Bag building

[Delta 38]

Wow. This is a really creative (and time consuming) activity. I'll try it the next time I get a small set...

I wonder if it's possible to apply stickers, or open the small bags inside some of the larger bags?

[Matija]

Wow. This is a really creative (and time consuming) activity. I'll try it the next time I get a small set...

I wonder if it's possible to apply stickers, or open the small bags inside some of the larger bags?

It is possible to apply stickers (depending on the set), check the rest of the thread for pictures.

[Matija]

Ok, so far it was easy, seeing all that's going on inside the bag - that's not fun any more.

Yesterday, a group of 12 crazy people in the middle of nowh...Norway went to the next level - most gave up, only the bravest ones made it all the way through.

[yumiyoshi]

Uh! I didn't know about this thread!

It started as a joke ( i was in the car with a friend and we couldn't build free) but ended up with a complete Kingdom advent calendar.

Of course I wasn't the one driving :D

[bricked one]

I built a minifigure in the bag, too bad you cant see it, I think it was the vampire...

Edited November 23, 2010 by bricked one

[prateek]

I built a minifigure in the bag, too bad you cant see it, I think it was the vampire...

With the cape!?

[Stiel]

With the cape!?

Yeah, it sounds pretty serious. It took me several minutes to put it on, even outside.

I have bag-built quite a few subsets of the Kingdoms Advent Calendar. I have one unopened box left for December, I plan to do all of those (and take pictures as well).

Edited November 23, 2010 by Stiel

[bricked one]

With the cape!?

Of course not, thats crazy!!!

[lesager]

I got some new impulse sets, so I tried building them with the bag technique.

Here are my results:

Lego 7566 - Farmer : http://lesager.net/lego7566bag.JPG

Lego 7955 - Wizard : http://lesager.net/lego7955bag.JPG

[meyerc13]

Good job! This is something that everyone should try once. I built one of the sets from my son's City advent calendar this way. I must be getting old because it was very hard on the joints. Needless to say once was enough for me.

[AussieJimbo]

I remember reading about this a couple of years ago before I joined EB. I'd just picked up a few of the 7939 RC Cargo Train sets at half price (my first ever Lego Train set, I was so :woohoo:).

I hadn't opened the extra tilt-tray trucks so had to give the "build in a bag" a go. It was still nicely assembled when I fished it out just now.

There is a separate bag that had the small pieces, though you can't see it in these shots. The bag also contains the rail crossing bits from the set so the truck has something to drive on in there.

Here are a few photos:

_{Click for larger images.}

:classic:

Edited January 12, 2011 by AussieJimbo

[AussieJimbo]

Well it took ages because I decided to document the build but I now have a Street Sweeper in a bag.

Here's a photo:

_{Click for larger image.}

I've got plenty of photos of the build in progress and a few "bag building" tips but it's too late to prepare and post all that tonight.

:classic:

[autobrick]

I came across this thread while I was lurking here (before I joined) and I did a bag build of 8398 BBQ Stand then. Since this thread has been revived, I'll post it now:

AussieJimbo, I commend your patience in doing bag builds for those trucks! Even with less than 20 pieces, I found this set to be quite irritating to build; the drumstick kept slipping out of his hand!

EDIT: Deeplinked photos from Brickshelf to free up attachment quota.

Edited March 23, 2011 by autobrick

[Henchmen4Hire]

It's just a shame that this can't be done with bigger sets though.

Yeah, the Laws of Physics are a real pain in the hindquarters.

Edited January 13, 2011 by DrNightmare

[AussieJimbo]

AussieJimbo, I commend your patience in doing bag builds for those trucks! Even with less than 20 pieces, I found this set to be quite irritating to build; the drumstick kept slipping out of his hand!

Thanks autobrick. Patience is important, I deliberately told myself to stay relaxed because I knew it was going to be painfully fiddly at times.

It helps to keep everything as organised as possible in the limited space available within the bag. I found a few strategically placed clothes pegs were very useful in keeping all the bits under control. I'll post some pics later.

Nice job on the hotdog stand.

:classic:

[AussieJimbo]

OK, so if anyone wants to know how to assemble a sweeper in a bag (and realistically I question the size of this market) here's how I did it.

I shot quite a few steps so I'll show a few of them here and you can just change the image numbers (01 to 26) in the URL if you want to see more.

