DrJB

Which set brought you out of your 'dark' age?

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Still there really i think. Entered them in 1990 with the purchase of 8850 and though i dreamed of 8860 still, even back then, ebay not existing to me and had it done so the price of them was out of reach. 8850 saw me with 6 smooth running round pistons and a differential. I looked at 8865 when it was current and though i thought it interesting, cost was a factor again. From probably 91 onwards i never really gave things another thought as life took over and golf, bmx, motorcycles, and studies pushed it aside.

2009 i split with my girlfriend and through some retail therapy involving a saxophone, the box set of the rockford files, two more suzuki's, and another couple of other things i'd always wanted, 8860 came into my life and was since never out of eyeshot and played with periodically, life got in the way again.

Last year i got run over on one of my suzukis by a young girl who wasn't looking where she was driving and made a mess of my leg. Enter long recovery/non employment/climbing the walls. One day while thumbing through a back issue of a subscription i have called "Oldtimer Markt" i spotted the big orange unimog and saw how far things had come. Got a bit of googling on and found out what i'd missed. Figured i'd grab something to keep myself amused and trawled through what was out there on offer. I discounted 8070 as a bit gimmicky, and though 8448's 5 speed seemed appealing, the body and construction type put me off. Suddenly, down to between 8865 and 8880 i figured the snchro box was enough of a draw and a cheapy was procured, once again off ebay. It's flawed, as was the 8860 before it and delving into ways to fettle out some of their shortcomings and make them more playable has kept me amused quite pleasantly since.

So i suppose, 8110 prompted my return (even if its now 4 years old and discontinued) and i should see the one i've ordered in the next week or two. Overall, when you compare the price of them, to how much time you can invest into even a basic set, and how well they last and retain relevance in your lives they're pretty damn good value for money. Like anybody, i wish i had more parts to build with and shall procure a few bibs and bobs, but the next new set i look at getting, if at all, will have to be something pretty special.

But never say never.

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Been lurking all this while...

I'd say the 42009 was the set that brought me out of the dark ages. Have read almost all the recent comments on this thread and see that this is the same set that has brought many of us back to LEGO. It is really a toy that brings us back to our childhood although the 42009 was a really tough set to build.

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Another 42009er here. So far it's mainly inspired me to:

1. get my old studded flagships (8880, 8485) out of the loft;

2. search through the "miscellaneous Lego" boxes to try and reassemble my even older ones in non-chewed form (8854, 8856);

3. eBay the flagship-I'd-always-wanted-but-couldn't-be-seen-to-keep-buying-toys-as-a-teenager-and-moved-into-audio-equipment-instead (8480).

Other recent sets haven't inspired me enough to part with the cash required (old crane truck and unimog a bit too pricey), but that may change with the new Arocs...

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I'm a bit surprised that many consider 42009 to be a landmark set ... but somehow, 8043 is far superior, in my own assessment, naturally.

8043-1.jpg?2 vs. 42009-1.jpg?2

Edited by DrJB

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Well i Think it's Hard to choose wich is better of 8043 and 42009..

I have them both, build as Juergens Ultimates and they are both pretty damn impressive!

But as the crane is Hard to build and very very complicated, it Doesn't do much else than lift stuff..

Impressive as it is, i find it relatively boring over time.. i would'nt miss it, but the ultimate 8043 is just more fun when upgraded to actually being able to dig something! :)

If you dig something Like bird seeds or beans, the next Challenge you will meet is getting a proper truck or dumper to load your material into :)

Having a pair of construction vehicles to dig with, is just more fun than a crane..

That's why I prefer the 8043 the most.. :)

Edited by H3NRIK

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While I also prefer 8043 to 42009 I don't think it's such a stretch to cite the mobile crane as a "landmark" set. I would say that some of it could be attributed to not being able to purchase 8043 or even see it in person to compare it with 42009. I can't speak for those in this thread but if they were only seriously thinking of getting back into Lego in the last couple of years then a £200+ out-of-print set was never an option. If you had made this thread before 42009 I suspect we'd see a similar trend with 8110 (replacing 42009) and 8043.

You've also got to factor in the sheer part count of 42009 - it [currently] has the most parts of any Technic set. That's a big draw for tempting people out of a Dark Age and back into a hobby which is known for being expensive at the best of times. YMMV on how much value for money the 42009 parts actually represent, but the "endless pins" debate is probably best had in another thread. Again, the numbers argument extends to the boom extension and I think the number of axles/wheels? (Correct me on this if necessary). As with most things nowadays the headline figures of the crane grab people's attention, perhaps moreso than anything individual aspect of 8043 at first glance. Add that to the assumption that bigger => more complex => better and it's not hard to see why 42009 is so well received.

(I should point out that I do like 42009 a lot, despite just denouncing it in the above paragraphs!)

As for the set that brought me out of my Dark Age, it was 8110. I had the choice between that and 9398 but the crawler was never going to win; I had the chance to finally get a pneumatics set that my parents never saw fit to get me as a child...

Also first post, hello, AFOL, Technic fan, etc.

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I see some people being surprised 42009 is so popular. Remember this topic is not about which is the better set, 42009 or 8043. It's about which set brought you out of your Dark Age and apparently after the release of 42009 many people realized Lego is awesome.

I wrote 8880 for me but I think 8275 can be a reason to get into Lego again as well. It only took some time for me to buy. Glad it was still available back then.

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For me it was not the case that the 42009 was the reason to step from Dark Age. Decision was made, and 42009 was there.

