"The Dark Ages" - How long were you away from Lego?

[Lynx]

I didn't have any LEGO since 1993. I mainly loved the Forestemen and had a bunch of little Pirates island that were spread out throughout the house. A few months back, my youngest brother and I stumbled upon a few LEGO construction manuals on the internet and thought it would be fun to dig out our old LEGO box. We had a ton of fun assembling around ten of our 20-year old sets. There were a few bricks missing here and there, but all up, it's surprising how well LEGO lasted.

I bought my first sets a few days ago and wouldn't have gotten back to LEGO if it wasn't for the Lord of the Rings line. I doubt I'll buy anything afterwards, either. But saying that, setting up Weathertop and Helm's Deep made for an incredible fun day. I loved the combination of interesting new techniques and bricks (new to me, anyway) and a huge amount of pieces I've already built with two decades ago.

[Onatu]

If not for Bionicle, I would have had a Dark Age lasting for ten years, from 2002 up until earlier this year. Or maybe not. Bionicle overtook all other interests I had in Lego sets when it first arrived in 2001, and I kept with that one theme up through early 2006. That was when my true Dark Age began, shortly after buying 8905 Thok. Lasted up until my interest was piqued by the Collectible Minifigures at the beginning of this year. So in actuality, a roughly six year Dark Age for me.

I'm glad to be back.

[LEGO Family]

First of all i started playing with LEGO bricks again only five months ago.

During December i was looking for the Millinium Falcon set on the internet for my youngest son, cause he wanted it for christmas.

I came to look at some stunning MOCs which likes i had never thought possible.

Also we always watch all the Lord of the rings movies during christmas, so i made a search for LOTR LEGO also. And i found some even more stunning builds.

Then i just had to convince my kids to put their LEGO together, and we builded 2 diffrent Death Stars. Then i was out of my dark age.

Now, until a month ago i thought that my dark age had only lasted some 22 years. But having recovered my LEGO and instructions i realised that i had been away from LEGO for some 27-30 years.

I can only thank MOCpages for coming back and once again enjoying these delicious tiny plastic bricks possibilities.

Good times good times. :)

Edited June 1, 2012 by LEGO Family

[MsRowdyRedhead]

I have had periods on & off in my life when I did not actively pursue building, but I have never had a time in my life when my collection was not with me except in college.

Maybe it's different for girls. There was never an age when I became embarrassed about my LEGO building. I do remember once in high school when a boy came over to ask me out.

There was a partially built MOC on the floor, and my younger brother was in the room. Brad turned to my brother and asked him what he was building. When I said it was mine he started laughing. I slugged him.

As an adult with my own business I always had a huge fishbowl of LEGO on my desk, and would often fiddle with them as I talked on the phobe with clients, or with one of my team.

I believe to this day that many of my most creative solutions came from that fishbowl.

I imagine that I will someday be buried in a simple coffin made entirely of LEGO.

[Blacktron]

I was born 76 and started playing with lego when I was about 5 years old. My favorite lines were Space and Knights, back in those days. After Futuron, about 1990-1991 (at the age of 14-15) I finally lost interest in lego. The other favorites of my childhood had been Kenners Star Wars line and Mattels Masters of the universe. When I was 14 oder 15 I switched completely to Star Wars and thought the new lego space sets were boring. The lego space sets in those days were very kid friendly, peaceful und colorful and I prefered the darker tone of Star Wars.

There was a short period 1997-1998 when I returned to lego. The UFO line had caught my interest. I bought a few UFO and Aquashark sets, tried to buy a few sets that I've always wanted in my childhood. But without the internet, it was very hard to find what I wanted. So I lost interest again.

2010 I spottet the collectible minifigures series 2 at a supermarket. My girlfriend was very interested in them from the first moment. Then she infected me with that. Also she discovered my large lego box in the basement and asked me if we could bring it upstairs to take a look at those old bricks and build something with it. That was the point when I really caught fire. I started to buy some Space Police I and Blacktron sets online and then I got interested in the Exo Force line. Now I have an almost complete Exo Force collection.

