tomalphin

My favorite official LEGO set was #10188 Death Star, because it features most of the iconic scenes from my favorite Star Wars movie (A New Hope > Empire Strikes Back, don't get me started!)

The most satisfying model I designed was probably the commissioned model of the Really Useful Products factory, because I was able to build it live over four days and teach people about LEGO while building it. There's a great video of the project here: https://vimeo.com/293151252

The Struggle is real! Unless you need to sell the sets, I strongly recommend that you leave them unsorted (or sort them only a little), and focus on encouraging your kids to keep building custom creations!

These kinds of questions are why I wrote the LEGO Storage Guide. (Based on the size of your collection, the following chapter is probably going to help you most: CHAPTER 4: LEGO Storage for Medium Collections.)

Happy Sorting!

Naturally, some of the builders are more talented than others, but I've been extremely impressed by many of the models they built.

Modest Spoiler Alert...

I do wish the Judges showed more respect for smaller, more intricate builds... (For example: "Beneath the Surface" model by Christian & Aaron in Episode 3 was fantastic, but not well received by the judges.)

There are a number of LEGO building techniques which "work" and are common within the LEGO Fan Community, but are not allowed in official LEGO sets for a variety of reasons. (strain on the plastic LEGO bricks, too difficult to remove the part later, etc...)

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The following is the best overview of "illegal" building techniques that I've found: http://bramlambrecht.com/tmp/jamieberard-brickstress-bf06.pdf

Based on a very rough back-of-napkin estimate...

1. a banana weight about 3.7 ounces, so let's just say:
   4 bananas / lb
2. I have 15 large drawers, and a fairly typical drawer weighed 15.6 pounds.
   15 × ~15 = 225lbs
3. I suspect the total collection is 2.5 times that, due to built models, smaller parts stored in other cabinets, etc...
   225 × 2.5 = 562.5lbs
4. Since there are about 4 bananas per pound...
   562.5 × 4 = 2250 bananas.

My guess is that this is a slight overestimate, but either way, I can feed a lot of monkeys.

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April 8, 2020: On closer look, I only have six 'large' drawers, and six ½-sized 'small' drawers.
Revised estimate: 9 × 15lbs = 135 lbs; 135 × 2.5 = 337.5 lbs; 337.5 × 4 = 1350 bananas