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My coolest Lego experience? Hm..there have been so many...
Story 1: My mom's best lego experience
Christmas 1983, I can tell you my mother's best experience...in my usual
poring over the Sears Wishbook (which, after I was done, always opened up to
the Lego pages), I saw set 6980--it looked awesome(pardon the vernacular of
the 80's..). However, our family was going though a tough financial time,
and I knew the price was quite expensive for us at the time (I can't
remember, but think it was 80 bucks)...so, I told mom that "this is what I
really want, but I understand if I don't get it, I know we don't have much
money this year"...so I had convinced myself that I would not be seeing
under the Christmas Tree.. Christmas morning, doing the Santa Claus thing
and handing out gifts, I picked up one gift to me, shook it, sounded like
Lego..I opened the wrapping paper on one side (I took great pride at
recognizing sets just from the side of the box), and it looked like nothing
I could remember, until--it hit me...IT WAS THE 6980!! Well, without even
opening the rest of the package, a very happy 12 year-old leaped over the
coffee table, gave mom a huge hug and kiss for getting it. I was so happy
that Christmas!
To this day, 19 years later, that is one of my mom's favorite and most
memorable Christmas experiences..
Story 2
I had my dark age in college, and gave my Lego collection (full of classic
space) to my little brother about 10 years ago. I found that while at
college, browsing through the local Wal-Mart, I couldn't resist not having
Lego, I bought some Ice planet 2002 (Dan Allen, no comments!) and Space
Police sets. Well, it continued from there, just buying the occassional set
from time to time. I graduated college with a degree in engineering, and
moved to Atlanta in 1997. Eventually got a job working in
telecommunications, and still collected the occasional Lego set, and managed
to get my credit card debt to zero. What was more interesting is that a
Lego outlet opened up in October 1999, which was cool to check out from time
to time. Then the company hired a new set of contractors in early 2000.
Chris Seaton, The guy who sat next to me became a quick friend, and somehow,
our discussion turned to Lego..well, he said "let me show you a website,
called LUGNET!" I was amazed at some of these creations! Well, my friend
convinced me to drive us up to the Dawsonville outlet, and as it turned out,
since dropping a few hundred bucks a month to drop my debt, I now had free
income...it happened to coincide with the initial announcement of the
discontinuation of the 3033 tub.
On my way back, with a trunkload of Lego (including 6 3033 tubs), and
purchasing over 10,000 bricks, little did I know, the Lego Phoenix within me
had been reborn....
Story 3:
As a frequent customer at the Dawsonville outlet, where I had become known,
(I even gave them my business card to call me for damages and new items--I
never walked out of Dawsonville spending less than a hundred bucks). I even
made a minifig sculpture of myself! Well, telecom started feeling a pinch,
and my friend Chris got laid off in July. Chris had mentioned it when
shopping at Dawsonville, and in September, I got a call from the manager at
the Dawsonville store. Seems a new store was going in at the new Discover
Mills Mall in the Atlanta area, and they needed people, and since my number
was handy, they asked me to contact Chris, as they thought he would be a
good employee. Turns out they needed more people, to which I blurted out "I
can work part time!". A short time later, when I got the news, I called
mom and said "Mom, I'm about to fulfill a childhood dream...I'm gonna work
for Lego!"
Since working for Lego (part time), I've talked to many families and
children, and I've heard the "I've died and gone to heaven" many times, and
have seen how Lego has affected children in several positive ways. Once, on
a slow night, there were no customers except two brothers and a sister,
probably in the 4-8 range, and they spent 2 hours playing very nicely and
quietly at the Techinic play table--when the youngest one couldn't get some
part separated, she just handed it to her brother, who took them apart, and
handed it right back to her. No fighting between them, and some very
creative teamwork between them. That was definitely a cool Lego experience.
Story 4:
Since discovering Lugnet, I look at it almost daily, and have joined up with
the NGLTC, and have become very active, doing train shows, and the
Children's Health Care of Atlanta's Festival of Trees has been a highly
rewarding experience. At our building sessions at the hospital, seeing
children who have had to deal with surgeries and illnesses, I am sure that
some are in great pain, but when they see all the lego on the table, the
smiles and joy on their face when playing and creating creates a feeling
within you that you are helping these kids in a positive way.
Story 5:
Getting to meet several of the Lugnet community members at Brickfest 2002!
What a fun weekend! From the time I got a phone call from WAMALUG seeing if
I needed a ride from Dulles(thanks Claudia and Fuzz!), Finally meeting John
Barnes after sending him a bunch of motors last year, TJ's crane, of course,
who could forget the spunky Shiri Dori, Seeing Adrian Drake's Blood Moon,
Nebuchenezzer and his A-10, Helping Lindsay Frederick Braun get the Takao
together, Dropping my jaw when I saw Hoth, Meeting fellow Georgian Chris
Giddens and his classic space stuff, Jennifer Clark's crane (and Tim's
mini-crane), Jon Palmer and his Alphabet fighters, sliding my cell tower
into Chris Leach's town layout, and the look on Jon Palmer's face when he
saw my pizza cook slapping dough in my extra-large pizza to go creation
Walking into Pizzeria Uno to eat dinner, and running into Dave Eaton, Shaun
Sullivan, Todd Lehman, Suz Rich, Jim Green, and Joe Corneau.(forgive me if
I've forgotten anybody else that night). Getting to set up the Rail Racers
for Jake and Robin of Lego to play with, Figuring how to hot-wire a trunk to
get the keys out so I could get to the Potomac Mills layout, riding in
Christina Hitchcock's car with Kevin Salm and her driving past the Pentagon
and capitol buildings on the way back (what a cool view!). Brickfest 2002
will stay in my mind forever, as it was my first big lego event!
Story 6:
Yet to come, but I'm looking foward to Brickswest 2003!!
Lego has been in my life for over 26 of my 31 years, since my first sets
back in the early 1970's--the fire station (set 570),police station(370),
and hospital(363). I credit Lego for never losing sense of the amount of
wonderment,creativity, and "outside the box thinking (because they never
learned rules to limit thinking)" that children have.
sorry the post was so long, but I've had Lego as long as I can remember, so
I've got a lifetime of stories!!
Scott Lyttle
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Message is in Reply To:
 | | Coolest LEGO Experience?
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| Inspired by John's post ((URL) I would love to throw out a question! What is your coolest LEGO Experience? Maybe you built an amazing castle when you were eight years old. Or perhaps you've had a more recent experience like watching an FLL robotics (...) (22 years ago, 6-Dec-02, to lugnet.general, lugnet.people) !!
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