What set/theme ended your dark age?

Post by **Bruce N H** » Sun Jan 20, 2008 1:15 am

Bruce

Tower of Iron Will · Post by **Tower of Iron Will** » Mon Jan 21, 2008 1:26 am

I was twelve when my parents bought me the Yellow Castle along with the Galaxy Explorer and a few of the Town sets of that era. I had the Knight's Procession and the Jousting set as well. But by the time I was fourteen my dark ages had begun as far as getting new sets. Luckily I keep all my old sets and would play with them on occasion as at that age, 13-14 I was reading LOTR and started playing D&D. 11th and 12th grade didn't leave me much time for anything.

To answer the question it was the Lions "King's Castle" era sets that brought me back. Unfortunatly I don't remember which one set I specifically bought first, but I do remember starting college around 1986 and having a part time job. Those sets were too hard to resist. I still was playing D&D a lot and the Lions-Falcons sets were perfect.
-Tower

Relnvar · Post by **Relnvar** » Mon Jan 21, 2008 2:47 am

Well, I used to like the adventurer sets (jungle and desert), but once they died off to bring out the Dino sets... Well, I plunge into the dark ages.

Around the time that the vikings came out, the fortress looked pretty nice, minus all of the silly wall-catapaults (which I ended up making into a mobile catapault later). After that, boy, LEGO was like a drug... And I wanted to snort as much LEGO as possible. Then the 07' castle came out. Now I am once again hooked.

KarenJ · Post by **KarenJ** » Mon Jan 21, 2008 5:20 am

I am pretty old compared to what I have read here. My Dad bought me the Hospital set http://www.peeron.com/inv/sets/363-1 and quite a few others back in the mid 70's. I kept them, and on occasion, I would bring my bin out and figure out the right furniture placement for our "new" house (a real house). Once I got the furniture placement figured out with Lego, they would go back in their bin. Or, I would make a small castle.

My brother gave my son a Lego trike thing for Christmas '06, and I brought out my small bin of Lego. We all had fun for hours, and that was my enlightening. It seemed that I could only build with what I had- from a small 70's collection. The same space stuff, the same castle, the same house. This was frustrating, so I came out of my Dark Ages, and started buying. Buy, buy, buy, I did! Garage sales, Estate sales, Ebay, etc.

Funny, now that I have (what seems like) an endless supply, I now know nothing! I don't know what to build. While before, I could build a very creative thing with my old collection, now I can build nothing. I've even read books about building, yet have no more creative ideas. My brain feels too old to absorb the new pieces and techniques that have emerged since I was a kid. Cafe Corner was a great build, but I don't know if I could come up with that myself, or much less anything so creative.

I think it is better to operate at a deficit. It challenges the imagination, and forces solutions.

Post by **rogue27** » Mon Jan 21, 2008 2:26 pm

I think it is better to operate at a deficit. It challenges the imagination, and forces solutions.

I agree. Limitations actually increase creativity by giving you focus. I have the same problem. Unlimited parts, no idea what to build.

Before my dark age, I used to dump out my LEGO bin and build until I used up every single piece. That is virtually impossible now. I'm just overwhelmed by parts. I spend far more time sorting and resorting than I do building.

Anyway, I'm getting off topic... but I feel your pain.

teraflop122 · Post by **teraflop122** » Mon Jan 21, 2008 3:06 pm

My dark age was forced on me by my father, who put all of his efforts into crushing the one thing which made me purely happy. By 2000 (middle school) I still had my bins, but never opened them. By 2002- brace yourselves... I dragged them out to the curb and never saw them again.

Embarrasment and fear kept me from LEGO until around 2005, when I started to fight back against the conditioning against LEGO I had received. I came out of my dark ages in 2006 via pure force of will. No single set was a catalyst, though the 10040 BSB was definitely the highlight of the times.

wallgorn · Post by **wallgorn** » Mon Jan 21, 2008 6:20 pm

I kind of just grew out of collecting LEGOs in junior high and senior high. I did buy a few sets between 1995 and 2000. I'd say that I majorily started collecting LEGOs in 2003 with Black Falcon's Fortress for Legend being the main catalyst.

Astuanaks · Post by **Astuanaks** » Mon Jan 21, 2008 9:25 pm

This thread is very interesting.

It is kind of a long story for me:

My dark age lasted from about 14 to 26.
The last castle set I bought before my dark age was the Sea Serpent (6057). I hardly played with it

. I stowed away everything I had shortly after that.

Through the years I kept the fire smouldering through the Bat Lord's Catapult (6027), the Star Wars Snowspeeder (7130) and a couple of Bulls sets.
The breakthrough came about 3 or 4 years ago with Building Bonanza (4886). Then everything went really fast.....

