Your Dark Age, then Golden Age!

The Blue Knight · Post by **The Blue Knight** » Mon May 24, 2004 6:51 am

Many of us older (ah hem, hem) sorry, more seasoned AFOLs have talked about our our "Dark Age," a time when the Legos were shelved. So let's hear about the Golden Ages beginning as well.

My Lego Dark Age started with the birth of my first child, my daughter. This was by no means a "dark age" for me in any other respect. By as for the Legos they had to be put in a closet as we lived in a 2 bedroom apartment. Later after my son was born and we lived in a 3 bedroom apartment I began to build again after 6 years. But it went in fits and starts before last May. We had bought our first home in August of '02, and by May of '03 my step-dad and I had built on a room inside the garage accessable only from the bedroom! I have a bookcase on hinges mounted into a special re-enforced door frame that acts as the door. From our room you can't tell it's a door! The Lego room has our desktop PC and is the main room to find me or my kids. This is my Lego Renasaince! Now I only need a job with more pay and less hours so I can divert more time to the crucial things in life.

Post by **Robin Hood** » Mon May 24, 2004 3:53 pm

hmmm........Well a dark time for me would be up unitl this year. Until lately I would never take apart my lego. I spent the first dozen years of my life playing only with fixed sets. That is ok, but it lacks the building. Now, my golden age is in its prime, with all my lego demolished.

Loneranger · Post by **Loneranger** » Mon May 24, 2004 4:25 pm

well. my dark age was when I was 8 (I guess) and I got back into it when I was 13 or 12. and here I am! check out my webpage to see everything ive built since then

http://www.harveynet.nu/justin/

LR

Post by **Formendacil** » Mon May 24, 2004 7:10 pm

Dark Ages: hmmm... well I can say that I've ever had any. I've had some tarnished ages, and my days as a Lego-crazy freak are over: my Lego time is somewhat constricted, but the last year or so has been my golden-age construction-wise. Like Robin Hood, I never used to take my sets apart. Well, I did, and I made stuff, but then I put the sets back together. BUT NO MORE!!!

Glencaer · Post by **Glencaer** » Tue May 25, 2004 1:27 am

What an interesting topic.

Altho, I'd define the "Golden Age" as the time before the Dark Ages when everything was ideal.

That time was, for me, when I was 12 until 14. At that time I found a friend of mine who liked LEGO as much as I did and we took over my living room and turned it into the LEGO kingdom.

He had one city and I had another and we would have all of these complicated stories and battles and intrigue and everything. It was a lot of fun. At the time my creativity (this was before jobs and stuff) was at a high and the stuff we made was totally cool. Granted, rainbow-warrior type stuff, but still cool.

We'd also do space stuff and make spaceships and mechs and have them fight until they all fall apart and we'd have to rebuild them.

It all started stopping when I was about 14 (high school) - my friend starting going out more and I started doing theater - which takes up a lot of time. I did theater fairly regularly throughout highschool. And while I never did stop playing with the LEGO, it got more far and few between.

Then one fateful day, I saw the cool LOM Mech at Walmart and my wife said (words she now regrets

) "why don't you get it - you deserve a treat every now and then."

Right now I'm approaching a similiar problem to what Richard mentions - the possibility of having kids and needing to pack up the LEGO. My sis-in-law is totally jumping the gun, she asked my wife "so when is lenny gonna pack up the lego?" and i was like "NEVER! I'll die with my lego in hand!"

hehehhe

Good topic!

-Lenny

footsteps · Post by **footsteps** » Tue May 25, 2004 2:07 am

The Blue knight wrote:So let's hear about the Golden Ages beginning as well.

Getting married 12 years ago (when I was 30 -- you do the math) was part of the beginning of my current Lego age. My fiancee had given me "Forestmen's Crossing" for my birthday, then I bought a small set or two, and on my wedding day my groomsmen gave me "Black Knight's Castle" (#6086). All that was the foundation of what I do now. I've had "King's Castle" (#6080) for years, but my wedding year saw my collection grow in leaps and bounds. And there's been no looking back. My daughter is also something of a Lego fan, but not quite like her Daddy.

Alan

LEGOFREAK · Post by **LEGOFREAK** » Tue May 25, 2004 5:20 am

I will let you know when I hit my dark age.. but it hasnt happened yet. In grade school, jr high, and high school, all of my friends thought I was ... um ... a little off for playing with Lego.
Now of course all of my friends are into Lego, and they think I am a little off for the whole monkey thing.

freak

Post by **SavaTheAggie** » Tue May 25, 2004 5:43 am

The start of my childhood LEGO age started with my grandparent's buying me Fire House I. Sure, I had a few LEGO sets before that, mainly classic space, but I never really became all that interested in LEGO till then. Of course, when my parents then bought me the King's Mountain Fortress, it was all over. For my dad's wallet that is

I was interested in LEGO Castle up till around the Black Knights, when I went into my dark age, starting with the Black Knights, then worsening with Fright Knights. These also correspond with the latter years of High School and the start of College, when I was to put away childish things.

