My son inherited a giant family collection of legos (from dad and 3 uncles) They are mostly from the 80's. I'm wondering if there is a good web resource where I could use some of the unique pieces to identify what sets we have and find instructions for building them?
Of course I want my son to use his imagination.. this is more for my curiosity ;) We def. have parts for a pirate ship, a castle, and there is a piece that has lights on it (powered by a 9v battery) space station maybe? Also have a wind up lego car.
Just google lego patterns -- there are tons out there -- I keep a notebook of cool designs and instructions.
Here is a site that has old instruction booklets by theme and they list the year of the set: http://letsbuilditagain.com/lego-instructions.php?cat_id=9
Some of the other sites people listed can help too. What fun to try to figure out what you have. I am jealous :)
Below are my most favorite Lego sites. But, with that said, the brilliance of Legos is that you do not have to stick with only what an employee of Lego came up with. Legos are best when used with your imagination!
My sons just recently got my huge tub of Legos from the 70s and 80s. They only get to play with them at Grandmas house, they have their own sets at home. I kept all my instructions as well as the boxes for that matter for most everything and they are all neatly organized in a 3 ring binder and page protectors (something I did later in life, before they were in a manila envelope or a box). Sometimes my boys will build the set, other times they come up with the most amazing creations of their own, this is how I played with them growing up as well. Not all Legos came in sets like they do today. I got many tubs of assorted bricks and "Idea Books". Legos aren't meant to be static model kits, they are meant to inspire creativity.
http://www.bricklink.com/index.asp
http://www.brickset.com/
http://auctionbrick.com/cgi-bin/auction/auction.pl
ETA: Oh wow! If there are some of the older castle and pirate sets in there, those are actually worth some money. I have a bunch of the original Space sets as well as some of the first Pirate and Castle sets myself, not that I would sell them. Just a neat FYI :)
I am betting there are no "sets". Legos used to come in boxes and the kids were free to create whatever they imagined.
What Jo W said. When I grew up, there were no special lego sets. Just a bunch of pieces. Kids had to use their imaginations (gasp).
I bet your kiddos will have fun making astonishing, creative pieces. It's amazing what they come up with when left to their own imaginations.
We go to a Lego club where the instruction is just to create whatever you want on a lego board. They then get to name it and put it on display, the things the kids come up with (ages 4 and up) are pretty cool!
My hubby is on several every day. He makes a little money on the side by buying pieces then reselling them.
As funny as it is, there are sometimes those small sets that are just a couple of bucks at Walmart that will have one piece in it that is in high demand. He'll buy the little set for $2-$3 bucks and sell that one piece for $10-$15. Then sell the other plain pieces for pennies.
Just google lego pieces or something like that.
ooh how fun!!!
just google LEGOS and you will get a TON of hits. In the 80's most of them were "free build" and not sets like today...
