About Dark Ages

[David Girard]

It seem that many people if not all had a dark ages of Lego. A time where they store there Lego somewhere in a box and forgot them for Long time, before rediscovering them in the adult age.

So from which period was your Dark Age and how was it ?

Mine start in progressively from 1994 to 1996 (when I went to college in 96) and end in january 2003.

The debut of my dark age was due to the fact that I thinked that Lego abandonned Lego castle sets. Which was not true, but many circumstances make me thinking of it in this time. Between 1993 to 1997 Lego reduced considerably the allow space on there catalog for Castle. And in store there was less ans less castles sets. So it push me to think that they stopped making Lego Castle !

I seen Frights Knights and Dark forest in my dark age, and buy some of them, I don't know why. And I don't play with them at all.

I rediscover Castle Lego in january 2003 when I decided to remake my Castle sets and buy all the lacking piece. I decided, not much time after, to buy all the sets I wanted to complete the 1984-1990 collection. And started to create too.

This is why I'm relatively new in Castle community. Less than 2 months !

[Bruce N H]

My Dark Ages started somewhere around 1982 or 1983 when I was getting more involved in things like Boy Scouts, then band and debate as I got into high school, so I was just busy with other things. My Dark Ages ended in 1998 when Shell had this line of promo sets:
http://guide.lugnet.com/set/2538
They were under $2 with a tank of gas, so I figured "Why not?" and bought a few. This got me excited, and I found the Lugnet Cool Lego Site of the Week page, which showed me how adults were making really great LEGO creations. Then rec.toys.lego, e-bay, brick(bay)link, lugnet, brickshelf, fbtb, my own website, classic-castle, LUGOLA, etc.

Bruce

[Jojo]

Hello!


My dark ages have been different. When I turned 12 I expected them to come soon because the boxes always said "5-12" for Legoland/System sets. But when I was 12 LEGO came up with the second greatest line of all times: Pirates! Yeah! Must have! So my dark ages were postponed another 1-2 years. Then, when I finally thought: "I'm 14 now. No more LEGO!" they came up with some great Harbour sets for the third greatest line (Town). Wow! Must have! 1992 approached.... I turned 15... 6086 Dungeon Master's Castle was released..... Must have! The following year the classic "Legoland" Castleworld was definitely over (after they already renamed "Legoland" into "System" in 1992). Those Dragon master sets just didn't have the appeal for me to buy them. With exception of 6043, I just had to get this wizard.

So, with the Dragon Masters I finally entered sort of Dark Ages, as I didn't buy any new sets in 1994 and 1995. But I still was building (Pirates mainly).

In 1996 they released Western and Spaniards (Must have!)
In 1997 I bought Native Americans.
in 1998 they came up with Adventurers. (Indiana Jones! Yes! I bought all of these sets)
In 1999 I couldn't leave the Ninja sets on their shelves. And Star Wars!

But it wasn't before the year 2000 that I typed "lego" into google. So I found out about the worldwide AFOL community. And eBay. And that the money is always over sooner than the months...

So my Dark Ages have been nearly unexistant, considering I just didn't buy anything new for two years but I still built.


Bye
Jojo

[LEGOFREAK]

Ok, I am with Jojo on this one. - I never really had a "dark age" where I stopped playing/building with the brick.
Just a couple of seasons where I didn't buy anything new.
Of course there were garage sales, flea markets, etc...
LF

[adm_matthew]

The closest thing I had to a dark age was *shudders* pokecrap. I was in to star wars LEGO then, so I missed the Falcon,B-wing and all the 2000-2001 sets

[lemon_squeezer2]

Since I'm 15, my 'dark age' was short - lasting from when I was about 10 and ended this year.

[wlister]

I have had two dark ages in my life; the time period from 1988 - 1994 was probably the longest break from Lego I ever had. I bought no new sets at all.

This period ended when my parents moved to a new city in 1994 and they wanted to throw away all the old toys. I decided to rescue "my" Lego, I had always viewed all the Lego in the house as mine, but my brother had other ideas, long story short(sort of), I ended up with the larger portion of the collection, but I was down to one theme. Castle...

...Shortly after packing all my stuff back to college with me, I started purchasing tons and tons of castle sets, but having little room to build, my Lego was packed away again.

This age lasted from 1997-1999. Two things happened that saved my collection during this time, my son was born and we moved into a place that had room to store my Lego. In 1999, my son became interested in Duplo and this led me to opening my old boxes of Lego. A very welcome thing it turned out to be.

Since 1999, I have never looked back and have enjoyed being an AFOL. Both my children are avid builders and now with my recent move I fianlly have all the space I need to build and display all my MOCs. Too bad most of them did not survive the move.

I am currently in the planning stages of a large castle Layout for a train show in January. Anyone living in the Calgary, AB is welcome to contact me if they wish to be a part of the show.

[Glencaer]

My Dark Ages began when I was in high school - I never really lost interest in LEGO specifically, as I gained interested in other things : girls, theatre, and hanging with my friends. Through-out high school I continued to build with what I had and write stories about my figs.

Going to college was the beginning of my true dark ages, as I hadn't much extra money, and the dorm had little room for the stuff I did have. When I met my current wife and moved to Tallahassee, things changed a bit.

I had a job that allowed me to be online more than ever before - and was making more money than before.

And then, that fateful day...

