spent. everyone knows to only buy him legos. we made the extra bedroom into his lego playroom - he has the whole floor to spread legos all over. it's nice that it's contained in one room. for our house, we can ever have too many legos!

I have a lego junky in my house,he is 10.his favorite sets are the star wars ones....he spends hours perfecting those and play endlessly ....
I stop counting the money spent on it, he saves his money and wait until he has enough....
I found a star wars ship on clearnace at Walmart for half price ,but stil was $45.....

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By the time you make ends meet, they move the ends

My son (7) is also a HUGE lego-junky. We have 60+ Bionicles set up on display in our playroom, not to mention all the "playsets" for Bionicles, SpiderMan, Lego Pirates, and Knight's Kingdom. ALL of them. He also has dozens of other sets from various themes. You could say we have a problem. My DH still has all of his lego sets from when he was a little boy. Legos seem to be the only gift people give him, but he doesn't mind, so it's okay by me. He tends to build a set, put it up somewhere to display, then never take it down. I end up taking them apart and putting them away so that we have space for something new.

You can get sets cheaper on eBay if you look there. I've also had great luck at Target & WalMart clearance.

Renee

My DS loved Lego's. They are pricey, but we felt like it was a better alternative than video games, etc. He would build things of his own design, no instruction. He made some really creative and interesting pieces. Hmmm, maybe architecture is in his future??? He no longer plays with them.....I'd say we have an 18 gallon tote FULL of the different pieces and sets. He also kept some of his creations displayed in his room. We're keeping these until he has children of his own some day. How cool is that??? His kids playing with the same Lego's he played with???

I would not "limit" the amount you buy, as in 'No more Lego's", but, I would not buy a new set every week, either. They make great Christmas gift ideas.

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Doing the right thing isn't always the same as doing the easy thing.

My DH who was a Lego kid says:

"There is no such thing as too many Legos. "

Of course, he has the kind of mom that picked up after him all the time when he was a kid so that is pretty easy for him to say

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Nutella,....
proving some of the best things in life come in a jar.

It is the best thing around all 4 of my kids play with it actually the duplo. I have lego but they don't pickup so with a one year old all they get in the duplo out. And I usually buy the blank set and they can build from there imagination.

I saw this post and just had to respond! DS is 12 1/2 , he has thousands upon thousands of pieces. Started with the big ones when he was around 8 mos old and is still continuing! I agree that LEGO is money well spent. He builds different things and uses pieces from different sets to build his own from his imagination. He recently stopped "playing" with them and now pretty much just builds. His stuff cost probably a couple thousand dollars. But LEGO has been about all he wanted for birthday, Christmas, etc. prior to this Christmas. This is the first Christmas his list dosen't contain any LEGO's. He has actually asked for some clothes. I guess my baby is growing up. ;( Enjoy the LEGO stage while it lasts. You will look back with a smile at all the times you wrenched your ankle or stepped on a piece while barefoot!!!!

There is no such thing as too many legos! Unless of course he can't actually get into his bedroom. Legos are fantastic toys -- many, many geeks keep their addiction well into their twenties and thirties or even longer

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After all these years, I see that I was mistaken about Eve in the beginning; it is better to live outside the Garden with her than inside it without her.

Mark Twain

Too many? No such thing! Our kids had mine from 40 years ago and, of course, their own. We keep all of them and the next generation will add more!
The same rule applies for Play Mobil.

No such thing as too many! Hardest thing is keeping them (each set) seperated.......

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"You can never really pay back. You can only pay forward."

Wayne Woodrow “Woody” Hayes

O-H-I-O

We can't stand legos here luckily. My kids stopped playing with them around age 5 or so. They are really into Knex....all over the place and they build MUCH larger things with them. My DS has a huge roller coaster and ferris wheel in his room plus more in the living room....

