What precedes a dark ages?

[jorgeopesi]

Maybe I'm talking about me or not, I already suffered mine for 15 years and on that occasion there was no warning. This time I notice things, I find it hard to spend time building, I find less things that make me excited to build, my level of demand Is such that nothing seems to me enough, every time I appreciate less surprising what I see and less what Lego does, but everything is not bad, building things for my children excites me, my little son sleeps with a truck that I built  . This is the question at the end, what things precede a dark ages?, lack of time, inspiration, what do you think?.

[Attika]

I guess you have nothing to worry about. Since I came back from my long sleep (almost 20 years) to the world of bricks I experience short periods with no interest in building at all. Some of these took months. At the middle of the first one I went so far that I've listed my whole collection on ebay. Thanks God noone wanted to buy it off from me. But it has a pay off. When the clouds have gone I had a seriously inspired and successful time. It's like in the Lord of the rings. Grey Gandalf disapeared and came back as White Gandalf, a level higher than he was before...   Since then every time I loose inspiration, I patiently wait, knowing that this unwanted rest gives me "new powers"  But I couldn't figure what triggers the changes. Anyway my battlenet account is in heavy use on those days. My advice: do not force it.

[TechnicRCRacer]

I had a small dark age a few years back. It was because my collection was a ton smaller and I didn't have what I needed. I was also very busy, and I almost forgot about LEGO altogether. If you feel like you have run out of options, make something crazy! It helps.

[Aventador2004]

I am having a mini system dark age. I am building a car right now so it has just ended. A dark age is like what attika said. It is when you lose interest for a time. Also attika at least you didn't sell your legos. I will never be tempted to sell.

[z3_2drive]

Lack of time for me during a big move. But it was also paired with lack of resources for a new idea. But now that it's been almost a year, I'm ready to get back into it and I'm in a better position to obtain the resources I need to undertake a new project(s?).  It will be difficult to find time during university to build, but my imagination is fresh.

[aeh5040]

This is a fascinating topic, but perhaps it doesn't belong in the Technic forum?

[dr_spock]

What precedes a Dark Ages? I think losing interest in LEGO to other things like girls.  Work has put a damper on creativity and building time. I don't think I'm heading into another Dark Ages since I haven't lost interest in LEGO and am still active in my LUG.

 

[Lipko]

Maybe the preceding thing of my new dark age is the lack of inspiration and getting involved in a new hobby: web design (my main hobby was also programming before LEGO design).
I haven't been building since almost 6 months now, and even though I have ideas, I don't have any drive to start.

[agrof]

Dark Ages... I found this definition always a bit disturbing, as during non-LEGO time I still enjoyed life (hiking, riding bike, etc.) - with the usual some bad periods of struggling with teeneger years, school, people. LEGO is a part of me, but not all of me - still, if this is the common verbal thing to refer, than let it be.

As others mentioned, it is just rearragement of interest, which is not a bad thing. I have periods when I get more excited in LEGO, or just sudden impacts (like buying some of the Batman movie minifigs or the TC11), but overall I admit: I am infected. I don't think we should pay lot attention on preceding signs, like in case of alcoholism, workaholism, depression, burning out, and so on. I always feel honored when Legoing happens to me (even if only by finding a great build, and staring at), but don't mind if it isn't. 

[brunojj1]

Thanks Jorge for honestly sharing your feelings! I don´t believe you´re going into dark ages since you are still building, even if not for yourself, but for your son – I enjoyed reading this. You are not alone with such periodic ups and downs, lack of inspiration and motivation. I have the impression that some other great builders who had set up new limits of what is possible in Technic design in the last few years, seem to experience the same or have retired for some time too.

Some disturbing factors in motivation nowadays also might be e.g. the copycats from the East which have their impact on the heal Lego world. At the same time IMO the recent official Technic sets deliver less wow feeling - poor design in some sets, aggressive marketing, color coding, ridiculous prices for some special sets, instead we see floods of other new themes - maybe all this contributes to shifting targets from the fun of playing.

