Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Rebrickable helps breathe new life into your kids’ old Lego sets

coolmomtech.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

11–20 of 23 posts

Re: Rebrickable helps breathe new life into your kids’ old Lego sets

#11

Post by MDCore »

evilempire22 wrote: post #6

Cool site, but something about the article itself bothers me. There is a whole world of AFOLs (Adult fans of LEGO) out there (including myself), but the impression I get from the writer is that LEGO sets are for kids. Constructing MOCs and free-form building are one of the ways I have been able to recapture some of my fond childhood memories and also stretch my creative muscles. Its very relaxing and therapeutic for…

Uh, what? The article is on a site called coolmomtech.com. The article is going to be about kids because it's aimed at mom's.

Re: Rebrickable helps breathe new life into your kids’ old Lego sets

#12

Post by Gravityloss »

What's up with kids today?

When I was a kid, maybe I built the instruction thing once, but after that, the actual fun started: modification and building new thing!

Do the kids nowadays only do coloring or connect-the-dot books? How about a blank paper? Blank paper is super cheap and can't be monetized nearly as well, so there's no marketing for that...

Re: Rebrickable helps breathe new life into your kids’ old Lego sets

#13

Post by Luc »

danielhunt wrote: post #2

I do like this idea, but surely I'm not the only one with fond memories of just bloody building random crap with the bucket of lego pieces I had as a kid. Why not just encourage them to enjoy Lego for the random fun that it is, instead of needing step-by-step guides for absolutely everything?

One does not exclude the other.

If you have styles of playing A (follow the manual) and B (random fun), both A and B may actually become more fun than either by itself. Variety is good.

Re: Rebrickable helps breathe new life into your kids’ old Lego sets

#14

Post by DanBC »

Gravityloss wrote: post #12

What's up with kids today? When I was a kid, maybe I built the instruction thing once, but after that, the actual fun started: modification and building new thing! Do the kids nowadays only do coloring or connect-the-dot books? How about a blank paper? Blank paper is super cheap and can't be monetized nearly as well, so there's no marketing for that...

>> When I was a kid, maybe I built the instruction thing once, but after that, the actual fun started: modification and building new thing!

They still do that. Here's what me and my 5 year old built, from the instructions, and then what he turned it into.

http://imgur.com/a/OvwWU

Talking to them while they're doing it is fun. Those recycle blocks are there for a reason - "because these, they RECYCLE YOU" (in a the most threatening voice a 5 year old can muster). The clear-orange bits on the wing are lava bombs.

(If people don't know lego: those orange ski bits are a tool sold with some sets.)

Re: Rebrickable helps breathe new life into your kids’ old Lego sets

#15

Post by jerf »

danielhunt wrote: post #2

I do like this idea, but surely I'm not the only one with fond memories of just bloody building random crap with the bucket of lego pieces I had as a kid. Why not just encourage them to enjoy Lego for the random fun that it is, instead of needing step-by-step guides for absolutely everything?

My kids are of an age and a level of mental development where having plans to look at is very helpful for them. The easiest way for them to progress out of that is to have more practice building plans. For various reasons, neither kid I have is going to progress straight to Lego virtuosity without some intermediate scaffolding. If you were able to do so, more power to you and no sarcasm, congrats, but that is not the path all can follow.

For that matter, I've learned some things from building the plans myself lately, a lot of ways of combining them I didn't realize were valid, how to use those weird bricks that don't seem to go with anything until you know the trick, etc. And I haven't even tried Rebrickable yet.

Re: Rebrickable helps breathe new life into your kids’ old Lego sets

#16

Post by [deleted] »

DanBC wrote: post #10
pbreit wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a little trickier these days because Lego sets now consist of a high percentage of "custom" bricks, not the basic core building blocks we're used to. Also, as mentioned by another, building from plans can be really fun, too.

LEGO does sell some "creative" and "basics" sets that are just a bunch of bricks without too many specialised weird bricks.

[deleted]

Re: Rebrickable helps breathe new life into your kids’ old Lego sets

#18

Post by mrfusion »

danielhunt wrote: post #2

I do like this idea, but surely I'm not the only one with fond memories of just bloody building random crap with the bucket of lego pieces I had as a kid. Why not just encourage them to enjoy Lego for the random fun that it is, instead of needing step-by-step guides for absolutely everything?

That's exactly what the Lego movie was about!

Re: Rebrickable helps breathe new life into your kids’ old Lego sets

#19

Post by stuaxo »

danielhunt wrote: post #2

I do like this idea, but surely I'm not the only one with fond memories of just bloody building random crap with the bucket of lego pieces I had as a kid. Why not just encourage them to enjoy Lego for the random fun that it is, instead of needing step-by-step guides for absolutely everything?

Came here to say the same thing, built the stuff from the instructions once, but then made some great things without needing ideas from someone else.

Seems a bit boring to be making someone elses stuff tbh, but each to their own.

Re: Rebrickable helps breathe new life into your kids’ old Lego sets

#20

Post by surfacedamage »

yourapostasy wrote: post #7

Neat. This set me off on a search of what people are doing with automated Lego brick recognition and sorting. Apparently it is a diverse field with no solid solutions yet, as predictably, the 3D image recognition challenge is the largest. It is pretty cool to see someone's solution that involves building the robotics side of their solution entirely out of Mindstorms NXT parts [1]. [1] http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.…

Even LEGO sorting as a business is something I would totally pay for. We have way too many bricks. I hope someone cracks this nut.
Post reply on HN