5 ms·

Cool project. How many bins are you organizing your Lego into? Or was this more just a proof of concept thing? Plans to launch a Lego sorting service? ;-)

Mtinie 10y ago
Congrats, @unityByFreedom, I think you're the first person to suggest "LSaaS". The VCs should start lining up in ...five...four...three... :)
- unityByFreedom 10y ago
  Well, it wouldn't surprise me. OP is familiar with the secondary marketplaces and knows if he could classify and sort well enough to make sets, then could potentially make money buying bulk and reselling sets on these marketplaces. It could be a real business. He's already proven he has the chops to design it. If he doesn't, I don't doubt someone else will try. Obviously Lego itself could do this but probably make more money from melting and recycling their own parts under their brand as new, like Apple does with its recyclers. Do we know if Lego is recyclable as new Lego by melting?
  - jacquesm 10y ago
    No, Lego does not recycle. But there is a very lively secondary market. There was a short period that Lego allowed people to design their own sets and order them through Lego but it was so popular they had to shut it down. People even buy new sets to sort them out just to get new bricks to combine into their own creations without having to buy them in bulk and not being able to use half of what they buy.
    - unityByFreedom 10y ago
      Well then, it sounds like Lego isn't interested in furthering either a custom or secondary market which could undercut their new sales. That is a business opportunity, no? Could you make money just buying bulk, sorting out rare parts, and reselling those?
      - jacquesm 10y ago
        > Could you make money just buying bulk, sorting out rare parts, and reselling those? There are plenty of people doing that but by hand. I figure that's about minimum wage, doing it like this should be quite a bit more lucrative.
        unityByFreedom 10y ago
        Right?! You've already done the hard tech part. Good luck with the rest man and thanks for sharing. Let us know if you have more. This is fun to see.
        jacquesm 10y ago
        There will be a part 2 about the software. But for that things need to get a lot better still.
        unityByFreedom 9y ago
        Cool. I know some folks in Taiwan who would be very interested in this sort of thing. If you ever come through this way, I'm happy to show you around! Understood that your consulting work pays more and takes priority. Still crossing my fingers for part 2 tho :-D
      - rbobby 9y ago
        > Lego isn't interested in furthering either a custom or secondary market Once Lego's patent expired it tried a fairly shady legal theory that the interconnect shapes were trademarked/trademarkable. They pursued this all the way to the Canadian Supreme Court where they lost unanimously. http://www.smart-biggar.ca/en/articles_detail.cfm?news_id=157 http://www.smart-biggar.ca/en/articles_detail.cfm?news_id=15...
        jacquesm 9y ago
        And justifiably so, especially since Lego had stolen the concept from an English company first. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kiddicraft https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kiddicraft
jacquesm 10y ago
> How many bins are you organizing your Lego into? Seven, so it takes multiple passes before it is done. > Or was this more just a proof of concept thing? Tough question :) No, it's for real it really has to sort through the 2000 kg, but if it needs to be beefed up or changed to get to the end then I'll do it. The next step 'up' would be a machine designed from scratch incorporating all the lessons learned with essentially unchanged software. There are still some limitations that could be addressed but then you'd lose the training set and you'd have to start all over from scratch. That might be worth it to get the last 1% error or so, so if this ever becomes 'real' then I'd have to do that. I highly doubt it will get to that though. time will tell. > Plans to launch a Lego sorting service? ;-) Not at present, though you're not the first person to think of that, parents with kids are suggesting I should make it mobile to visit people at their homes for $x / shot :) Still, that will only happen if I really have nothing better to do, which means likely never.
- unityByFreedom 10y ago
  > Still, that will only happen if I really have nothing better to do, which means likely never. Don't sell yourself short. You built the thing, after all. Could be some fun road trips with, I'm sure, gracious hosts to entertain you during Lego sort. That could be a whole retirement life right there ! ;-)
  - jacquesm 10y ago
    Oh if you put it that way :)
    - keithpeter 10y ago
      Remember to charge by the 100Kg sorted rather than the days on site :-)
  - ekux44 10y ago
    I'd pay 3-4 figures for an on-site sort of my personal Lego collection.
- 9y ago