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Proud to say I haven't shopped at a Wal-Mart since Sept 2003

Too many? Never! this is the one toy that my kids got my moneys worth out of. By the time we were done buying them we had 3 full 18 gallon totes =$$$. I will tell you honestly the 27 year old had all of the pirate ships and still has them on a shelf in his office, the 25 year old had the castles and has them displayed in his rec room, the 18 year old (the only girl)was a klutz with them and never made a thing. We passed the totes (minus the ships and the castles) down to my nephews. Whenever we have a get together all of the kids from 5 - 35 are building things, trying to impress each other. Also,Lego was one of the most friendly consumer companies to deal with when it came to missing pieces or questions.

Spoken like a man who still has his sets!

My DS (7) has quite a few sets and will be getting more from Christmas. They are pricey but when a new video game cost 49.99 and a Sponge Bob Chum Bucket set cost 34.99, I feel its a double win!! Not only is my child using his imagination and not sitting hours in front of the TV, he doesn't come down all upset 5 minutes later telling me he couldn't get passed the flying glowing purple dragon in stage one

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Chicago Bears!!!!
We are the Bears Shufflin' Crew
Shufflin' on down, doin' it for you.
We're so bad we know we're good.
Blowin' your mind like we knew we would.
You know we're just struttin' for fun
Struttin' our stuff for everyone.
We're not here to start no trouble.
We're just here to do the Super Bowl Shuffle.

I think even one is too many.

Especially in the middle of the night when you step on one and it hurts like hell!

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"Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent. Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent. Is he both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil? Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God? " ~Epicurus

Knex are the same way LOL

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Proud to say I haven't shopped at a Wal-Mart since Sept 2003

Oh do they hurt! In our old house, one of our DS's had left some out in the hall near the steps and DH stepped on some, started jumping around on foot, hit another lego, and ended up falling down the stairs....thankfully he was ok, and now it's a good laugh, but the boys did learn that they cannot be left in any walkways......

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"You can never really pay back. You can only pay forward."

Wayne Woodrow “Woody” Hayes

O-H-I-O

You know you have too many Legos when you can build an addition onto your house with just the loose ones lying in your sons' bedroom floors.

AMEN! I was gonna say three but I will agree with ya totally on one!

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TLJ ~ Women United in Spirit

Ouch, I feel the pain just reading about it!

My kids did the KNex for awhile too. We had the roller coaster one! Fun!

You mean you only have $500 worth?? Sadly, that is just the beginning! I'm sure DS's collection (he's now 16) is well over $1000 - and that's being conservative. Seriously, though, when I think of the many hours he and his sister spent playing with those, they are worth every penny!

I LOVE Playmobil! I think if Playmobil, Legos, Knex, etc... keep your child busy and engaged then it's great. They are very educational without seeming "educational". They all hold their value and/or are great to hold onto for the next generation or for the kids to drag out every once in awhile when they are older. You can't go wrong with these types of toys if your child(ren) likes them.

DD loved legos when she was younger (she's 16 now and has out-grown them, LOL)...but I bought the majority of hers from garage sales and mark-downs at Target and Walmart. When she outgrew them, we passed them on to her younger cousins (my sisters 4 little girls) and they are still getting used each and every day.

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"Why must you speak, when you have nothing to say." Horatio Hornblower

You actually try to keep your sets separated? Impossible! We have three under the bed storage bins filled. My boys have just recently started sorting pieces into categories-Star wars, weapons, vehicles, cool pieces....

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Jackie

Music is what feelings sound like._ ~Author Unknown

We have every Star Wars ship made and of course we cannot dissassemble them!! I need to build another room onto the house just to store them!!!!!!!!!!

Build that addition with Legos!
I love them!
I nearly flipped out the first time I went intio a Lego store!
My older GS does not play with them anymore and the younger one hasn't really started yet.

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Square dancing is friendship set to music!

My 12 yr. ds shelves are filled with his Lego sets. He builds them and then they go up for display. I think we are going to have to take some down to make room for the Harry Potter set I got for him for Christmas on clearance at Target a couple of months ago. Target clearance has saved me alot of money on Legos over the years. I have been able to find quite a few sets on markdown.

My 8 yr old DS is totally into Legos - he has most of the Star Wars, and he is now into the Castle and Bionicle stuff. He has asked for that from Santa this year. We have WAY MORE than $500 worth of Legos and I know this is just the beginning. Like other posters have said, if you keep them together and with instructions, they'll hold their value. We need to get more shelves for all of his creations. He likes to rearrange them on his shelves, and put the people in different spots.

