My favorite sets

I  found pics of my favorite lego sets

4 924 sets and 2 918s above and beta command center ship and mobile lab

2 928 galaxy explorers

My bars and clips...great for greebling

These are probably my favorite sets and parts!

Galaxy explorer et al...

 Favorite intact classic space boxes

I found my prized possession today

2 mobile labs

Love the gray and blue color scheme in classic space!  I obtained these in early days of ebay i.e. 1999 before exorbitant prices became the norm!  I always crack up when now I see i.e. (hypothetical) 2 1x1 white bricks for $40 ha ha...it will then say in stock which it's going to be for a long time!

Fleet of spaceships

 I used to live living near an airbase with multiple planes

In the Charleston Airport there was another fleet 

I have 8 old galaxy explorers and now 8 new explorers

I'M a very lucky man to have all these!

Giving my wheel opinion

 Lego has made some improvements to their wheel choices over the years.  Recently I referenced sets 383 and 115 and the hubcaps are so much fancier and more realistic in the 383 set (I don't know much about earlier wheels)

Koop

Above wheels vs set 115 wheels below

Although the wheels above were not developed, they were better than the huge wheels in this set...

The wheel below was never practical except for a train creation i saw on the internet...it does look perfect for a locomotive wheel..not much else in my opinion!

Another initial piece when I was little...

My skills of building my own creation came from placing 4 of these together on a 2x8 plate...I tried to fashion the car after my favorite book at the time...Go Dog Go!

Then lego made another leap forward in wheel history, TREAD

Then the next revolution in wheels...flat plates!

Then these came with more treads

Then the tread tires got bigger as below; I didn't know at the time that these bigger tread tire existed til ebay in 2004!

Then I thought the wheels below came and I never liked them, I thought they looked dumb (and still think so!)

Finally, this wheel came back for the mobile rocket transport...it had been in one of the older universal sets!

From that point on, 1984ish I lost track of all the different types of wheels!!!

All this writing has tired me out.

The sets that got away

 So many times there were sets that I had or wanted but realized financially I couldn't or shouldn't buy!  The top sets I can think of are below; believe me I am thrilled with what I have, but these sets were just so neat.  Pure greed on my part!!!

1) town hall

The town hall was just too

Expensive but it was sure neat!  Beautiful architecture 

2) The black creator car

I wanted this car but it was $70.  I went to a garage sale but took a wrong turn.  After getting my bearings, I parked and went up the long driveway and a kid was walking away with this for $5.  I truly daydreamed i knocked the box away from him(just kidding!!), ran and got into my car but I thought better of it. That kid had better have enjoyed it!  If I hadn't missed that one darn curve!

3) the lego apocalypseburg from the lego set...I love the outstretched green arm with the ladder...honestly even if I could have afforded it, the complexity would have been over my head

4) multiples of the star wars midi scale set on sale for $12

Every year at the end of the holidays, walmart tortures me by putting left over legos on clearance in the garden center for sale.  The smell of miracle grow fertilizer nearly overwhelms me due to no ventilation and the temperature is about 30 degrees, but I power on to find those legos between thousands of Christmas bulbs..  I didn't have the gull to buy these on 12-30-2008 (date?) at Walmart because I had just come off a great Christmas with legos, couldn't justify more at that time.  In retrospect there weren't many complex and diverse pieces.  I was so determined to get a deal the next year all I could find was 10x$1 for the set below so I have 10 pigs i have no idea what to do with

4) space cruiser

I didn't know that sets 918, 924  existed until I was older,  I knew there was the galaxy explorer but not the 2 smaller versions.  I would have been too young to buy!

5) lego chasses, both versions --too young!!!  Still would take 8860 in a minute!!

6) multiples of original lego millenium falcon. $75 clearance Walmart...no one wanted them.  I took 3/5 left

7) lego motor

As a kid in the 70s, I was going to build the ultimate car or train, but had to have the motor first!!  Loved seeing this in the catalog back then, not even remote control operation but that wire control was so technologically advanced as a kid

8) lego technic tipper and Volvo truck

Again even if I could purchase these. They would be too complex for me to build.  Loved the color schemes of these sets, especially the gray curved on the tipper truck!

9) at st

Only wanted for the gray pieces. But they were mostly plates...but I could have had 3 for 1/2 price.. I think $40

10) the detective office 

Who wouldn't love this set with a story line and hidden features.  And the cool little cookies.  The creation of a flush toilet, a pool table, a 2x1 letter tile and the first lego scissors...I blew it on this one, I could have bought this for $100 but the window decals were put on crooked...I was stupid!

11) the blue car...$12 * 8 sets available...I wanted them for the clear windshield but the other pieces weren't quite worth the cost.  Fortunately lego did make transparent yellow windshields for the lego movie 2.

12) lego Ferrari

I just didn't realize how neat this set was at the time until it was retired 

Don't know what i was thinking, although it never went on sale

All of these sets were awesome but so pricey...plus even if I had these i would still want more...I need to be thankful for the great sets I have been able to have!!! Pure greed on my part as I have been so blessed with what I have.

The price is right...except at the big box stores

 My favorite thing in the 80s was to leave my parents and look at the toy aisles....it was customary to look at each box of the same set to see if they made a mistake with the price tag...usually the ones in the back that had been put out earlier

My major find was a dollar off the spaceman set at gold circle...mom had to get me that!

I saved a dollar off the $3.99 price!!

Image from brick economy 

Flash forward to 2 years ago at a big box store 12/26.  The price for set was 20$ or so off.  The compassionate highly focused cashier rang up the set and said it wasn't on sale "because that's not what the computer said" I went and got the tag on the shelf and brought it back to her...she said "I cannot believe you took that off the shelf" to which I said" well it's not doing anybody any good!". I thought the big box store security was going To get me booted out but they were arguing at the register about getting their employee discount on legos! 

Hard work to get this set at big box store!!!

25$ vs 45$ ..I'm just lucky the computer didn't say $70 because thats what the wheel said

Image From datagenetics.com

Ha ha I thought the price is right ended with the showcase showdown, the price was right for me, but it ended in the cashier/register showdown

Foundational lego piece

 It seems like now days anyone who talks about legos has a certain style or theme of legos that they like and reference in their mind.  But I think there's a generation of builders that trace their lego memories back to one piece that wS the center and foundation of legos and that is the green baseplate.

It could be the foundation of a house, an uneven terrain for lego cars to manage, a massive car or wagon when 4 wheels were attached, or the balcony of a huge tower.  It was like kindergarten or a rite of passage where any lego collection started

Any model from lego or moc starts with pieces coming together in perfect order and sequence, the key is the solid foundation for all other blocks to build upon .

Excitement of mail order

 In this day and age it's so hard to think of having to wait for mail deliveries but thats how lego used to be even into the late 80s.  There were always service packs to order and here is examples of this...in reality I only ordered 1 time

Nowadays the catalogs are so different and wouldn't it be amazing to be able to buy these pieces again at the old prices!