So my dark ages were 12 years and I'm back since 1 1/2 years. Right now I have so much fun, building my neo blacktron line and my collection of bricks trippled it's size since 2010, I feel really addicted right now and I wonder how long this infection will last. Not sure if I should be thankful to my (now Ex-)girlfriend, that she has brought me back to the hobby.

Edited June 2, 2012 by Blacktron

[Marty McFly]

I was very into LEGO Technic in my early-mid teens (late 90s/early 00s), mostly small sets (big ones were too expensive!). Lost interest around the end of high school but after 5 years of university I picked up a discounted 8265 Front Loader from Target on an impulse.

Wasn't long before I started to check out what else was out there but didn't want to buy anything due to the high prices here in Australia. Then I discovered imports. Early in 2011 I picked up the 8053 Mobile Crane from Amazon UK, since then I've added the 8110 Unimog, 8043 Motorised Excavator and 8070 Supercar to my collection, along with a few smaller sets.

But the real renaissance was earlier this year when I grabbed my first regular LEGO set - 6860 The Batcave. The rest of the Super Heroes sets quickly followed and I'm pretty well hooked now. Hasn't helped that my housemate has a similar obsession!

So far I've been 'catching up' on sets I've missed, but plan to mainly follow licensed themes going forward. Chiefly Super Heroes and POTC so far, but LOTR is definitely in my sights (who am I kidding? I've already got them on preorder), and the upcoming Monster Fighters series is very interesting.

I don't have a lot of space to display models, so my plan is to have a rotating 'exhibit' of the different themes. At the moment it's Pirates, next will probably be LOTR, and so on.

I'd often wondered when younger who could possibly afford all the 'big' sets. And now I know: it's young professionals with plenty of disposable income.

[Angeli]

I never had Dark Ages, i.e. I've never stopped playing with Lego. But when I was in my teens I've revised "playing with Lego" into: "building with Lego", because of the girls ;)

Like my grandfather said when he saw me building: "oh, little one, when will you leave those toys and start chasing for the girls?"

Well, the two could be done simultaneously :) Like windows, multitasking :)

[Multiverse]

I've had several Dark Ages. None of which, I'd like to add, lasted more than seven minutes. =P

[______]

Never, played with LEGO since I was 6 and never looked back.

[alois]

I started building with Lego at age three, I think, in 1977. The last set I got before my dark ages was set 5510 which was released in 1986, so my dark ages must have set in somewhere around 1988. I never took any interest in Lego in the 90's and 00's, and came back to Lego in 2010 after looking for some Duplo for my daughter on the internet. I had a dark age then of about 22 years. I know therefore much about the 1978-1987 period, but almost nothing about the sets that appeared in my dark ages, leaving a strange gap in my Lego knowledge (and many 90's sets that are considered classic have no sentimental value for me at all). Nowadays I have the money and the space to buy some Lego now and then, and my modular houses layout is growing.

[kermit]

Lego was my favorite toy when I was a little kid. I built and played with them every single day till 2002 when i started college and decided to focus on my studies. I was at the point of view that I needed to be adult, a grown-up, and gave away all my lego set. I have quite a bit of vintage sets. If you are wondering, I was at ease with giving away my sets, because I expected to be busy in my new field of geography. I told myself I wouldn`t have time for lego again. But in 2009 life became boring and then I saw the Imperial Flagship. Pirates was my favorite theme when I was growing up. I picked up the set and never looked back. Now I have over one hundred sets from various themes and unfortunately running out of space. But apart from that I glad that I found my one true love, LEGO, because now I can dream again.

p.s. the first ever lego set i got was a huge restaurant, yes love at first sight.

Maybe we should start a thread about what our first lego set was.

Edited June 4, 2012 by kermit

[purpleparadox]

p.s. the first ever lego set i got was a huge restaurant, yes love at first sight.

Maybe we should start a thread about what our first lego set was.

