The Dark Ages are over! Martys back in Lego Town

[lightningtiger]

Keep going you'll catch up to my Lego collection one day !

I hope you and your child are having fun together.....Brick On 'martyboy70' !

[Trent]

It's a great bit of history having both of those train shots. I'm sure your son will appreciate those when he's grown up.

I'm slightly amused by the fact that my older brother is only a couple of years younger than you, and I've got a picture of him on Christmas morning (maybe even the same year) in the same pyjamas, also holding a train. (Although, alas, his was Hornby and not Lego!)

[LAKAbricks]

Martyboy, you really have got a great collection of the good old classic LEGO (I have several of the models myself ).

I read your story, and can imagine what a thrill it must have been to you to see the bricks again after so many years. Add to that all the joy, you and your son can have together building and playing with LEGO. And honestly, it doesn't matter if it this year's LEGO or or 25 years old. If the imagination is there, it will all do. Basically LEGO is timeless.

Thumbs up for your return after the Dark Ages and to your son's introduction to this great toy. I wish you both many happy hours of building and playing.

[1980-Something-Space-Guy]

I enjoyed very much reading this post. You have certainly not lost your imagination by growing up.

Sometimes, I wish I could take out all my sets and make something like this. But it would be very tiring to take everything out of its, *gulp*, plastic boxes (since I don't have space to keep everything on display ). I just hope that someday I'll have my own Lego room, and will be able to have sets on display like this.

And I think that this post convinced me that if I had any kids, they will be getting Lego too.

[bzcat]

Looks like most of your sets are from 1985-1988... I know this because I have almost exactly the same collection But most of my sets are still collecting dust in my mom's loft while I convince my wife that I need a LEGO room. It's a much harder sell because I don't have a 4 year old son.

[martyboy70]

Thanks for all the nice replies guys.

Keep going you'll catch up to my Lego collection one day !

I hope you and your child are having fun together.....Brick On 'martyboy70' !

Yep still having fun and bricking on!

It's a great bit of history having both of those train shots. I'm sure your son will appreciate those when he's grown up.

I'm slightly amused by the fact that my older brother is only a couple of years younger than you, and I've got a picture of him on Christmas morning (maybe even the same year) in the same pyjamas, also holding a train. (Although, alas, his was Hornby and not Lego!)

Id love to see that photo-could you put it up here?

Martyboy, you really have got a great collection of the good old classic LEGO (I have several of the models myself ).

I read your story, and can imagine what a thrill it must have been to you to see the bricks again after so many years. Add to that all the joy, you and your son can have together building and playing with LEGO. And honestly, it doesn't matter if it this year's LEGO or or 25 years old. If the imagination is there, it will all do. Basically LEGO is timeless.

Thumbs up for your return after the Dark Ages and to your son's introduction to this great toy. I wish you both many happy hours of building and playing.

Yes its all about the imagination and my son has a great one.Some of the scenarios and role plays these sets have inspired in him have been hilarious.

I enjoyed very much reading this post. You have certainly not lost your imagination by growing up.

Sometimes, I wish I could take out all my sets and make something like this. But it would be very tiring to take everything out of its, *gulp*, plastic boxes (since I don't have space to keep everything on display ). I just hope that someday I'll have my own Lego room, and will be able to have sets on display like this.

And I think that this post convinced me that if I had any kids, they will be getting Lego too.

Who said I had grown up

Looks like most of your sets are from 1985-1988... I know this because I have almost exactly the same collection But most of my sets are still collecting dust in my mom's loft while I convince my wife that I need a LEGO room. It's a much harder sell because I don't have a 4 year old son.

Its probably more 84-89 but there are a couple of sets from earlier(the Post Office is from 82 for instance) although Im not sure if these earlier ones were bought earlier or were maybe still hanging about the shops and possibly going cheap as clearance.

Ive had some more new sets arrive so I will post a pic at the weekend.

[1980-Something-Space-Guy]

Who said I had grown up

That's the spirit!

[martyboy70]

Hi guys promised pics of the new stuff I had got in but its been a bit hectic and I've had more stuff come in since so I thought I would just do one post with everything thats not from the front page photos included-so here we go.

The seller of the red racer had modified the driver into The Stig which I thought was pretty cool.

I went a bit mad and was going for multiple purchases from sellers to save postage and basically taking everything they had cheap once I'd decided I wanted one of their items.

But with some of them its been a case of quantity over quality and I think I now have a bigger Policeforce than townsfolk for them to keep an eye on.

Some of the sets I've got recently have been great and have really impressed me and some are just dreadful-take the dragsters as an example-the larger "Raven Racer" is great and I really like the tool rack with all the bits whereas the blue one is probably the worst Lego set I've ever seen.

While I understand it was a (Weetabix) promo and you are never going to get a masterpiece for free for sending off "x" number of tokens you would probably have been better off playing with a bit of the cereal.

