Subject:
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Hello Mohawk Valley Lego Fans
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.loc.us.ny.uti
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Date:
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Fri, 31 Dec 1999 10:31:35 GMT
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Viewed:
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1218 times
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Okay, I have been reading Lugnet since the first beta test was over and have
never posted to my own local group. In a few short hours it will be January
1, 2000 so I decided that now is the time.
Greetings fellow Lego enthusiasts in the Utica/Rome area.
I don't know how many of you are out there reading Lugnet now but we sure
need more local Lego fans to step forward and be recognized for your
excellent choice of the Lego Lifestyle.
My name is Kevin Salm and I am a Legoholic. Here is my story.
I was born in 1973 to be the third child in my family. My two older
brothers had a few Lego sets before me. I came to acquire them for the most
part; the sets being 190 Building Set with People/Farm plus sets 195 and
197. We probably had set 196 also since I have the wheels for it but I do
not have the building instructions to confirm this. Those sets debuted in
1975. Then came set 402 a year or so later; a great set for building just
about anything young minds can dream up. Next my father got Expert Builder
set 952 and by brothers had a good time creating farm implements for this
red tractor. I can remember re-building it by the book a few years later
and it was quite difficult.
The first sets I was given were 733 Universal Building Set (the set that put
me on the plastic brick road I am on today) plus 544 and 566. The next sets
were from 1980/81 -- 6363 Auto Repair Shop and 6382 Fire Station. This was
a glorious Christmas day for me. I can still think back to when I first
received them.
I enjoyed Lego so much then that I paid a friend of mine a lot of money (at
that time and age) to buy three used sets from him -- 6375 Gas Station
(stickers still intact to this day like they were then), 6679 Tow Truck, and
6083 Knights Tournament. At this young stage in my life I have some of the
finest Lego sets produced and I am one happy young boy.
Castle sets arrived in the Lego lineup and some were delivered by Santa
Claus to me. I am proud to have two copies of 6077 Knights Procession and
one 6075 Yellow Castle. Shopping soon after Christmas I remember seeing a
store with just one Yellow Castle left on the shelf but my mother would not
buy me another since I already had one. This is my first sad memory of
Lego. But not to worry, because 1984 brought the new Gray Castle series. I
received one of each (2 copies of 6022) that year and the little 6010 Supply
Wagon set the next year. I had every Castle set produced up to that point
and, combined with other sets like 6392 Airport and 6623 Police Car I was
building busy towns and huge Castles all the time. Who could want more.
Well, I could and I still do.
Today I have over 700 sets in my Lego collection and I have the boxes and
building instructions for every one of them (except stuff bought second
hand). I never had a dark ages, but while in college I bought very few Lego
sets and I regret that very much today. My collection has grown by leaps
and bounds since 1993 and I buy most of it myself. The Lego sets produced
today may not be as great as those of my childhood days, but I still buy
them because I hate remembering the days when I never had enough of the
common pieces--like 1x2 plates in the right color, for example.
My current situation is that I have more Lego than I can ever use all at
once (this is partly due to the specialized pieces from sets of the
different building themes that do not integrate well into others). Back in
the 1980's, Lego boxes bore this statement: USE THIS BOX FOR STORAGE. I
did and sorted my pieces very methodically. I tried a few other types of
containers but always went back to storing in the Lego boxes. This brings
me to my current dilemma:
Storing my Lego pieces in a system that allows for easy retrieval when
building. My Lego room has stacks and stacks of Lego boxes (the larger
flip-open ones) filled with precisely sorted Lego elements from my over 700
sets. But there are so many boxes that they get in the way. I have to
constantly move boxes around since the one with the part I need is now on
the bottom of a stack of boxes.
The Lego boxes of my youth looked similar outside to boxes of today, but
they were reinforced with Styrofoam and had plastic liner trays with
dividers for sorting pieces. Today's boxes are much less durable and I have
to fabricate dividers myself. And, of course, I do not have enough of the
larger boxes to store and sort as I really want to. In my overall world of
Lego, these are small problems compared with the pleasures and joys I get
from creating with little bits of plastic.
I only own a few Space sets (this was true until Star Wars sets came out in
1999) and I do not ever build anything Space. The closest would be space
shuttles for my towns and cities. My building priorities have always been
Town, Castle, Pirate, Train and will likely stay in this order for my whole
life.
Castle and Pirate creations come and go and I might take a few photographs
if I really like what I build, but my Town creations sometime survive for
years. I have several dozen minifig-scale cars and trucks that have been
together for over ten years with only minor modifications as more pieces
become available or to replace pieces that no longer look like new.
Building for Town sometimes last a while, but not like my fire trucks or
Shell and Exxon brand fuel and tow trucks that I will never take apart.
I am very obsessive about my Lego and spend several hundreds of dollars each
month buying more. It is my outlet as I have sworn off so many other
activities like going to the movies or hanging out in bars drinking booze
night after night or even looking for a mate. Lego is a way of life for me
and so many others who converse here at Lugnet. I am very glad that I have
something in life that is so meaningful to me and glad that this forum
exists so that other like me can share our wealth of experiences of Lego.
I hope that if anyone has read this much of this verbose post I have at
least inspired you to post about yourself. Or just say hello. I really do
think there must be other people dedicated to Lego in this part of the
world. Hope to hear from you all.
Enjoy the new year and the new millennium that starts in a year from now in
2001.
Build with your Lego every day so that everyday can be memorable.
and remember
Build well, Play well, Be well--with Lego.
_______________________________________________________
Kevin Salm
....The biggest fan of the Gray Lego brick....
_______________________________________________________
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