How did you come out of your Dark Ages?

[papitsu]

When I was little, my older brothers were big into Lego. We had a fairly large collection of 1980s and early 1990s sets. I grew up playing with the older sets and hated most of the Lego stuff sold at the time. I used to play with them all the time until around age 10, when other hobbies took over. At some point the whole collection was given to my nephew and I didn't touch a Lego brick for 15 years. I would sometimes walk by the Lego shelf at a supermarket and shake my head in disgust. I loved the late 80s/early 90s Town theme as a child, but the modern sets were just awful.

I still played a lot of Lego games and enjoyed the Lego movies, but wasn't interested in buying any sets.

Then, a couple of weeks ago I stumbled across Lego photography. Some of the pictures were really cool and it got me thinking of buying a few minifigures just to try it out. A bit of searching for used 80s and 90s sets led me right down the google rabbit hole: I discovered the whole AFOL culture, MOCs, Creator Expert sets, Modular buildings, the whole deal. I spent days watching Youtube videos and reading forums and blogs. The amount of new possibilities is incredible. All of that made me almost forget the photography part and reignited the fire to build. Already ordered a couple of early 90s Town sets and the Saturn V. I am trying to keep the amount of money spent small, but at the same time the new Hogwarts castle is really tempting. Also, I wonder if the nephew still plays with the bricks...

Edited September 3, 2018 by papitsu

[Good and Swordy]

This summer, my mom went on a cleaning spree, and part of it involved cleaning up the family LEGO sets.

Before then, a lot of our sets were all mixed together into one big bin, except for my brother's Star Wars sets. (He was adamant that his sets stay separate from the rest of the LEGO when not being played with.) So my task was finding the instructions for sets, putting them back together, and making sure they had all the pieces. Reassembling my childhood sets brought back a charge of nostalgia and I rediscovered my love for LEGO. So much so that I couldn't resist taking my favorite minifigures to college with me :)

[TheNthDegree]

I left a really stressful job, that had taken a toll on my mental health, back in March this year. They have me a voucher as a leaving present which I wanted to spend on something that would distract me from some of the stuff I had going on. Settled on buying Vacation Getaways 31052 and loved every minute of building it. Then saved up a bit of money from my new job and bought Extreme Adventure 42069 on sale for £75.

I've now built the Parisian Restaurant 10243, Bike Shop & Cafe 31026, Hospital 60204 as well as a handful of Brickheadz, collected some minifigures from season 18 and am well and truly hooked! Going along to my first LUG meetup next week and have 9kg of random Lego arriving this week from ebay.

Building Lego has been great for my mental wellbeing, there's just something about being able to immerse yourself in an activity where you can see clear progress at every step and constantly discover something new.

[one79]

On 3/11/2018 at 9:08 AM, fred67 said:

Short version: Trains.

Longer version: I was just starting an N-Scale train hobby, building my first small layout; I had a 3 year old son who wanted to play with it and who, like most little kids, just wanted it to fast enough to go flying off the tracks.  Discovered Railway Express on clearance sale at Sam's Club, and bought two (because I didn't even know LEGO made trains, so I figured I'd have extra tracks, engine, speed regulator) and then I could build stuff with my son that he could break and we would just put it back together.  Then we found a LEGO retail outlet (a LEGO Store, but not full size - so it was considered an outlet - they've since moved to a larger store in the mall they were in and are now a full LEGO Store) and found they had tons of other train stuff, a lot of sets you would never know existed otherwise, and a freaking pick-a-brick wall.  Over time I got into other themes, but I'm essentially back to just city and trains (including modular).

For the record, I was about 35 or so at the time, and am now in my early fifties.  My kids don't care for LEGO anymore, but I do.

Lol, I thought my son is the only want that like to do that. On top of that, he will place minifigs on the track or on the train roof to see what will happen, lol

[leafan]

I very much enjoyed reading this today, so I thought I'd share my story of how I came out of the Dark Age.

The Lego I had as a kid was mostly late 70s/early 80s sets that my 2 brothers had gotten over the years, but was passed to me as they lost interest. I used to build my own Mad Max-esque vehicles and play with them for hours.

Eventually my mother purchased some for me from Toys R Us and I had a couple of classic space and castle sets.

I remember very clearly storing all the pieces in an artists paint brush wooden box. I probably stopped playing with them at around 15 and so they got left at my parents house when I moved out.

Somehow, the Lego knights I had (3 Crusaders, 3 Black Falcons and 3 Forest Men) were taken to my new home and were discovered again after my son was born. He loved them because of the easily relatable theme of knights, with basic weapons, and a clear distinction of factions between them (red, blue, green); so I fished out the rest of my collection from my parents house (virtually tore the joint apart trying to find everything) and took them home.

Wanting to please my boy, and enjoying it all again after viewing it through my sons eyes, I had to buy him some of the sets and minifigures that I never had as a kid, so that's how it began.

My son is 5 now and I'm 38, and we share this obession with Lego for mainly play purposes at the moment, although I'm sure he'll grow to love the building as much as I do for him at the moment.

Then one day he'll reach the inevitable dark ages too, and I'll become custodian of our collection until he sees sense :)

We mainly like Castle, Classic Space, Pirates, Western, Star Wars and Ninjago Movie stuff.

I want to build a city when I have the space!

Keep these coming, I want to read more.

[Capparezza]

11 hours ago, leafan said:

Then one day he'll reach the inevitable dark ages too, and I'll become custodian of our collection until he sees sense :)

Hehe, that's the part I liked most. I was wondering how many unwanted LEGO sets get sold off at flea markets or on the web, just because someone lost interest. And how many times that someone came back later, to renew his LEGO-love, just to find out his sets aren't there anymore...

