How did you come out of your Dark Ages?

[LegoModularFan]

Hey everyone,

I thought this would belong here, please move this thread if it’s wrong.

I could find only one similar thread which had its last comment in 2014 so I preferred creating a new one than reviving a four year old topic. Please don’t hesitate to let me know if there’s a similar alive thread 

Just thought it would be interesting to create a topic where people can share how and when they got back into Lego/came out of their Dark Ages.

Here’s how I got back into Lego:

In August 2017, I started to want to get some bricks for making a remote control car and I discovered the great PAB service at S@H but I didn’t know which bricks in which quantities I needed to buy. Then, I looked at the Classic sets for getting big amounts of bricks for a reasonable price at S@H and saw that the price per piece ratio was much lower than that of the bricks in the PAB service. But I was wrapped up in something that includes cute smiley faces and has an incredible amount of details packed in its interior: the Parisian Restaurant! I was absolutely blown with the possibilities Lego had! I really wanted to get it but it was way too expensive for my budget- I ended up buying two Classic sets even if I wasn’t totally convinced. I tried to MOC a modular as my interest came to them but I didn’t have the skills and the bricks variety. After a while, I discovered other modulars available (the Palace Cinema, Detective’s Office, Brick Bank and Assembly Square) and I started to really like the AS as it has a European Architecture. The AS became a modular that I started to want to get too but the other modulars didn’t interest me, I didn’t like their architecture. They of course did grow on me and I don’t remember anymore how and which one: I discovered one of the retired modulars, following by all the other retired ones of the series! I became very familiar with all and then discovered Ideas, a couple of weeks later, discovered MOCs and the AFOL community...

So how did you guys got back into Lego?

Edited April 16, 2018 by LegoModularFan

[Bricked1980]

I was completely mad on lego as a child in the 80's and early 90's. I would say I went in to my Dark Ages during my mid teens but even then I still maintained a subtle interest in Lego over the years. I would probably have classed myself as a "closet lego fan" even though I would never have considered buying lego sets during this time.

Then in 2015 my daughter was approaching 4 years old and was starting to show an interest in Lego. I took her in to the Lego Store in Sheffield and I remember being completely blown away by all the awesome lego sets they had on display.

One set in particular that caught my attention was the 2015 pirate ship which was being displayed in the shop at the time. Pirates were always a big favourite of mine as a kid and seeing this brought back memories of my old lego pirates collection.

Anyway I would say this is what brought me out of my Dark Ages. Basically my daughters interest in Lego gave me just the excuse I needed to get back in to it myself.

And so started the long process of recovering and cleaning up all my old lego sets which were being kept in my parents house starting of course with my beloved lego pirate ships. 

I also started to buy lego sets for myself again. This started with small City vehicles and creator sets,  but then in 2016 I couldn't resist buying my first modular building, Parisian restaurant.

Lego has now become one of my favourite pasttimes/hobbies and I like to buy new sets whenever I can afford to. My wife has even bought me lego for birthdays and Christmas. 

[Digger of Bricks]

Compared to most, I'm a weird one as far as AFOLs go, as not only did I never have a Dark Age, I first got into Lego when I was sixteen. When my younger brother got bored of K'NEX, he started searching for Lego sets and collections at various thrift stores and garage sales, and quickly accumulated a sizable collection. Like him, I got really immersed into the vastly colorful spectrum of parts, themes, geometry, and history of the System. Then after awhile, I discovered the fan community, and the rest is history. 

[fred67]

Short version: Trains.

Longer version: I was just starting an N-Scale train hobby, building my first small layout; I had a 3 year old son who wanted to play with it and who, like most little kids, just wanted it to fast enough to go flying off the tracks.  Discovered Railway Express on clearance sale at Sam's Club, and bought two (because I didn't even know LEGO made trains, so I figured I'd have extra tracks, engine, speed regulator) and then I could build stuff with my son that he could break and we would just put it back together.  Then we found a LEGO retail outlet (a LEGO Store, but not full size - so it was considered an outlet - they've since moved to a larger store in the mall they were in and are now a full LEGO Store) and found they had tons of other train stuff, a lot of sets you would never know existed otherwise, and a freaking pick-a-brick wall.  Over time I got into other themes, but I'm essentially back to just city and trains (including modular).

For the record, I was about 35 or so at the time, and am now in my early fifties.  My kids don't care for LEGO anymore, but I do.

[peedeejay]

Parisian Restaurant 

[koalayummies]

A random combination of events that led to a perfect storm of renewed interest.

