Legoaholic

Thanks for the help. Thought the limits were a lot less. So i won't have any problems.

Great info on here. Just wondering what the maximum individual pieces that you can order in one go?

I love the interior and think the broken jelly jar was a very creative idea. However your daughters are competing against different people so the two can't compare even if their wins or lack of wins are compared at the same grade level. As a mother of two girls with a gap of three years, i know how difficult it is for the youngest. Whenever they succeed at something, the older one has achieved the same thing already so it doesn't feel like a big accomplishment to the youngest and it is easy for them to lack self esteem and eventually stop trying. The best thing we eventually found was to make sure the youngest had a hobby all of her own, preferably with a good tutor/ coach so that she had one thing that she eventually excelled in, in her case singing, ( and didn't feel she was competing with her sister). Of course i hope she continues to enjoy building lego too.

Hi ShaydDeGrai, i was interested to read your points. One of which is - “The giant hole in these age old theories is that there isn't a single bit of hard evidence to support it. We know where 3D reasoning "lives" in the brain; we can scan for activity and structure and if a million years of evolution had really differenced men from women in this regard, we should have been able to find something by now -- but we haven't. Unlike many other evolutionary, gender-biased traits (strength v. stamina, body chemistry, skeletal proportions, etc.) men's and women's brains aren't built all that differently, we just don't exercise them properly/equally. Spacial reasoning is predominantly a learned skill (and, like language, best developed prior to the onset of puberty). Statistically boys _are_ better at it than girls, but that's because they are given far more opportunity to explore and exercise those skills than girls are.” I wondered if you have any links to articles so that i can read up on it. I am interested in whether we can improve spatial skills after puberty and to what extent. Overall i don't believe it's possible for lego to change societies views on gender. I do feel however that if studies are consistently showing that advertising of toys are deterring girls and boys from playing with supposedly boy or girl toys, then governments have both the obligation and need, to set regulations that prevent this. Along with removing boy and girl aisles from stores. Particularly as society need more people to pursue stem subjects, both male and female. In addition maybe some lessons throughout the school years showing the research on how gender differences come about, so that when they become parents they are less likely to perpetuate old beliefs. As for personal observation, so not at all scientific. I have two daughters who i would have descibed as very girly when they were young. They loved pretty dresses, loved playing dress up, making up shows, loved disney, friendships, loved singing and dancing, and were totally uninterested in football, climbing trees or generally getting dirty. They had some of the then girly lego but got bored due to the lack of building. One however loved building the space lego. The other loved building bionicles. Neither played imaginarily with them. They simply enjoyed the building experience. Totally opposite to why we are told lego designed friends.

Wow, thats a huge collection. I can't see many people having the money or the space for a collection that size. I would imagine only someone purchasing to sell on at a profit would be interested in buying the whole lot. In which case i imagine they will want it at a big discount. I'm more recently into lego so have no experience of buying and selling lego or indeed anything else but feel sure you will get more, by splitting the sets, maybe even by splitting them into themes. Star war sets, modulars etc. The other thing i've noticed is that a number of the models are still in the shops, can't imagine buyers would pay rrp for those, being they are secondhand and postage will have to be paid, when you could order online, new with free P&P. Postage here in Uk is expensive. Maybe consider selling the older models first as you may well get a higher return for those. Having said that if you decide to sell individual models or in small groups, please put prices on here as i'd love a few if i can afford them and would show my husband the Star War ones to see if he is interested. Totally get why you would want to sell the collection as a whole simply due to the hassle. I've amassed a huge papercraft collection but gave car boot loads away rather than face the hassle of ebay!

Lego store online has put a good few sets on sale today.

I thought the Uk price was £6-99 for the 32x32 baseplates, although Amazon sometimes sells at £4-99. Wish i'd bought some sooner

Love it, would definitely buy if lego produced this.

Still not sure how they choose who to invite, maybe they choose a few from several different categories. I have bought more lego than my husband, obviously live the same distance from the store as my husband and sometimes fill out the feedback form. Whereas my husband has never replied to any of the customer surveys and he got an invite but i didn't. Have to say Bluewater staff at the event were friendly, helpful and professional. Nice atmosphere, well organised, no pressure to buy and the staff were just as likely to be helping the young children as the obvious big spenders. It was also good to meet and chat to other women buying lego for their own enjoyment. Good to know i'm not the only one in the area. When i popped back during the general opening of the store to get a pick a brick purchase, store was busier but staff just as friendly, helpful and professional. Maybe we are very lucky with our local store.

Saw the new modular instore. Employee took it out of the case so we could have a look at all the floors and have a close look. Still seems a little small but the first modular i bought was the PR so that doesn't put me off. Will definitely be buying it asap.

Just back from the VIP invite event. No extra VIP points in the UK but there were some large sets discounted by 15% and then a further 10% on all purchases if you spend £100. So the joint discounts made up my mind and i bought the large Opera house. Also bought the Pet shop but just the 10% off this. The discounted sets are the same as the ones online. Given both of the winter freebie sets with our purchases.

Maybe buying the PAB cups and creator/ modular sets means they don't make as much profit out of me per brick as from my husband who has bought a couple of big Star Wars sets. Or maybe they think i visit too often as it is. i've bought one or two duplicates i think but they were only mixels because they had good parts (and probably to get total spend to qualify for a free gift) and i got two of the research institutes i think, one for my daughter and one for me. But sadly no duplicate big sets though i would have loved a second GE as the parts would be really useful for building a moc when life is less busy.

This is my first year of lego. So i'm sure my buying will slow down at some point. At the moment i am doing a lot of studying and find putting the models together a great relaxer as just following the instructions gives my brain a break between study periods. Long term i'd like to progress to doing some mocs (once all my exams are over). So i'm taking big advantage of living near a store with a PAB wall as we hope to move in a year or two. And i love the modulers although i missed the first three. I also love the challenge of seeing how much i can pack into a PAB cup, silly i know but its the small things in life. Hence i have bought rather a lot this year. I justify it as eldest dd has just graduated from university and got a good job, so feel i can indulge for a short time.

Bluewater is my local too.

Thank you Off the wall, had a good read. Think we will give it a go but with no great expectations of discounts. Following on from that thread i have no idea how they choose who to invite, as i've not only spent a fair amount more than him but i have made a lot more purchases. Maybe its because he has bought several very large Star Wars sets where i bought the modulars and a lot from the P a B wall in hopes of having plenty of bricks for when i have time to start doing mocs.