|
|
Namir says "Yo".
There are lots of stories to be retold with many a Lego
actor playing a part. This page is to be simply a collection of
stories & text that will provide background information & interesting
reading.
At a glance Table of Contents:
 |
Timeline Near as I can figure, here's how
I progressed through the ages.
 |
My first set was
a Lego tanker I got when I was 2. This officially makes some of
the pieces in my collection older than me (it was made in 1972, the year
I was born). |
|
Apparently then
it was all about trains in the 1970s. I don't have any of the
boxes or instructions, or even remember these as sets. All I
remember are the flat train platforms. |
|
Then we started
gettin busy. The late 1970s found the awesome invention that is
Expert Builder. I was in heaven. Gears, moving parts, things
that did things with turns of cranks, too freakin cool! |
|
I think there
was a brief turn where I started in on Town, and I picked up some other
Town or City sets, and a Universal Building Set, which was pretty cool.
Buildings! |
|
There, in the
1980s, it was all about Space. Classic Space. I think I got
almost every space set from 1979 to 1986 with a bunch after that till
1990. This was my favorite. I liked building the spaceships
the best, then cities for them to fly around in. Cities need
buildings, so I built lots of those too. |
|
1990 saw me as a
senior in high school, about to graduate & go away to college. I
think that's the year I mothballed the entire operation. It moved
from attic to attic until I got my own house, where they are currently.
So sad. |
|
The years 1990
to present saw me pining for my cities & ships. Every now & then
I'd pick up a small set here or there, or even a large set. I love
them as dearly as the rest, but a small empty spot resides in my heart.
Because as cool as a single set may be on it's own as well as it's
variations, it pales in comparison to what it could be when absorbed by
the entire collection. Some of you know how it feels. I'm
very proud of that time in my life, and would not have traded it for
anything. |
|
|
Philosophy When I grew up, Lego was
young and had only a couple of themes: Duplo for the young uns, Expert
Builder for the older kids, and Town for the in-between, and Trains for
the Railroad freaks. Now there are so many, I can't keep track any
more. Themes & sub-themes enough to make your head spin.
As I grew up, I became very angry that so many different themes with their
specialized pieces came to be. I scoffed at what I thought were
stupid things like boat hulls, nets, trees, faces with expressions, etc.
|
What use is there
with these, that cannot be combined with another piece, and just sits
there useless. Why not buy a non-Lego toy for crying out loud?
If you want to make a tree, by gum get yourself some 1x2s & make it!
Why would Lego do something so contradictory to the very core of a
building toy? I mean, Bionicle? C'mon! I was very angry
for a very long time.
Eventually, I saw
that Lego was not going back to the old way of doing things, and was in
fact accelerating the rate that new specialized pieces & sets were coming
out. Everything from robots where almost every piece was
non-combinable, to entire playsets that reminded me of Playskool.
However, there were still places an old Lego Maniac such as myself could
go. Technic still is going strong, and is evolving into better
pieces to more accurately model physics of machines. Space, City &
Castle can still be had as core precepts, as well as Train. There
are even greater things that came down the pike as well. Like
Robotics. The concept of building a robot, then building a program
to run it, that Lego Evolved!
The end result is
(as I write this at age 32) that I can see how it can be a very powerful
marketing ploy (Read the Harry Potter book, see the movie, now play with
it in your own home!). As a kid can see the different things to get
into, it becomes more exciting. I personally don't like it, and
would rather have sets with tons of pieces, so I can build bigger cities.
Oh well.
|
Lego City Culture Wow. I have
all these sets now, and all these minifigs. A city needs order.
A political structure so to speak. Lets get organized! I
basically ordered them so the most plentiful were the worker drones, and the
singular minifigs were specialized.
|
Blue: Since I only
had one of him, he was Supreme Commander of the entire Lego Nation.
|
|
Black: I had a
couple of these, but one in particular had a black fireman's helmet.
He was Second in Command, or Black Commander. The rest of the Black
guys were base security.
|
|
White: These were
the Science guys. There were all about research, and making a better
city. There were usually found on research or exploration vessels, or
in labs.
|
|
Red: What other
color are you going to pick for Weapons Management? They usually had
bad tempers & were a bit on the klutzy side. It made for amusing
stories.
|
|
Yellow: I had
a billion of these. So basically these guys were everything else.
They ran around causing what chaos had not already been started by the Reds,
and threw a bit more fuel on the fires.
|
|
Blackie: She had
yarn for hair, and was pretty much the only level-headed person on the base.
She did everything!
|
|
|