Shaking off the cobwebs of the dark ages was cultivated by returning to a location that had real winters (snow, well below freezing temperatures, lots of time indoors, very boring), some extra holiday gift money and a random visit to Lego's website. Saw Town Hall, missed out on it but my interest in building again was nevertheless reignited by seeing Lego's new parts, new colors and what all the builders were doing with Lego. And all the new SNOT parts.

[chubbybots2]

For me it was actually Ninjago. I saw Kai's fire mech (Non movie version). As a gundam model kit collector i was curious how lego mechs were made and boy what an eye opener that set was for me. End up buying other sets to mod it and it grew to quite an addiction. Coupled with my laziness for painting model kits and with my 1st born coming (paint fumes are a big no). But my full transition came when i came to know of Moko, Lu Sim's and Ben Cheh's mechs on flickr....the works have been very inspirational and I ended up running a mech group with Lu and Ben :P

[Johnny1360]

With my wallet wide open. No seriously for me it's actually part of some ongoing therapy, I happen to be going through. Happily it appears to be working, going on two years now and I have well over 200 sets or 80,000 plus elements. 

[Kalahari134]

I worked the 2016 season at Legoland Windsor. The first discount allowance went to family but my contract got extended into Jan 2017 and I got three modular buildings plus the ferris wheel. No longer there so am now having to pay full whack plus catch up on lost time with the older modulars.  

Edited March 14, 2018 by Kalahari134
Irritating autocorrect

[Paul B Technic]

I came out of my third? dark age last week... ;)

For almost the past two years I have not owned any LEGO (sold all of mine back then), I had been busy with other hobbies and life in general. I was not feeling great about my other main hobby, my wife showed me a photo of 42078 and this made me check it out online, I saw the B model and knew  I had to get it. Sold everything for my other hobby and purchased this set last week, just to build the B model. I am now making some changes to this.

I have some more sets on the way, one I am going to build a C model using those parts and the others will be used as parts packs for my next big MOC.

[ctx1769]

My wife got me the millenium falcon (75105?) a couple of years. Now 160,000 pieces later 

[kieran]

Kids, just wanted to start playing again 

[Johnny1360]

55 minutes ago, ctx1769 said:

My wife got me the millenium falcon (75105?) a couple of years. Now 160,000 pieces later 

Same set that brought me out of my dark age, I only have 80,000 pieces though and I thought that was excessive. Hats off to you, I'd better go buy some Lego now, must have Mack truck. 

[DutchBlockhead]

The LEGO Batman Movie,

I saw that trailer and the style of the movie blew my mind (i wasn't aware of the first LEGO Movie), it looked like everything you saw was buildable from the parts.. not just CGI. I lovedddd it, the visuals, the character, the voices, the music.. Not long after i went on a shopping spree and went to my parents to retrieve the boxes with my old LEGO.

[Harrilal]

Technically never had a dark age. I may not have been constantly building, but I always looked at builds on the net or used figures for D&D or broke out the bricks for younger relatives. I've never gone more than 2 months without at least playing with the figures and at least once a year I decide I want to rebuild a set or two. 

[AFOLguy1970]

A lot of people mention the modulars, particularly the Parisian Restaurant, which is my favorite.  Very interesting.

My sets from the 1980's are long gone, but I saw Saesae Tin's Jedi Starfighter when it came out and gave it a try.  The techniques that have changed since the 1980s were fascinating.  Then, I saw the Lord of the Rings sets and had to have every one of them.  I was not going to get into modulars due to the high cost until I unexpectedly sold a photograph for a couple of hundred dollars.  Suddenly, there was enough to afford Palace Cinema.  Then, it really took off from there.  

 

[ShaydDeGrai]

I grew up generally Lego-poor and probably a bit envious of the collections my friends had (but, in my opinion, did not appreciate).  I'd get a few kits a year (birthday, Easter, Christmas, maybe a special treat when vacationing with my grandmother) but, in general, we just couldn't really afford much.  My dark ages started when my dad got laid off and every dime I could earn either went into my college fund or contributing to the family budget.  Lego acquisition dropped to near nil as the focus moved to putting food on the table and saving for school.

Skip ahead a couple decades and I'd graduated without debt and landed a good job that paid more than my dad was making at the time.  One day, I happened to be playing chauffeur for my mother and was killing time in Toys R Us while she did her grocery shopping.  I wandered down the Lego aisle and spotted the 8480 Technic Space Shuttle.  I looked at the price tag and realized I'd never spent that much (~160USD) on a Lego set in my life.  A moment later, I realized I also wasn't a ten year old kid trying to scrape together nickels and dimes from my paper route anymore.    My friends from college were off squandering their new-found prosperity on fast cars, ski trips and designer fashions - I bought a space shuttle.

