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

[Grimmbeard]

I've never had a dark age for as long as I picked up a brick. Lego has and always will be a part of my life.

[Hrw-Amen]

I started out when i was about two years old and my parents bought me some LEGO, (I think my dad bought it for himself as he played with it more than me to start with.) that would have been around 1969-1970. As time progressed I amassed more and more and was building it right up until I left home to go and work away in about 1986. Even then when I bought my first house in around 1987-8 I was still buying sets. I bought a lot of the larger space related sets from Ice Planet, Blacktron, Space Police etc that my parents had not been able to afford then. I then changed jobs in 1991 and in 1995 was transferred to a different area of the country, back to where I came from. As a result I had to rent out my house and move back to my parents. The house prices where they lived where just too expensive for me to afford so I had no choice. I think this was when I stopped building and it was simply down to not having space having gone from a whole house to myself to one bedroom. Most of it was stacked away in the attic at my parents.

Then I got married in 2002 and bought a new house having had to sell my old one that I'd rented out. For a while I did not think of LEGO but then I was out shopping with my wife and we saw the collectable mini-figs and she asked what they were. We bought a couple out of nostalgia more than anything and that was it really.

That must have been around 2009/10 I guess, (When-ever the collectable mini-figs first came out?)

So I guess the Dark Age was from about 1995 to 2009'ish, but more to do with constraints of space than actually wanting to stop.

[stan_the_man]

The first set I remember having was the Test Car (8865) so I was around 6-7 years old then. Loved the pop up headlights and the moving seats. The last set I remember having was the Technic Space Shuttle (8480), so it was probably around 1997 that I stopped playing properly with it (aged 15). In between that I always had lots of Pirate, Castle, Space and Underwater lego, but Technic was definitely my favourite.

My biggest regret is getting rid of it all - I had massive bucket loads but can't even remember where most of it went, but I do (shamefully) remember throwing the Shuttle away in the wheelie bin when I was about 19 and clearing out of my room. Still can't believe I did it, especially now I'm building up a collection again.

My recent purchases started October this year after a trip into the Downtown Disney store while on holiday made me want the Supercar (8070), so I guess my dark age was 1997-2012.

[Darthluke824]

I had a small Dark Age from around February 2011 to August 2011. I got back into LEGO when I woke up one morning and said to myself: "I really feel like a LEGO set!" Apart from that, I have always enjoyed LEGO from around 2001.

[Mariano]

Too many years.

I don´t remember the beginning, but was many years ago.

I returned when discovered the 7898 Cargo Train Deluxe.

[Leo604]

2008-11 for me when I started getting addicted to my Wii and the such. Once I stopped with that, I found myself sort of bored one day, picked up an ARC-170 from Walmart and got back into Lego.

[LEGO Historian]

I think the record for a dark ages is a fellow from Portugal named Joao. LEGO came to that country in late 1957, and his parents bought him some sets and parts packs back around then... and he stopped playing by 1960. When his parents passed away in 2006, he found that his mother had saved all his childhood LEGO and stored them lovingly in a drawer. He was so touched, that he started collecting again (only the early stuff)... and has done a lot of research on old LEGO molds. He is still active... but his Dark Ages lasted 46 years!!

I learned much of the LEGO information of Portugal from the early years of LEGO (not well documented by the LEGO Archives) that I used in my LEGO DVD/download collectors guide. For some reason Portugal "got little respect" from TLG when it came to Portuguese items. There was, for example, never a 226 Printed Bricks parts pack specific to Portugal... TLG shipped Swiss (German/French) printed bricks parts packs to Portugal. So there are no Portuguese language printed bricks... and even TEATRO (which would be correct for Portugal as "THEATER")... is from the Italian 226 parts pack.

[TheRedGuy]

When I bought the Xbox 360 (2007), I said to myself "Screw Lego, I'm not some kid" but one day I saw a Lego set on sale and bought it. Now I sold/gave most of my consoles

[Hey Joe]

I was never much into Lego as a kid, they were just simple blocks back then. I spent hours playing with them but I spent hours playing with lots of stuff, dirt and rocks for example. Recently, my son has served to interest me in them. It's a strength I think, not to feel so much nostalgia for Lego. My judgement isn't clouded.

