If you had LEGO as a child...

[minifig_gal]

I'm really enjoying all the LEGO resources online, particularly being able to browse through all the old sets and think "Wow, I remember that!"

This was my absolute favourite set as a child:

I was also quite fond of "Caroline" (my sister and I took it all very seriously back in the day, the minifigs all had names and storylines worthy of any soap opera - construction worker marrying Fabuland poodle, anyone?) in her little yellow car.

I rescued her from the big box of LEGO last time I visited my parents and now she's living a life of relative luxury in Apple Tree House.

**Edited to add my hubby's contribution:

What about you? What LEGO sets did you love as a child?

Edited May 12, 2011 by minifig_gal

[Dunjohn]

I loved the way the thing at the back would lift the dustbin up. You had to align the bin perfectly, though, or the handles would jam.

[mikey]

...

construction worker marrying Fabuland poodle, anyone?

...

This is why girls should not be allowed to play with Lego! Seriously though, great topic, I'm sure this will be filled with nostalgic memories.

I loved the way the thing at the back would lift the dustbin up. You had to align the bin perfectly, though, or the handles would jam.

I loved that set just for the dustbins!

Mine is this:

It probably stayed built the majority of my childhood. I remember that after that much play the hinges had all worn down. It helped me build every Lego house that I ever constructed.

[Lego Otaku]

Classic space ranked very high for me back then, and I believe I still have most of the original manuals.

And many more, which ended with

I also had almost all of the Forestmen sets- loved Robin Hood themes. (anyone donate me a river crossing to make it complete? ;) )

I kind of lost track in early 1990 but I played with Blacktron and Space Police 1 before I went into the dark side.

[Ro87n]

I mostly got vehicles and these are some of my favorites:

(got all these instrustions but not sure about the LEGO pieces for each set thought)

This one I still have build and fully complete. I'd always loved the minifig sized computer and keyboard

[Cwetqo]

I really loved this. I got it in venice and assembled it on a boat on the way home:

This was my first space set. I was very impressed with little spacemen.

My fisrt and for long-long time onyl technic set.

I also very much loved this one:

And this was at the end of my pre-dark-age era, but I was neverthelss impresse with new faces, animal, palm leaves and other new stuff.

[lightningtiger]

OMG ! Now everyone will know how old I am from these.....

The fire station and servo were my joint favorites of all time !

Keep on remembering the good times !

[Cloud0]

This was mine!!! Coincidentally it was also my very 1st set.

I had the good fortune of finding it again for $100sgd with a perfect box, instructions and bricks.

Ah, brings back so much good memories.

Edited May 12, 2011 by Cloud0

[The Spark That Bled]

I really loved anything Pirates and Castle back in the late 1980's. I think the Forbidden Island, the Caribbean Clipper, and Camouflage Outpost were my favorites.

[Rumble Strike]

Oh wow, some of those bring back memories!

I was born in 1975 so classic Town, Space and early castle were what I remember most. Galaxy Explorer (which I managed to remake at Christmas with my old tubs of LEGO) was the absolute pinnicle in my childhood, but stuff like the Snack Bar I remember with great fondness.

[airsoftg36c]

Alas, I was born too late for the old castle/forestmen sets, but I still had a few of them and they are without a doubt the reason why I still love castle.

[-zenn]

I always got a lot of small sets as presents. I had a small town going on with the pizzashop, police office, motorcycle dealer, hospital, gasstation, a beach, some of those vacation houses and a self build appartment building. My sister had her own 'paradisa' town in her room, so my people could visit hers... But the sets I got the best memories of are these;

[Aanchir]

I'm a 90s kid, so needless to say my memories of my childhood LEGO will be a lot different than a lot of people's.

Many of the themes I liked as a child were the ones that just happened to be current then. I had a sizeable collection of Islanders, Dragon Masters (the US name for Dragon Knights), Spyrius, Aquazone, Exploriens, Fright Knights, Wild West (the US name for Western), Adventurers (the desert wave only), and UFO. In general I didn't accumulate town/city sets very compulsively, besides Launch Command (the US name for the first Space Port subtheme of Town in the mid-90s). I have to say that my ownership of a LEGO Mania Magazine subscription, full-size wall posters, and other merchandise advertising these themes didn't hurt my love for them, and these factors are part of the reason I never got a huge collection of certain other themes like Dark Forest.

In the late 90s I became attracted to various Technic themes-- Speed Slammers, Cyber Slam (the US name for the Bright Violet, Bright Bluish Green, and Bright Yellow part of the Competition theme), then Throwbots (the US name for Slizers), RoboRiders, and as 2001 rolled around, BIONICLE. I briefly collected Star Wars sets, but was much more driven to complete a collection of BIONICLE sets, and as licensed themes became more and more expensive I bought less and less System in the coming years. System sets I did invest in were usually character-based, like Knights' Kingdom II and Exo-Force. Exo-Force is probably a key reason why my interest in System sets returned, as like Knights' Kingdom it gave me a healthy supply of useful BIONICLE-like pieces along with the more traditional bricks.

