What made you get out of your LEGO dark age?

[BearHeart]

Just something I was thinking about the other day...

I loved LEGO as a kid, but when I got to be around 13 or 14 I stopped buying LEGO because I thought I had outgrown it and I was a little ashamed of asking for it as a present.

It was the Vikings theme that got me back into LEGO after a ten year break. I was searching for an avatar pic for another forum/site and typed in "Viking" into Google image search and a picture of the LEGO vikings theme popped up on the first page. I was surprised and intrigued because I'm kinda a history buff and I remembered how much I loved LEGO when I was younger.

The next day I took a trip to my local ToysRUS and bought 'Viking Boat against the Wyvern Dragon' set. It was supposed to be the only set I was going to buy, I was just gonna build it and display it on my desk.

I then got out my old LEGO and started building and rediscovered how fun it is. From then on it just kinda snowballed and LEGO is back as one of my favorite hobbies.

Edited January 13, 2010 by BearHeart

[Raven Brickroft]

It was around 2005 or 2006 that I had thought about LEGO again. So I visited their website. I saw the Exo Force sets. and the KKII sets. I was amused but that didn't get me out of the dark age.

2 Years later, I chanced upon the toy boards of an unmentionable picture boards. In there I saw some sets of the Castle-Fantasy era. Intrigued that LEGO dabbled in to a more fantasy (reminded of Warcraft and Warhammer) theme, I decided to pull out my old LEGO stuff.

[mikey]

The city construction series of 2009. It would have been about this time last year, I saw the Dumper first, it reminded me of 6652, a great favourate as a child. The temptation grew and:

...

It was supposed to be the only set I was going to buy, I was just gonna build it and display it on my desk.

It's difficult to stop with just one isn't it?

[blueandwhite]

For me it was the release of the Star Wars line in 1999. I pretty much gave up on LEGO in the mid-90s. I found that the set designs and part selection was becoming so poor that I had a difficult time rationalizing the purchase of any LEGO sets at the time. By 1994 I had pretty much stopped buying LEGO alltogether. Star Wars LEGO was something I had always yearned for a young lad so when it finally came into being I had to have Luke and Vader in minifig form.

Interestingly enough, I didn't really stick with the Star Wars theme. Exploring various early LEGO fansites including LUGNET and Brickshelf I found myself drawn back into MOCing. A number of early Castle creations like Ed Boxer's LEGO castle and Dr. Carney's earlier MOCs brought me back to Castle again. As a fan coming out of his dark ages, I elected to focus on buying bricks (LEGO's bulk program at the time had some great deals) and sets for parting out. When the BFF fortress was re-released I purchased 10 of them. Today I am a steadfast LEGO castle fan, but it was Star Wars that brought me back into the mix.

[Milan]

I wanted to build Backhoe Loader from wood when I was 17, but my lack of any skills forced me into trying to do it with Lego pieces. I was never happier for not knowing how to do something with wood

[Badsneaker]

I think for me it was my kids. My son started getting LEGO sets for Christmas, and I always ended up (helping) putting them together. Then we got my old collection out and it just blew up from there. Now my son is a teenager and has no interest in it at all. And here I am, a LEGO maniac again!

[Big Cam]

I thought I already responded to a topic like this, but it might have been my intro thread.

I was walking through Wal-Mart one day and just happen to see LEGO Star Wars sets. I thought, that's really cool, I never knew they made these, so I picked up 7656 and it started from there.

I just recently got all my old school LEGO's back from my parents house and I cleaned them all, I really need to build some old sets.

[UsernameMDM]

Castle Fantasy Era. Got the Dwarf Mine Defender and the rest soon followed.

[dr_spock]

My mother-in-law. My son went Lego birthday shopping with grandma and got her to buy me a Lego set too. 1279 pieces of Transport Ferry Creator and several hours later, I was hooked again. I don't think my wife is too happy with all the Lego I've acquired in the last 2 years.

[ziljin]

I saw some warhammer 40k lego moc's. And I thought to myself, I should do that.

Then I bought a few space and city sets for vehicle bricks. Then I bought some castle sets to get trolls to be orks. But then I lost interest in city/space/lego 40k(how I got my screenname). And now I am mostly interested in Castle. Recently I bought some Manta Warriors, since they sort of fit in with Castle. I will probably get some of the Prince of Persia sets that are coming out. And Harry Potter since people say its coming back. Then buy all of the 2010 Kingdoms sets whenever they come out. And probably get multiples of the smaller sets for more horses, weapons, and minifigs. Plus the new great helm is awesome. I definitely want to bulk up on those.

[PerryDaPirate]

My revival was different than most.

Ok, so when I was around 14, I stopped with Lego. I just figured I should focus on other things, and still was passionate for it, just didn't buy sets. Then, 1 year later, I was walking around Wal-mart with my girlfriend. She hit a shelf accidentally, and off fell a Lego set. It hit me in the head, and I picked it up and stared at it for a few moments, and my girlfriend asked what I was doing. I told her of my former obsession, and she told me to buy the set.

Now, 3 years later, I'm a TFOL at age 18 and my girlfriend is an FFOL. She loves Lego just as much as I do!

