12 ms·
LEGO Building Instructions
- amelius 3y agoIt would be nice to have 3D models of these, so I can play with them without shelling out $$$.
- JNRowe 3y agoI sincerely applaud everything ending up on IA. However, if you're searching for specific instructions brickinstructions is excellent as it is far more navigable. For a random example see Starguider¹. I wonder if someone has already scraped that site for IA, beyond simply praying to the Wayback Machine. ¹ https://lego.brickinstructions.com/m/lego_instructions/set/6933/Starguider https://lego.brickinstructions.com/m/lego_instructions/set/6...
- internetter 3y agoYes, we archived the entire thing in 2020[0] (~100gb). Maybe it's worth running again. [0]: https://archive.fart.website/archivebot/viewer/job/avlad https://archive.fart.website/archivebot/viewer/job/avlad Edit: What this means is you can open any* link to lego.brickinstructions.com and see it in the wayback machine (IA ingests these archives) *maybe not the mobile view you linked, not links after the job ran, not pages that couldn't be found in a crawl
- JNRowe 3y agoThat is great. I could see a lot it was in the wayback machine, but I have no idea what the pipeline for that is. Poking around from your link was informative, thanks!
- kazinator 3y agoWhen brickinstructions goes belly up, or just messes up its URLs for shits and giggles, you will need to go through archive.org to find out what used to be at that URL.
- el_benhameen 3y agoThank you for sharing this. I’m going to show it to my 6 year old and he’s going to lose his mind. Great way to make use of my massive box of childhood legos and empty summer hours.
- FeteCommuniste 3y agoWow, that just gave me a crazy flash of nostalgia. I think I must have had this set, or at least a very similar one.
- fxtentacle 3y agome too :)
- lukebbutton 3y agoSame, it hit hard
- kevinob11 3y agoWhoa, WHOA, I could never have named or described this but it suddenly felt like I was 8 hoping for specific christmas gifts again.
- mulmen 3y agoI admit to being a total sucker for Star Wars LEGO but I do love the classic sets with no “lore”. It’s some kind of space truck. People probably need trucks in space right? You figure it out kid.
- etimberg 3y agoSame! Just found the instructions for a set I remember getting as a kid. https://lego.brickinstructions.com/en/lego_instructions/set/6036/Skeleton_Surprise https://lego.brickinstructions.com/en/lego_instructions/set/... I think the lego itself is still somewhere at my parents place, but the instructions were lost long ago
- Loic 3y agohttps://lego.brickinstructions.com/en/lego_instructions/set/6482/Rescue_Helicopter https://lego.brickinstructions.com/en/lego_instructions/set/... I played so many hours with this one...
- the__alchemist 3y agoOh my god. I thought I was such a big deal when I first saw that one - It was marked ages 6+, but I was a solid 4 or 5.
- Waterluvian 3y agoMy kids being 4 and 6 means we’re full into Lego. I grew up with two brothers so we have like three hundred pounds of it. But lost most of the instructions. It’s been amazing to go online and find any instruction and re-assemble these kits. It also made me realize something: half the value of buying a kit these days is that you aren’t spending hours finding needles in a 300lb haystack.
- paulryanrogers 3y ago> ...half the value of buying a kit these days is that you aren’t spending hours finding needles in a 300lb haystack. My guess is that is why techies keep inventing their own Lego sorting machines
- kroltan 3y ago> It also made me realize something: half the value of buying a kit these days is that you aren’t spending hours finding needles in a 300lb haystack. What! That is the best part! Wading through a mound of Lego has to be one of the most satisfying sounds I know, the clatter of a bajillion pieces of precision plastic, each with their different cavities and sonority, moving around each handful you scrape off to the side... Good times. In the rare occasion I get a Lego set nowadays (no kids yet), the first thing I do is open every bag of pieces into a tray so I can do it on a smaller scale.
- jjkaczor 3y agoThe sound of swishing through a mound/box/bin of LEGO has to be the most relaxing thing for me ever...
- Waterluvian 3y agoI looooove that sound. But with young kids there’s no point trying to sort. And without sorting, every piece takes a while to find.
- epiccoleman 3y ago
- jjallen 3y agoThere’s also an app with all of the instructions if that’s more convenient
- mrweasel 3y agoNow if someone would just make an app that can figure out which set my bricks belong to. I have at least two sets that I can't find the instructions for, because I have no idea what they're called or which number they have. The bricks are fairly unique, they can't be in more than 10 sets.
- jjkaczor 3y agoThere are typically numbers somewhere on bricks that you can lookup. Or ... Reverse image search.
- bennyp101 3y agoI'm sure there was a brick scanning app that appeared a while ago, or try and find a number and enter it on Lego site [1], otherwise post a picture on BrickLink and I'm sure someone will know what it is! Then you can look on BrickLink or Rebrickable to find sets that it came from [1] https://www.lego.com/en-gb/service/help/building_instructions/bricks_pieces/identifying-lego-set-and-part-numbers-kA009000001dcatCAA https://www.lego.com/en-gb/service/help/building_instruction...
