Monday’s Top Five: Lego Sets I Never Owned
As much as I loved the Lego sets I had, I also loved pouring over the catalog inserts and imagining the sets that I would never touch.
What kind of kid doesn’t lust over public transportation– on the moon? The most interesting thing about it was the elevation, which kept the track from looking like a big oval. I mean, it was a big oval, but the idea of minifigures being able to hang out and work beneath the tracks had too many story ideas to ignore. Also, with some extra track, you could run it all over the place.
I can’t tell you why I wanted this set. Looking at it now, it’s a gas station and the world’s smallest parking garage. That said, the car wash brushes are pretty cool looking, and I do like the idea of the cars taking an elevator up to the top parking lot. Now if I could just figure out why the flowers are growing from concrete.
This was one of those sets that I wanted more for the individual pieces than for the intended model. There was a river, a bridge, a ladder, a Forestmen shield (still my favorite Lego castle insignia), and the only female Forestman (Forestwoman?). You knew she was a woman because she had heavy lipstick, an oddly curvy blouse, and she wore a rag on her head. I kinda understand the first two, but I could never figure out why she didn’t get to wear one of those cool Peter Pan hats.
Lego space stations tend to be sparse and impractical. They ususally consist of a few large glass panels, some computers that are open to the elements, and a landing strip of some kind. While this set had all of those elements, it also appeared to have some interior rooms and hallways. That’s important when you’re working for some kind of criminalistic CIA in space. Or at least that’s what I always assumed the Blacktron faction was.
In high school, I was a frequent lurker (and occasional poster) to the rec.toys.lego Usenet group. Until then I had never heard of The Yellow Castle, which was the first Lego Castle set ever released. To be honest, it’s nothing very special. I could make it out of parts that I have lying around my apartment (excluding the minifigures), but it had the allure of being first and rare. I was also frequenting Magic: The Gathering newsgroups at the time (damn, I was a cool teenager) and I thought of this set in the same way that I thought of the Black Lotus. It was more a legendary piece of history than anything else. At least by my definitions of “legendary” and “history.”
March 1st, 2010 at 1:45 pm
I remember wanting that Monorail set more than anything. I was thoroughly convinced it would fulfill my every desire, from train to lego. It was the most expensive at the time though so the shot of getting one was equal to going to the moon. Man, did I want that thing though.