[DarthBrickus]

21 years between and

[Soluzar]

I'm sad to say it lasted about 20 years... I kept on telling myself that I couldn't afford, didn't need and didn't really want LEGO all that much. I've recently given in to the urges though. I hope I can afford a decent sized collection.

[rpmac91]

About 7 for me I think. I just got back into lego Summer 2012. Every once in a while during that time I would peruse down the lego aisle at target, or browse the internet just to see what Lego was up to, but never bought anything. And then I found out about the Lord of the Rings line, and couldn't pass it up. Unfortunately I missed some other good things while in my dark age, like some of the town modulars that are now retired. I want to get out my old collection and bring it down to school, but I already have almost no room in my apartment.

[Zaterdag]

For me it was from 2005 - November 2012. I guess I got into video games and felt like I was "too old" for Lego. But I'd always check them out whenever I was at Walmart or something similar.

Then one day I saw they had the collectable minifigures line. I picked up a bunch from series 6, 7 and 8 and loved them.

Then I bought a bunch of the Monster Fighters sets and I just couldn't stop. It's kind of funny I now barely play video games and am into Lego again.

I now own a ton of Star Wars sets and just today actually I bought 9473 The Mines of Moria.

[Speedboat]

I think my Dark Ages must have begun when I was 11 or 12. The 8880 LEGO Technic Super Car was probably one of the last sets I got. I sold this set and my precious Black Seas Barracuda a few years later and still regret it today. Most of my childhood bricks are still at my parents' place but I keep them apart from the sets I have bought over the last few years. I got back into LEGO three years ago when my interest in Star Wars was rekindled. I took a LEGO catalogue home and found the 7672 Rogue Shadow. The set immediately had my attention though I didn't know anything about the video game. I found a good deal on ebay, got the set a few days later, found the awesome AFOL community on the internet and gladly wished my Dark Ages farewell.

So I guess my Dark Ages lasted about 12-13 years.

[cortman]

Hard to say for certain, but I'm going to say mine was 11 years, from 2001 to 2012. Late last year I began to get into the hobby again, like many others with the advent of the LOTR sets. But I've been delving into many different themes, mostly buying whatever I can find for about 40% or more off MSRP. I also bought a bunch of used LEGO lots for MOC'ing parts. They don't make for as nice builds, being scratched up some, but they're cheap and I can hardly bring myself to part out any of my sets.

[mcphisto]

About 15-17 years... I don't remember which one was my last set...

I've been reading about Lego some of this time, but it's been with the Collectable Minifigs that I've returned to Lego life!

[LEGO Guy Bri]

My dark age started in 2002, I was starting high school, parties, girls, cars, etc. became much more interesting. My last sets, bought by my parents where the 10036 Pizza-to-Go and 10037 Breezeway Cafe, re-releases from 2002. I did receive 7944 Fire Hovercraft from my brother for Christmas '07. Though not actively collecting, it was nice to build once again, but that would be it until fourth quarter, 2009. Something hit me out of the blue that made me want to look up LEGO on eBay. I found a bunch of old sets, I missed when I was a kid. I also found EB, but only lurked. The first set I purchased was a MISB 10159 Century Skyway. One I really wanted ever since I saw it in a '94 two sided mini mag, but had long been discontinued. Been buying ever since

[shadowhearth]

Well I guess I putted away my lego at age of 14-15. I drifted away with a help of video games, PC hardware/software, learning programming/web design.

I got back in to lego on Xmas of 2012. I was planing on buying another upgrade for my PC, but one of the lads in gaming forum started a thread about lego as adult. I started doing more research and discovered how far lego gone in technic world. All the fantastic creation and truc trial reallyade my jaw drop.

So great thing about Xmas presents when it comes toe and misses. We set up a budget and buy ourselfs whatever we want as as presents. So I ended up ordering 350eu worth of lego technic online lol! Now I am looking for next sets to buy so I can start doing my own mocs. So many choice. So little money :) .