Whatever, follow your own visions, satisfy the needs of the playing child in your heart and fade out all other negative feelings. There is always something new to explore. After seeing good results, near your own feeling of “perfection” (nothing out of Lego ever will be perfect), the fever can catch you again and the small depression will be gone!

[Milan]

12 hours ago, jorgeopesi said:

what things precede a dark ages?, lack of time, inspiration, what do you think?.

I would say there is no fixed reason, just life. I would hate to see you taking the long pause, or worse.

I'll move this to community, it may even get more replies.

[jorgeopesi]

It is nice to read your opinions, I think they are not my dark ages yet but anyway my first hobby still being the gym so I wouldn´t be worried. Currently there are things of Lego that prevent me from building more and that may be one of the reasons for my tiredness, for example curved Technic panels only in rare colors, having them in red I could build a car to take a rest but build a car nowadays without them would be rare... it is a strange problem. I have also read that there are reference builders that take time without surprising us, I don´t think that everything is already done but almost  . Don´t force it is a good advice, in the gym world also works for me, people get very strong fast and dosn´t rest one day for fear of losing strength, they end up burning or worse... I know well because I've been training for 23 years and when I do not feel good it's better to rest than to force myself to go. My crazy things were two tracked RC vehicles for my children, they are playing with them and now I am a track mechanic  . Lipko I hope you find a start soon it would be good for everyone and I envy you Bruno I would like to build cars as much as you, a huge world would open.

 

 

[zux]

I have the opposite - number of ideas are spinning in my head, but there's no energy and enough time to start building.

In my past years I found there are some sort of life cycles where you keep going back to previous hobby or things you are also interested in. You may wan to keep your LEGO activity low for some time and spend your time on other activities. But make sure you don't sell your LEGO, as you eventually would get back and regret doing so.

[rodiziorobs]

I guess I am in a kind of building-only dark ages: I still have an interest in the hobby, still keep up with the community (EB and in other places), and still buy sets/CMFs. I spend an hour or so the other day improving my hobby room so I could be better organized. Yet I find myself with little time for actual building, and when I do I don't feel driven to really work on anything (so I take on other related projects, like organizing).

I don't consider myself in a true dark age, though, just a rough period creatively. I couldn't say what brought this on (other than just life stress in general), I just noticed it happening a while back and also noticed, shockingly, that I wasn't too upset by it. But it'll come back.

Edited April 16, 2017 by rodiziorobs

[Trekkie99]

I never had a dark age, but I sometimes lose interest and start focussing on some other hobby, but I always come back. But it seems my hobby's can't coexist together. Ha ha! 

[drclark]

When I was young it was the perception that kids grew out of toys.  As an adult it's lack of time or money.  Also as your family grows, you might run out of space.. My daughter's bedroom now occupies my former LEGO room.

Another thing that can influence a dark age is the health/vibrance of either local LEGO clubs or online communities as the exchange of ideas between enthusiasts can help inspire new builds.  I entered a somewhat second dark age as the lugnet community started to disburse across the web.  Didn't really get back into the hobby until my kids were born.

Now, I go very long times between mocs with sudden bursts of inspiration.  I tend to "build" alot with ldd as it's quicker, more cost effective and I am not limited by part/color availability.

Most of the new LEGO we buy is for the kids now.

[mortesv]

Getting a girl/boyfriend can for some herald the coming of a dark age. Be sure to build with them early on!

On another note, building comes in waves. Sometimes I don't build for a year and will have several abandoned projects lying around.

For me dark ages only really sets in when big things happen in your life that makes lego seem less important for a while; puberty, getting a baby, jail time etc.

[Capparezza]

Jail time? For taking those expensive LEGO sets without buying them, because of the lack of money? Totally possible...

I'm currently working in my "new" flat, hoping to move in by end of June or beginning of July (old building, so lots of stuff to repair or replace). So all my plans on working on a small train layout with a couple of MOC buildings are on hold until Fall. It's mostly lack of time and lots of other things running around in my head (and the fact that most of my own LEGO is already packed up in boxes). But I do try to take some time now and then to play a little with my son, sometimes we take out his LEGO and build something.

[Hammerstein NWC]

real life and work crushed me over the last year.

I've started to get back into messing with figs but I used to have a proflic fig build rate but now I struggle to post every other month.

