Nostalgia (sort of)
When I was a kid I used to play with Lego's (or more correctly, LEGO construction toys). My brother, sister and I had a small collection of bricks that we had accumulated over the years. I'm talking vintage stuff here as a lot of it was collected during the sixties and early seventies.
One of the sets I had was a Universal Motor Set and I vaguely remember having an Idea Book that showed a lot of models you could make if you had enough bricks. I used to long for the day that I would have enough bricks to build one of the city scenes with it.
But as we grew older we decided we to sell the collection (a very bad idea!) and divvy up the money. And sure enough, a relatively short while after the sale we (my brother and I) had second thoughts about the sale (my brother even tried to buy the collection back, to no avail) and we had to live with the loss of our collection.
So now that I have kids myself I'm checking out garage sales and thrift stores in search of LEGO construction blocks and also search the internet for LEGO related sites. One of the sites dedicated to LEGO called Peeron provided detailed inventories of LEGO sets and I used their services to check my purchases for completeness. Recently I discovered that they started providing scans of building instructions and idea books.
There I found the idea book and instructions for little sets I used to own. Usually I'm not a nostalgic person, but this made me think of the Universal Motor Set I played with as a kid. One night I checked eBay and found a 1976 Universal Motor Set.
1976 LEGO Universal Motor Set #107
At first I thought this was 'my' set and I placed the winning bid, but on closer inspection I found that this one must be the next generation of Universal Motor Sets because I don't recall my motor having a LEGO Technic brick and axles included in the set. Our collection was from the pre-Technic era.
Oh well, the small differences between 'my' set and the set I purchased off eBay will not stand in the way of feeling 'warm-and-fuzzy' about it. Now I can't wait to start building as I have accumulated about three to four times as many bricks as I ever had as a kid. All I have to do is sort and clean them since thrift store and garage sale finds vary greatly in the condition and cleanliness.
But that story may be a separate blog posting....
One of the sets I had was a Universal Motor Set and I vaguely remember having an Idea Book that showed a lot of models you could make if you had enough bricks. I used to long for the day that I would have enough bricks to build one of the city scenes with it.
But as we grew older we decided we to sell the collection (a very bad idea!) and divvy up the money. And sure enough, a relatively short while after the sale we (my brother and I) had second thoughts about the sale (my brother even tried to buy the collection back, to no avail) and we had to live with the loss of our collection.
So now that I have kids myself I'm checking out garage sales and thrift stores in search of LEGO construction blocks and also search the internet for LEGO related sites. One of the sites dedicated to LEGO called Peeron provided detailed inventories of LEGO sets and I used their services to check my purchases for completeness. Recently I discovered that they started providing scans of building instructions and idea books.
There I found the idea book and instructions for little sets I used to own. Usually I'm not a nostalgic person, but this made me think of the Universal Motor Set I played with as a kid. One night I checked eBay and found a 1976 Universal Motor Set.
1976 LEGO Universal Motor Set #107
At first I thought this was 'my' set and I placed the winning bid, but on closer inspection I found that this one must be the next generation of Universal Motor Sets because I don't recall my motor having a LEGO Technic brick and axles included in the set. Our collection was from the pre-Technic era.
Oh well, the small differences between 'my' set and the set I purchased off eBay will not stand in the way of feeling 'warm-and-fuzzy' about it. Now I can't wait to start building as I have accumulated about three to four times as many bricks as I ever had as a kid. All I have to do is sort and clean them since thrift store and garage sale finds vary greatly in the condition and cleanliness.
But that story may be a separate blog posting....
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