Legos in Adulthood?

[Misery]

Here's something I found just a bit ago that I think fits the topic here:

yes, it's Minecraft themed, but really you can make whatever you want. This whole channel does all sorts of screwball Lego gizmos that do who knows what. But as you can see they arent JUST pure Technic builds. Many of them are Lego + Technic so that it looks like something more than just the typical tangle of gears and tubes that traditional Technic-only things look like.

This aint the only channel like this, and I think you'll find there are a lot more adult lego fans... who arent just collectors... than you would expect.

 

[Misery]

Yeah- The one big caveat. "Crazy expensive".

Oh yeah, hobbies like this can definitely cost ya.

Both my board game, and twisty puzzle hobbies are like that as well. The puzzles in particular... to many people they really do just look like toys, but you'd be surprised at the sheer cost of some of them.

The good thing about Legos though is that it all mixes together. Tired of one creation? Break it apart and make something new.

Honestly this whole topic makes ME want to try it, but... yeah this room is already filled with my hobby stuff as it is.

 

[Judge]

Oh yeah, hobbies like this can definitely cost ya.

Both my board game, and twisty puzzle hobbies are like that as well. The puzzles in particular... to many people they really do just look like toys, but you'd be surprised at the sheer cost of some of them.

The good thing about Legos though is that it all mixes together. Tired of one creation? Break it apart and make something new.

Honestly this whole topic makes ME want to try it, but... yeah this room is already filled with my hobby stuff as it is.

Good point. You can't strip down a plastic model and rebuild and repaint it...at least not from top to bottom.

With Legos, you certainly can. I just wish so many hobbies weren't so expensive as they are today.

 

[MildredHubble]

I say play with them all you want! Play the way you want. I'm putting my armchair psychologist hat on here, and here's my take.

You liked your Legos when you were a kid right? So one of your parents decided arbitrarily one day that they are going to sell them as they have decided you were "too old". Did they ask you? Doesn't sound like it to me. You must have had quite a deep emotional connection to those plastic bricks and its quite likely that having them yanked away from you like that has left a mark.

I had connections to quite a few toys as a kid and my mother would basically go nuts one day and decide to "have a clear out" and the few toys I had would be tossed away without any consultation with me.

The thing is, I didn't forget loosing my favourite possessions, it left a mark on me. One of the things she took from me were my favourite The Worst Witch books. I was dyslexic and they were one of the very few books that I felt were worth the effort to read, i loved them. I will never forget arriving home to find my room suddenly bare and practically empty and then seeing the trash bags lined up against my mother's bedroom wall with my Worst Witch books peeking out of the top. I still regard that as one the cruelest things she could have done to me.

It may be a trait that is unique to ND people, but it seems once we bond with things we need to keep them around in our lives. I have some interests like computers, I have a few Lego sets of my own, I even will pickup the odd thing from eBay that my mother wouldn't let me have because they weren't "gender appropriate" and that includes the Worst Witch books.

So now on this forum I have adopted the protagonist's name from those books and I'm rather proud of it . I have re purchased the books I had taken from me as a kid and discovered that there were several more in the series and thoroughly enjoyed reading them all again. I'm planning on re reading them starting tomorrow.

So I say, enjoy the heck out of those Legos precisely as you want to and need to! Nurture your inner child and you will be a more happy and well rounded, productive grown up

That's what I think anyway!

 

[Judge]

I say play with them all you want! Play the way you want. I'm putting my armchair psychologist hat on here, and here's my take.

You liked your Legos when you were a kid right? So one of your parents decided arbitrarily one day that they are going to sell them as they have decided you were "too old". Did they ask you? Doesn't sound like it to me. You must have had quite a deep emotional connection to those plastic bricks and its quite likely that having them yanked away from you like that has left a mark.

I had connections to quite a few toys as a kid and my mother would basically go nuts one day and decide to "have a clear out" and the few toys I had would be tossed away without any consultation with me.

The thing is, I didn't forget loosing my favourite possessions, it left a mark on me. One of the things she took from me were my favourite The Worst Witch books. I was dyslexic and they were one of the very few books that I felt were worth the effort to read, i loved them. I will never forget arriving home to find my room suddenly bare and practically empty and then seeing the trash bags lined up against my mother's bedroom wall with my Worst Witch books peeking out of the top. I still regard that as one the cruelest things she could have done to me.

It may be a trait that is unique to ND people, but it seems once we bond with things we need to keep them around in our lives. I have some interests like computers, I have a few Lego sets of my own, I even will pickup the odd thing from eBay that my mother wouldn't let me have because they weren't "gender appropriate" and that includes the Worst Witch books.

So now on this forum I have adopted the protagonist's name from those books and I'm rather proud of it . I have re purchased the books I had taken from me as a kid and discovered that there were several more in the series and thoroughly enjoyed reading them all again. I'm planning on re reading them starting tomorrow.

So I say, enjoy the heck out of those Legos precisely as you want to and need to! Nurture your inner child and you will be a more happy and well rounded, productive grown up

That's what I think anyway!

"The simplicity of play". Why must it have an age-based expiration date? Point taken.