Mtinie 10y ago

Congrats, @unityByFreedom, I think you're the first person to suggest "LSaaS". The VCs should start lining up in ...five...four...three... :)

unityByFreedom 10y ago
Well, it wouldn't surprise me. OP is familiar with the secondary marketplaces and knows if he could classify and sort well enough to make sets, then could potentially make money buying bulk and reselling sets on these marketplaces. It could be a real business. He's already proven he has the chops to design it. If he doesn't, I don't doubt someone else will try. Obviously Lego itself could do this but probably make more money from melting and recycling their own parts under their brand as new, like Apple does with its recyclers. Do we know if Lego is recyclable as new Lego by melting?
- jacquesm 10y ago
  No, Lego does not recycle. But there is a very lively secondary market. There was a short period that Lego allowed people to design their own sets and order them through Lego but it was so popular they had to shut it down. People even buy new sets to sort them out just to get new bricks to combine into their own creations without having to buy them in bulk and not being able to use half of what they buy.
  - unityByFreedom 10y ago
    Well then, it sounds like Lego isn't interested in furthering either a custom or secondary market which could undercut their new sales. That is a business opportunity, no? Could you make money just buying bulk, sorting out rare parts, and reselling those?
    - jacquesm 10y ago
      > Could you make money just buying bulk, sorting out rare parts, and reselling those? There are plenty of people doing that but by hand. I figure that's about minimum wage, doing it like this should be quite a bit more lucrative.
      - unityByFreedom 10y ago
        Right?! You've already done the hard tech part. Good luck with the rest man and thanks for sharing. Let us know if you have more. This is fun to see.
        jacquesm 10y ago
        There will be a part 2 about the software. But for that things need to get a lot better still.
        unityByFreedom 9y ago
        Cool. I know some folks in Taiwan who would be very interested in this sort of thing. If you ever come through this way, I'm happy to show you around! Understood that your consulting work pays more and takes priority. Still crossing my fingers for part 2 tho :-D
    - rbobby 9y ago
      > Lego isn't interested in furthering either a custom or secondary market Once Lego's patent expired it tried a fairly shady legal theory that the interconnect shapes were trademarked/trademarkable. They pursued this all the way to the Canadian Supreme Court where they lost unanimously. http://www.smart-biggar.ca/en/articles_detail.cfm?news_id=157 http://www.smart-biggar.ca/en/articles_detail.cfm?news_id=15...
      - jacquesm 9y ago
        And justifiably so, especially since Lego had stolen the concept from an English company first. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kiddicraft https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kiddicraft

jacquesm 10y ago

> How many bins are you organizing your Lego into? Seven, so it takes multiple passes before it is done. > Or was this more just a proof of concept thing? Tough question :) No, it's for real it really has to sort through the 2000 kg, but if it needs to be beefed up or changed to get to the end then I'll do it. The next step 'up' would be a machine designed from scratch incorporating all the lessons learned with essentially unchanged software. There are still some limitations that could be addressed but then you'd lose the training set and you'd have to start all over from scratch. That might be worth it to get the last 1% error or so, so if this ever becomes 'real' then I'd have to do that. I highly doubt it will get to that though. time will tell. > Plans to launch a Lego sorting service? ;-) Not at present, though you're not the first person to think of that, parents with kids are suggesting I should make it mobile to visit people at their homes for $x / shot :) Still, that will only happen if I really have nothing better to do, which means likely never.

unityByFreedom 10y ago
> Still, that will only happen if I really have nothing better to do, which means likely never. Don't sell yourself short. You built the thing, after all. Could be some fun road trips with, I'm sure, gracious hosts to entertain you during Lego sort. That could be a whole retirement life right there ! ;-)
- jacquesm 10y ago
  Oh if you put it that way :)
  - keithpeter 10y ago
    Remember to charge by the 100Kg sorted rather than the days on site :-)
- ekux44 10y ago
  I'd pay 3-4 figures for an on-site sort of my personal Lego collection.
9y ago