Lego Amnesty Day

Yesterday was Lego "amnesty day" at our house. That has such a nice ring to it as opposed to "we have to find all the little tiny Lego pieces and put them back together" day. And still be able to keep your sanity. For anyone who has a child between the ages of 7-12, you have had a Lego amnesty day at least once.

Each Lego creation starts on a Christmas morning or after a birthday party with a box displaying an amazing picture on the front. There is also a number in large type showing how many teeny, tiny Lego pieces are in that box. I have never known it to be a nice round number. It is always 672 or 1456 pieces. Nothing that ends in 0.

Harry, Ron, and the Giant Spider
after two months

The excitement builds as we open smaller bags of Legos, carefully sort them, and follow multi-page instruction booklets to build wondrous creations. Once it is built (and hopefully for at least a week), you son or daughter or sometimes both at the same time with a minimum amount of squabbling will play with the castle, police station, or pet shop and have a great time. But slowly, it begins...

The first thing to go missing is normally one of the hats of the mini-figures or items that the hold in their hands.  One day their are still six firemen but only 5 hats, or one of the firemen do not have an ax or fire  hose to hold anymore.  The fire engine is there, but it only has half a siren.  In our case, Hogwarts was still intact, but Ron and Hermione had lost their wands, and there were fewer bottles on the shelves in the potions classroom.

The next phase of the de-construction was the intricate connecting pieces.  I love Lego and Lego bricks were designed to connect one rectangle or square brick to another and build what you imagination could conjure up.  Nowadays, with the more intricate sets, there are hinged pieces that connect sections of Hogwarts castle and it can open and close.  There is a hinged roof in the Great Hall and delicate connectors with the castle spires.  Soon, we had sections of Hogwarts that were detached, free floating, or spires had fallen down making it look more like Hogwarts after the great battle, than during the early books of Harry Potter.

The last, and inevitable stage, is pieces then get re-used into other Lego creations and you are left with a hallowed out shell of Hogwarts.  This brought us to Lego Amnesty day.  My wife and kids and I spent the better part of two hours leafing through the multi-page instruction books, looking at the pictures, figuring out what was missing, and piecing it back together.  More than once I would sort through the plastic bin of parts looking for a white, 1x2 piece.  "Is that smooth on the top or does it have the dimples?" I would ask.  I would sort and scan repeatedly as pieces blurred and then the moment of triumph as I proudly handed the piece over to my wife to be greeted with, "OK, now we need a brown 1x3 sloped piece for a roof."  What have you done for me lately.  On the good news side, after two hours, the roofs were fixed, Harry and all his mini figure friends were back together, and each had a wand and appropriate props to hold.

 The Hogwarts Express, Hogwarts castle, all characters,
dement ors, wands, etc 15 minutes after we completed it

Some advice to anyone embarking on this journey.  Sort all your pieces by color.  It is easier to find the little ones if you are only looking in the red or white pile.  If you can sort by size, that is a bonus!  It just depends on how much time you have.  I can say that I did do one thing correct and will continue to do it in the future.  On that Christmas morning, after the new Lego is assembled, take the instruction book and put it in a very safe place!

A preview of my next weekend is shown below.  It may not look like it, but that is a fire station, two fire engines, a fire boat, and about 8-10 mini figure fireman, with hats and axes and tools.  Wish me luck!