Lego my Lego

When I was a kid I was really into Lego... back then they pretty much just had block pieces and little men, no 'themes' like they have now. I do remember in the early 80's though, when the 'Space' them came out and I really loved building those and playing with them.

My 5 year old son Parker is really getting into Legos. It started with Star Wars and Indiana Jones Lego sets, and recently he has gotten into the 'Castle' theme and is looking at 'Pirates' as well... the Castle theme Lego's are pretty neat. I know a few adult collectors that get Legos as a hobby and are really into building the sets and displaying them, but this blog post is more about my five year old and his interest in them to play with.

He grew up watching me play miniature war games like Warhammer, and the Castle Legos kind of give him a feel of playing 'big boy' game, but with toys he can easily use. I noticed the other night he was rolling dice as he played and giving units of guys 'wounds' and stuff like that. It was quite neat. It is also nice from a financial point of view, because the Star Wars and Indiana Jones Lego sets are so dang expensive!!!  So it is refreshing to spend money on these Castle sets and feel like I'm not getting bent over and taking it in the arse for some crappy Lego set that doesn't feel like it is worth what you are spending.

Anyhow, I took some time the other night to really look at the Legos that Parker was playing with. There were carts, wagons, horses, knights, goblins, trolls, catapults, cannons, dragons, etc., it certainly is quite an exciting line for a kid his age to be getting into and really opens up his imagination for new ideas and role-playing.

If you have kids or know someone who does, it would probably open a whole new world for them to get into the Castle Legos, Pirate Legos, etc.

*** UPDATE *** A quick search of the internet located photos of my favorite Lego space toy. It looks quite basic by today's Lego standards, but this is by far a piece that brings back a lot of memories for me. Here are some pics for Memory Lane!

This Lego set was called "928" and was the Galaxy Explorer ship, which, at the time, was probably one of the most amazing Lego sets to ever be released. I must have gotten this in Christmas of '81 or possibly '82. (The photo below was a result of a google search, it is not me)

Here are some instruction scans I located online, man oh man this brings back some real memories...

And finally, here is a full spread of the ship and playset... a quick ebay search reveals this to now be going for around $200 - YIKES! I guess I'll have to be happy with photos, because purchasing a set is too expensive...