Sad things is I lost all my childhood lego. There is no way getting it back due to some life events. :( . The other sad ( or good ) thing that I started looking for those sets second had I had. The biggest set I had worth only 20eu now. So all that lego that I had in childhood was quite a small amount. For me it was the biggest pile of lego ever imagined. It gave me so much entertainment for years. It's quite amazing how important it was for me back then and it's sort of sad as how it is unveluable these days.

[RodimusMike]

I too was not much of a Lego enthusiast in my youth,other things like Star Wars,Transformers,and GIJoe were mostly my thing back in the 80's,and then a couple of years just before the new millenium we discovered the internet,and then about late 2001 or early 2002 I found out about Lego's and some of them were just plain spectacular so I started getting some when I got a little bit of money and would sit there and put them together.Then after two or three years I lost interest since I started getting back into Transformers,but I did keep them in storage.Then after the second Transformers movie and total crap lineup of figures I quit buying transformers,and got back into collecting Lego's again in about 2011 I ended up seeing Pirates of the Carribean On Stranger Tides and went berserk and started buying everything that had to do with it,including the Lego Black Pearl and other Lego sets for that movie and thats how I came back to these after 5 years or so.

[teleing]

When I was 14, I stopped playing with legos, now I'm 20 and bought the 8043 motorized excavator, that made me remeber how awesome Lego is.

[Repeter]

I was pretty hardcore into Lego as a kid, in the late 70s, early 80s (still have these sets). As a teenager and young adult, I still collected action figures and would occasionally purchase a small Lego set when the urge hit, but really didn't collect. In 2001, I was working at a KB toy store for the holiday season and used my employee discount to get about ten sets--mostly SW and Fright Knight stuff. I built them and put them away. I then got into tabletop gaming, painting and customizing metal and plastic minis. This took up nearly all my hobby time until summer of 2012. I'd decided I'd had enough of the mini-gaming world, but still needed something for my creative side.

The super hero sets and Monster Fighters really brought me back into the fold. I quickly collected all the available sets, but wanted even more! Modern Lego is just so slick--tons of features and gorgeous design. Last weekend, I got into purist super hero customization, which will most likely send me into the poor house. Oh well, at least I'll have some great minifigs!

[RaincloudDustbin]

I've always been in to LEGO but switched to action figures for about 2 years before getting back into it and focusing on it ever since.

[Zeenohs]

I had access to Lego throughout my childhood as my father gave me all of his old sets from the 70's and 80's. I got my last set as a youngling in 2005, and it happened to be a street sweeper city set. Just a small one, but I did quite like it. From 2005 until 2012 I didn't have much to do with Lego, but in 2012 I got back on the wagon because of my interest in macro photography.

2012 was my last year of high school, and I was doing a photography course, and I needed a theme to create a portfolio. Somehow, I got the (not-so-original) idea to do macro Lego Star Wars photography. Over the period of a couple of weeks I dug out my old sets, built them up, found minifigures, dusted them off, etc, and started taking photos.

Except, I needed more minifigures for my portfolio, so I looked into what sets were available. Turns out Lego started doing those little battle packs for Star Wars which were incredibly helpful for building small armies. Naturally, I continued buying more and more of the 2012 sets. So for the last two years or so, I've been on and off buying Lego, building, displaying, designing in LDD, and what-not, but the period between 2005 and 2012 is the longest I've gone without contact with the Lego world.

Oh, and shameless plug is shameless: http://zeenohs.deviantart.com/ for all your floral and Lego photography needs.

[Final Exit]

I don't think I was ever really away but since the Star Wars sets were made I have slowly moved closer to my old lego days and have now surpassed them in terms of buying sets, I must have spent £300 so far this year, must slow down as there is a lot of brick days left in 2013!

[Tocko]

I had exactly three sets when I was I kid: #6450, #6067 and #6876. I remember playing a lot with Guarded Inn and Alienator, not so much with police truck.

I got back into Lego when I got kids of my own. I started buying them duplo sets and discovered all the wonderful D2C sets like Modular Buildings and MMV. That was in autumn of 2010. I remember buying Green Grocer just a month before it EOLed.