I remember staying up half the night and finishing the build in one session.  It was very cathartic; remembering all those kits I wanted as a child but couldn't afford; reflecting on the kits the campus bookstore had the audacity to stock just to taunt me as I gaped at the price of my required textbooks each semester; kicking myself for not having had the courage to walk into a toy store years earlier once the last tuition bill was paid for fear that people wouldn't understand why an adult would be playing with toys; and finally, telling myself, "screw that, I'm having fun and it's nobody's damned business but my own!"   

The next day I went back to Toys R Us and got more kits, called Enfield Connecticut to get on TLG's mailing list for their catalogs and the rest, as they say, is history.

[AnnaBuildsLego]

My Dark Ages spanned around 2011 - 2016. During those years, the only LEGO items I got were gifted to me (mainly collectible minifigs). My interest never entirely left me - I never even considered selling any of my collection, thankfully. I could always appreciate the sets - I remember seeing 'The Forbidden Forest' set from Harry Potter while wandering around shops and being incredibly tempted to buy it, but for whatever reason, I wouldn't spend money on it. 

I'm not sure what exactly prompted my resurgence of interest, but my best guess is similar to lots of people's experience here - Modulars. Somehow, one day I ended up looking around on the LEGO website out of curiosity, wanting to see what LEGO was like now and what themes were still around. I saw the Palace Cinema, and boom. I still initially found it a surreal experience to spend money on LEGO again, but as soon as I had the box in my hands and started building, I fell in love with it all over again. The Pet Shop followed, and then the Disney series, and it's a slippery slope from there!  I don't need to spend money on food... 

[Brickus]

10179, enough said. I was always into LEGO, BIONICLE mainly, but when it ended there wasn't anything around that I was interested in, I then stumbled across 10179 and it was what truly got me into collecting almost anything LEGO. That and it was around the time I got a job, so I could purchase all my own sets.

[jnscoelho]

Two things brought me back from my dark ages: DUPLO and the Saturn V.

I was a big LEGO enthusiast when I was a kid, but as a teenager I stopped playing with LEGO and eventually stopped looking at sets at stores. Without hesitation I even left all my sets at my parents' house when I got my own place (I was such a fool!!!), and now I really regret that because my mom seems to want to take those sets to the grave (and some were pretty cool, including a Castle, a train, the Formula 1 starting grid, Fire Department, etc. etc.).

Then my first daughter was born and someone got her a DUPLO set on her first birthday. We were already planning to introduce LEGO at some point, but that did it. Then I started buying some more DUPLO, either new or used, and as she grew we started buying Classic sets. Then Friends. And then the Saturn V was released, I just had to have it. And that was when I started buying sets for myself. That was followed by DC Superheroes sets (just those based on the recent movies) and BrickHeadz, but I had one rule: stay out of Star Wars. Rule which, of course, I had to break. I bought the 75105 Millennium Falcon and since then some other small SW sets, and I’m saving for the Death Star. Friends is expanding for both my daughters, BH is just awesome and even TLNM sets have been purchased because the older daughter loved the movie and asked for the Water Strider (and I had to have the Green Dragon, needed Loyd and Garmadon).

But that’s not all… I’ve very recently bought the Palace Cinema and suddenly many of the other modular building, which were not attractive at all (except for the Dinner which is just beautiful), became so glamorous.

It helps to have a wife which is also an AFOL, but she is even less restrained when it comes to buying more sets than me, so that may become a problem, ahahah

[Vindicare]

Similarly, but much earlier, Modulars brought me back as well. Cafe Corner & Market Street. I do not remember what drew me to check their website, but boy am I glad I did. My wallet, on the other hand, is not so happy. 

[General Magma]

Never really having been in one helps.

[CaptainMorgansDad]

I would say that my "Dark Ages" officially ended this past August.

 

After not having gotten a new Lego set since around 1999, and probably not having built anything since then either, my wife and I got the UCS TIE FIghter as a wedding present. We really enjoyed the build together, and it reminded me of how great Lego is.

 

After the TIE fighter, I purchased the Saturn V (still in box - I am currently living overseas, and the majority of my Lego collection is still at my Father's house in the USA), which I am extremely excited to build and display once we move back this summer.

