This thread seems like a very good place to drop my first post, so I'll jump in here...
I too grew up with Classic Space, and have spent a lot of time recently restoring old sets. Some of these sets were the remnants of what I originally had back in the late 70s/early 80s, collected from various boxes, outbuildings, and garage floors at my parents' house (I handed my well-kept sets down to my kid brothers when I moved out for college, and sentenced a lot of bricks to their doom that day!).
The main point I wanted to emphasize is the feeling that comes with having your own original childhood bricks. Even if you have to replace some or most of the parts to rebuild a set, there's just nothing quite like knowing that at least part of the set you have before you is the same one you had back in the day. When I got what was left of my original sets back (a few small plastic baggies with a handful of pieces from sets including the holy trinity of the Yellow Castle, Galaxy Explorer, and Main Street), I kept them separate from the rest of the bricks I obtained, just so I could say to myself, "these are my ORIGINAL bricks!" It might be a sad, meager remnant, but I count myself lucky to have any of my original LEGO at all. Some people don't have even a single piece left.
At some point, I had collected enough Classic Space spare parts that I felt I might be able to rebuild the first CS set I ever had: my old Alpha-1 Rocket Base. It was a tough decision, though, because it meant I had to combine my original childhood Alpha-1 parts with these other parts gathered from who knows where...and once they were mixed together, knew I could never go back and separate them out again. But the thought of having my original set, or at least part of it, present and assembled again was incentive enough to do it. So I did. And soon I had Alpha-1 before me once again. The feeling of nostalgia was so much stronger knowing that I played with many of those same bricks back when I was 8 or 9...especially because it was on my original crater plate, which had managed to survive pretty intact through the years. I replaced the missing basic bricks with the nicest or newest ones I could find, while trying to stay era-correct as much as possible on the specialty parts. In the end, I felt like I'd managed to reach into the past and pull my old set back, and it gives me no end of joy thinking of it. Now, it's true I could probably buy a complete set in better condition with box & instructions, and have what is essentially the same thing. But it wouldn't be the same. The one I have now is steeped in my own history, my own memories, and nothing can match that.
I've since done the same with the original Rocket Launcher, Police Headquarters, and Engine Co. No. 9 sets that I used to have, and have been very happy to see those sets come to life again. Sadly, there just aren't enough parts for the 3 big holy trinity sets to be rebuilt, so I have had to replace them. I was lucky enough to score a Yellow Castle in near-perfect condition with many of the stickers still on the sheet, and a Main Street that looks great apart from an unfortunate number of tooth marks. Still seeking the Galaxy Explorer, but one day soon it will complete the circle.
As far as advice on restoring sets goes, here's some things I've found:
- Even just scrubbing between the studs on baseplates and the larger of the regular plates really works wonders for making the set look new again.
- It's great to be able to replace a worn element from one of your childhood sets with a newer/nicer one, but you always have to weigh out whether or not keeping the original intact is better for nostalgia's sake.
- You can use a product like Novus or Brasso to shine up scratched window elements, which is particularly good if you want to preserve your original childhood parts.
I've really enjoyed reading this thread, Rufus...thanks for this and for the one on the Yellow Castle from earlier!
--SKot