Perry

[metalgearsolid]

I stumbled upon BrickTopia, and it remainded me how much fun lego was. Of course, the creations were truly inspirational.

http://members.cox.net/bhamilto1/topia/topia.htm

Plus being a working adult with bigger pocket helped too. The modular buildings were also a huge push.

[MaxGoof]

I think my story will be a little different from most, as my LEGO dark age was pretty much my entire life. My parents never bought me Legos as a kid--ever--so at 26 I had never built a LEGO set. Ever.

My wife and I bought our XBox 360 in Fall 2008 and it came bundled with LEGO Indiana Jones. I was transfixed with joy by the game, and ended up getting 7623 for Christmas from my parents-in-law. The last year-plus of my life has bordered on LEGO obsession. At first it took me ages to build the kits, but my skills are slowly, slowly evolving. Now I'm a 28-year-old enjoying his LEGO childhood with absolutely no regrets. None!

[set 7623 is the Temple Escape for those who don't know the numbers without looking them up (like me). I still don't understand how some of the people on these boards have the astounding databases in their brains and can know a set by number alone!]

[JimBee]

I always thought it was when I saw the 2007 battle packs. I just happened to see them in a store, and I thought I would just pick them up for the heck of it. Big mistake, financially. Soon after, I got the Greivous fighter, in which I found a gold C-3PO. I didn't even know what it was at first, but after some research, I found that I was very lucky.

I was hooked then, so I joined up on Brickset, and later, Eurobricks.

[Sir Fred]

My Dark Age (that come to think of it, only really lasted about five years, that sadly included Vikings) slowly trickled to an end when I one day picked up a Zellers flyer and saw a buy one get one half off on Lego. I picked up The Finaly Joust and Knight's Catapult Defense. Then shortly afterwards I got a Storm Trooper Battle Pack, just because stormies are that awesome. Then I got most of the Fantasy Era sets in a three week period and it was very over.

[AhabDarab]

I have actually had two seperate dark ages. I was brought out of my first dark age while in college in the 80's. I saw the forestmen sets and the Black Falcon's Fortress at a toy shop and I bought them. I bought many of the army builder sets and made Warhammer armies from the minifigs.

Moving forward, all of that lego was lost at a garage sale in the early 90's. More recently, I was walking down the aisle at Target a year or two ago and saw the Dwarven Mine. This set brough me back again. I am using the figures in a game called Brick Quest (it's similar to D&D).

In a different direction, I've been buying ships for Evil Stevie's Pirate Game as well.

Ahab out.........................

[j3tang]

This is an edited version of another post in the trains section, but it basically tells the story about how I got back into Lego:

It was actually my university days that rekindled my love for Lego.

One of the new-found friends in university made mention of a Lego outlet store close by and I was addicted once again ever since.

The things that caught my eye were Technic and Trains. But during those days I lived a poor student life and could not afford much, and especially not Lego! Alas, I saved up enough for the re-released Metroliner and loved it!

Soon thereafter, I paid many regular visits to this outlet store and every once in a while I would bring something home from it :)

There was a time when the "My Own Train" cars were all on sale and I hesitated (due to monetary concerns) and by the time I had made up my mind to bite the bullet, they were all sold out! I hesitated on the Burlinton Northern Santa Fe and the Engine Shed (which was on sale) and I really regret it as well! I could have just eaten Kraft dinner for a month to make up for rent money :)

Like what another member had said, with deeper pockets now, there is more I can afford and enjoy.

[Tyrant]

I had two dark ages. I got LEGO as presents throughout the 80s. At the time, my interests were mainly Castle and Space with the occasional Town set. Eventually Pirates entered the mix. Looking through the set catalogs, I stopped buying around 94/95. That seems to be the point that my favorites started drifting into unknown territory. Then in 99 I started buying Star Wars LEGO sets. This caused me to dabble in the Castle and Space sets that were out then as well. Eventually it became just Star Wars. Even that ended in 04. I kept watching the aisles but I just didn't care for the sets and money was a little tighter. I was focusing on my other toy love from the 80s that was at that time rising from the ashes, GIJoe. I kept my eye on Star Wars and Castle but nothing really pulled me back in. There were a few clearance deals here and there that I regret not jumping on though. Then I bought some Star Wars LEGO sets for my nephew for Christmas in 07. He asked me to help him put them together and as I was I asked myself, why did I ever stop buying these. So I scooped up everything I could in the post holiday clearance in early 08 and then I started sinking quite a bit into Castle and Star Wars (well, the SW battle packs at least). Now I've probably got several times more LEGO product from the last 2 years than I had from the entire rest of the time I have owned and LEGO product (which I still mostly have, thankfully). So, barring some economic hardship, I have my doubts there will be a third dark age for me.

[scmenut]

This is a pretty interesting story. Was a huge fan of lego as a kid, but kinda dwindled around the age of 15. I can remember that the last set I got was 7140 (X-Wing). Then I went to college and they released 4504 (Millennium Falcon). I was kinda joking, but I kept talking it up to my then girl friend and what do you know... She pulled through and got that for me for my birthday. But seriously, come on, lego millenium falcon... that pretty much screams quintessential lego nerdom (hence UCS falcon, we'll get to that in a minute).