 

I have also purchased several Classic and City sets since then, mostly for the parts - the plan is to get going with some serious MOCing! I alos purchased the Old ZFIshing Store for its great parts, but I may need to purchase another copy for the actual build - we will see.

 

I am bummed out that I missed the Pirates re-releases in 2009 and 2015 - Pirates was my favorite theme growing up (although I also loved the old school Space themes, particularly Ice Planet 2002). Hopefully next year we will see more Pirates for the 30th anniversary!

[Chilis]

I was born in 1979 and have one older brother (1972) and one sister (1968). Fortunately my brother got several 70`s set (mainly town and classic space) which he gave to me when he entered his darkage in mid 80s. I entered my own darkage in 1992 (the boxes said 5-12 years ).

In 1998 I found the love of my life and we got our first child in 2000 and our last and forth child in 2012 (still married ).

In 2005, when the oldest one celebrated his 5th birthday he got his very first Lego City-set, a police car (what else) and it kinda started back then for me, but only in normal forms, for birthdays and Xmas`. More kids = more Lego.

But! in late 2010 I suprisingly found a pile of Grand Emporiums out of no-where in one of my local toyshops. I had never seen such set and did`nt know they even exist. This was all I wanted and dreamed of back in the late 80`s/early 90`s. -More substansial buildings for a proper city. That moment and that set started it all! i bought the previous ones and now I have over 50 modulars, one of each built, the rest NISB, 26 sqm Lego-room and over 1 million bricks and still counting. Feel free to browse my instagram.com/chilis_no for pictures.

-My Legohobby is back for good, that`s for sure.

Edited April 6, 2018 by Chilis

[Ravelino]

Mine is like a bit of a mix of the above stories. I have always been creative in expressing myself(I am known to have a drawing pencil in hand since 2 years old) and I was very priviliged to be born into a family who could afford and thought Lego not only fun but also educational so when I was a toddler I "inherited" into the collection of my brother(mostly early and late 80s city and space and a few mid and late 80s Knights) and added to it as the years went with my own sets(mostly late 80 to late 90s Knights but here and there some city and special themes too).. a very early MOCer, my sets would last 1 to 2 days after building until I started raiding them for elements to use in my fantasies...as life got more intricate going to high school I stopped asking for lego for birthdays etc as my curiosity lead me to other hobbies and things to spend my parents' money on so my Dark Age kind of crept on me as I just couldn't find the time to organize our collection(which was already considerable as I remember(looking back on when I got which sets) having a 1000 brick average per year running well over 10 years well, and my own allowance was usually spent before I could save up for the few cool sets Lego still produced so building sprees died off to thoughts like "I know I have over 20 of this element somewhere, how come I can't find any?" by then I had taken up making music as my main hobby

Then, some five years back, my younger cousin showed me a new modular he bought (I think it was Parisien Restaurant since that is the one set we have in common aside from Castle and CMF stuff..I'm more a Castle/Space/Licensed guy he's more of a City/Creator guy)along with the rest of his Lego Town and that got me surfing the web looking at masterpieces like the MMV and some of the MOCs that were created during and after my 10 year Dark Age by great artists like Derfel Cadarn, Legonardo etc. Before I knew it I found a MISB MMV for under 170 euro, a once opened and built Tower of Orthanc for under 250 euro(which was still too much but I was in between houses and living with my father at the time so I didn't have to pay rent) and some Fantasy Era and latest Castle sets in MISB or good condition mainly to build up some armies with the new prints.

I already wanted to join the CCC two years ago when they had the Space/Knights theme going on; I even made a space rendition of the 6074 Black Falcon's Fortress and a castle rendition for 6959 Lunar Launch Site(both sets I to this day regret not owning) and even took pictures which I never posted though because I wasn't a member of CC.com yet and because I wanted to compete with the best entries(everyone wants to be a winner or at least have they idea their builds have the chance of winning which I believed my builds didn't).

From there on I went full ballistic again, lurking EB, CC.com Brickshelf and a few Flickr pages while sorting and adding to my collection with older and new sets and BL orders for those massive amounts of standard bricks and honing my building skills until it got to the point where I now thought I should really join in the AFOL community. My recent loss of a job has given me plenty of time to complete sorting (and cleaning/replacing older elements) my collection out and finish some of those half started projects mostly left as is because of the lack of time or necessary bricks to complete them. and I have started building my first great project (a Sorceror's castle on a peninsula defined by one huge "white" tower overlooking the sea and a rivermouth; pictures of the WIP and the completion of the first fase, the basement, will be one of the first MOCs I will be posting here)

And me and Lego are reunited again like we were never separated lol...