About Dark Ages

[LEGOFREAK]

by the way - I think Stephen is really really old...but he never tells you just how old he is.

hehe - I'm gonna get it for that one.


Freak

[Stephen]

That's the trouble - kids today have no respect, not like when I was young. I'll tell you, when I was your age...

[Tedward]

I am 36 and my Dark Ages were the 80's & 90's (High School and University and finding job.) Actually it was probably discovering the SCA* around that time that I started spending time and money on playing "real live" medieval and lost touch with the hobby. I did always look at the new sets each year, I just never dared spend money on them.

Oddly enough my family had always bought me LEGO so I usually got at least one small castle set in my stocking or as a present. I suppose I should thank my sister for taking up the cause at some point. She always thought buying me LEGO was cool and retro not childish and stupid.

Over the last year or so my wife has encouraged me to change hobbies for although we met in the SCA she has lost interest (as have I) and there is not time or money enough for a young family to really do the SCA and anything else resembling a normal family life.. There is a good chance I will be selling my steel helm, breastplate and other bits o'armour in the new year and using the proceeds to try to grow my rather limited LEGO collection.

So now my problem is NO space for LEGO, a 20 month old who wants to eat my LEGO, and a 6 year old who wants to mix it in with his! The boxes under the bed are no longer secure and I have no spare room. Hmmm, I wonder if the crawl space under the house could be made comfortable...


* SCA= Society for Creative Anachronism, a "living history" group dedicated to the idea that the Middle Ages should have been more like Lord of the Rings.

[LEGOFREAK]

So now my problem is NO space for LEGO, a 20 month old who wants to eat my LEGO, and a 6 year old who wants to mix it in with his! The boxes under the bed are no longer secure and I have no spare room. Hmmm, I wonder if the crawl space under the house could be made comfortable...

My son (age 5) doesn't get lego. It's all mine. He can play with mine, but he doesn't get his own. No way. He can get a job and buy his own. Back off man.

Freak

[Tedward]

Buy his own... that works up until he starts buying Mega-Crap because they have Ninja turtles, Power Rangers and his latest joy, a sort of Bionicle-meets-Beyblade-robo-warrior. I think it sucks AND to add injury to insult I have to help him put the Megablocks things together the first time!

I'd almost rather he tried to absorb the good stuff from my collection than turn to the dark side.

[TwoTonic Knight]

I'm curious, is there anyone in the C-C.com sphere who is older than 41? Am I the "grand-daddy" of the bunch?

Alan

No.

[footsteps]

I'm curious, is there anyone in the C-C.com sphere who is older than 41? Am I the "grand-daddy" of the bunch?

Alan

No.

Okay, I'm curious. Now 'fess up. How olde be ye??

[rogue27]

Dark Age: 1992 - 2002

The dark age began because I was 15 and started feeling embarrassed to bring LEGO to the checkout counter, since the boxes said the maximum age for them was 12. I was also in High School and started getting into other things. I do regret not buying the Wolfpack stuff though.

The dark age ended because I found out that the Guarded Inn was re-released. It was a set I always wanted in the 80s, but I never had enough money. Finally, it was no longer available, and I was quite saddened by that.

Thinking back, it's kinda funny. People always say that things happen for a reason. If I had gotten the Guarded Inn back in the 80s, I wouldn't have cared that it was re-released now, and I may not have ever gotten back into LEGO. In a strange sort of way, it's good that I didn't get the Guarded Inn when I was younger.

[Koenig_Artus]

had two dark ages, too

first there was the castle dark age after the dragon masters (i skipped to space, becaus there were no or bad castle sets after that)

then the comlete dark age, after i got nearly all of the exploriens(space) in 1996. i kept building to late 1996.

i am trying to return from my dark age at the moment.

[HenrytheV]

As a child (5-10) I never really had that many Lego sets. I had a bucket of basic bricks, and I would occasionally get a $5 set for Christmas or my Brithday. I did have a ton of magazines, so I guess my Dark Age started when I gave them away.

I was about 12 when I came out of my DA. I was in my local thrift store ( I lived in Alabama at this time), and I found the Lion Knights castle for sale. It was just a bag of stuff for $4 so I bought it. After that I would hunt for Lego everywhere, and I did manage to get some other sets at the thrift store. I really got into Castle stuff again when I found Bricks on the Brain, but finding Brickshelf and Bricklink really helped jump-start my collection. That's my story

HenrytheV

[MaxiVisVires]

MegaForce (die-cast metal military toys)

(Off Topic - MegaForce was a great toy!)

My Dark Ages started when I was around 13, it happened naturally, even though before then my father kept applying standard pressure of "I don't know why you spend your money on toys, in a couple years you're going to want a car". I was very into LEGO then, I had my own city built on my table in my room, which was about 2 x 4 Road Baseplates. And all along my shelves I had my castles on display... and all my broken clip bardings. When I hit 13, my Dark Ages hit me like a truck. Video games became more important, and I'd have friends coming over all the time. I didn't want my LEGO on display anymore, so the Godzilla effect happened to them as they entered my Big LEGO tool Box (I used a Tool Box to store all my LEGO then). Then when I was 14, I got into gas powered R/C Racing, and well, I needed a tool box... so the LEGO suffered more abuse, as they entered a Brown Box in the Garage. I passed down the LEGO to my cousins, as they were of age to play with them. And really didn't think much of it after that.

Then when the Star Wars LEGO came out, and I visited my cousin 2 years younger than me, I'd see his baby brother have these sets. And I would say "remember back then we used to make up our Star Wars sets?" We'd laugh and nothing would come from it, though the new elements I saw I thought was amazing, I kept say "I wish they had this when I used to play!"