I am glad I kept most of my old parts in decent shape. What I like best is that I am using some of my 20 year old pieces together with brand now ones without any problem.

Stefan

Saaz · Post by **Saaz** » Mon Jan 21, 2008 11:11 pm

I entered the common "I'm getting too old for Lego" dark age. Emerged from it after college.

For me it was definitely a castle set, I think 6076 Dark Dragon's Den. Or maybe 6048 Majisto's Magical Workshop. I made a quick stop at a Kmart to buy soap or something, and walked by the Lego aisle. I stopped to take a look, and realized a couple of the sets looked pretty neat, and now that I had a real job, I could afford to blow a few dollars on a Lego set just for nostalgia....

Of course after I got that first set home and built it, I was hooked again. That weekend I went over to my parent's house and got my childhood Lego. Fortunately I treated it well as a kid, and my parents are pack-rats, and never got rid of any of my old toys.

Sir Brithead · Post by **Sir Brithead** » Tue Jan 22, 2008 9:38 pm

I am 31, so I have all the old Golden Age stuff from my child hood and I was into GI JOE forever and Comic books, so I played into High School with my LEGO and other toys.

I had a gray age from roughly 94-04. It was never a dark age because now and again I bought sets but was never building from my whole collection.

In those 10 years I bought a go cart at Shell Gas, a little exclusive, Two small Western Sets, a Ninja set, and in 99ish I bought a bundle of Star Wars sets when they first came out. They were built and on the shelf but no play and no MOCs.

It was when I moved from Cal to AZ. I was packing my house and for some reason I pulled out my LEGO bin and built my Black Sea Barracuda, around PotC, Curse of the Black Pearl I guess. Then I moved and it was broken down again. They were packed away a year unitl our house was done being built. I saw something online and decided I would build my King's Castle and that did it, I got involved a little online and more since then. I began to buy on a regular basis and have purchased almost at leastone of each Castle set since then.

So to answer the question the Black Sea Baracuda was a small part and the King's Castle was huge in getting me going again. The Star Wars stuff probably kept me in more than anything else.

Paradosis · Post by **Paradosis** » Tue Jan 22, 2008 10:47 pm

My first dark age lasted from about 13 to 23. Unfortunately, even after I came out of my first dark age at 23, I came and went through dark ages (about 4 total). There really wasn't a set or theme that brought me out of my dark ages, at least as far as I can remember. I mostly just restarted with Lego because of fond memories from my childhood.

Count Blacktron · Post by **Count Blacktron** » Wed Jan 23, 2008 3:18 pm

I had a large collection as a child that I put away when I was in the 8th grade and never looked at a LEGO set again until a trip to a Toys R Us in about 1993 to look for a gift. There was the most amazing set I ever saw and I had to have it. 6286 Skull's Eye Schooner. After that, I was/am hooked for life.

JoeH · Post by **JoeH** » Tue Jan 29, 2008 1:10 am

Great topic!

It looks like my dark age was the longest. My parents bought me the yellow castle way back in 81 or so when I was 8 or 9. I stuck with castle and space sets for probably 5-6 years or so after that. I then got more into comic books and later baseball cards.

The Special Edition 10176 that I purchased on Ebay last month and just finished last night is the set that brought me out. My just-turned-5 year old son "helped" me build it, so it took awhile, but it was fun working with him. I am now debating whether to keep it out of his reach for a year or two or let him play with/destroy it.

Invaderjes · Post by **Invaderjes** » Fri Feb 08, 2008 7:25 am

This is an interesting thread!
My dark age started around 1984. My Lego love didn't just stop, but gradually diminished up as my obsession with something called 'Transformers' grew. Back then, point me at a blue and gray classic space set and buddy, I'd be full of joy. Anyway, my dark age lasted a good fifteen years or so, when I stumbled apon some Lego Adventurers stuff. Then came Lego Star Wars. Well, now I'm more hooked on Lego than I was back in the day. I still really dig Transformers, too.

Speaking of the '80s, I remember my brother and I building Lego figures of the robots from the 80s-tastic 'Captain Eo' starring Michael Jackson. Riot!

Lord Felix · Post by **Lord Felix** » Fri Feb 08, 2008 5:27 pm

No specific set brought me from the dark age, but the beginning of the dark age of lego did set me in it. The KKI and a lot of the tons of prefab brick sets set me away from lego for three years or so. My dark age pulled out with the discovery of CC.
So there you have it! Although seeing the new Castle line, I think that would pull me out too...