Gooikes

Those granulate trees I have never seen in one piece, actually. They were broken before I started playing with Lego. The 'modern' trees however, are part of a set that I got for my birthday. I remember being really peeved off when a friend broke them. I think I stopped playing with Lego when I was about 16. At that time I would build towers that would reach the ceiling. I also made a moving water feature in the wash basin in my bedroom. I build a record player that actually worked. And a chain-reaction track that spanned my entire bedroom, with pieces precariously balanced on the curtain rail and so on... The pictures show about half of the damaged elements I found in the buckets of Lego I retrieved from my childhood after my interest got recently renewed. The rest of it is in pretty good nick, but used. That is what Lego is for, isn't it?

Strange.... This might very well be the first time ever that I am disappointed because I am not old ;-)

It all depends on what one considers normal. The red roof-tiles have warped in the sun, after being left on a hot balcony for an entire summer. The white 2x4 with the bulge on it, is (if I recall correctly) the result of having a tiny lightbulb in there for some reason. The broken rails are the result of having all the Lego spread out on the floor to build a train track, and then stepping on them while playing around it. The melted rails are, as I said, deliberately melted, in an attempt to make a war-like 'end of track'. We are talking at least 30 years ago since I have last seen these bits. Times were different back then. For some reason the sort of play me and my friends did, was rather destructive. You should see my Playmobile collection, or the case full of Matchbox cars my brother has. Those were at a point used to imitate a car demolisher we had in our neighbourhood. We played all over the place with out toys; not only indoors, but also in the garden, in the alley behind our houses, in sand, grass, water. Indeed the tires are genuinely rotten by age. I think these date from the time my oldest brother (now 55) was a kid. Fire and explosives were staple toys ;-) However, I don't recall ever blowing up Lego.

After sorting my old (50+) Lego out, I managed to build a tiny post-apocalyptic scene from old, broken, deformed lego pieces. It just shows how much Lego suffers from being played with. The burnt train rails might have been on purpose. I remember I used to go for ultra realism when playing out scenes with Lego...

I watched the first moonlanding! As a baby of just over a month old ;-) I have grandchildren (grandpa at age 40, who would have thought?). I am grumpy most of the times. My oldest piece of Lego is only about 12 years older than me. I have grey hair. Does that qualify me for the Old Fogies OTD badge?

Hi there! Gooikes from the Netherlands here. I am currently 47 years old and I live in a town called Tilburg, in the south of the country. Married with two stepdaughters and three (step)grandchildren. Through my grandson I have rediscovered messing about with Lego again. I say messing about, because building sounds like the end result actually looks like something and my end results usually don't. I expressed my renewed interest to my wife: "From now on, I only want Lego for my birthday". So last year I got two small boxes of Lego Classic. I instantly noticed the difference to the Lego I used to play with as a kid. Much more interesting parts in all sorts of sizes and shapes. When I was a kid, I had to make do with just plain bricks and plates. The few exceptions were windows, doors, wheels and the odd special, like a forklift piece, or a turning plate. I remembered that in my mum's basement, my old Lego was still being kept. I say 'my' lego, but is actually mostly my two older brother's stuff. Yesterday I retrieved it: Two 20 litre buckets full of loose Lego, in various states of wear and tear. The oldest parts date back to the 1950's, I have figured out. The youngest parts are probably from the early 80's. It is no longer in complete sets, but from some parts I can tell there are, among others: a fire-engine (set 374), A Shell-tanker lorry (set 688), a garage, an extension set with shop-lettering, a train set, a boat, a forklift, a few early electric parts and a handful of Technic parts. I also have two large, damaged grey baseplates, and three smaller green ones, one of which is broken in two. If I find the time, I will post a few pictures of some broken Lego bits, to show how Lego suffers from being played with extensively ;-)