Dark Ages. What did it?

[Eilif]

I'm sure there has been alot of discussion about this, but I wanted to poll EB'ers and see numerically what their primary reason for their dark ages is. Thus, I'm askig those who have experienced a dark age to pick the prime reason you entered a dark age.

TFOL's and those who proudly continued their LEGO habbit despite ridicule, this thread is not for you. I admire your fortitude and commitment, but this thread is for us who shamefully neglected the brick in favor of something else

1) Hormones: Girls, Boys, whatever. Hormones took over, and LEGO fell to the wayside.

2) Other interests: Cars, school, motorcycles, bandminton, Playmobile, video games, etc. Some other activity crowded out the sacred brick.

3) Shame: Family and/or Friends made it clear that LEGO was not an appropriate hobby anymore and, either by pressure or force, compelled you to abandon LEGO. Those who felt "too old" pick this option

4) Other.

Many of you will have a mix of the 3 above, but you can only pick one!

I'll start. I like to refer to my dark ages, as a grey-ages, since I did occasionally build. Honestly though, that's probably just a kind of excuse, since from 1995-2004 I bought almost no LEGO at all. My reason was hormones. Once I came out of my nerdish shell and discovered girls, most everything else fell by the wayside.

Then I met the girl of my dreams, got hitched, and came back to the brick.

Edited October 1, 2008 by Eilif

[Captain Green Hair]

Well i used to live on a campus in a small room for almost 4 years between 2000 and 2004.

The contacts with my family were a bit messed up at that time and i simply çouldn't build in my 12 square meter room...

As soon as i got my house i got my lego back and started building like a madman again

So i don't know if those are real dark ages, as i never really care what others think and i have found out that girls love lego

[Zorro]

Reason 2 for me im afraid.

Untill lets say a few months my Lego was rotting in my cellar and on the attic.

This was for about half due to my accident, and before that half due to my work.

The other reason was I "played" more with my Old Glory collection. (napoleonic 25mm) I painted 100ds and 100ds of French soldiers (artillery, cavalry, auxilliaries and infantry) during that period.

After spotting some very cheap lego (skulls eye schooner, imperial flagship, 3 different castle sets for only 70euro shipping inc.) I ran over to the lego side again...And now Im buying like a freak again, just as i was 6 years ago !

Edited October 1, 2008 by zorro3999

[legotrainfan]

When I was 16 (year 1997), I myself thought that I was too old for LEGO. So I manoeuvred myself into the Dark Ages without any sort of pressure being put on me, but I was not 100% convinced of my own decision. It was quite hard to stick to that opinion. The only interruption was train set 10001. I gave my brother the money for it and he bought it in Legoland Germany. I had always wanted the original metroliner, but I had missed it. So that was my chance to finally get it. That was in 2002, I believe. I just checked my eBay feedback and found out that I got my first feedback in September 2004. That was when I used eBay to find lost and broken parts like old shields for knights to complete old sets. But some time later LEGO got my love back and I started buying sets again, nearly always from eBay, used and new ones. Only much later did I find out about bricklink.

Now I could kick my butt for spending money on Nintendo games! Oh, I could have bought so many LEGO sets with that money!

Edited October 2, 2008 by legotrainfan

[Mirandir]

None of those options! Ah well I guess number three played a minor role but it wasn't the main reason.

For me it was actually the feeling that lego was putting out large special pieces that was kind of killing a lot of the fun and creativity of building whatever you wanted with the bricks. I can almost still feel the dissapointment I felt when, after I laid eyes on the super-duper-mega-cool pirateship (Black Seas Barracuda I belive it was), opened the "flipup" to checkout the pieces and realized that the ship hull consisted of a very few huge pieces. In my mind that event marks a turningpoint that ultimately led to me turning my back on LEGO.

Now that I'm older I guess I've come to terms with it. Because it doesn't bother me as much as it used to do.

[UsernameMDM]

KKII.

[Skelotic]

Basically I thought that I was too old to be building with LEGO. I kept all of my pieces in the basement for a time until about a year ago I brought them up and have begun building mocs with them.

[The Cobra]

Last set I bought was 6891, about one year after it came out (summer '86; I was getting closer to 13).

As legotrainfan wrote, I was thinking I was too old. Still, I kept an eye on what was going on thanks to a friend / former classmate / fellow townsman / who used to buy one or two small sets every year and show me the cataolgue.

Still, it took a few years to give my Lego away (to a cousin). Oh, why did I do it?

I've been on the net since 2000 and using DSL since 2002, yet I only started checking Lego in 2005, I think, and then bought a coupleof MISB Helicopters (7044 and 7663) plus some used stuff. So 2007 was my comeback year (see my collection following the link in my signature).

But, over these last three or four years, I've been thinking that Lego had its dark years too, form 1997 (the beginning of juniorization) to 2004 or 2005 (I'm mostly basing my judgement on City; other themes may be good or bad)

[Captain Green Hair]

KKII.

Care to explain what you mean by that?

I see that post as spam.....

[Eilif]

All right, we've got a poll up, so get back here and make your vote count.

Those of you who point to a downturn in LEGO as your reason for Dark Ages, pick the choice that best describes how you filled the time you formerly spent on LEGO.

[Corpreal363]

Xbox LIVE, And Money

[captaintau]

My first Dark Age was because I was "getting too old for LEGO". I'd also discovered Martial Arts and computers. Ah, the hours I spent on my 386!

I'm about to enter a second Dark Age of sorts as I need to dedicate time and money to homemaking and a wedding. I'm still here, just buying a whole lot less.

[UsernameMDM]

Care to explain what you mean by that?

I see that post as spam.....