- tectec 3y agoBrinklink has list for each brick of the set it belongs too. I was able to use that to discover a set I didn't know my older brothers had.
- gaazoh 3y agoYou can try to find the parts that stand out on bricklink[0], which will point you to the sets they were used in. It's pretty quick, once you figure out what the part can be called or what category it fits in. If you can't figure it out, you can ask for help on the "bricks" StackExchange site[1]. [0] https://www.bricklink.com https://www.bricklink.com [1] https://bricks.stackexchange.com/ https://bricks.stackexchange.com/
- lapetitejort 3y agoI've attempted to find some sets based on a single complicated brick and it can be challenging. How do I find the "official" name of the brick based on my own vague description [0]? What is the true color? How do I find special printed bricks? I'm sure with practice it gets easier. How open is bricks stack exchange to posting just an image of a brick with not much more to go on? [0]: As an example, here the description of a brick I struggled to name. I've since figured it out, but you are welcome to guess: flat 4x1 with bumps only on the ends (yes, "bumps", because I don't know what the technical term is. Again, I'm sure there's a guide or glossary I could find.)
- photonerd 3y agoProbably an age thing, but I’ve never understood the point of Lego instructions. Or the sets. The whole point of Lego was creative free form building. Remove that & it’s dull as hell. It just becomes model building with poor quality models as the result. I’m happy other people find it fun, but to me it misses the entire point in favor of weak licensed “kits”.
- onemoresoop 3y agoNeither did I till I had a kid. My kid loves following instructions, builds a set a few times, then he goes into creative mode and builds his own way. Instructions helped my kid learn the basics of instruction following which is a good skill to have for a 5 year old.
- photonerd 3y agoYeah I have a 2 yr old & larger blocks. He’s all about free building atm.
- jjkaczor 3y agoI am in-between - so, the way I used instructions was for ideas on how things could be put together that were "non-obvious". I would build it once, then play with that model for a bit, then deconstruct it, put it into my box of loose LEGO and then build whatever I wanted - sometimes it would look similar, but it was never the same way twice. I fail to understand expensive sets that get built and sit on shelves or in glass enclosures... Might as well break out the Kragle (I think many people failed to see the point of that movie...)
- hugi 3y agoI'm in my early forties but I still grew up with instructions and sets. Usually I'd assemble a set and probably learn a thing or two along the way, then I'd tear the sets down and build stuff myself. As a father of three, that's exactly how I see my kids using the sets today. The sets get built once, then they get torn down and the bricks get reused.
- dsr_ 3y ago
- IG_Semmelweiss 3y agoThis is a great reminder for parents of lego-addicted kids to get their into STEM by entering in FRC. It starts early, with legos! https://www.firstinspires.org/robotics/fll https://www.firstinspires.org/robotics/fll
- chias 3y agoOh man, this sent me down a trip to memory lane. I had a lot of the Spyrius set as a little kid, and I loved them to bits. I just looked up how much they'd cost to buy them again, and they're like $1000 a pop :o
- aeneasmackenzie 3y agoYou may be able to (entirely legally) part out the sets on bricklink, buy the generic bricks from webrick, and buy the specific bricks from bricklink sellers. This will be substantially cheaper and it’s an onboard into non-Lego building bricks which have gotten really good in the last few years. The glut of vendors selling copied Lego sets has given the field a bad name, but the brick design is out of patent and there are many sellers designing their own sets as well as selling MOCs.
- endemic 3y agonostalgia is a helluva drug
- sxp 3y agoFor modern sets, you can also get a PDF from the official site: https://www.lego.com/en-us/service/buildinginstructions/76223 https://www.lego.com/en-us/service/buildinginstructions/7622... One of these days, I want to learn enough computer vision to write an LEGO instruction booklet to LCAD convertor that could be fed old instructions and generate a 3D model of the set. An archive of the instructions is nice, but a virtual archive of sets would be nicer.
- xp84 3y agoThen feed that model into a 3d printer and archive your built sets immutably in meatspace! :D
- jamesfinlayson 3y agoI thought years ago Lego had a desktop program that let you build things with virtual bricks.
- gumby 3y agoIt wasn't until I started buying Lego for myself (in my 20s) that I learned that Lego came with instructions. When I was a kid my parents would open the box and discard the instructions before giving it to me. Back then (60s/70s) the sets were quite general and open ended. Modern day Lego has the thinking done ahead of time, and has too many specialised pieces.
- tspike 3y agoThis is definitely a “get off my lawn” comment. Creativity with Lego has never been more vibrant. I encourage you to visit your local Lego fan convention, or explore one of the many online forums where people share their “MOCs.” Those “specialized” pieces are incredible fodder for sculpting. Check out newelementary.com to see some examples.
- grigri907 3y agoAgreed - the constraints of a limited set of bricks really forced creativity. However, there's been a huge paradigm shift in terms of what is "allowed" as far as odd brick placements so the realm of what's possible to build has expanded at least as much as the inventory of brick options.