After college, I married a wonderful woman that puts up with me and my craziness, and when we finally bought a home together, I took all the boxes I had left at my parents, and started unpacking. Well, we had way too much stuff. The garage was just packed. Naturally, Ebay was the answer. I started listing stuff, and I had a brand new 6086 to list (I got it as a gift, but at the time my parents thought I had too much LEGO already, so they stored it!), and to my surprise I started seeing all this other LEGO stuff. Well I couldn't sleep, I kept looking at stuff, and my wife also played with LEGO when she was a kid, kept going oooh and ahhh. She knew I wanted some, so she said "Sure, get yourself one". Oh... those famous last words. First set I got was 6066... the very first castle set I got when I was a child. Then I started buying more... and more... and... yea...

Then I found Bricklink and Brickshelf, I was admiring the work on brickshelf and then I came accross someone's custom LotR decals. I thought that was a great idea. I wonder if anyone else had created such work, so I googled LEGO decal... and that's when I found CC.

[Sheen]

Funny that you ask this question... I'm just attemping a return from my dark ages. I opened the dark and spider infested closet a few months ago and pulled out a few boxes of LEGO bricks and here I am, putting LEGO sets on my Christmas list for the first time in nearly 6 years!

I've been encouraged by all of you at Classic-Castle as I've been reading your posts and looking at your MOCs for the past couple of months. When I was younger I seemed to have missed the whole idea of building your own creations instead of just what the instructions say. What a time I'm having trying to remedy that mistake! You all give great examples and I'm starting to learn a few building techniques by the sharing of your MOCs.

Thanks and keep it up!

Sheen

[Blueandwhite]

This is a question that seems to come up alot.

Honestly, I went into my dark ages in 1994 (bad timing when I look back on it). The shift from Black Knights to Dragon Masters didn't appeal to me. I only picked up a few sets that year. During much of the 1990s, LEGO was constantly experimenting with new lines. The problem was, there was too much coming out, and sets lacked focus. As a youngin with a limited amount of cash, I simply couldn't keep up. Ninja, Western, Adventures, etc... There were just too many products.

Juniorization was also a big turn-off. Between 1993-94, I saw a marked decline in product quality. Sets were becoming simpler. Heck, alot of sets were colour-coded to make building easier. I just wasn't identifiying with LEGO in the 1990s.

Then 1999 came! Star Wars! Something I had dreamed of since I was a child. These sets were all I could hope for. Solid set design, coupled with the Star Wars licence made this line unbeatable. Ironically, I quickly lost interest in the Star Wars line, but I had rekindled my interest in LEGO. I quickly began to stockpile pieces. When I discovered LEGO Shop@Home, I made several orders of grey in Bulk. Bricklink came soon thereafter. The rest is history.

Honestly, I'm a bigger fan than ever. As an adult, I have the bricks to build what I could only dream of as a child. I remember being blown away by the LEGO tour in 1984 That White space station just blew me away! It always frustrated me that I lacked the bricks to do something truly impressive. Now, size is far less important. I just love to build. I have a decent-sized collection, and the online community provides countless inspiration. There has never been a better time to be an AFOL!

[mscannell]

my dark ages were a convienence of age and decline of lego quality. In 1993, there were only a few pirate sets I liked. I didn't care for the new town sets (I never understood why lego changed the "police" bricks from the old classic style to the underlined style. I didn't care for the dragon masters and I didn't like having new space themes every year. This was also the time when I was going from junior high to high school. I would occasionally visit the lego aisle at the store and remenisce about when I was younger and the lego aisle was so big but was now so small. Then in 2000, I thought why not search the internet for lego. When my yearning for many of the great sets from the 80s and early 90s reached a boiling point, I got the idea to search ebay for lego. Eventually I came across other lego sites like bricklink, CC, brickshelf and so forth. I was just amazed by the sets when I first visited lugnet and saw the sets like the guarded inn and battering ram for the first time. For some reason I never got any of the catalogs that included these sets in them.

[Anaxamander]

My "englightenment" to and subsequent dark age from LEGO was pretty dramatic. I never owned any Legos before 1992, when I spent all my Christmas money on the Dungeon Master's Castle (6086). It goes to show you what a great castle that was. I didn't have any other Legos, but that set just spoke to me.

I was into Castle and Pirates hardcore for about 3 years, then when I got my driver's license I decided to sell all my "childish" Legos to my neighbor and used the money to buy a Gameboy. Needless to say, hindsight is 20/20.

So from 1995 until this very week in 2006, I never bought or owned any Legos. From time to time I'd stop by the Lego aisle in Wal-Mart and look at the Knight's Kingdom sets and tell my wife about this awesome castle I used to have and how I sold it like a bleepin' moron.

And then, earlier this week, I had a very vivid dream about putting together the Dungeon Master's Castle. I felt the sharp plastic corners of the bricks in my hands and I even distinctly heard the rapid clicking of pieces dumped from a bag. I woke up disappointed and cursed myself for ever selling my castle.

Immediately, though, I went to Lego.com to see what kind of castles they had. I saw the page for 10176 and it looked good, so I ordered it. But I still wasn't satisfied, so I ordered a 6086 for $85 on ebay. Then I wanted something to put together immediately, so I drove to Toys R Us and picked up Battle at the Pass. Y'all probably know what it's like to immerse yourself in that wave of nostalgia that vanquishes your "dark ages," so I won't expound upon it here. I'll just say that I'm a happy person right now. After more than ten years away, at 26 years old, it feels good to get back to my roots.