When did your collection reach critical mass?

[Arigomi]

When I say "critical mass", I'm referring to the point when your collection is large enough that you don't feel horribly restricted by it. You are confident that you can solve problems with what you have.

[Siegfried]

While I still don't feel like I can build anything, I felt that my collection was good enough for most MOCs at around 100,000 parts. (I'm at about 200,000 now I think.) These days my main problem is time...

[Calanon]

It hasn't yet.

My room full of LEGO is overfilling with LEGO, it is hard to store it now. But I still don't have enough for what I want to build...

[Saint]

Never !

My collection keeps expanding somehow .. And still I keep building stuff that requires just that part I just don't have enough of . A proportion of that I'll find afterwards .. perhaps I should start separating my LEGO into smaller bins I did that once.. but I keep forgetting to do that after I build something ... now it's almost sorted by colour.

Grtz Saint

[Tazmaniac]

My collection is tiny at about 18,000 elements. So many elements I don't have but I think other than restricting the size of my MOCs having a smallish collection is great for breeding creativity.

But I want so much more.

(Oh my goodness look at the creativity breeding in the corner)

[Raphy]

You seem to suggest that everyones' collections reach critical mass.... :P

[dr_spock]

When my wife says it has reached critical mass.

[Piratedave84]

When my wife says it has reached critical mass.

LOL dido!!!

My collection is roughly 68 000 pieces and growing but I have slowed down on acquisitions due in part to my daughter (now 2 1/2 months old) and the fact it drives my wife CRAZY when I spend ridiculous sums of money on LEGO.

Still I believe it has reached a point where I have enough pieces to accomplish anything I want!

Pirate

[Gregorovich]

Mine still hasn't. And it's not growing at the moment, either. Recently, the only LEGO I've been buying is CM's, because they're all I can afford! When I plan MOC's, they look really great, but when I get round to building it I just don't have the parts. I do have a lot of bricks, but they're just not the ones I need.

[airsoftg36c]

A Lego collection will NEVER reach critical mass. Theres always gonna be that set that comes out that has the perfect part for that roof that you couldn't get right, (In my case, the POTC sets.) and your gonna say "Oohh...I totally need that set!" And your gonna go out and buy it, and see that set that has the perfect fig for that outlaw you couldn't get right. *Repeat process*

My collection is sitting at ~500,000 something parts, and I would like to think more than that. I also have ideas for buying future sets.

[Jargo]

I don't keep a tally of what I have but however much it is, it isn't enough. there are always new parts, parts in new colours, rare parts and parts I've never seen before to hunt down. I need tons more tan and greys. There never seems to be enough of the right kind of baseplate. And I'm limited by a tiny budget. I'll never be satisfied. Unless I win millions in a lottery and can go nuts spending.

[Lego_Hero]

My collection is probably somewhere in the middle of what everyone has here. I thought I had reached "critical mass", but I found that I was mistaken when I tried to build a Transformer. After realizing I didn't have the parts I needed, I finally called it quits in the wee hours of the morning.

I would think critical mass would be when your collection gets away from you to the point that you can no longer manage it without an intervention. For example:

-storage: not having room in your house, not having enough proper storage containers, etc.

-sorting: having several sets that haven't been sorted for storage, needing to change your method of sorting because there are so many more parts than before, etc. I have 5-6 sets still to sort and two storage containers of Lego I just bought that need to be sorted.

inventory: as modest as my collection is, I still find pieces I didn't know I had. I made an order on Bricklink a while back only to find later that I alreday had some of those pieces.

[LEGO Guy Bri]

I'd say I hit critical mass mid year 2010... or when any new MISB heads from the mail straight to the attic... I'm at about 380-400,000 elements now

[Legoman]

Well, I partially think you can never reach a complete 'critical mass' Because even when you start building something with your vast amount of lego, you'll always ned more of something.. But that said, There is a point at which you can start seriously building and just buy the small extra's you need along the way. This depends on the scale of your MOCs, but I beleive I'm just starting to hit that point now at around 75,000 parts, but I'm always needing more - I guess I'm just not quite as retricted by my lack of parts.. Which is nice

*Goes off to place a bricklink order*

Good question though

[Arigomi]

Thanks everyone for the responses. I was curious because my own collection is only at a mere 2300 elements. I heard somewhere that 5000 elements is a good starting point but I just wanted hear about experiences from real people.

