By and large, the LEGO community is a place of childlike wonder and happy stories, where good wins and creativity prevails. That said, there is a darkness in the world of LEGO. That’s right, we’re talking about the Dark Age, that dreaded period where once-devoted LEGO enthusiasts grow apart from the brick. Absolutely tragic.

I think it’s generally agreed upon that the ultimate source of these dark ages is college. Hit with the double-whammy of being away from your LEGO collection and being frantically busy 24/7, this is a dark time for many would-be AFOLs. That’s why, when I left for college about two months ago, I came in with a plan and determination to avoid this common pitfall. Now, I’m here to share some of my experiences so far in staying active in the LEGO hobby while at college.

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The first (and perhaps most obvious) method of staying in-touch with your inner-AFOL is to bring a small MOC or some minifigures with you to display on your desk or dresser. I brought a few minifigures and 1x8 bricks that have special meaning to me, a mosaic of the cross that I designed, and, of course, BrickNerd’s iconic mascot, Nerdly.

In case you can’t tell, I’m also a huge Tolkien fan.

Sets Are Meant To Be Broken

As far as building, college dorms aren’t known for being spacious, and dragging your entire LEGO collection to college simply isn’t practical. If you plan to build, you must be selective in the bricks you take. This is where alternate builds come in. Alternate builds have been a staple of LEGO building since the dawn of the brick when sets included ideas for various models that could be built using the bricks in a set. This trend has really grown within the LEGO community in the last decade or so.

An alternate build I did of set 80105 Chinese New Year Temple Fair.

Overcoming the restrictions of a set’s limited piece selection to build a masterpiece is a fun challenge that can really push your creativity. Due to the very nature of the challenge, it also works well in college when you have limited space. I brought a few sets with me for this very purpose, and it’s worked great for quenching my LEGO-building thirst.

In particular, I’ve had a lot of fun with set 76145 Eternals’ Aerial Assault, which, despite only containing 133 pieces, has a remarkably good parts selection. So far, I’ve built some alien creatures, several spaceships, and some robots from the set.

Into Reality

While alternate builds have done a great job of satisfying my itch to build, I’ve also found satisfaction in some good ol’ LEGO-in-the-real-world photography. This trend involves taking pictures of minifigures (or other LEGO subjects) in a real-world setting. It’s a lot of fun for those who are photographically inclined, and it requires minimal LEGO. In my case, I just have a Ziploc bag with a couple of dozen minifigures and animals that I pull out whenever I want to take a picture.

In particular, I’ve had a lot of fun chronicling the tales of this Blacktron II scout and his trusty droid who crash-landed on a mysterious alien planet.

Infinite Possibilities

Finally, while I wasn’t able to do this in my first semester, in the future I’d like to take my minifigure parts with me to college and do some figbarfing. For those unacquainted, figbarfing is the process of creating custom minifigures by combining the pieces from other figures. This process doesn’t require the large amounts of pieces that building a whole MOC does; in my case, I could easily fit all of my minifigure parts into a couple of small totes, making it the perfect building activity for college.

An example of a fantasy figbarf I put together several years ago.

Of course, there are a multitude of other ways that one could build while in college, such as digital building. As such, I’ve recruited the help of a couple of fellow AFOLICs (Adult Fans of LEGO In College… that’s a fun term I just made up) to share their unique experiences in this area.

Olav (Norlego) and The Five-Year Degree

First up, we’ve got Olav, commonly known as Norlego. He’s an AFOL from Norway best known for his magnificent rockwork and detailed Lord of the Rings and Adventurers MOCs. He’s currently working on gaining his master’s degree.

“I was an active MOC-builder from when I joined the community late in 2015 up until I moved out of my family home in the latter half of 2019 to attend university. As I only moved about an hour from my hometown, I didn’t need to bring any parts because I could travel home on the weekends when I felt like building. But my life and priorities changed a lot when I started uni and especially after the pandemic hit in 2020, so there was a combination of “excuses” as to why my interest in LEGO and MOC building especially took a hit during that year.”

