As I've gotten older, I've increasingly viewed LEGO sets as one thing: parts packs. When I buy a new set I always build it and enjoy building it. I may even play around with it for a while. But very soon I start picking at it for parts, or just sort it into my collection altogether. I keep my LEGO pretty well sorted, with hundreds of drawers and bins, so it isn't like "dumping it into the LEGO box" for me.

I used to buy a LEGO set because I thought it looked cool. Now I buy LEGO sets when I have a purpose. Also, I'm a lot more liberal with getting the specific parts I need from Bricklink, so I buy less sets nowadays. I also rarely use LEGO sets in my brickfilms, preferring to build my own designs. So there's little benefit to me keeping my sets intact. I don't collect, and I don't display. Parts are parts!

That said, there is one set I've never taken apart, Black Knight's Treasure. It was the first LEGO set I ever one, in a contest at Classic-Classic.com. I like keeping it around.

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I don't mind it if I keep the pieces in the same pile. But most of the time Im the same.

I do things a lot like Nathan Wells does (except I use bags for organizing, not organizers because I keep spending my money and forgetting to buy organizers. ). When I buy a set (which it rare, because I only shop on Clearance, but can usually get good deals there), I build it by the instructions, take a few pictures of it, and set it on the shelf for a few days. Usually, I start picking so many parts off the set that it's not even recognizable as a set anymore. Just a pile of bricks. Then I sort them out by color. I never dump them into a big bucket, because cleaning up my room usually takes hours and hours after I finish a film, and that with organizing, so I'd hate to see what would happen if I had to dump a big bucket of random bricks on the desk/floor. The only set I've ever dumped into a bucket is a Chima set I got for cheap, and the only reason I haven't sorted it is because it's got a lot of light blue and purple pieces, and I have nowhere to put those colors.

But yes, I do hate taking apart sets. I finally came to taking apart the Destiny's Bounty, but since it's such a huge set, I just couldn't put it to parts, I put it back into the box (except for the minifigs and some accessories I might use) for later building. I too keep my first (and second) LEGO sets built on the shelf collecting dust because they are so small (and the first one is so broken it's useless except for being on a shelf. ).

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"Whatever you do, do all to the glory of God." - 1 Corinthians 10:31b

Nope, I don't like the efford of taking them apart but it isn't emotional. Most sets I never bother building. Large sets (modulars, basically anything over $100) I will build and may or may not leave built. Modulars I leave built because they are good for quick backdrops. Even as a child it was all parts and never built sets in my room.

Sets are just parts packs, to be sorted and used at a later time. Instructions for most sets I also don't keep since they are available in PDF and are heavy and bulky to store.

Why not build them? It takes just a minute, and you might learn a new building technique. I always seem to learn something when I build a LEGO set.

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"Whatever you do, do all to the glory of God." - 1 Corinthians 10:31b

I either buy a set because I really like the model, in which case it's built and stays built at least for a while (these are usually Star Wars sets, cause I'm a huge nerd and like having them on a shelf), or more commonly, I buy a set because it has bricks I want, and it gets sorted out immediately, never to be built in intended form.

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Not really. Like HoldingOurOwn said, I have instructions.