Yup, we've got that.

[WickNole]

My "Dark Ages" ended a month ago. Lasted for about 12-13 years: from 1999, I believe, when I was 14, to late May 2012.

In the past it was all about City, and the sets are still stored at parents' place, but this year the new waves of Star Wars OT sets (plus some financial improvement) pushed me back.

[LEGOman273]

There's a lot more "mature" interests in college than there are in high school.

Such as what?

Edited June 24, 2012 by LEGOman273

[kenzaburo]

ca. 1984 - 2012 (age 14-41)

last thing i remember was playing with a cool classic space set (and those spaceman were perfect scubadivers as well). i did lose contact to lego completely (no kids in the house) and got interested when the huge millenium falcon (lego 10179) was released, but never bought it (now i wish i had of course...)

beeing a huge LOTR fan i just discovered by accident the new sets (beeing a huge movie fan i started playing the other lego games on xbox some time ago) and decided, i had to have them for my dvd/br collection on display...then i got hooked on the modular building series and here i am building lego sets again :-)

regards,

kenzaburo

[Dr Leg O Brick]

I have had a few, I bought a few sets in 2001, then none till 2005. Bought a few that year and again none till 2009 and havent stopped since.

Edited June 25, 2012 by Dr Leg O Brick

[legomr]

Well, I've had Lego toys for as long as I can think. I remember the Red-Indian Midi-figures (http://www.brickset.com/detail/?set=215-1), and a fire engine (http://www.brickset.com/detail/?Set=672-1). I still have remains of those sets.

I then was heavily into Lego Space and Technic, but interest started to fade with M-Tron. I missed Blacktron 2 and Space Police 2 completely. Strangely, I did buy two Ice Planet sets, Ice Tunnelator (http://www.brickset.com/detail/?Set=6814-1) and Sea Plane (http://www.brickset.com/detail/?Set=1711-1). But that was really it.

Next thing I know, I buy the Creator Mini Jet (http://www.brickset.com/detail/?Set=6741-1) in 2010. For fun. And in the last two years, I have probably gathered four or five times as much Lego as I had during my whole childhood...

[Chills]

I was really into LEGO since I was 4 (1980) until I was mid-high school (early 1990s). Then college, then the Army, and now I've been settled as a civilian for a number of years and I came out totally from the dark ages last Christmas.

So close to 20 years of dark ages. Ouch, just thinking of all those awesome sets I've missed out on hurts.

[ShaydDeGrai]

My first Lego set was #603 the Vintage Car. It was a gift from my "rich" aunt (the classic relative that tires to curry favor with other people's kids by giving gifts that the parents can't afford). I guess I was a cheap date because I enjoyed it so much and was so grateful that I soon got #600 Ambulance, #601 Tow Truck, and #620 Fire Truck. It was the start of a hobby that would last for decades, but was often financially beyond my means, often saving up for months to buy a single, small kit. The 1980's were particularly hard, as there were many, many sets that I wanted, but saving and paying for university consumed most of my budget. I finally had to take to avoiding toy stores so I wouldn't know what I was missing.

This was my dark age. Other than the occasional gift, I was Lego-less (at least with respect to new sets) for about a decade.

Then in 1996, I wandered into a Toys R Us and saw #8480 Technic Space Shuttle. By this time, I finally had a disposable income and while my friends were spending money on various vices, I'd yet to find a suitable well into which pour my excess income. I bought the shuttle, put it together that night and had more fun by myself than I'd had in years. That was when I decided to make up for a frugal childhood and modest Lego collection. I went back to Toys R Us the next week and walked out with a couple dozen or so more sets including one of each of all the Castle-Royal Knights, Technic, Aquazone and Pirates lines that they had in inventory. I've been hooked ever since.

Obviously some lines have held more appeal for me than others and that disposable income I once had isn't as disposable anymore, but Lego is still my vice of choice.

[nibor]

25/26 years :(

I thought it was much less but Google shows the last set I got was from 1986 (8620).

