The word 'LEGO' comes from the Danish leg godt- play well. And they do.
LEGO Fact #1: The Danish patent issued for the LEGO brick design in 1958 is one of the most valuable patents ever issued.
I have had LEGO's for quite a while, and finally decided to count them all. Perhaps I even had 10,000 pieces or higher.
The count was never quite completed. As I finally brought my collection back out of storage in summer/fall 2008, I decided to try and count everything again.
Around the same time, I decided to restart my LEGO Flag Project idea. Yes, this is just want it sounds like: I intend to build a LEGO mosaic that has the design of a modern US flag. And this is gonna be huge...my bluepritns call for a flag 27' 1" by 47' 6". Facebook group here This is gonna be HUGE, Rochester, HUGE!
Where did I get all of these LEGOs, you may ask? I bought some on eBay (my favorite purchase there being two whole pounds of assorted gray bricks), got some in normal toy stores, and I've used the LEGO mail-order catalog on occasion. Since I "reactivated" my collection in summer/fall 2008, I have started to use BrickLink, which appears to be a great market for used individual parts.
Obviously, I couldn't very well count all of those in one shot, so my plan to break down the task into smaller pieces went like this: Sort the LEGO's into sets. (each LEGO model or a few related ones). Then count the number of pieces and the number of LEGO people (minifigures) in each set. Then, organize the sets into a group of related sets- for example, all the sets that had a medieval theme, adding up the piece and minifigure counts for everything in that group. Then, the plan was, I'd a final total by adding up all of the groups.
This time around, I am keeping the data in an Excel document, so that the data automatically totals itself (according to the formulae I set up at the beginning.
Since relatively few of my LEGO models have been built according to the instructions on a box, I can't really use the four-digit item number that comes on the box, so I gave each set a 4-digit number, in sequence. (0001, 0002, etcetera). However, with the 2008 attempt at counting the collection: the set numbers were a bit more logically distributed: the first two digits represented the group, and the last two digits formed an incrementing serial number.
Originally, I counted up all the pieces in summer 2005. Then, the LEGOs went into storage in my closet and in the basement. Except for a few models that I had up as room decoration, I didn't really take any of my LEGOs out again until I got new ambulance and helicopter sets on sale at a local toystore. (I've noticed that a similar thing has happened a few times before- the LEGOs go 'into storage' for awhile, and then my interest in the entire collection is stirred up again when I get a couple new sets.)
On November 23rd 2006, I found some small racecar models, some Police Department vehicles, and some movie set items in a Ziploc bag in my closet. I had suspected that some of my models had "gone missing", finding some of those missing items confitrmed that, and also gave me some hope that some other missing items would soon reappear.
Many missing items did reappear, but not soon. Down in the basement one day in early February 2007, I found a giant plastic tub FILLED with some of my Star Wars models, Technic robots, etc.
Current Count of Pieces:
[Recount In Progress, currently at 4,613
Current Count of Minifigures:
[Recount in Progress, currently at 85]
The Excel spreadsheet I compiled that contain all of my data so far is located right here.
Most recent LEGO purchases:
Several batches of pieces off of BrickLink (mainly for my LEGO Flag project)
Evidently, the citizens of Lego City enjoy partying. :) This is the beer pong table from the city bar.