Knights Kingdom II caused my Dark Age. Ugly Legos = no buying.

[Captain Green Hair]

Knights Kingdom II caused my Dark Age. Ugly Legos = no buying.

Thanks for that explanation, please post so that everybody understands

I think we need another option in this poll: other reasons, as mine isn't in there too...?

[iamded]

KKII.

:laugh: Valid excuse...

Er, I haven't really gone through what I consider to be a dark ages. I still whole-heartedly love the bricks and often draw up plans for creations. I haven't been building or buying though, the first due to lack of time and space, and the second due to lack of money. We do get a couple of months off though, around November/December, so that will be the time for sorting the bricks, which will get me back and building.

~Peace

[the enigma that is badger]

1) Hormones: Girls, Boys, whatever. Hormones took over, and LEGO fell to the wayside.

I'm almost afraid to ask for more detail on what you mean by the "whatever" category. "Boys" and "Girls" pretty much covers all the legal and social-acceptable options there are out there!

Like many, the tight-quarters and coursework demands of college put me into a relative dark age. Still, I actually did have one or two smaller sets stashed away in my dorm room, and built a few things now than then as stress relief. While I have even less time now, my time management skills have increased, and I'm able to get in a few quality hours of building time each week. Unfortunately, it's almost all spent on testing of BrickArms prototypes and behind-the-scenes work with Will, so I can't share anything I work on right away!

My significant other finds my hobby amusing and somewhat-childish but accepts it as something I enjoy doing. So long as I fulfill my other household responsibilities, she doesn't care that I spend some time, as she calls it, "playing LEGO."

No, darling, that's beta-testing prototypes!

badger

[Commander Andrew of 501 st]

I'm actually starting a dark age now.

Last week I was thinking to myself"I need a break from this for a while" Half a year at the most.

Girls also have effected me,lotta cute ones flirting with me. So that was another factor in my decision.

I have packed up most of my collection except for the big sets I own. The boxed up sets will go in my garage until I decide whether to continue with my hobby or wait.

Just letting you guys know I will still be here reading topics everyday or so. I might get the republic fighter tank as my dark age end present,Tehe.

See you guys.

[Seth]

None of them for me i would never give up lego

[hollisbrick]

Who or what is hormones nah jokes, wont start that again

Well I never have had a "dark age" as such before. I just have some breaks here and there. Most of the time when I have a break it is because I get A crush on some one and/or I got into something else like fitness, but I have managed to balance fitness and lego together Not the girl bit yet though when IT happens everything goes out the window...

Althogether I voted hormones

Also money is an issue and space, I only buy small-medium sets now..

[5150 Lego]

For me it was getting my drivers licence, so cars or reason two is what did it for me. NOt only that, but i remember going to toys-r-us and seeing the ame city/town sets at the time. NOthing in legos line really interested me. I do remeber seeing 8455 techinc backhoe in the stores, but the need to make my car(s) go faster out wayed the need for one of TLC's best sets of all time.

None of them for me i would never give up lego

I don't think its really a question of conpletely giving up lego. I never really gave up mine, they just weren't on the top of my priority list,or my main hobby at that time of my life. I fiddled with them from time to time, but defenatly didn't have the interest that i had prior, or currently have.

Edited October 2, 2008 by 5150 Lego

[Tacitus]

I'm not sure that I had a Dark Age per se, more of LEGO waxing and waning, especially since the early 90's. Although, now that I think of it, there was a period between 6980 and 6066 (1982 and 1988?) that was LEGO Dark. I blame GI JOE. And I've just dated myself.

[osakana]

Town Jr.

[Shoc]

I've not had a Lego 'dark age' and probably won't. I don't build with Lego as often as I used to, but that is only because I have so much of it, I don't usually have the space, or can't finds the right pieces.

I will always have interest in Lego though, I'm on EB more than I build with my Lego, ironically, but it is all because of space, I will eventually get my room sorted out. So, you could call it a dark age, but not exactly.

Interest in other things, the effect of damn evil hormones, or 'shame' of Lego will not happen to me or put me off it.

I'm almost afraid to ask for more detail on what you mean by the "whatever" category. "Boys" and "Girls" pretty much covers all the legal and social-acceptable options there are out there!

Yes, but lots of people are socially unacceptable. For me I will never want to have any sexual interest in males or females (or 'whatever' hehe), and I won't be put off Lego because of friends (and girlfriend), even though my friends would be more important to me than Lego.

:skull:

[Guss]

My Dark Age started because I had no times because of school and other interests too .. I started playing On-line video games ( CS, Ultima Online & T4c, then Ragnarok Online then FF XI and finally World of warcraft... and some others too I didn't played a lot.), and it was a "time-eater" hobbie... when I left home, I wanted to recover my old Lego set, I was feeling nostalgic ^^ but my mother sold half of them, and offered the other half to my cousin , who sold them -_- , and I never bought new ones ... until I met some people of the french community "freelug" at Japan Expo 2008 @Paris. The castle diorama they did made me wants to build lego again, so my girlfriend offered me the 4995 creator set... and I came out of my dark age !

my dark age approximately started in 1996 and ended 2 month ago, in august 2008... 12 years without lego ! I have to catch up this lost time!

Edited October 2, 2008 by Guss

[Lt. Col. Thok]

I haven't ever had a dark age...I'm in a SLB ((Sealed Lego Bubble) and I don't think I'll be coming out. I.E. my parents caved in recently and eliminated the possibility of option 3, my GF doesn't care what I do in my spare time, and...well, I don't waste time on stuff I don't want. Mind you, it would suck to go into the Dark Ages right before the reincarnation of Pirates....