Like I mentioned above, I wanted to keep everything as organised as possible. I didn't want all the small pieces all messed up with the bigger ones because that just adds to your difficulties.

Pondering this I realised clothes pegs offered an easy solution to holding the small bag closed and out of the way and to make pockets to hold bits and pieces. I checked out the regular build instructions (8404 Sweeper instructions.pdf) and worked out what pieces I was going to need form the small bag so I could extract them in batches as the build progressed.

Having everything secured gives you room to work as you move the bag all over the place trying to find other pieces and put then together.

Of course we have to build the minifigure at the start (legs and torso first, then the head because they shouldn't be born with no legs).

This is fine because the minifigure head is a good way to open the small bag by forcing it through the seal near the corner. That gives you a nice small opening in the bag that lets you take out small pieces one by one and then secure it with a peg.

So I built the minfigure, fished out the small red bricks I'd need down the line, got the tyres and rims assembled to save space (and stop things getting caught up in them) and squared everything away while before doing the first steps with the bigger pieces

Initial preparations.

First steps completed ready for the small red pieces to go on.

Followed by another trip into the small bag to line up some more pieces.

Etcetera.

Until you've got the chasis done.

And the cab with the minfigure inside. Note modified left hand drive setup for Australia, which is a right hand drive country.

The end is in sight.

Sub-assemblies ready to go. Spare pieces left in small bag.

Like an earlier poster pointed out, some of the bag's printing rubs off on your fingers (his shot shows it better a few pages back).

Completed model in the bag next to it's free sibling.

_{Click for larger images.}

So that's that. It's an interesting challenge worth attempting occasionally when you have plenty of time at your disposal.

Now I'm looking forward to a few unopened sets that need my attention for conventional building.

:classic:

Edited January 14, 2011 by AussieJimbo

[Brickdoctor]

Wow. That's a very nice and organized way of going about bag building, AussieJimbo.

[AussieJimbo]

Thanks Brickdoctor.

Looking back in the thread I noticed someone's even been able to sticker a model in one of those bags with the little holes in it. I'm not sure how they did it but I thought of a method that might work.

I was thinking that you could wrap the sticker around a needle, like a roll of sticky tape, stick it through one of those little hole then unroll it in place.

No way to do it with a sealed bag though.

:classic:

[buddy]

I agree with the Brickdoctor, that is a good and organised method of bag building you have there AussieJimbo.

~buddy~

[MinifigFreak2010]

*strolls in confused*

I went to open a creater 3-in-1 set mom got me for christmas and it wasn't in a bag. Just loose pieces. I checked all the sets and none were in a bag. Sets are lego set 8194 racer, lego set 5864 Mini copter, and set 5865 mini Dumper. All sets were bought MISB from the store and there's no label tampering. When I opened them a few minutes ago, this was the first time the boxes were opened.

Is this a new policy from lego or something? I really wanted to try the bag challenge

[Ricecracker]

Is this a new policy from lego or something? I really wanted to try the bag challenge

No, the sets have been like that for years.

[MinifigFreak2010]

......... I don't get it.

I got lego set 6742: Mini off-roader(a set barely more then a year old) and i'm pretty sure that in a bag. And both of the little farmer sets i got(Farmer, dog, feeder thing, and pig) were in bags, and a couple smaller sets I got from the lego store were in bags.

[Brickdoctor]

The small Creator sets are in plastic containers, not cardboard. There's no need for a bag.

[MinifigFreak2010]

The small Creator sets are in plastic containers, not cardboard. There's no need for a bag.

It doesn't make sense to me. I know they USED to package the 3-in-1's where the plastic bag would be inside the container, and it makes way more sense. It seems like the bags would minimize the chance of pieces accidently bouncing out of the container during packaging.

Plus it seems just like a huge headache for the stores when the container pops open and little pieces begin bouncing around. I actually had a time where the containter opened on me when I was taking a closer look at the item. I was just handling the container normally.

[Arigomi]

Plus it seems just like a huge headache for the stores when the container pops open and little pieces begin bouncing around. I actually had a time where the containter opened on me when I was taking a closer look at the item. I was just handling the container normally.

That might have been true in the past but it doesn't happen anymore. The plastic containers for Creator mini sets have big sticker labels (one of the front and one on the back) that cover most of the seam created by the lid and the box. There is no way for them to accidentally pop off without breaking the seal created by both the front and back sticker labels.