Kheldar

reviving an old thread FTW? Someone can feel free to slap me if it's a faux pas, because I really like the idea of this thread, as at its core it is celebrating the hobby and the fact that a hobby that brings as much joy as Lego ought not have age boundaries. I started playing with and collecting Lego when I was about 5, in 1989. My very first set was 3682-1: the Fabuland Fire Station (http://brickset.com/sets/3682-1/Fire-Station), and then 4010 Police Rescue Boat (http://brickset.com/sets/4010-1/Police-Rescue-Boat). The boat especially peaked my interest, and I still have vague memories of my parents buying it for me in Buffalo on a family trip across the border. My folks saw I loved it, and soon I had Lego sets arriving each Birthday or Christmas. I gravitated toward two main themes back then, Castle and Pirates. Especially pirates. I was so proud of my collection: 6245: Harbor Sentry (http://brickset.com/sets/6245-1/Harbor-Sentry) - I loved the Sentry boat! 6270-1: Forbidden Island (http://brickset.com/sets/6270-1/Forbidden-Island) - I don't know why but I really found this set immersive, and I really enjoyed the trap door! 6274-1: Caribbean Clipper (http://brickset.com/sets/6274-1/Caribbean-Clipper) - Ships are awesome! It should be immediately clear that I lacked two main pieces: 6276: Eldorado Fortress and 6285: Black Seas Barracuda. Boy, did I ever know it. I wanted 6285 SOOO badly. Every Christmas or Birthday, I found myself examining boxes addressed to me, gauging them for size and dimensions, etc., guessing, hoping, that it would finally be 'it'. Of course, I also understood that our family was not exactly well off, and my parents did they best. Nonetheless, as time went on and the set was discontinued, my heart sank--though I'd still find myself checking box sizes for years, oddly. Through the 90s I kept playing and collecting, moving on to themes like Town, other Castle and Pirate stuff, some space themes, and my favourite of the time: Aquazone. But, around the closing years of the decade, three things happened. First, TLG began experiencing some economically troubling times, as we know, and underwent some dramatic changes, producing some...interesting designs in sets. It's entirely subjective, and to each their own: I personally began losing interest in the aesthetic of Lego sets of that period. Second, being 13/14 in 97/98, I began feeling a bit silly playing with toys like Lego, and didn't feel I could ask for it any longer as gifts (and I was still too young for a job). So, same story as many folks, there. Third, my peer group's interests changed a bit - though if I was concerned with looking childish, I laugh at my prepubescent self now, since my group started playing Warhammer. I think I convinced myself it was more grown up because of the required assembly and painting of models...hey, wait a minute... ;) I was a silly child. So I veered away from Lego for quite some time. Fortunately, my sizable collection remained: it was just in the attic somewhere. My (first) return to Lego resulted from a rather odd impetus: sometime during Undergrad, and the release of Batman Begins (2005). Bear with me: I watched that movie and immediately found my interest in Comic Books reignited. I pulled out my old collection, re-read tons of stuff, and then, of course, needed MORE. The local comic shop was great, but I remembered that my dad had used Ebay for years as a great source for electronic parts and such for work. I experimented, and was pleasantly surprised at how easy and fun it was. I started buying comics, warhammer stuff, etc., ...and then one day, I stumbled upon a listing for a Lego set. That got me thinking....and with a quick search, I saw a whole list of offerings for -you guessed it - 6285, Black Seas Barracuda (http://brickset.com/sets/6285-1/Black-Seas-Barracuda). It was NOT cheap...and I was disheartened, but, being a good budding historian, did the thing I was studying to do well: research! Over the next year, I watched countless auctions and buy it now listings for 6285, until I knew exactly what I should expect to pay, what was a deal, etc. and then one day...it happened. An auction listing for the set, at $30 Canadian, with $15 shipping within Canada. Contacting the seller, I explained my childhood dream of owning the set, and asked what they expected/hoped to get for it, and when they said $130, shipping in, I was overjoyed - I'd spent a year watching sets go for no less than $200. They relisted it as a buy it now and I grabbed it. When I got home the day it arrived, my parents had the huge box waiting on the kitchen table, brown paper wrapping and all. They knew. I ran tot he living room, ran upstairs and grabbed my old lego, and, at age 23, spent the next few nights building the set, as well as all my other pirate stuff. It was glorious. In fact--the seller included the ORIGINAL BOX AND INSTRUCTIONS...half the bags hadn't even been opened yet! I couldn't believe it!!! Heck - it still had the original Eaton's PRICE TAG on it! It's like this person found it in their attic. I didn't even know what to think. But that soon faded again, since no one else played with Lego that I knew, and I still felt a bit silly. So I put it all away again (though 6285 remained in my room, on display). It wasn't until THIS year, now at age 29, in a Doctoral program, that I actually escaped my dark ages. I went with colleagues to see the Lego Movie, and all of us were overjoyed by the thing. Some of the guys started talking about their collections, and when we realized we still had ours, we all brought them back with us on our next trips home. So Iv'e been back at it, collecting like crazy sinec March of this year (perhaps a bit too much...I shudder to think what I've already spent!) One thing remains though: 6285 Black Seas Barracuda is still with me, and has never been disassembled since that day in 2006. It is "the" magic set for me, and will always remain that way. Also that was a lengthy post. Whoops.