I agree, you can not ever have enough Legos-- that is, unless he can't clean them up and I step on or vacuum them up and it clogs it up.

He has gotten a few K'Nex (roller coaster and car), but he always goes back to Legos.

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No way are there too many legos! My DS is 8 and he has his own Legos and the ones his dad saved for him from his youth. I believe we have 4 or 5 18 gallon tubs full of legos. This does not count his K'nex or Bionicles. Also, my DS is a huge fan of Magnetix. I don't mind how crazy his room gets while he is building his new creation. There are more important things in life to worry about. We just bought from ebay a lot of 50 lego guys and cool accessories! My son is going to be so excited!

Merry Christmas!

We could open a branch of the Lego Outlet. We are slowly putting the displays away, as he is getting less interested.
I have an unopened Bionicle set that I will sell to the first bidder. He has many of the original ones that are "rare" now.
Like I know the difference, LOL.

My ds(8) is also a legomaniac. He really likes the Star Wars and the Mars Mission sets. You are right they are very expensive but I think they are also a 'good' toy. It helps them with fine motor skills and builds their brains---it's not really a mindless activity like playing a video game. Ds just likes to build things---he started off on tinker toys, went to Knex and has been into legos for a couple of years. We have also spent a ton of money on legos.

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"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” ----Edmund Burke

I've always liked LEGOS when I was a kid & still have a bunch I've bought @ yard sales, thrift shops, etc. Especially great to have when babysitting my friends kids & when they visit!

I have bought a LEGO train track set @ the church thrift shop many years ago DH said that would be perfect for under the Christmas tree but that year we just put a few regular trains on it just for decoration! I know @ FAO SCHWARTZ they sell the train sets for it but still haven't gotten them I found online a website that shows ya how to build the trains so I don't think I've got enough LEGOS yet!

I went to a yard sale in the summertime & these people who had teenagers selling all their toys had a few Rubbermaid totes w/a mixture of LEGOS & PLAYMOBIL I only needed the LEGOS but since they were all mixed 3 huge bins full except they didn't give me the lids I sorted them another day!

Matt's LEGO® Train Depot.


The LEGO® Train Depot

Welcome to the Train Depot, the website dedicated to LEGO® Trains and Railways. Here you will find lists of current and past train sets, project plans and ideas, and Windows software for designing your own layouts. Explore the site using the links.

~ Andrea ~

DS2 set up the Lego train to run under the Christmas tree this year. Haven't seen it in years...but he got a hankering for it. Pain in the butt when it came to putting the presents under there though.

Legos saved my life once. For DS2's 7th birthday, we rented one of those bouncy things for the yard. Weather did not cooperate and the place wouldn't even set it up due to the rain. Had a bunch of boys coming to my house with nothing for them to do and a few hours to figure it out. We ended up building a multi-lane race track by propping a folding banquet table up at one end and not the other.....putting electrical tape on it for start and finish and lanes.....and getting out our huge plastic buckets of legos and letting the boys build their own cars and then doing races with them and awarding prizes for both the races and other categories. They spent over an hour at it and I think they had more fun then they would have had on the bouncy thing....

ETA: I am absolutely brand-loyal to Legos. Bought a couple of MegaBloks skateboard sets once....what crap those blocks were and their customer service was stinky too.

cj/

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I was walking home one night and a guy hammering on a roof called me a paranoid little weirdo. In morse code. -Emo Phillips

So fun to read all of the responses... Yes, we love our Legoes and even with the expense, it is money well-spent.

I thought some of you might be interested in the following site. It is a pretty all-inclusive website with ALL of the Lego Instruction Manuals ever put out (according to my 20-something nephews!). Probably not helpful if you use dialup though as they are all pretty big JPEG files but maybe this will be fun for some of you!

There is a drop down menu at the top:
FRAMES VOOR LEGO SYSTEMS

My kids will set up the laptop at their workstation and have a whole LOT of fun building!