Do you have a lot of half-made Lego sets and stray Lego bricks lying at the bottom of your toy bin? Many kids don't know what to do with all their old Lego pieces, and some kids have a lot of them. But a new book can help you give your old bricks a new life.

"The Lego Ideas Book" is full of cool creations, from monsters and spaceships to castles and cars -- all made from random Lego pieces, not from specific sets. Some of the featured builders are experts who work for Lego, but others just build Legos as a hobby. With a little imagination, you can start building this way, too.

"We like to think that pretty much any set that you have, you can take apart and make something totally different from that original set," said Daniel Lipkowitz, the book's author.

Here are some tips to help get you going. But first you've got to fish all those pieces out of the toy bin!

>Start by sorting


>What to build

Take your cue from your collection. If you have a lot of little wheels, for example, "that could work for a space vehicle of some kind, like a moon rover," Lipkowitz said.



>Learn how pieces work

The basic brick, no matter which size, will form the core of your structure. But look for some of these bricks that can help create great models:




>Fire up your imagination

The key to this kind of free building is not to worry that you might be doing it wrong. You'll learn what works the more you try it, and soon you'll figure out ways to use pieces in really creative ways. And that's the goal, Lipkowitz said. "The book is all about inspiration and thinking of new ways to use the pieces you have."