I was at Wal-Mart and saw the Life on Mars Mech sets. I thought 'how cool!' - and checked the price. Tonia then said, "Why don't you grab one.. you've worked hard this week, you deserve it." And so I did.

And then it happened, I started buying them once a paycheck, looking online and ebay for sets I didn't own or had owned but didnt anymore. And then, on one ebay listing it said "for picture of this set, see the lugnet set pictures"...

What is this Lugnet? Obviously a place with pictures of every LEGO set - and so I looked through set picture after set picture - until I eventually found the online discussion and was blown away by what I saw there. Then I wanted to participate, and Tonia and I had just moved into our house - so a section was set aside as "LEGO area" and I dived into the hobby..

and the rest is stored online on Lugnet

-Lenny

[Dragon Master]

I began my collection with a few Black Knights sets (Ahhh...Black Monarch's ghost my first set!). I had nearly all the Dragon Masters. I bought all of the Royal Knights sets. Then...my dark ages. I missed every Dark Forest set and bought only one Frightnights set (witches windship ) I bought a few knights kingdom, but only for a school project. I became reinterested when I found one of my favorite knight in a draw in an old desk. Then, by chance I ofund this site. And it is castle till I die!

Huzzah! Her sides are made of iron!

the Dragon Master

[medib]

As far as I can remember, I had a brief dark age between
1991 and 1992. There were some pretty great sets there
in that time period, but I thought I was too old (about to
start college) and too busy (trying to finish high school).

I saw some of the great sets that were out: the town
Nautica sets, and the 1993 and 1994 town sets, so that
got me back into collecting Lego for 2 or so more years.

In 1995 or so, Other things soon became more important, like trying to get a car, and school took over my time. I joined the army. In 1999, I made a "mistake" and went
into the Toys R US in Tennessee. I had a whole lot of
money in my account, since I was trying very hard to
not spend it.

I broke down and bought my first train set. I then went
home, and saw that there was a Night Lord's castle at
my local Toys R US here in Canada. The original price
said that it was about $80, and it was on sale for $55?
CDN. So I bought my first REAL castle set.

Since 1999, my collection has literally exploded. What
has really helped it was Lugnet. I became a member
in 2000. In 2001, when I was finished my service
obligation in the Army, I went home for good. From my
contacts on Lugnet, I was able to meet with some local
guys in the area (rtlToronto).

I also decided to start building from my own ideas,
(with a little help from the on-line community)

Just thought I'd post that.
Ben M.

[David Girard]

Dark age is no so clear cut. Mine start progressively by 1994. I stopped playing in 1995/1996, but I bought some sets in 1997 and 1998 and even one in 2000. But I start to look at Lego castle last year and I wake up definitely at 2003 debut.

It's always that complicated. Even when you consider yourself too old to play Lego, you can buy Lego just for nostalgy... That's what append to me in 1997, 1998 and 2000.

[jeff_o_rama]

My dark ages ended in 1996.

They ended this fall (2003).

-Jeff

[footsteps]

So from which period was your Dark Age and how was it ?

Hmmm, how to define my Dark Age. I remember having Lego as a child, long before themes -- late 60's, early 70's -- when it was mostly basic bricks. Then I got into model making (the plastic & glue kind) and didn't think about Lego much.

Then, for some reason, for my 25th Christmas (1987) I asked my parents to get me a Lego castle set -- that was all I wanted. What I got was 6080. I had quite a bit of fun with it, but never really got around to buying others. I would look at various sets in the stores and think they'd be nice to get (i.e. 6059, 6077) but never got around to buying them. It never occured to me that they'd be discontinued!!

Co-workers gave me a pirate set one birthday(6265) but otherwise Lego was a desire not acted upon.

In 1992 my fiancee (now wife and NLSO) gave me 6071 for my birthday, and then my groomsmen gave me 6086. I also bought a Coko type set during this time. My in-laws had also given me a small set to play with during one of our epic drives down the east coast. This was such a success (as neither I nor my wife can read while in a car) that we bought a bucket for the passenger to play with while we drove across the continent in a UHaul filled with my NLSO's wordly possessions. That same year I had seen a 6060 in a store in Columbia, SC and thought it was a new set, so I figured I'd find it elsewhere, preferably for less than the $20 being asked. What a dummy!!

My hobby/obsession really took off from 1997 when I discovered first rec.toys.lego, then LUGNet. I was not alone!!!!! Other adults played with this stuff too!!!!

Now, I seldom buy sets -- unless it's chock full of useful stuff. BL and eBay are my primary sources, though I hope to hit a PAB near Boston this Christmas while visiting the in-laws. I also have a (non-TLC) Lego store just down the road here in southern Ontario so I have a place to go a drool/dream. I even had my 40th birthday party at their Lego playroom!!

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

[Bruce N H]

Woo-hoo! I'm not the oldest! I'm 34. Actually, I think someone else mentioned they were 36, but maybe that was a different forum.

Bruce

[JPinoy]

My dark ages were in my childhood about 7 to 9. I had Lego but then abandoned it for GIJoe, Transformers, MegaForce (die-cast metal military toys) .... but lo and behold. None of them could withstand the might of Lego when I got bored with the fact that I couldn't design my own toy with them. It was Lego's playability that got me back to it.

There was a low point during my highschool years though. Not much $$$, was too old to cry and beg my parents for Lego, and busy with other things like socializing. But the "Golden Age" began when I entered college back in 2000 and it has been a golden age ever since.

Im 22 btw.