While I may view my era of Lego(the 80s) through rose tinted glasses and accept that not all sets that came out at that time were classics-indeed the Weetabix dragster is from 1989-they just seem to have a lot more thought put into them than some of the stuff from my Dark Age especially the early 90s stuff some of which is pretty dreadful and just doesnt seem to have the charm of the earlier stuff and the 4799 Octopus thing is just a WTF moment.

Anyway my son likes them all so thats the main thing though I'm a bit worried as his favourite Minifigs are the Crooks from 7279 who he calls "the Naughty Boys" but as mentioned he has more Cops than are needed to keep them under control.

Edited September 26, 2011 by martyboy70

[lightningtiger]

Now that is a time warp collection from the very early 80's to now.....excellent collecting there 'martyboy' !

Your son will have more "the Naughty Boys" next year with the forest police subtheme eh ?

Brick On 'martyboy70' !

[martyboy70]

Now that is a time warp collection from the very early 80's to now.....excellent collecting there 'martyboy' !

Your son will have more "the Naughty Boys" next year with the forest police subtheme eh ?

Brick On 'martyboy70' !

Its been a couple of weeks worth of buying everything and anything cheap on Ebay UK regardless of release date but I'm learning just because its cheap doesnt mean its a good buy-if I'd got the Octopus thing for free I'd have felt I paid too much!!

I do like the look of some of the 2012 sets and with all these Cops about they really do need a station don't they?

[ER0L]

Hey Marty, thanks for your commenting my first MOC, so I came here as you suggested - we newbies need to stick together . It's a nice story, I like it very much. I hope you and your son will have plenty of fun with your legos.

At least concerning the number of lego sets you are much luckier than I am. Some months ago when my dark ages came to an end my collection looked like this, and I am not kidding:

[1980-Something-Space-Guy]

I own that 6815 Hovertron too. It was from my era, and I can still remember I got it from my father in preschool... Many happy memories with that nice little set.

Sorry for going off-topic. Anyways, your collection is growing to enviable proportions. Thanks for sharing the pics!

[Zeon]

Its been a couple of weeks worth of buying everything and anything cheap on Ebay UK regardless of release date but I'm learning just because its cheap doesnt mean its a good buy-if I'd got the Octopus thing for free I'd have felt I paid too much!!

I do like the look of some of the 2012 sets and with all these Cops about they really do need a station don't they?

For the sets you don't like that much: part them and start doing MOCs, chances are you will learn a lot from your son about space-pirate-ambulance men who are going to take over the airport-castle defended by ninjas :)

After you have built a decent collection of parts, you can start to be picky about sets you buy for parting out (for me, it worked this way;))

[martyboy70]

Hey Marty, thanks for your commenting my first MOC, so I came here as you suggested - we newbies need to stick together . It's a nice story, I like it very much. I hope you and your son will have plenty of fun with your legos.

At least concerning the number of lego sets you are much luckier than I am. Some months ago when my dark ages came to an end my collection looked like this, and I am not kidding:

I have been very lucky and its down to my mum who (I think) always liked my Lego more than most of my other toys as it was constructive etc. as it was her who put it all away in storage or my collection would have been less than yours!

I own that 6815 Hovertron too. It was from my era, and I can still remember I got it from my father in preschool... Many happy memories with that nice little set.

Sorry for going off-topic. Anyways, your collection is growing to enviable proportions. Thanks for sharing the pics!

I quite like that one myself-pretty small but there's a lot going on-they have packed a lot in.

And its not off topic as the thread is here for any memories,comments etc. that anybody wants to add.

For the sets you don't like that much: part them and start doing MOCs, chances are you will learn a lot from your son about space-pirate-ambulance men who are going to take over the airport-castle defended by ninjas :)

After you have built a decent collection of parts, you can start to be picky about sets you buy for parting out (for me, it worked this way;))

There aren't that many that I don't like but I need to stop buying everything thats going cheap and start being a bit more selective.

And yeah he had the castle men all getting on the plane at the Airport last night so he has no respect for theme separation!

Edited October 3, 2011 by martyboy70

[martyboy70]

I've not done an update for a while so in case anybody is still remotely interested I had a spare hour today and thought I would get some pics up of whats came in since the last pics.

I haven't been buying a lot of loose stuff as I've been trying to get BNIB stuff together as my sons birthday is in mid December and then of course Santa is not far behind and I'm still not working.

So this is the stuff that either came in loose or has been opened and built(not the best pics this time for some reason-my camera doesn't seem to like working Sundays):

At the back are the 7 promo sets which came free with The Sun newspaper a few weeks back then there are the Polybags from this thread http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=61070&st=0&p=1098946&fromsearch=1entry1098946 (thanks to RR) and some other stuff I managed to get cheap from Ebay including some stuff from the last couple of years.

The ghost and bat were for Halloween and proved a great success-he made me put the lights out and then chased me all over the house with the ghost-great fun together,a bit of exercise and I saved some electricity!