It was on discount at the moment and the fact that it is biggest set ever (number of parts) was enough.

I cannot compare it with 8043 or 8110, but if i compare it with 42030 i must admit that i like 42009 more.

It is just that i love the building experience probably more than the final product, especially building

all those contraptions with all that gears.

Edited by cehtunger

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It is just that i love the building experience probably more than the final product, especially building

all those contraptions with all that gears.

Amen!..

I also remember how I felt when i made 8043 the first time, with the switch gear and aaaaaalll those gears...

I was awestruck by the design and compexity !

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I see some people being surprised 42009 is so popular. Remember this topic is not about which is the better set, 42009 or 8043 ...

Thanks for reminding me :sadnew: . I should know better, as it is I who started this thread :wink:

Edited by DrJB

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After many (more than 20) years in the dark age, known as the years without any LEGO, I was shown the light by 8052 Container Truck, in 2010.

Now, I am hooked (addicted) to the Technic :)

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9397 and 42010, but I only went to detail them otherwise this is what jump started everything then came my 8110 the pride of my small collection. Last year I got so hooked again to Lego, my first year of collecting sets I feel enough cool kicked started it to about 40 sets then some parts order and hunted down 41999.

Edited by MrPaulo23

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As shown in my signature my dark age began after 8851 and ended with a discounted 8466, which I got for 800 SEK (appr. 80 €) at the local TRU. It turned out to be a good deal!

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While I also prefer 8043 to 42009 I don't think it's such a stretch to cite the mobile crane as a "landmark" set. I would say that some of it could be attributed to not being able to purchase 8043 or even see it in person to compare it with 42009. I can't speak for those in this thread but if they were only seriously thinking of getting back into Lego in the last couple of years then a £200+ out-of-print set was never an option. If you had made this thread before 42009 I suspect we'd see a similar trend with 8110 (replacing 42009) and 8043.

8043 is not a £200+ set. At the moment several can be had on bricklink in the £120-150 price range. But i am afraid you are right because most of those people will probably don't know about BL yet.

Edited by Kelkschiz

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Why all the 8043 vs 42009 stuff? Isn't this topic about which set(s) brought the individual user out of their dark age?

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8043 is not a £200+ set. At the moment several can be had on bricklink in the £120-150 price range. But i am afraid you are right because most of those people will probably don't know about BL yet.

This is what I was getting at, thanks for the clarification. I would be confident in saying that most people coming out of their dark ages won't have taken the time to look into Bricklink and will have bought their set from a shop or ebay (hence the exorbitant price). In my case the decision to buy the Unimog was on impulse - it was probably another two months until I stumbled upon BL.

Why all the 8043 vs 42009 stuff? Isn't this topic about which set(s) brought the individual user out of their dark age?

It is, so seeing as I've helped drag it off-topic let's get back to it: I was talking to a friend recently who also came out of his dark age with a Technic set. His last experiences with Technic were 8880 and 8480 (I spent a lot of time at his house when we were young...) so he was very hesitant about the change to studless construction. But he bought 8109 and thankfully he hasn't looked back since.

Edited by Jay Psi

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8288 crawler crane. I saw it on Amazon in 2007 and bought it. It had been 7 years since I bought any kind of lego set. Been re-addicted ever since.

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8295 was the one that got me. Saw it at a ToysRUs when shopping for sets for my nephew. I remember saying to myself: "wow, lego has linear actuator now! There's no limits now to what you can do!"

There was no turning back since.

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As a child i never had real lego, it was not sold at that time in my country. Latvia at that time was in soviet uninion. But ... there was something like that. One day my father brought home something like this. I remember, that there was logo on bricks, something like BEPE. But i can't find anything like this. And i think that it was from Germany (east).

Then, on my (about) 33. birthday my brother presented me http://brickset.com/sets/7213-1/Off-Road-Fire-Truck-Fireboat . And then evererything started. But mainly for my childrens. We started to buy Lego as presents for them. For daughter - Friend series, for son - city, chima, bionicle.

For me it started last year, when i bought for me 42000-1: Grand Prix Racer...

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For me return to Technic occured this year with one week with borrowed 42030 and purchase of 42009. Now the crane done I'm heading towards Jurgen's Ultimate but missing still lot of parts, as my old ~1989 sets even as flagships do not help too much here...

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For me it was 8453--the small front end loader. I bought it in 2003 on a whim for myself along with Kopaka Nuva for my 5 yr old son Kopaka's bits & pieces still see the light of day, and 8453 is still in original form holding pride of place alongside numerous larger sets.

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NXT 1.0 briefly got me out of my dark ages in 2007. Then I went dark again. Eventually 42009, GBC videos, and my son's growing interest in Lego all pulled me out of the dark for what is probably going to be a long time in the light :-).

The Technic/NXT line is starting to get a bit old to me though... I'm probably going to start branching out a bit. The "Beautiful Lego" books really opened my eyes to the artistic possibilities of Lego outside the Technic line. I wish the Architecture series wasn't so stagnant and overpriced.

Cheers,

-Mark Rebuck

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Well, it all started again when I found my old Legos in the attic and decided to put it all together, but the first new set was Unimog for my birthday in 2013. As I couldn't decide between 8110 and 42009, later I bought 42009 for Christmas (nice present for myself) and I was hooked.

It would be easier on my wallet if I quit again but it doesn't look like it anytime soon.

Edited by PiotrekJ

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For me, I'd have to say it was 42000 and 8070. Those really pushed my love of Technic and, particularly, Lego cars. Also got me to switch from studded to studless.

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