“I didn’t really have any LEGO in my university dorm room, so because I was missing that, I fell for LEGO's marketing of “adult and collectible” sets. In 2021, I did get more active in the community again, and I seriously started working on ideas for Adventurers MOCs which I had always wanted to build. Being close to home was convenient, so I commuted there more often on the weekends and started making Adventurers figbarfs, MOC prototyping and generally fiddling around with parts to develop my ideas. Unfortunately, though, I never got into a consistent building groove, so several ideas were never fully developed and finalized.”

One of Norlego’s Adventurers MOCs, the Oasis Campsite.

“It changed again when I moved even further away from my hometown (approx. five hours) in the fall of 2022 for my master’s degree. Commuting on the weekends was no longer an option. Ever since then, MOC building has more or less been completely put on the sideline. I could have brought parts with me to build with, but I am unfortunately too stubborn to split up my LEGO (parts) collection, so I never seriously considered that. Instead, my interest in LEGO became stronger in other areas. I have gotten more into collecting “vintage” sets from themes I grew up with, like Adventurers, Knights Kingdom II, Bionicle, and more. I’ve also opened a BrickLink store to earn more money to buy more LEGO.”

“Starting university and finishing what’s going to end as a five-year degree has taken a lot of time and effort, so I guess it’s not a surprise it went in this direction, but I am very glad I didn’t lose my interest in LEGO. My enthusiasm for LEGO is fortunately at an all-time high. My objective is however, to get back to building when I move to a larger apartment with more space after I finish my studies in 2024. Especially because I have so many exciting ideas I want to develop and realize into brick-built models. I am still relatively active in the community, and seeing all the awesome and innovative MOCs built by fellow AFOLs is super inspiring, and it’s motivating me to eventually return to that.

Thomas (LegionDude)

To round out our article, we’ve got Thomas, also known as LegionDude. Hailing from the Netherlands, he’s best known for his dynamic Clone Wars vignettes and realistic military builds. He’s currently studying Earth Science at Utrecht University in the Netherlands.

“Like many former TFOLs that move away to college, I had a LEGO Dark Age. After three years, I rediscovered the hobby and started building again. One problem: I lived in a 14 square meter room in a house with nine others with no space to build and store LEGO projects. This meant traveling between cities, a one-hour trip each way, to build. I went back home every second or third weekend and would spend much of those days building in binge sessions of up to 15 hours. For many college-going builders, this may be the only practical option. However, if you have the space in your new accommodation to bring (a part of) your collection with you, I would highly advise you to do so.”

“There are some major challenges to be aware of if you are going to move away to college and plan on building on weekends. First, travel may cost money, which for a student on a shoestring budget may make an expensive hobby even more expensive. Luckily for me, Dutch students get a free public transit card. Second, major social activities might also be scheduled on the weekend, forcing a choice between building and spending time with friends, while you have extra time on weeknights going unused. Third, you can’t simply build when the fancy or inspiration strikes you. I had to bottle up and save my build ideas a lot. I also found that when I did make it back home, sometimes I didn’t feel inspired or want to build that day. When this happened on builds with deadlines, building felt more like work than a hobby.”

“I found that planning is important. I tried to look ahead a month or two and schedule my building time. I knew I wouldn’t get to it otherwise, as weekends would steadily fill up with plans. When spontaneous plans inevitably came up during scheduled build time, I’d sometimes pivot to a smaller, one-day build. The bricks weren’t going anywhere, and time at university is limited. By mainly focusing on smaller builds without very strict deadlines, I could stay flexible in my planning and have a good brick-life balance.”

In Conclusion

Well, there you have it. I reckon everyone’s experience in college is bound to be a little different, but hopefully hearing about the various experiences of others has inspired you and given you some ideas of how to keep building while away from your bricks at college (or for any other reason). Now you too can avoid your Dark Ages, become invincible, and never die!

Best of BrickNerd - Article Originally published October 17, 2023.

Did you have a Dark Age during college? Let us know in the comments!

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