I have taken a couple of pics where I have an original 80s set alongside its modern counterpart to show scale differences and the problems that I now have as the newer ones really don't fit in to a 4-wide town although as my son is only soon to turn 4 it isn't a huge problem at the moment:

Now this is the one that he does have an issue with:

Having a tanker thats bigger than the garage its filling up creates problems-everytime he drives it in he knocks down the scenery or the pumps and as such he hasn't really bothered with the tanker after the first couple of attempts.

I managed to get some more track for the train and its now running "under its own steam" so to speak via PF and the points allow it to be ran as a straight through express or to stop at the station for picking up or dropping off:

As mentioned I have been picking up BNIB stuff to share between his birthday and Christmas and thanks to some real steals on Ebay and the half price sale at Sainsburys I have been able to get quite a bit together:

He is Cars mad so the LMQ and Francesco will be good although I may need to build them for him-how complicated are Ultimate Build sets?

I also managed to get some non-Lego stuff as well for pennies-am I allowed to post these here?

Anyway here goes:

Edited November 11, 2011 by martyboy70

[Dazmundo]

It's great looking at your collection as it is amazingly similar to my own, I guess we must be similar in age. I have started building all mine up too but I don't have the space to have it laid out like you do so mine is stuffed on shelves in the shed waiting for my daughter to get a couple of years older, or for me to get my display bench finished.

CD

[LEGO Train 12 Volts]

Beautiful vintage collection ...this sets remember me my childhood!

Thanks for sharing!

[martyboy70]

It's great looking at your collection as it is amazingly similar to my own, I guess we must be similar in age. I have started building all mine up too but I don't have the space to have it laid out like you do so mine is stuffed on shelves in the shed waiting for my daughter to get a couple of years older, or for me to get my display bench finished.

CD

Well i'll be (gulp) 35 in February. It was amazing to dig it all out and get building again and I've been lucky as far as keeping it out because my new place has a big, very long living room so I can have it all out up the back for when my son visits and still have a good bit of living space thats Lego free-though at the rate I've been buying stuff up that may change!

Beautiful vintage collection ...this sets remember me my childhood!

Thanks for sharing!

Yes I know what you mean-all the memories came flooding back when I got the box out of the loft and I was reminded of all the great times I had playing with it as a kid and wanted to pass these on to Kyle.

[Notorious Guf]

Personally, I really hope you don't spoil your LEGO collection by adding in inferior products. I know far too many people who have bought these because they were a steal, only to be thoroughly disappointed with what they were left with, let alone then having to sort through their collection to remove the cheap parts. In fact, it makes me sad to see a friends kids collection spoiled by these. I know as a kid I hated having anything non LEGO in my LEGO box, and there was only Mega Blocks as the alternative.

Please don't hate me for my comments, I'm just trying save the heart ache,

I've not done an update for a while so in case anybody is still remotely interested I had a spare hour today and thought I would get some pics up of whats came in since the last pics.

I haven't been buying a lot of loose stuff as I've been trying to get BNIB stuff together as my sons birthday is in mid December and then of course Santa is not far behind and I'm still not working.

So this is the stuff that either came in loose or has been opened and built(not the best pics this time for some reason-my camera doesn't seem to like working Sundays):

At the back are the 7 promo sets which came free with The Sun newspaper a few weeks back then there are the Polybags from this thread http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=61070&st=0&p=1098946&fromsearch=1entry1098946 (thanks to RR) and some other stuff I managed to get cheap from Ebay including some stuff from the last couple of years.

The ghost and bat were for Halloween and proved a great success-he made me put the lights out and then chased me all over the house with the ghost-great fun together,a bit of exercise and I saved some electricity!

I have taken a couple of pics where I have an original 80s set alongside its modern counterpart to show scale differences and the problems that I now have as the newer ones really don't fit in to a 4-wide town although as my son is only 4 it isn't a huge problem at the moment:

Having a tanker thats bigger than the garage its filling up creates problems-everytime he drives it in he knocks down the scenery or the pumps and as such he hasn't really bothered with the tanker after the first couple of attempts.

I managed to get some more track for the train and its now running "under its own steam" so to speak via PF and the points allow it to be ran as a straight through express or to stop at the station for picking up or dropping off:

Edited November 11, 2011 by Notorious Guf

[Only Sinner]

Heh, heh, -baseplates.. you're a good dad to give him Legos.

[martyboy70]

Personally, I really hope you don't spoil your LEGO collection by adding in inferior products. I know far too many people who have bought these because they were a steal, only to be thoroughly disappointed with what they were left with, let alone then having to sort through their collection to remove the cheap parts. In fact, it makes me sad to see a friends kids collection spoiled by these. I know as a kid I hated having anything non LEGO in my LEGO box, and there was only Mega Blocks as the alternative.

Please don't hate me for my comments, I'm just trying save the heart ache,

I know Im kinda loathe to do it myself but as I'm not working at the moment finances are tight.

Heh, heh, -baseplates.. you're a good dad to give him Legos.

I've got a good mum who kept it all so I could pass it on.

Edited November 11, 2011 by martyboy70