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Whenever I got a new Lego set, I built it once, using the manual and then would take it apart, a day or two later. For the bricks to be absorbed into my pile an
by virtualritz 5y ago
Whenever I got a new Lego set, I built it once, using the manual and then would take it apart, a day or two later. For the bricks to be absorbed into my pile and let me build something new, better. Something I had imagined myself.
For me there are definitely two kinds of Lego users. Those who struggle with the building instructions. For them following these is almost meditative.
Then there are those who don't and who have their own ideas. They will skim through the instructions and build the set once (if at all). And in general just welcome the addition of (new) bricks.
For me the resp. set served mostly as fuel for my imagination. If it was a spaceship, the next thing I would build was one. Just not the one in the set.
My dad built me a chest of drawers with lots of boxes for sorting Legos. And sorted them for me when he gave it to me as a present, for my 5th b-day. It was almost as tall as me at the time. I.e. I could just open and peek into the top drawer.
He also told me why it was important to sort the bricks again, after I deconstructed my opi:
I could let my imagination run free and find the bricks I needed quickly when building my next piece.
Before, when they were all a pile in a big box, very often the creative flow was killed by the annoyance of searching a pile of bricks for the one I needed. You start building something and eventually you just stop.
This thing looks like a tool for people who lack both. Sorted Legos and imagination.
- hypertele-Xii 5y agoThe chaos of mixed bricks can be creative in its self. I used to play this game where I had a small baseplate as an isolated island; Every morning, I'd grab a fistfull of bricks from the grand pile to "wash up" on the island shore, then challenge myself to build from them a home for the stranded minifig on the island. It was exciting not knowing what pieces you'd get!
- jackbeck 5y agoI haven't had an online comment resonate with me as much as this did in a very very long time.
- laurent92 5y agoI’m surprised there isn’t any one-the-shelf solution for sorting Lego. As you said, it’s the first step.
- antiterra 5y agoThe indictment of people who would enjoy this as not having imagination is ridiculously smug and self-congratulatory. Maybe use some of your imagination to think of scenarios where this could augment creativity? Imagination and 3d visualization are different things. Some people enjoy refinement and improvement from an existing state versus starting from zero. Having quick generation of ideas for small builds means you could focus on being creative at the scale of a whole scene or diorama.
- barry27 5y agoIt doesnt have to be considered self congratulatory or smug, or indeed an indictment. The gradual erosion of any need for individual thought or creativity is a real problem nowadays. The existence of a tool like this is just a shame.