[JKCalhoun]

Lego for me were about building new things from scratch; of my own invention. I never understood the make-this-exact-thing in Lego. I have bought a few of those newer kits, and they were more like puzzles (but with instructions, hmmm...).

Plastic models (of spacecraft, aircraft, cars, etc.) fulfilled that role for me: make a thing to look like a thing — and with so much more fidelity than Legos.

There is a sculpting aspect to model kit building; building in 3-dimensional space that I like about it. You understand the thing in 3 dimensions as well (whereas you were most likely only familiar with it in 2 dimensions, such as, for example, the way the Millennium Falcon spaceship is represented on screen or in stills).

There too is an aesthetic about the thing you are building. A car model might be of a car you have always liked the design of, could never hope to afford. In building (and later displaying) the model you are coming to grok the form and design lines you have enjoyed.

Honestly though I tend to not really have the room or inclination to display my models. Not sure if the journey was the reward and I ought to bin them? LOL, why do I do it?