Bricks in Motion
We are a friendly filmmaking community devoted to the art of stop-motion animation using LEGO® and similar construction toys. Here, you can share your work, join our community of other brickfilmers, and participate in periodic animation contests!
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If someone was to look at my brickfilms, they would notice the astonishing lack of elaborate sets and props. I don't have many spare parts to make my own sets, but I have a lot of LEGO sets that cannot be animated with (at least at my skill level), but have a ton of great parts to make elaborate sets and props. Should I break them down and sort the parts, or should I keep my LEGO sets intact?
LEGO sets rarely work well for sets for brickfilms. Brickfilm sets generally only need to be facades, while some LEGO sets are complete buildings. Other LEGO sets aren't solid enough to work for brickfilms, either.
I would definitely consider breaking down your sets and sorting your LEGO. I firmly believe LEGO is meant to be mixed and matched together to create whatever you want. That's not a LEGO firestation set, it's a LEGO set with lots of cool red and white parts that could be made into a spaceship, or a giant squid.
If you ever have the desire to rebuilt your LEGO sets, you can always dig out your instructions and rebuild them.
Thanks for the advice, I will probably start the destruction of my lego sets soon.
When I buy a LEGO set, I always have the debate with myself on whether to put them into parts, or keep it in tact. With large sets, like the Destiny's Bounty, I keep those parts separate. They don't do much good for me while I'm filming, but since they set is so large and cost so much, I don't think I want to break it apart. For smaller sets, I always break them up. That is, after I build them once. I like to see the building techniques that the LEGO designers used so i can learn from them and be better when making my own sets. It all depends, though.
Like Nathan Wells said, LEGO sets are not really good for stop-motion, but if you like the design of a set, for example a car, then you can modify it to suit your needs. Add new bricks, swap some bricks, make it modular, etc.
If the set is nostalgic, (like my 1997 Shell Racecar), I don't recommend breaking it into pieces. You should have one nostalgic set that gives you inspiration that always reminds you of how you were a kid and what LEGO means to you (or at least, that's the way I feel about it. 
)
Definitely. LEGO is all about using your own creativity and imagination, so you really should break down and re-use parts from your sets. And, like Nathan said, not all official LEGO sets are suited for brickfilming.
However, in a few cases it's better not to. For instance, Modular Buildings--I have several, and don't ever intend to take them apart. I also have a few older sets (such as my 2002 Creator Red Baron) that I've still kept assembled, though this is mainly for nostalgic reasons.
I am thinking about breaking down my grand emporium set be ause it has a lot of great 1x4x1s and they are good for making sets. Should I break that down?
Are you going to use it elsewhere? If not, I'd break it down. As I said before, you can always rebuild it.
The question is: Are you a LEGO set collector or a brickfilmer? Or, spoiler alert, are you Will Ferrell's character or the kid in that under-rated movie about plastic construction toys?
I break down most of my sets after a stretch of time, and little outside of my Hobbit/LOTR ones are built now.
I highly recommend it, but only after you've had plenty of fun with the set as it is.
(Playing/displaying/whatever else you do)
I've got a handful on permanent display status for various reasons, but the rest fall as I come to need their bricks for things. For me, the hardest part is taking off the first brick. Once it starts to come apart, all guilt is lost in the joy of have so many free parts to use. So if you can gather the strength to get the first pieces off, the rest should come easily enough. That being said, it is always cool to have special sets still built, and just because you can rebuild something doesn't mean that'll be fun or easy.
I say break apart everything that isn't usable in that state or anything that holds some sentimental or other special value. Anything else, callously break it apart and cast it into the unsorted buckets. It may sound harsh, but you may very well find it far worth the pain.
I currently have one set assembled which is Benny's SPACESHIP! I will probably take it apart once I get another larger set, I just took apart the Haunted House which I had on display for 4-8 months or so. Adding parts to my collection is great, and I never really need more then one display piece at a given time
Here is what I have done. I've taken apart all of my sets except the ones from my favorite themes (Star Wars, LotR/Hobbit and Superheroes sets) That way I have loads of parts from my sets but still have my favorite ones on display in my room. Another reason why I used this method is because a ran out of room to display my full collection so I kept the ones I really liked on my shelves and all the others I sorted through my collection. Hope this helps. 
I like to build sets, then take them apart for pieces. Like Nathan Wells said.
You can always rebuild.
Thanks for the advice everybody.
For the first time about two years ago I bought a set and never even put it together; the bricks went straight out of the box and into sorting. This is the fate of most of my sets now, but I do occasionally buy sets and build them/have kept sets together, mostly modular buildings and Star Wars sets, but there are also a few nostalgic ones. I tend to have more of a problem with keeping things I've designed myself built when I should really take them apart. As has been stated before, that's pretty much the point of LEGO.
I take pretty much everything apart, although if I could afford any modular buildings I would keep them together. Same goes for the ghostbusters and Back to the Future sets, as they're collector's items.
Thats why I keep my instructions.
Last summer I practically had all my Lego sets dismantled, but I had my instruction manuals at hand. So whenever I got bored that summer, I might just rebuild a set that was dismantled 5-6 years ago.
In this current day and time, the only sets I hardly display are Star Wars sets, but I'll probably take them apart.
As for the whole 'Lego should be taken apart and played with' dilhema that everyone has mentioned, I agree.
The modular sets like Grand Emporium are useful for a street scene due to their size. I would recommend keeping it constructed for a while if you have any plans to make a film set outdoors.
Some sets i have, like my small collection of Town sets, are things i wouldn't break. I did break literally everything else apart. Here's a tip - sort EVERYTHING. I have a ton of boxes with Lego in them unsorted and i doubt i'll ever be able to build my Pet Shop up again seeing as there's a ton of pieces scattered around. Sorting makes it easier to find the pieces you need if you want to build it up again.
LEGO sets rarely work well for sets for brickfilms. Brickfilm sets generally only need to be facades, while some LEGO sets are complete buildings. Other LEGO sets aren't solid enough to work for brickfilms, either.
I would definitely consider breaking down your sets and sorting your LEGO. I firmly believe LEGO is meant to be mixed and matched together to create whatever you want. That's not a LEGO firestation set, it's a LEGO set with lots of cool red and white parts that could be made into a spaceship, or a giant squid.
If you ever have the desire to rebuilt your LEGO sets, you can always dig out your instructions and rebuild them.
agreed.
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