Unsure about coming out of my dark age

[GovBroadsword]

I think I just need to gush a bit to try to straighten some things out in my head.  It would also be nice to hear about other peoples' experiences.

A few years ago now (time flies!) I bought a few jobs lots of Lego off EBay.  I had a thread on here where I was seeing what kits I could find in one of them (it came with no manuals or list of contents).  This was the first Lego I'd bought since selling my childhood collection in my teens (over 20 years ago).

Since then I haven't sat down to build anything (other than a modular I bought new) and have been wondering if these purchases were driven by some kind of mid-life crisis.

I think the 'need' for Lego is there.  The idea was that I build things to help me wind down in the evenings rather than drinking a bottle of wine and watching films or playing old computer games.  It's tempting to sell it (so it isn't cluttering half my office room) but then I have to come up with something else to fix my original problem re how to wind down and occupy every evening.

I think I just need to take the plunge, sit down and build.  It's been a combination of forgetting about it all from time to time, not knowing what I want in some ways (in and outside of Lego) and being a bit intimidated by builds I see and will never be able to live up to - or thinking some of the huge displays look cool but noting that I don't want to pump that kind of money into this.  I'm making my peace that perhaps all that doesn't matter and I can keep this all to myself if what I build is an embarrassment.

I think I'm starting to get my head around what I'd like to do.

The Lego I have is:

- A ton of Star Wars stuff (no figs) - Planning to sell all this as I have no interest in SW or spaceships and the parts are of that ilk rather than anything I might use elsewhere

- A big box of classic space parts (lots of the space blue) - no complete sets but partial builds of big ones.  Might sell to a classic space enthusiast.

- Everything else I may as well keep if not selling as a job lot as there are loads of usable parts and its not as though most of the sets will sell for much.  I have some classic pirates like the governor's big fort and the Dark Shark and Gov ships, Egypt stuff, classic technic, some city ships, Alpha Team and underwater subs etc, a police station and a little arctic vehicle.

I'd definitely like to build a good cargo/container ship as I like ships.  I have hulls and could work up a dockyard with crane and train using the train set (60052) I have.

I think I might like to 'get value' out of what I build by making some stopmotion videos.  That should keep me occupied and it might be fun to learn some new stuff.  Cansee where it goes from there I guess.  At least I'll have given it a decent crack of the whip.

 

Sorry for ranting and gushing and thanks for reading!

 

If I'm hangng onto stuff, I definitely need more drawers to sort it into.  Better get onto that!

[Stefaneris]

On 30.9.2017 at 2:25 PM, GovBroadsword said:

I'd definitely like to build a good cargo/container ship as I like ships.  I have hulls and could work up a dockyard with crane and train using the train set (60052) I have.

I think I might like to 'get value' out of what I build by making some stopmotion videos.  That should keep me occupied and it might be fun to learn some new stuff.  Cansee where it goes from there I guess.  At least I'll have given it a decent crack of the whip.

That's where I would start if I were you. Try building a ship and if you're not happy with it rebuild it. A lot of great MOCs here have started like this. It seems like you have a lot of bricks you can use for this project, if you don't sell the Star Wars and classic space stuff use these bricks. There might be some useful bricks and colours for an industrial scene like a harbour.

[Criosphynx]

Hi, sorry you feel so conflicted. Honestly I almost sold my collection a couple of times over the years, and instead I stored it. I'm very happy I did because its totally normal for interest to come and go. If you aren't hurting for cash and its not a big box, honestly I'd just store it for a little longer and see how you feel in a year or 5.

You have to stop looking at the super awesome mocs and feeling defeated. The people who build that stuff are massively gifted and you have to remember that. I used to feel the same way. Now I mostly take existing sets and improve or expand them, I find that much more enjoyable than coming up with stuff from scratch. Perhaps buy a complete space set and use your extras to expand it a bit. Start simple. The vintage seaport sets are a really good spot to start if you want to build boats. I really enjoy the boats myself so I understand.

 

It sounds to me like you are overwhelmed and just don't know how to start. Pick something easy for now. I know when I think about building something grand I get paralyzed and end up building nothing. Start small, even if its just sorting parts.

 

Personally I often build sets while watching tv.  This would be a good way into it I think.

 

Best of luck

Edited October 2, 2017 by Criosphynx

[GovBroadsword]

Thanks to you both for your thoughts.

I've started to tidy up the end of the room where Lego was piled.  It's looking a bit better now and I'm feeling a bit better about it.

I will just play around with building 1 thing for now.  Just pick it up for an hour or so whenever I feel like it and see how it goes.  Then maybe try to do some stop motion with it.

Cheers

[ShaydDeGrai]

Just to echo Chriosphynx' advice: Don't feel disparaged just because you saw some awesome MOC on-line and think you'll never measure up to that.  The truth is, nobody's assessments really matter but your own, and if you enjoy what you're doing you're already in great shape.  It's wonderful to want to get better at something, but that's a process that happens over time.  If you enjoy the process and keep at it, you _will_ get better; but that should be a side-effect of having fun, not an impediment to it.

I remember being nervous before my first BrickFair, I hadn't even posted very many things online before that and here I was about to put things on public display, not just with my name on a card next to them, but with me actually sitting behind the table on display to the public as well.  I kept telling myself that my landscaping was horrible, I'd seen fantastic work making water and foliage really "pop" and my best efforts were pathetic by comparison.  My only hope was that I'd be able to set-up somewhere well removed from any expert Lego gardeners.  Then I got to the show, saw more awesome MOCs, and then something unexpected happened.  People started coming up to me asking about _my_ techniques, _my_ rock work,  _my_ form language - and some of those people, I later learned, were the creators of some of the excellent landscaping i was trying not to sit next to.  I'd gotten so obsessed with what I felt I was doing wrong that I didn't give myself credit for all the things other people were convinced I was doing right.

In the end, I taught, I learned, I made a few friends and we're all making better MOCs based on what we shared with each other.  So never get hung up on comparing your work to someone else's.  If you see something you like, draw inspiration from it.  Start small, figure out what makes you happy, and explore that direction until you start pushing the envelop into areas you'd never even considered before.

As for selling "star wars" and "classic space" stuff, I'd say only do this if you really need the money or have truly decided that lego is not for you.  Outside of mini-figures and a handful of excessively specialized pieces, parts is parts, these are only Star Wars and Space parts if you choose to use them that way.  I'd look at them and think, "hey, lots of gray, black, white, blue, maybe some dark red..."  That could be a shipyard, or a ship, or a cargo crane loading containers on a big shipping hauler.  In a medium where people have been known to use mini-figure body parts as decorative moldings and lipstick and hot dog pieces as structural elements, don't dismiss the potential of any given part too quickly. 

Above all, don't be afraid to dabble, at the end of the day, it's just a hobby and hobbies are supposed to be fun.