Yesterday I discussed online LEGO repositories and included a tip by blog reader Siabur (originally to my lamenting how hard it is to know what parts you need for re-creating sets), that Rebrickable is a useful site when trying to re-create another set from existing parts. Rebrickable, then, is pretty much exactly what I could have and probably should have used when I started my quests for Lion Knights’ castle and Inter-City train.
Rebrickable even allows you to easily select how picky you are about getting the colors just right. You can try the service without registering and enter up to six existing sets – and more if you sign up and log in. The service tells you how many of the required parts you have, what you need to acquire (listing sellers, even) and also suggesting sets you might want to buy as parts packs. This is, really, the perfect answer to the main problems that have faced me on my two “quests”.
Of course, maintaining a comprehensive database of your sets and bricks – for the Rebrickable to match against – can be a lot of work. Also, when you start acquiring not just sets, but various used parts collections (including accounting for lost bricks etc.), it all gets far less accurate fast. Rebrickable would have though, at the very least, given me a rough starting point as to how near or far the targets I was. Let’s say, it is a sobering service.
On the the other hand, maybe it is better I didn’t try Rebrickable first. Looking at those rough percentages below, I might have ran fast and far and left my AFOL dreams dormant…
Quest for Bricks 
2 Responses to Just the tool for quests
Glad to help out. I’ve recently picked up over 1000 parts for various projects and just keeping track of what’s coming in is a pain. Adding to rebrick would be nice but…
I hear you. It certainly seems a lot of work maintaining a brick database (this goes with any tool/site, nothing to do with Rebrickable per se) if you need to go beyond inputting a few sets. Especially if you need to catalog individual part acquisitions, instead of full sets.
For example, I can’t really catalog all my childhood sets as is, because I can’t be quite sure all the parts are still intact/can be found. Of course I can get a rough idea by inputting some of the ones I remember, but it isn’t conclusive.