I have a lot of lego but desperately need to sort.

I have two mocs on the go at the moment but I'm finding it difficult to get a flow going... I think its mainly the lack of sort that hurts me.

Not for the want of building but time is my main consideration.

 

[Japanbuilder]

I'd say it is a normal process. I had not touched a LEGO brick in over 20 years before I came back to it. Initially I was buying a ton of sets with every little penny I could save up in discretionary cash and before long I had out-paced my means to store or display these things. 

Now my sets are more infrequent and smaller in size. I would not call it a dark age since I still love LEGO but compared to my revival period it surely has taken a hit recently. 

Like others have stated it is just the phases of life coming at you. There will be times when you are halted in your activity with LEGO but then there are times when the sun and stars align just right and you have the cash and the time to plow through some great LEGO hauls! 

I'd say just live life =) The ABS will not degrade during your lifetime and your LEGO will be happy to get you back when you have the time =)

[SirBlake]

Sorry I'm getting to this thread a month late, but it is a symptom of the subject. 

I am currently in my second dark age. The first started when I discovered girls, about 1990. I came out of it when I had a 5 year old, some time in 2011. 

My new revolution had been great, with Kingdoms and the Hobbit/LotR sets being my heroes. At this point, I'm a few years removed from having viable product for me to focus on (Historic/Castle). It has been difficult to stick with the hobby when there's almost no new product on the shelves for me. Hopefully that changes sooner rather than later. 

[Elysiumfountain]

I've never understood the actual definition of Dark Ages. Some people say it's periods of time where you put all the LEGO away and never look at it, never play with it, never build. And others say it's when you don't buy anything new at all, even if you have a bunch of bricks at home that you use still on a daily basis. Which one is right? If it's the first one, then good news I've never had a dark ages! :) 

[rodiziorobs]

I describe a dark age as a a time when Lego is no longer part of your life. You might still have a lot in storage, or you play with your kids or something on occasion, but you don't really keep up with it as a hobby. You would frequent EB less and less, not spend hours scouting your store or ebay for deals, and probably not buy much.

But the biggest aspect for me is that all of that would be natural; someone could stop buying or building or contributing to the forum because of a lack of time or money, but still have that anxiety that they would like to, or wish they could, but maybe realize now (in life) is not the time.

In a true dark age, you probably wouldn't even notice that Lego had slipped out of your life, or if you did, it wouldn't bother you at all.

[ShaydDeGrai]

My "dark age" was, to be honest, brought on by a lack of money (and to a lesser extent time).  Money was always tight growing up, but by the time I was in high school I became keenly aware of how much of it we didn't have and how much college was going to cost.  I spent years saving every penny I could earn for college and then four more years working multiple jobs to try and stay ahead of my next tuition bill.  That didn't leave a lot of time for building and there was zero space in the budget for new kits.  While I missed the hobby initially (and occasionally dabbled with what parts I had) by the time I started college, I'd grown accustomed to _not_ having Lego be a significant part of my life. And it might have stayed that way if it weren't for a chance encounter a few years later with a Technic space shuttle while killing time wandering through ToysRUs (but that is another story)

Lately, I've been trying to keep the lights on as I deal with a bit of a "dim age" (as those who may recognize my handle may have noticed, I've been rather quiet for a couple years now).  Inside of one year, I lost 4 uncles, 1 aunt, both my parents, my only sister and a devoted cat I'd had for 13 years ( it was a rough time ) and was named as the executor of multiple estates.  I'm still dealing with paperwork, lawyers and the IRS and let me tell you I'd rather be playing with LEGO, but life hasn't been very accommodating.  On the bright side, my daughter was born in the midst of all that, and, while there aren't a lot of opportunities for _my_ "Lego fun time" I'm making darn sure she gets _her_ daily dose of Duplo.

 

 

[BrickG]

I've got a dark age coming next year. I'm setting up a business and it would be unwise to spend so much on Lego with a business that I need to make a success.

The earlier dark ages were caused by a lack of money.

All of my dark ages are money motivated XD. If I had unlimited funds I'd never have a dark age of Lego.