Then again there are some people who simply scoff at adults involved in a number of hobbies. As if we're supposed to do something else with our free time. Why is that? Weird...

 

[Au Naturel]

My adult experience with Legos is stepping on them with bare feet. My son used to have huge, complex Lego kits that he'd get 3/4 of the way through and then drop. They never appealed to me. It wasn't where my creativity carried me. I'd much prefer to assemble model rockets. Back in my day, it was all cardboard tubes and balsa wood held together with Elmer's glue.

https://estesrockets.com/

 

[MildredHubble]

"The simplicity of play". Why must it have an age-based expiration date? Point taken.

Then again there are some people who simply scoff at adults involved in a number of hobbies. As if we're supposed to do something else with our free time. Why is that? Weird...

Yes Indeed! To hell with what CS Lewis thinks! A quote by C.S. Lewis

 

[Judge]

Yes Indeed! To hell with what CS Lewis thinks! A quote by C.S. Lewis

Well, at 67 I'm inclined to think that adulthood is overrated.

 

[FoxLovinPat]

Actually now that I think of it I could post pictures of some of the stuff I've collected so far.

Would that be okay though?

 

[kriss72]

Actually now that I think of it I could post pictures of some of the stuff I've collected so far.

Would that be okay though?

yes, let's see what you collected

 

[MildredHubble]

Actually now that I think of it I could post pictures of some of the stuff I've collected so far.

Would that be okay though?

Absolutely! That's a great idea!

 

[MNAus]

TBH I find the Lego have gone too far in targeting the adult market (as in customers that are adults.... not "adult".... not sure that would really work). I mean, sure, they just go where the money is, but trying to find sets for my kids now is a PITA. Technic Lego is 90% Bugatti cars and Ducati bikes. We went to the Lego store and most the sets were hundreds of dollars. How do you tell a kid that 90% of the stuff in a toy shop isn't made for them? There's a ton of sets from films, characters from TV shows, etc. but he themes don't work well together. I mean my youngest did have a t-rex attacking Harry Potter, but they don't really fit. They went through a really positive phase about 15-20 years ago, but seem to have lost their way.

 

[Misty Avich]

Sorry, I meant your brother.

 

[Rodafina]

What I'm hearing is that it'd be okay if I roleplayed little scenarios with my Legos despite being an adult?

I think it's nice for you to get validation from people here that it is absolutely, positively, definitely okay. But, I would encourage you to find that answer within and work to understand why those little voices inside your head are actually so loud. Part of being an adult is cultivating absolute autonomy and not letting others dictate your choices any more.

Be free, friend. Play to your heart's content.

 

[FoxLovinPat]

yes, let's see what you collected

Absolutely! That's a great idea!

Sure thing!
Sorry for the delay had to finish up work first.
Yes I was being naughty and messaging on here during work but we were slow so it was fine.

Anyways here's a couple of pics of that off brand Garden Hotel set I mentioned in a couple of my posts.. exterior and exterior.

For an off brand set it's pretty decent. The bricks felt pretty much identical to Lego bricks. I say that because there are also plenty of cheap Lego knocks offs with poor quality bricks.. if you know, you know.

Also here's the Bionicles I bought off eBay..

Anyone remember these guys? Blast from the past eh? I actually didn't even own any of these ones before now.

Also apologies if the images are too big, this is the first time I've added images on here afterall. Also sorry if they're not the best quality photos.. photography isn't a strong point of mine.

 

[Tom]

I have collected toy soldiers all my life. Yes I did lose the ability to pretend play I had as a kid but still enjoy setting them up recreating scenes.

 

[Judge]

I have collected toy soldiers all my life. Yes I did lose the ability to pretend play I had as a kid but still enjoy setting them up recreating scenes.

I was thinking a few days ago about wishing that I could still collect Roco Minitanks. Had an insane number of them as a kid...

 

[lovely_darlingprettybaby]

Perhaps this post would fit better in the Hobbies section but I didn't see an appropriate category for this so just putting this here in Off-Topic instead.

Anyways I fairly recently started collecting Legos again after years without owning any.. well technically I bought a knock off set that's some sorta garden themed hotel/cafe but it's a good quality knockoff, and I also bought some classic 90s era Lego Town vehicles too off of eBay, and a sealed Lego Rock Raiders set but that one will probably stay sealed because that's valuable.. oh right and I also bought a lot of classic Bionicles too.

However I haven't been able to bring myself to actually play with them after I built them, I just kinda displayed them. Is it actually okay for adults to play with Legos outside of playing them with little kids? Or is there something seriously wrong with a grown adult building and playing with Legos? Thoughts like that are what have kept me from actually playing with my sets.

As for why this is? Well at the start of my teens my father gathered up my Lego, and Bionicle collection and sold them on eBay telling me "You're too old for those now!". It was very upsetting for me but I just went along with it because it's not like I had a choice in the matter. However after my little brother was born and got to the right age for Legos my father got him a bunch of Legos and he gradually got more sets as gifts over the years. Anyways it was deemed acceptable for me to play Legos with my little brother because "Well it's just the older sibling playing with the younger, so that's fine."

