Hi there,
as i was born on the other side of the iron fence that went through germany, i grew up as kid building with PeBe bricks, which was an east german system compatible to lego. i had tons of it and there wasn't anything else i needed as a kid. one thing really bugged me though, PeBe didn't have any mini figs, as my neighbor's lego sets hat. so i desperately harassed my west german relatives to send me lego instead of match box cars. after years of begging i finally recieved two sets very late in the 80s shortly before the wall came down. after that i was able to buy lego myself and got really hooked. unfortunately, at 15/16 playing in a punk rock band was more exciting and my bricks became dusty, until my brother stole them from me for his own son to play with - then i didn't care
however, now being a father myself, i finally had a really good excuse to start buying lego sets again, and so i spent some 200 euros or so since last september and i can't stop it again ... (i just hope my wife doesn't find out how much i spent) ...