To understand the true meaning of dark ages (the time between abandoning and rediscovering intelligent culture, or in this case LEGO), I had to look no further than inside the cardboard boxes housing my childhood LEGO collection. Once the pride and joy of my youth, over twenty years ago I lost interest and haphazardly dismantled the collection and threw the remains inside a few random containers. A well-kept retail box for the 6073 Knight’s Castle now scratched and crushed under aging LEGO and other token memorabilia. Carefully built sets from Town to Castle to Space to Technic, mostly just broken up and mixed together like a cocktail gone wrong. The sight pains me.
It could be worse, though. I believe not much has been lost over the years, while others have at some point ditched their entire collections. Whatever wear and tear there is to the pieces, was there already when packing up – after up to a decade in the sun and in play. The boxes have been sitting in storage unscathed. Dust is mostly from the 1980s, because the boxes were taped shut. LEGO endures and ages well, with the exception of some battery pieces opting out. In these boxes, somewhere under all my broken sets, there are actually 1960s LEGO from my father, those quaint little doors and windows that won’t open and original LEGO cars that had more in common with Matchbox than bricks. There is LEGO history and family history here, ready for action again.
One interesting set I had forgotten about, was the 6054 Forestmen’s Hideout, almost intact with the Robin Hood look-alike minifigures. It was packed alongside the ginormous 8680 Arctic Rescue Base vehicle and large chunks of the 375 Castle. There were also several Town pieces, like parts of the 6392 Airport (I’m looking at your green baseplate) and some houses. There is a 6382 Fire Station and much more in other boxes. As a bonus for my 6080 King’s Castle project, pieces of the 6073 Knight’s Castle and/or 6061 Siege Tower wall were also readily on the top of one box. Even better, a bunch of Castle minifigures and horses were collected inside a small box – maybe my younger self had a premonition that I would need them again…
According to markings on the boxes, my dark ages begun in the year 1990. Although judging by the sets, my latest ones were released around 1988. The oldest design – aside from the 1960s LEGO – is probably the yellow castle from 1978. It was a great LEGO decade. Here’s to many happy returns! (Note: You can click the images for larger versions.)
12 Responses to The Excavation
[…] off, and try again, you can dust it off and try again – came to me when I was looking at the photos of my dusty childhood LEGO stash and something caught my eye. In the box with the 6073 Knight’s […]
[…] far the best part of my project to build the 6080 King’s Castle has been getting to dig into my old LEGO stash. Since I’m still waiting for my BrickLink delivery, this is mostly what I’ve been […]
[…] Knights’ castle. To recap the progress: I have now acquired the baseplates and found a lot of old parts, as well as completed the portcullis and some of the minifigures. I have also ordered new bricks […]
[…] or a 1×2. At this point I realized how much time it actually takes to look for bricks from my childhood LEGO collection. I literally spent a couple of more hours scouring through it and indeed found many more relevant […]
[…] had to scavenge my childhood LEGO collection for parts. You may recall the mess I discovered on my first excavation in March. There was no order, nor was there any order to my search, when I began – just an […]
[…] I had picked up from my European travels as a child, and that I rediscovered when going through my childhood LEGO collection. (The LEGO keyrings I dismantled recently were also souvenirs, both probably coming from my two […]
[…] this purchase will save me from a lot of excavation and acquisition, it hardly allows me to start building now. After all, I am still missing about 55% […]
[…] As a part of my quest for Lion Knights’ castle, I have been retracing my childhood LEGO hobby (see e.g. posts 1989 and Dark ages). One of my sources is my childhood LEGO collection, which luckily is pretty much intact inside a few containers. However, I have very little in terms of original LEGO building instructions or boxes left. One of the few boxes is from the 6073 Knight’s Castle, photographed in The Excavation: […]
[…] batch of vintage 1980s LEGO train parts – plus my infamously still-unorganized childhood collection of course. I am still missing all the baseplates for example to start building any parts of the […]
[…] sorted by color. This is completely excluding whatever used bricks I have managed to find from my old collection and elsewhere, that process is still on-going and is yet to be […]
[…] have discussed excavating and searching my old childhood LEGO collection sufficiently before, there isn’t much to […]
[…] and places. For some earlier photos of the mess, see Old parts, old friends, Treasure hunting and The Excavation […]