Cut back to the present day and I recently, as in a few months ago, thought "You know what I'm still fond of Legos even as an adult, I think I'll get myself some!" and so I went and got some for myself and I even intend to get more as well. However I can't shake those thoughts on it not being right to play with my new Legos since I'm an adult now and I'm not playing with them alongside a child.
I guess what I'm trying to get at here with all this is to hear from the community here on if it's okay for me to play with Legos still as an adult or if that's weird and not right to do? Should I just ignore those thoughts that it's not right for me to play with Legos or should those thoughts actually be listened to?

I still play with legos
And I do not feel ashamed
There is a show here called legomasters and a lego shop at docklands
I love doing it but I am not always the best.
I like doing girly ones too like lego friends

 

[FoxLovinPat]

I say play with them all you want! Play the way you want. I'm putting my armchair psychologist hat on here, and here's my take.

You liked your Legos when you were a kid right? So one of your parents decided arbitrarily one day that they are going to sell them as they have decided you were "too old". Did they ask you? Doesn't sound like it to me. You must have had quite a deep emotional connection to those plastic bricks and its quite likely that having them yanked away from you like that has left a mark.

I had connections to quite a few toys as a kid and my mother would basically go nuts one day and decide to "have a clear out" and the few toys I had would be tossed away without any consultation with me.

The thing is, I didn't forget loosing my favourite possessions, it left a mark on me. One of the things she took from me were my favourite The Worst Witch books. I was dyslexic and they were one of the very few books that I felt were worth the effort to read, i loved them. I will never forget arriving home to find my room suddenly bare and practically empty and then seeing the trash bags lined up against my mother's bedroom wall with my Worst Witch books peeking out of the top. I still regard that as one the cruelest things she could have done to me.

It may be a trait that is unique to ND people, but it seems once we bond with things we need to keep them around in our lives. I have some interests like computers, I have a few Lego sets of my own, I even will pickup the odd thing from eBay that my mother wouldn't let me have because they weren't "gender appropriate" and that includes the Worst Witch books.

So now on this forum I have adopted the protagonist's name from those books and I'm rather proud of it . I have re purchased the books I had taken from me as a kid and discovered that there were several more in the series and thoroughly enjoyed reading them all again. I'm planning on re reading them starting tomorrow.

So I say, enjoy the heck out of those Legos precisely as you want to and need to! Nurture your inner child and you will be a more happy and well rounded, productive grown up

That's what I think anyway!

Thank you for your kind words.

And yeah he didn't exactly ask, just one day he was like "Gather up all your Legos and Bionicles because I'm selling them all!" and I ofc protested and he was like "You're getting too old for them now and you also weren't putting them away when you were done with them!".
A reminder btw, this was in my early teens, I can't remember when exactly but somewhere between 12-14, maybe 15 even but I'm fairly certain it was when I was still relatively young.

I had some pretty cool ones too, like I had one of the Lego Harry Potter Hogwarts Castle sets, and one of the bigger pricier Bionicles I can't remember his name though but he was the one that acted as a guide for the Toa after they got transformed by those spider baddies from one of the Bionicles lines (I wanna say that was the third Bionicle line but it's been a while).. and yes I had a couple of those spider guys too.

Look I wasn't enough of a Bionicle Fan to commit everyone's names to memory, I just thought they were cool.

 

[MildredHubble]

Sure thing!
Sorry for the delay had to finish up work first.
Yes I was being naughty and messaging on here during work but we were slow so it was fine.

Anyways here's a couple of pics of that off brand Garden Hotel set I mentioned in a couple of my posts.. exterior and exterior.

View attachment 122463

View attachment 122464

For an off brand set it's pretty decent. The bricks felt pretty much identical to Lego bricks. I say that because there are also plenty of cheap Lego knocks offs with poor quality bricks.. if you know, you know.

Also here's the Bionicles I bought off eBay..
View attachment 122465

Anyone remember these guys? Blast from the past eh? I actually didn't even own any of these ones before now.

Also apologies if the images are too big, this is the first time I've added images on here afterall. Also sorry if they're not the best quality photos.. photography isn't a strong point of mine.

They all look fantastic! I used to pick up loose Lego clones from Wilkinson's here in the UK. They just went out of business unfortunately, but sometimes they had a "Lego" pick n mix where you just filled up a tub for a set price. That was a rather generous offer to someone who can tesselate 3D objects like some sort of tesselation ninja! It was a good way of augmenting an authentic Lego set as they were basically identical just without the "LEGO" logo

I'd imagine the hotel was probably made by the same company. It looks really cool and just as good quality as a "real" Lego set! I'm not a huge Star Wars fan but I got a TIE fighter ship that I keep on the shelves above my desk. I have a Sonic the Hedgehog set that my girlfriend got for me. I really need to put that one together. I have a Toyota Supra Lego model I need to assemble too.

The bionicles I'm not very familiar with but they all look cool! I'm glad that you can enjoy them again. It's very unfair that your original ones were sold against your wishes. But at least no one can take them from you now!