- rhplus 3y agoI'm surprised there's no copyright notice on these instruction booklets. Has LEGO ever stated that their booklets are freely reproducible or is this a gray area? Note: I'm talking about the layout and graphics of the booklets themselves, not the logical instructions (i.e. recipe book versus recipes).
- bryanmgreen 3y agoOver the last several years I've made a habit of downloading PDF manuals for many things I own and saving them in a Google Drive folder for safe-keeping. You never know when you need one until you do and it's a nightmare if you lost it!
- jordij1 3y agoMy manuals are sorted in folders by maker / brand name.
- gleenn 3y agoI was sad not to see the original Technic Super Car. It had a working V8, 4 wheel drive with 4 wheel steering and 3 way differential, and even an actual gear box with shifter. You could see the pistons pump when you pushed it around. One of the best birthday presents I ever asked for.
- MisterTea 3y agoThat was a great set - it also featured double wishbone suspension supported by spring struts.
- xdrosenheim 3y agoDo you know the set number? There is a "Super Car" in Technic with set number 8070, available in the archive. Not sure about the steering and differential, but it seems to feature a V8 and a stick shift.
- netsharc 3y agoThe 8880: https://brickset.com/article/20017/8880-super-car-the-best-engineered-classic-technic-set-of-the-1990s https://brickset.com/article/20017/8880-super-car-the-best-e...
- lloeki 3y agoI had Test Car 8865, which was quite a bit more primitive but still fairly complete (a 4 cylinder reciprocating engine in a V configuration, a 3 speed transmission, a working rear differential, working front and rear double wishbone suspension, rack and pinion steering, retractable headlights, and adjustable and reclining seats) http://www.technicopedia.com/8865.html http://www.technicopedia.com/8865.html The evolution history of such cars, beautifully presented on SE, is fascinating: https://bricks.stackexchange.com/a/14539 https://bricks.stackexchange.com/a/14539
- marceldegraaf 3y agoThat was an amazing set. The first one I bought from my own hard-saved cash as a kid. Really fun to build and amazing (and informative) to see the working steering, differential, suspension, and gear train assemblies. I have this set laying around, mostly complete. Should really rebuild it someday!
- jonathankoren 3y agoInternet Archive is a great resource, but man the interface sucks. Part of it’s because there’s no good way browse online, and part of it is because the search is broken. Indexing so much data in such diverse formats with questionable or missing metadata is hard. I’d love a better interface, but I also suspect that a crappy interface is what help IA stay alive. There’s plenty of legally questionable data hosted there if you know where to look.
- albertopv 3y agoAmazing! I was thinking just about this a few days ago, my daughter got a tons of Lego from hers uncles, of course without instructions
- OliveMate 3y agoMy old man recently got a bunch of boxes from my childhood out of his, including multiple tubs of mixed Lego and a box of incomplete instructions. This will prove to be a valuable resource in the coming months, thank you very much! I keep staring at all the artwork included on some of the early Bionicle instructions and I love that dark mysterious island aesthetic.
- toastandbacon1 3y agoSo much nostalgia. I remember playing and building with tons of Legos back in the day. Then id destroy them and build my own stuff.
- roryisok 3y agoLego themselves have an archived copy of every instruction set going back to the 80s, available here - https://www.lego.com/en-us/service/buildinginstructions https://www.lego.com/en-us/service/buildinginstructions But for whatever reason, the scans are poor quality and very dark, and it can be hard to make out what piece is which. These ones look much better
- aleph_minus_one 3y ago> Lego themselves have an archived copy of every instruction set going back to the 80s, available here - https://www.lego.com/en-us/service/buildinginstructions https://www.lego.com/en-us/service/buildinginstructions This can't be true: I am very sure that there exist Lego Technic models from before 1996, which is the oldest year that can be selected.
- roryisok 3y agoyep you're right, I was wrong, it only goes back to late 90s
- suddenclarity 3y agoIndeed, doing an empty search only returns sets from 1996 and forward. Not even entering set numbers from my childhood (pre -96) return any results.
- jamesfinlayson 3y agoIn the past I've used that site to get instructions from the late 1990s and early 2000s and I thought they were proper archives (not scans).
- lostlogin 3y agoThe crowd who like Lego May also enjoy the tv series Lego Masters (and it’s versus regional versions). Some of the builds are actually amazing.
- rnitchy 3y agocan we create an AI that has knowledge of the size, shape, color and name of each lego brick ever made??? We then feed it 3d renders and select a desired model scale (ex: 1:4 scale), and it prints out a lists of each piece you will need, as well as instruction/brick location to assemble an item that looks similar from lego parts.
- Nifty3929 3y agoWhat do you mean “we?” Why don’t you do it? Or at least start the project? There’s already work in this space as well. I’ll be happy to contribute as well.
- dumpsterdiver 3y agoAs a proud Lego collector, I'm happy to say that I have not built any of these things. All my Legos are still in the box (sunglasses).