I loved the early space and technic stuff, it was what I always wanted for birthdays and Christmas. Last week I bought 8110 and 8043 after a good quarter century away. First time building studless, in some ways it seams easier as there are so many more pieces to choose from but that gives you more options to work the imagination............. I'm going to start by remote controlling the Unimog and then have a go at building a cherry picker.

Feels good to be back :)

[LEGO Historian]

I came out of my Dark Ages in 1979 while visiting relatives in Germany and discovering all the rich plunder of very old LEGO sets found in small toy stores there (clearance sales were unknown to small European toy stores) so I went on a 13 year buying spree visiting Germany every summer until 1993, and found hundreds of rare sets and especially spare parts packs.

Back then I was the only LEGO collector I knew about (no internet)... and there were no secondary market sources for parts... so I ended up buying strange quantities of certain sets to get parts I needed... such as 34 London Bus sets (USA 760 version)... 50 of the 455 Lear Jet sets, 25 of the 6626 Ambulance Helicopter Sets, 10 6075 Yellow Castle Sets, 15 of the 6390 Main Street Sets, and dozens of the USA Homemaker sets (261, 268, 269, 5233, 5235) since tiles were relatively unknown in USA sets.

It was a lonely time back then... no other AFOLs known to me... it wasn't until I did a toy store display that got into the local newspaper (that TLG found out about, and sent a representative to my house in 1985). Later that year I got a call from Henry Wiencek, author of THE WORLD OF LEGO TOYS, and am the only AFOL (page 30) mentioned in that book.

I was also on a Canadian special "25 Years of LEGO in Canada" on the Canadian TV Show "The Journal" (I only lived 7 miles from the Canadian border in Detroit).

But it wasn't until 1998 that I got involved in RTL.Rec.Toys and then LUGNET... and the rest is history.

I think that Dark Ages today are going to either be of short duration or permanent for LEGO enthusiasts. There is a LEGO Universe that most of today's collectors know about, that was unknown to me 30+ years ago. Being an AFOL is no longer something that you would want to hide or be ashamed of (not the case 30 years ago)... and there's all the secondary marketplaces for building your dreams that were just not around decades ago.

Leg Godt....

[Marc2501]

Never, but i had "inactive" times :)

[littlerobin]

Growing up in the Soviet Union, I didn't have any Lego. I remember having a house building set with white bricks and tiny blue tiles for the roof (those were supposed to be clipped to the rafters-rails one by one). I do not think it was Lego though. So I guess I can count it as extremely long Dark Age.

After coming to US I started buying Lego sets when my kids were old enough to play with them. At the beginning I was extremely annoyed with all of the little pieces scattered around the house and my hopeless attempts to contain and organize the "mess" lol. Over the years I got used to Lego and even designated some special building and storage areas for the kids, but only this year when I saw LoTR sets, Lego "spoke to me"! I still didn't build any of those (they are in a closet, waiting for Christmas morning), but I did build a small Lego town with my kids and several small sets, from our old collection. I also discovered a joy of poly bag Lego and other, then LoTR, licensed sets. I bought a Medieval Market Village and going to try to use it for the scene from LoTR when hobbits meet Aragorn for the first time. Does it count as coming out of Dark Ages?

[SNIPE]

I'm sort of in the dark age now but I get it on/off all of the time for about a year now , I have lots of ideas but cant build them either because there is no suitable parts or because I dont know where to start.

I am not good at all with bodywork and dont know how to piece it all together, maybe I just need to keep practising building in real life than in LDD but it takes time to get a part I need.

I can build a gearbox, engine or suspention/dif/wheels but when i gets to the chassis its hard, I dont know where to start with that and the bodywork and other small parts.

I'm ok at modding offitial sets but again trying to do that in LDD is a pain in the neck.

Maybe sariels book will help too.

Edited November 21, 2012 by SNIPE

[T-Bricky]

My dark age lasted 20+ years.......a lost generation!!