So 4504 was pretty freaking sweet so I displayed it through out the rest of college. I was still too poor to really get back into lego. Well, Jump forward a few years. Now I have a decent job and i have been keeping up with lego mainly by giving the lego isle a pass every time i went to a brick and mortar store. I started noticing amazing MOC's and lego original sets (green grocer) on some of the technology blogs. I always was in love with the train sets, so once emerald night was released I bought it immediately. This officially reignited my crazy passion for those darned little stubby bricks.

I soon read that cafe corner was discontinued. I had already decided it was only a matter of time before I buy green grocer, and once I started buying these modular sets I knew I wouldn't feel complete without cafe corner. So i pulled the trigger, bought cafe corner from S@H. And then within the past few months I've bought several sets including:

Green Grocer

Winter Toy Shop

Imperial Flagship

UCS Millennium Falcon <-- Saving this build for this weekend

and to round out the string of recent purchases, I just purchased this "semi-legendary" 4999 thing i found on ebay. I've gotta say, lego has hurt my bank account.

[vexorian]

It is easier to explain what got me into the dark age first. It was 2003, Bionicle canisters were all clones of the other ones. Space theme was gone and replaced with Star wars and the live on mars thingie. Money became an issue due to breaking a computer and so needing computer parts...

What got me into it again: Space Police 3 and Glatorian Legends: nuff said.

[ILikePi]

I haven't had a dark age yet, but I think that it was the Droids Battle Pack, V-wing Fighter, and Ambulance sets that got me into LEGO in early 2007. Before that, the sets that I owned included two X-Pods, the Technic Hailfire Droid, Furious Slammer Racer, two buckets of assorted bricks, and a Technic set (all were gifts, I didn't ask for them).

After building the three sets and playing with them for endless hours, I purchased the Imperial Dropship in 2008, then the Imperial Landing Craft for my birthday in May of the same year (I also purchased the Rebel Scout Speeder for Christmas). I then found out about the online LEGO community, and joined Flickr in November of 2008. From there, I discovered places like Brickset, and one day, I found a link on one of their news posts to Eurobricks. I lurked here for about 2-3 months before joining near the end of January (I still remember February of 2009, asking what an AT-OT was and getting a kind reply from ADHO15 ), probably the most life-changing thing that has happened to me. And since the beginning of 2009, I was and still am hooked on LEGO and hope that I will never enter a dark age.

Soon after, I got the Greivous fighter, in which I found a gold C-3PO. I didn't even know what it was at first, but after some research, I found that I was very lucky.

Wow, that's extremely lucky!

(When I purchased my Imperial Landing Craft, I had no idea that chrome gold C-3POs existed too)

Edited January 14, 2010 by ILikePi

[RileyC]

The 2008 battle packs. They are awesome!

[RXBandit]

for me it was somewhat serendipitous. i had gone to my parents house and my mom had very randomly found an old printed Lego piece (like a dashboard tile) in my old closet and gave it to me. i really racked my brain tryin to figure out which set it came off. that night, after i had finally given up, there was someone on NPR talkin about Lego and how the company has continued to grow strongly as the rest of the toy market loses even more money.

also, in late August, maybe early September, they opened a Lego Sore in the only mall that i actually like, the Garden State Plaza. every time i went to that mall with my girlfriend i always wanted to go in and check it out, but i figured i wasn't gonna buy anything so wat was the point. so the next day (after the NPR story and the found piece) i had to go to the GSP, as it was right before Christmas. i actually decided to go into the Lego Store and holy shit, i was blown away.

i had no idea that Lego had such great stuff again. pretty much the only time i looked at what Lego had to offer since i was a kid was when i received a random catalog in 2002. everything there seemed too... basic and gimmicky would be good words i guess. when i saw the Green Grocer and Fire Brigade, all the Star Wars and Indiana Jones stuff, and especially when i saw the massive, badass new Technic sets, that was it, i was put over the top. i bought a small set (the Mini Telehandler) to see if i would really have fun building it, and i'll be damned, it was not only more fun that i could have imagined, but i really believe i had a better time doin it at 28 than i did when i was a kid.

my girlfriend loves that i have a new interest and that it's not baseball related haha. we're gonna build some of the larger sets together. i can't wait.

[Torax]

Believe it or not-- BIONICLE!

But I guess you couldn't really call it a 'dark age'.

Here's the story;

We had been moving really far, I was 12 years old, and it was a very busy time, but we're only talking about 6-8 months before I got back into LEGO again. I bought a BIONICLE set and I got into BIONICLE. I later moved on to Star Wars and now I'm sort of multi themed.

Yeah.

I fear there will be a worse time, after all these horror stories I've heard about giving up LEGO for studying for several years!

Oh, well studying is useful too and I'll just have to prepare.

This gives me an idea of another topic; "Tips on how to get out of your Dark Ages", or "How to avoid the Dark Ages".

[MrTools]

When the first LEGO Star Wars game came out i rented it and loved it. A few weeks later i found some SW sets and picked them up, i liked them so much i started to get things from all themes.