[Saint]

I don't want to hurt anyone's feelings here, but, I think a 5000 parts isn't going a long way .. That's approximately the amount of technic pins I have in stock, not counting the one's in MOC or models.I can't start by guessing the number of parts I've collected over the years. But it isn't the part-count , it's what you do with your LEGO.

It's all about being happy with what you got, what you want and what you want to do.. nothing more, nothing less. I'm a big LEGO addict, and I tend to build big things, I like SW figs , I like blacktron I figs, I do have a lot of Lego because I like LEGO, I buy a lot of LEGO because I can. ( In a sensible way of course )

There is for a lot of us AFOL's no limit to the number of bricks , just the limit of our imagination, or what we can or can't achieve with our bricks.

It maybe silly to say it, but I want that next box or part or that particular colour, I strive to perfect my MOC's and will take a lot of effort for that fact.

[Niku]

Well im a rookie my collection is a small amount of sets, perhaps i can reach the 3500 pieces, just bricks not counting the minifigs, so can say there is a long way before reaches critical mass.

[Piranha]

I really don't know where I am at last time I checked my brickset page it was 25,000 parts. But it has grown since then

[CP5670]

I think I hit that limit 1 or 2 years ago (about 300 sets/100000 pieces) in the sense that I buy sets much less frequently than I used to. However, when I build MOCs, I get most of the parts from Bricklink instead of taking apart my built sets or MOCs, so my collection will always keep expanding.

[sok117]

I always find I have just enough for what I want to build. Usually I have to take one or two pieces from already built MOCs or sets, but I usually am able to find all the pieces I need to build (it's a lot easier now that I've organized everything...mostly)

[Modulex Guy]

I think I broke 400,000 bricks a few purchases ago... I still do not think it is at critical mass.

I still buy plenty off of Bricklink because either, I do not have that particular part/color, or I need a bazillion more of them.

I just realized that I have more Modulex than some of your entire LEGO collections! 42K just in Modulex!

... Maybe if I pass the million mark, that might be my critical mass point.

[Kopparberg]

Thanks everyone for the responses. I was curious because my own collection is only at a mere 2300 elements. I heard somewhere that 5000 elements is a good starting point but I just wanted hear about experiences from real people.

If i was to count, i wouldn't even have 1000 pieces. This is due to the fact i have only just started building again since childhood, and i only have what i scrounged from around the house!

[Captain Blockbeard]

I'd say I hit critical mass mid year 2010... or when any new MISB heads from the mail straight to the attic...

I'm in the same position, though I hit critical mass Christmas of 2009. At this point, the Lego room can no longer accommodate further additions, so instead of halting all Lego collecting as my family members wish, I continue to store all current and future purchases in the attic for countless MOCs/projects that I claim "I'll build someday when I live in a larger house." Also considering that most MOCs I build are ships measuring 3-5 feet in length, my Lego collection reached critical mass many years ago just in terms of displaying MOCs alone. One MOC now covers the coffee table in the living room, and I've threatened to collect parts this upcoming summer for another equally massive project to sit alongside or conquer another piece of furniture.

[Gabe]

I was just thinking about this recently, about how lately i've been feeling much freer and less frustrated by part restriction in my building - perhaps i'm approaching this critical mass you speak of? I'm at about 16-17K elements btw.

[Brickdoctor]

I reached critical mass when I decided to build based on what I'd bought and not buy based on what I build. But there are complications because it really depends on what your building style is, what themes you build in, and what bricks you have. A million basic bricks won't do much good if you build small greebled sci-fi mechs. For me personally, it was probably around ten thousand bricks, and I'm up somewhere between nineteen and twenty-one thousand now.