[leafan]

4 hours ago, Capparezza said:

Hehe, that's the part I liked most. I was wondering how many unwanted LEGO sets get sold off at flea markets or on the web, just because someone lost interest. And how many times that someone came back later, to renew his LEGO-love, just to find out his sets aren't there anymore...

Well we can only hope that bricks lost in that manner end up in the hands of somebody here, or their children :)

[TeriXeri]

Nexo Knights brought me back after 15 years in 2016.

Also rebuilding old sets after sorting them out helped bring back the memories of Space, Castle, Pirates and Town sets.

I do keep the old LEGO seperated from the 2016+ however.

Edited October 26, 2018 by TeriXeri

[PotatoBrick]

Graduate school. I had to do an assignment on a company and my partner told me upfront that he was not going to help me and that I can choose any company I wanted. So, I chose Lego. During my "research" I saw all of their really interesting licensed sets and that got me back into it. I initially went into Lego collecting, collecting old sets from my childhood and then into Lego mosaics. Now I am venturing into Lego reviews:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7SUxhts5C74-mfH1Ar6vxg

 

  

Edited October 27, 2018 by PotatoBrick

[f2k]

My dark ages mainly coincides with periods of unemployment and lack of funds. Once I get back in the stride my interest in LEGO usually reasserts itself after a while.

I have to say though, that it seems to be getting harder and harder every time. Maybe it's just because I've gotten older. Or maybe it's because most of the current sets just aren't appealing to me.

[BacktoBricks]

I can't remember how, but I found a Jangbricks review on Youtube back in summer 2015 and I haven't been able to stop since. I loved Lego as a child from when I was gifted my first bucket by my parents at 2 years old. Had a couple of original SW sets and some of the HP sets as I got older, but slowly sold everything off as a teenager as money got tight. Now in my middle twenties and I'm thoroughly obsessed again. I can't decide if I love Jang or hate him!

[sesse]

The day when i left the dark age was the same day that I moved from my parents house to an apartment with my girlfriend. We got a spare room and I got this idea that it would be awesome to put my childhood LEGO there. And then it just kind of continued. 

[OxnardMontalvo]

Four-five steps. I always loved LEGO when I was a kid. Born in ‘85, as a 1 year old I got my first Duplo set. Me and my older sister got some Fabuland sets and than it really kicked off with a brick bucket. I did the whole LEGO shabang, DUPLO, Fabuland, Buckets, a lot of small sets, train sets, pirate ship and a lot of Technic. And then it just ended when I was 12-13. Although I did play with my younger brother his sets, until I was 14. We both went into our ‘dark ages’ before the year 2000 (my brother was born in ‘89). 

The Nintendo 64 basicly took most of our time. Goodbye LEGO, have fun at my parents attic.

Fast-forward to about 2011. My younger brother graduated as an architectural engineer and as a present from his girlfriend, he got the Fallingwater set. Then he got some more and more architect sets, and then it started itching again. In 2013 I went to a LEGO store and bought myself back into the game; I bought a TMNT Raphael keychain (still using it). Everything was so expensive, I just couldn’t justify the cost, yet.

Fast-forward to early 2017. My nephew (3 at this point, sisters son), my biggest buddy, who I thankfully see very often, loves DUPLO, but also superheroes, especially LEGO Marvel Superheroes. He is way to young to game, but he loves watching this game (even on Youtube). So before easter, I go to Aliexpress, I buy plastic eggs, and a few lots of fake LEGO superhero minifigures. Hulk, Spidey, Iron Man, etc. I think I got at least 50, He treats them as his treasures, especially the Hulk size figures. Jackpot.

So after easter I went to my parents attic to pick up all that old LEGO and try to make the sets complete again for my nephew to build when he is old enough. Still haven’t completed that proces, but 50ish sets out of 150ish are ready to be build again.

I’m on the brink of going back in. I see the NASA Saturn V rocket being released. I’m going for it! But it was sold out before I could even order one. Meh. Postponed.

Late 2017, LEGO World was in town. My nephew was amazed by all these LEGO sets. He just got a large brick bucket for his birthday from my brother, and immediatly was a fan of building. We bought him his first Juniors sets, which evolved in City sets before Christmas. We build a few sets together (I let him do the most ofcourse), which we both enjoyed. He now has about 20ish sets and is getting Whomping Willow Hogwarts set under the Christmas tree.

Early 2018, I had money to burn and wanted to buy a new TV I don’t really need. Then I saw it, LEGO Saturn V 21309 in stock! 130 Euro, a lot for some ‘toy’, but I bit the bullet, bought it, build it, need more of it. Bought Parisian Restaurant, and Detective’s Office in the next 2 months. Could also use a Brick Bank in april aaaand bought Assembly Square in june. Turns out my dad bought used Creator Expert Mini Cooper and VW Camper sets a few years ago at a flee market, never build them, and let me build them. Thanks dad, could have mentioned that earlier though. Then I got another used set for free from a friend of my father: Tower Bridge. My father knew he had LEGO sets, but he only builds Technic these days, so his unused Tower Bridge set was only in the way, and gave it to my dad to give it to me. Very grateful for that.

So, within one year of getting out of the dark ages, I’ve build (well, currently building Assembly Square) one large Ideas set (21309) and 7 Creator Expert sets (10214, 10220, 10242, 10243, 10246, 10251, 10255). A grand total of almost 20.000 pieces. And more is coming. Money needs to roll!

I also got my brother into other LEGO than Architecture, he bought the Old Fishing Store and Ship in a Bottle Ideas sets.

Edited December 20, 2018 by OxnardMontalvo