Out of the Dark Ages

Building on yesterday's post, I emerged from my Lego dark ages back in 1998. Shortly after Christmas, I was walking through a Kohl's with my sister and niece. As we happened through the toy section, I noticed pirate Lego sets on clearance and I thought to myself, "hey... wouldn't that be cool to stick up on my desk at work..."

Looking at the Lego pirate sets, I had realized a few things: Lego was no longer just primary colored bricks... there was green, brown, and shades of gray; Lego was no longer about just bricks... there were minifigs (as I later came to know what they were called), cannons, horses, plants of different shapes and sizes, etc.; and Lego was about themes... castle, pirate, space...

I honestly don't remember what the first Lego set that I bought after coming out of my dark ages... I'm thinking it might have been a #6249 Bandit Ambush, but I could be mistaken. Or it might have been some castle set... I can't quite remember... I took to the internet with my new found love of Lego... found rec.toys.lego (RTL) and eBay... worlds opened up to me... found that I missed the 'golden-years' (in my opinion) of Lego (1980~1988) -- most of the sets I found most interesting came out during the '80s. Found out that people had scanned instructions and posted them on-line for others to build from. Found people were hosting part auctions, like AucZILLA. Found people who posted pictures of their own Lego creations called MOCs. It was a whole new strange, wonderful world filled with people like me -- Adult Fans of Lego (AFOLs).

Before the Dark Ages

I started into Lego around the age of 6-7 years old. I remember having something similar to #460 (Rescue Units), maybe the #455 (Learjet), and some generic universal building set from the 70's. And that was it -- Lego was expensive and my parents couldn't afford much more.

I had acquired a Mike Sells potato chip box from my uncle and kept my Lego bricks there, along with some American Plastic Bricks, Tinker Toys, green army guys, dice, jacks, pennies... and kept other hand-me-down toys in it.

The building set had this green 10x20 base brick (there were no row of tubs on the underside, so you could only connect bricks to the top of the base brick). I remember trying to build a house with it, but never seemed to have enough bricks to build it completely.

I remember being frustrated with building: I never seem to have enough bricks to build what I wanted to and I never seem to have enough bricks in the same color I wanted to build in; because the stupid American Bricks would never connect to Lego (but that wasn't Lego's fault), I was frustrated with not having enough windows or doors; and I had lost the instructions and boxes, so I could never figure out how to rebuild the helicopter, ambulance, or jet.

By Christmas a few years later, Star Wars had come out and I became hooked on Star Wars action figures... My Lego affinity was short lived...

Old Lego Catalogs

My BrickLink shop is closed until 2/27, so I can settle up with current orders... In the mean time, I've been adding catalogs and instructions to the shop. The funny thing is, I was flipping through an American Lego catalog from 2003 -- there's is a slight number difference (4200364 vs. 4200116) -- trying to notice any picture difference between the two catalogs -- there was none. But as I was flipping through, I'm thinking, damn... I wish the sets from 2003 were still around for me to buy; I wouldn't mind having another 2-3 copies of this set... and that set... And then I realize, it was back before the gray/brown color change... That's why I'm so fond of some of the sets from 2003.

Then I hit the Galidor page and realize, maybe it wasn't so great in 2003...

Random Links to BrickNebula

Ken Newquist mentions us on his The Atomic Age blog, then he mentions us on his Radio Active #25 podcast... I need to listen to his podcast; I hope he liked ours.

#725 Town-Plan

Just won a #725 Town-Plan in an auction. The Cellulose Acetate bricks are in minty condition... The 'Hotel' and 'Esso Service' brick are in good condition. The clear bricks are not yellowed or warped; very pristine. The cars and trees are missing. Only the bottom part of the garage is there... the top part is gone. The box is worn and part of it is flaking off, but the cardboard Town-Plan board is in great shape. I can't believe the set is about 45 years old, but the bricks are in such great shape.