In 2008, when I was on the verge of AFOLdom, I became interested in the Agents theme, and that helped bring me to where I am today as a collector of action/sci-fi themes like Power Miners, Space Police III, and Atlantis. I never had a proper "dark age" unless you count the period from 2003-2007 when I rarely bought anything that wouldn't contribute to my BIONICLE part supply. And interestingly, this is when I was most active in the online BIONICLE community, through which I first became aware of the AFOL community.

Perhaps there really is some merit to the tired AFOL argument that BIONICLE "isn't true LEGO". However, I'd instead argue that it was a vastly different kind of LEGO that, depending on your perspective, either isolated me from traditional brick-built themes or kept me interested in LEGO during what might otherwise have been my dark age. If BIONICLE hadn't been a part of the picture and I had entered my dark age in 2003, then who knows how many years it might have been before that dark age ended and I took my place as an AFOL?

I have many embarrassing memories of my time in the BIONICLE fan community: debating furiously over the smallest and silliest topics, writing blog entries and terrible fan fiction that demonstrated the shallow ideas of love I had acquired from high-school English classes, and creating MOCs and art that showed a similarly shallow understanding of sexuality. But in general I think the BIONICLE fan community was a safer and more nurturing place to grow up than the wider world of popular teenage interests, and since it eventually brought me into the AFOL community I can't help but think my time in it was for the best.

Today, at age 20, I am being forced to reconsider my teenage years as a BIONICLE fan once again, having felt a similar pull from this year's sets in the Hero Factory theme as I felt when BIONICLE first made its debut (but having felt this pull for different and more mature reasons than a naive fascination with anything deep or mysterious). I never plan to go back to the person I was as a part of the BIONICLE fan community, but there are echoes of that in who I am today, and I hope that I can make use of those echoes rather than keeping them around just because I can't let go.

P.S.: My capacity to write long, rambling, and introspective essays is a key example of one of those echoes. I hope I didn't bore you!

[Marckeyh]

How great it is to see these lovely sets, I remember most of those very well.

Here are some of my favorites:

This is IMO the best set ever:

I spend many days driving this beauty through my legoland:

Never owned this one unfortunately, but wanted it so much!

My brother owned this one, I thought it was way cooler than my 928.

-Marky

[Niku]

Great and interesting post Aanchir I liked some things you wrote.

Well this was a set I enjoyed and continue to do so.

[Dazmundo]

How odd, this was one of my favourite sets, I didn't know he had had his truck resprayed!

D

[dr_spock]

I don't remember having much Lego as a kid. This one was a favorite.

[-zenn]

How odd, this was one of my favourite sets, I didn't know he had had his truck resprayed!

D

Haha.

He build his truck by using scrapped parts, but couldn't pick up any chicks... So he pimped his ride.

[Legoist]

It's really hard to answer... maybe just maybe it was this one, because it was the first I've had of this size:

This was my absolute favourite set as a child:

D'oh! That was my wife's favourite as a child

[vexorian]

[TypoCorrecto]

Funny story, my brother and I could not wait until Christmas morning so we decided to sneak a peak at what was under the tree. Of course we were caught and for our punishment we were not allowed to play with our gifts until the following day. The worst part was that we didn't know that at first, we were told initially that our gifts will be returned to the store and Christmas for us was essential "canceled". So after a day of sulking we woke up to eat breakfast and to our surprise our gifts were on the table. Talk about a swing of emotions...So we ripped through the gifts and I saw this:

This was the set of sets at the time...absolute favorite...

Edited May 14, 2011 by typo

[Plastemaurer]

I started with Lego relatively late, mostly because I was born on the wrong side of the wall and there was no Lego available until this particular building was torn down.

Anyway, probably the first set I ever got was this one:

I loved it dearly until I got this:

which is my alltime favourite.

Sometime in between the two above I somehow aquired this one:

although I don't remember how I got it. I'm sure I did not buy or get it as a birthday or christmas gift. Maybe it just popped into existince one day because I really, really wanted it

I still have all three of them, including Minifigs, but, unfortunately, without instructions.

PM

Edited May 15, 2011 by Plastemaurer

[LEGO Guy Bri]

I started really collecting mid 90's so the majority of my current displayed collection is of the 4-wide era... err pre Town Jr. I love the trains from then but, as far back as I can remember, I would always drool over 96's 6335 Indy Transporter. Those sets that made the entire Indy car racing teams are, IMHO, the best TLG has produced. That said, I'd still say 6395 Victory Lap Raceway is right there with them. At least the main structure is. I'm still trying to get one. Maybe one day, well here is a photo of a section of my motor speedway, currently under development.

[jonwil]

Definitely my favorite set when I was a kid has to be the 6973 Deep Freeze Defender, to me its one of the coolest spaceships LEGO has ever done. (better than any of the classic space ships, better than anything from recent space themes like Space Police, better than anything from Star Wars)

Also high on the list are the 6890 Cosmic Cruiser, 6882 Walking Astro Grappler, 6073 Knights Castle, 6285 Black Seas Barracuda and 6371 Shell Service Station.

I now own all the parts (and in some cases the manuals) for the space sets plus I own the BSB reissue. (with proper shooting canons thanks to a no-longer-existing local second hand toyshop)

[Leanne]

This was my favorite set.

But closely followed by these two which belonged to my little brother. I was allowed to build them for him, but not play with them.

I think it was this ship:

And definitely this castle:

They SHOULD all be in my parents loft. Fingers crossed.