Before I went under, I had created King Arthur's world in LEGO, and had all the characters that went with it. Sometime in my sophomore year of college I got the bright idea to write out the great american novel, based on medieval fantasy. Then I got the bright idea to start posting my LEGO creations online after finding Ed Boxer's castle again (first time was in a LEGO Magazine). Everyone was making a personal website back then, and I was really struggling to find a topic that people would be interested in visiting, my LEGO page was only a small part of that website.

Sometime after that, I decided to combine my Novel and my LEGO into one thing, changing my characters a bit from King Arthur to Ikros. I went home, starting building, started taking pictures, transformed my old website into Ikros, and then discovered Lugnet. The rest, as they say, is history.

--Anthony

The Blue Knight · Post by **The Blue Knight** » Tue May 25, 2004 6:10 am

[quote="Glencaer"]What an interesting topic.

That time was, for me, when I was 12 until 14. At that time I found a friend of mine who liked LEGO as much as I did and we took over my living room and turned it into the LEGO kingdom.

He had one city and I had another and we would have all of these complicated stories and battles and intrigue and everything.

My best friend still has his, though he is just coming out of his dark age. You met him at BFPDX Lenny, the guy with the camera.

Right now I'm approaching a similiar problem to what Richard mentions - the possibility of having kids and needing to pack up the LEGO. My sis-in-law is totally jumping the gun, she asked my wife "so when is lenny gonna pack up the lego?" and i was like "NEVER! I'll die with my lego in hand!"

Don't do it! Keep them in a prominent place without encroaching to much or course. My kids are now huge CFOLs!

doctorsparkles · Post by **doctorsparkles** » Fri May 28, 2004 1:55 pm

My Dark Ages come on periodically, because every so often, my attention is diverted towards another hobby. I'm hitting a bit of one right now, just because I'm having trouble being inspired and because I just don't have the money for new bricks.
My Golden Ages were probably sometime in 8th grade, when I was not only building every day, but I also made a lot of crude stop-motion Lego animations.

Webrain · Post by **Webrain** » Sat May 29, 2004 4:04 pm

Dark Age: Well I never actually quit playing with LEGO, I just couldn't. However during the years 1991-1995 (when I was 15-19) I just couldn't afford buying it anymore. I still looked drolling over sets on stores and catalogs.

Golden Age: Well my new Golden Age began again by buying the 6090 set.
I just had to buy it. It looked so perfect in my eyes I just couldn't give it up. After that I start buying everything I could (that's why I bought so many Fright Knights sets). I wanted to have all the stuff I was missing during those years. Basiclly I think during the last 3 years I bought the most LEGO. Not because sets are now better, quite the oppisite actually, it's just that because the sets are that bad I buy more to make something better from them. And of course I finally started looking for my all old times fav. that I couldn't have back in my dark ages. Probably the main reason for increasing is of course the internet and the great friends I found there who like LEGO so much as well.

Jehkar · Post by **Jehkar** » Sun May 30, 2004 3:38 pm

I have never went through a real Dark Age.(plus, im only 15) I have gone months without building, but then I pick a peoce up, and start building castles, Mecha's and other things.

My Golden Age was when the Dragon Masters, Legoland, Royal Knights and Black Falcons were still out. I bought small sets almost every week, and my parents would get me a larger set (~$30). That was when my Golden Age was-the last of the GOOD castles were stilla round.

medib · Post by **medib** » Tue Jun 01, 2004 9:52 pm

When I was 12, I started collecting Lego. This was due
because my parents gave me a 6384 Police Station for my birthday on Dec. 22 and a 6385 Fire House I for Christmas.

With my pocket money, I was able to buy various sets
mostly town (sorry). I collected for about 6 years.
Then most of it went into the closet for a while. I did manage to buy a bunch of stuff when i was 20 (a couple harbor sets and a 725 Basic set).

These sets managed to find their way into the closet as well.
Going into the my Great Dark age.

I didn't think about Lego or buy any from that time
until I was 25. I went into Toys R Us with a bunch of
money and decided to buy my first big Lego train set.

I went home shortly after that, and purchased a few more
sets, including my first real Castle set, the Night Lord's
Castle. From that fatefull trip to ToysRus to now, my
collection has exploded and my interest in Lego hasn't
diminished too much.

Ben M.

Daimyo · Post by **Daimyo** » Tue Jun 01, 2004 11:21 pm

I'm a little young to have a LEGO Dark age

...

Well, two years ago I didn't buy any Lego set, mostly because there weren't any good ones at the time. Castle had a big shlump between 1998 and now... though some consider it to still be going on.

JPinoy · Post by **JPinoy** » Wed Jun 02, 2004 4:42 pm

My dark age wasn't really all that dark. I just kind of left my Lego alone and missed out on getting the much of the Fright Knights and Royal Knights.

Now however, my "golden age" is becoming even more golden. I can only predict that as time passes and I get more money, it'll turn from a Golden Age into something even better... a "Platinum Age"!

*imagines the completion of collecting the stuff I need for my Ancients Theme and Near-Future Military Theme*

Classic-Castle.com

Your Dark Age, then Golden Age!

Your Dark Age, then Golden Age!

Re: Your Dark Age, then Golden Age!