Storage solutions: Lego_Lord
Posted by Huw,
Today we feature Uður, aka Lego_Lord,'s display and storage:
Until I joined a LUG group back in 2008, I was an isolated Lego fan and thought I had an admirable collection. You know, back in the day (80s and 90s) I tried to get at least two sets from every theme, hence the nick “Lego lord”, given to me by my friends, who also had never seen a more grandeur collection than mine. Boy, were they wrong: we've seen some impressive collections here in this storage solutions series, haven't we!
Yet, with my modest collection I have my own solutions, and here they are...
When I got married, I put my foot down and demanded my own room (begged really, with tears and everything), and got it. My main storage solution is the Ikea Stolmen shelf system. I like it because you can adjust the height to the millimetre. The shelves came in various sizes, of which I chose the largest, 50cmx110cm. These shelves were perfect for compact town or space port layouts because they could fit 8 32x32 base plates. Also, if you have UCS Star Destroyer you need a truly flexible or custom shelf system.
For a brief period of time all those shelves were full of happy town people and spacemen. Sadly the ever present dust problem quickly diminished the joy of having separate layout snippets on their own shelves. So, I had to move almost all of my collection into either drawers or boxes.
And in those drawers and boxes, I tried to avoid stacking them up so that they don’t get scratched, but sometimes it was unavoidable. Every box you see on the top shelf (again from Ikea, but I don’t recall the name) is loaded with built sets, based on their theme Space, Town, Technic or other, in a similar manner.
Every summer my wife and kids go to their grandparents for holiday, leaving me working for my life. But I can’t complain, because that’s when I truly get to have fun with my collection. I set up my town and/or space port (depending on the mood) in the living room, call some friends over, order pizza and talk Lego. And at the end of the summer, back to boxes it is. Rinse and repeat next year with new MOCs and MODs.
I don’t have that many parts left after building all the buildable sets. Since I don’t need an extensive storage solution for my spares, I keep them in two ways: Speciality parts in boxes with separators, larger parts in larger boxes sorted by colour. Lately, I work on smaller MOCs, trying to make the best of my spares.
I kept most of the boxes for some time, putting smaller ones into the larger ones, folding others and whatnot. But it proved to be very space consuming. So, I made a bold decision to cut the front covers a few that I liked and kept only them, thinking maybe one day I can use them to decorate a wall in my room. I keep very few boxes as a whole, like 8480 Space Shuttle (because it’s old-school Technic) or 6210 Jabba’s Sail Barge (because it’s in perfect shape).
I collect many things, Action Figures, Hot Wheels, Comics etc., but Lego has always been the main attraction. Today I don’t get that many new sets any more, only the ones that appeal to me, but I’m very happy how things turned out. After a long days work, it’s nice to come back to a place where you can call home and relax. Cheers!
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17 comments on this article
There was a time when I also used to cut the front covers off and keep only them. Boy would I love to go back to my childhood self and tell him not to do that but keep the boxes intact! Especially as I was very careful to keep them in perfect shape back in the day, so if I hadn't cut them and thrown the rest away they would still be perfect today. Sigh, can't be helped.
Nice setup. What a great idea, keeping sets built up In drawers, although it depends how many sets / drawers you have. I do see quite a lot of dust on the old space sets mind. One of your comments has reminded me of a series of stories in the back of one of the Lego magazines. @Huw is it worth for fun asking people who have either written one of these or not to get the "other halfs" view. Let them write an article. I think they would make us all smile. "Its Blo''' everywhere. I cant move in the ....... room for it and Amazon knock on the door every day" etc
Your collection is quite diverse! It's nice to see some appreciation for a few Friends sets. That little town you set up looks so good that it might just be too hard to deconstruct at the end of the summer:) Are your Fabuland characters hanging out in a Playmobile house with a Playmobile camper? Thanks for showing us your set up!
I saw my childhood on this article!
Beautiful collection Lord!
That little city set up is nice, but I don’t fancy that plane’s chances of taking off safely. I hope they have their life jackets packed...
I wish I'd saved the BACK of the boxes when they had alternate builds! They really showed the basic idea behind LEGO: that you could build OTHER THINGS than the main model.
Thanks guys
@560heliport :
My thoughts exactly. First the System, now Tehchnic moved away from alternate builds.
@mfg3000 :
I wish I had Fabuland figures. They are from Sylvanian Families. My daughter grew out of her toys, so I adopted them :)
Glad you were able to keep all your sets from your childhood and teenage years in complete condition and avoided younger siblings and cousins destroying or losing most of it. The town set-up is interesting I never thought of doing a circle, I just landed up with dead-ends. Depending on how much space you have I think you need to use another wall for glass cabinets to display all the items in the archive boxes and drawers, as a shame to keep them hidden from view, e.g. pirate ship 6285, and will also keep the dust away.
Nice model team collection.
Very nice looking room and collection. Using drawers for keeping your Lego dust free is a really good idea. Adjustable shelves look good.
This article is very inspiring for me. I hope my future wife will let me have my own Lego room. Thanks for sharing!
That's a nice collection, Lego_Lord! I enjoyed seeing your collection of older sets.
As one of the aforementioned friends that have had the chance to see this collection to its fullest extent, I can pretty confidently say that this collection comprises many other legendary sets which we don't see here, shamefully. Oh and those summer exhibitions are not limited to a single table. Every furniture in the living room gets covered with sets and MOCs seperated by theme. One the one side you have Exo-Force mechs and on the other Technic Star Wars figures or a city layout or the ginormous Star Destroyer and so on...
Looks like we'll need to skip this year's get-together due to COVID-19. Hopefully not.
I love seeing you have 6980 Galaxy Commander ; the last (maybe only?) blue & white Classic Space large ship.
Thanks everyone,
@ambr said:
"... I think you need to use another wall for glass cabinets to display all the items in the archive boxes and drawers, ..."
The other wall belongs to my wife, that was the agreement :))
@MicrOmega said:
"Looks like we'll need to skip this year's get-together due to COVID-19. Hopefully not."
There is alwas next year my friend, no worries.
I am also a jack of all trades in terms of lego themes and not only, but I’m also a fish keeper. Space can be a major issue when someone tries to make do with so many hobbies that involve collecting stuff. I keep my lego in big plastic containers to minimize the dust problem. I am lucky enough to have a wife that “gets it” and besides a couple huge things ( don’t know how to call them) where she keeps her clothes, I have the rest of house space all for myself.
Anyway, good read, awesome collection!
Cheers and beers, plenty!
Great display solutions! Can you tell us the brand name or source of the glass shelves over your desk? I really like the look of them.
Wow. I have so many of the same sets. And also the diecast Jaguar XJ220. ??