From: Sean.Kelleher@f406.n105.z1.fidonet.org (Sean Kelleher)
Newsgroups: k12.chat.senior
Subject: Lego
Date: Thu, 23 Jul 92 19:44:00 PST
Organization: FidoNet node 1:105/406

Bren -

BE>Hey all you people. I just read an interesting article in the paper. It
BE>appears that 30% of all children who now age 15-20 had lego sets at one time
BE>in their lives. I just want to check those results with the ones on here. So
BE>otherwise, survey time,....
        Hmmm...interesting.  I'm happy to reply to this one.

BE>1) Did you, at one time in your life, have at least one lego set?
        Yep.

BE>2) how much did/do you use it
        Quite often...I'd spend a week or so working on major projects,
then not look at it for awhile, and then go back to several major
projects.

BE>3) What was/is your favorite system?
        Space Lego...neater parts.

BE>Just to break the ice, I had and still have an extensive lego collection (I'
BE>saving it for my grandkids, it should be worth something then)
        Come to think of it...my parts are sitting in a huge tin can
over in the corner (I never throw things out).

BE>2) when I was age 10, I used the stuff everyday. I was always building new
BE>stuff. My creations never lasted more than 20 minutes, as I would tear the
BE>thing down, and use parts for a new creation. I still do occasionally bring
        Hmmm...when I made somethign nice, I would keep it around for
days, modifying it, or just having it on display.  I REALLY got into
it...when I was 11 or so, I would build sleek cars with armor plating,
REAL nice looking.  I mean, I went full out to do new and unusual things
with my parts.  Then, I would ram them down a ram and study their
breakup...usuauly my nicer creations (I preferred building grey one-man
spacecraft) would split into two chunks...I would study the breaks, and
see that the pressure from a nose-on impact caused this piece to give,
which sent a shock-wave rippling through the body (the first hit was
almost never enough to break my spacecraft...tehe BOUNCE of the energy
wave coming back got them).  I was REALLY into it...fidning new ways to
strengthen the frames...delighting in the slow-mo replay in my
head...imaging the ship being struck my a missile amidships...and then
systematically exploding outward from there.  :->

BE>the stuff out. I'm a lot more realistic now. No weird stuff. (well, no reall
BE>weird stuff)
        I don't know how you'd define realistic...towards the end,
though, I was building Navy fighters...real cool-looking, with sleek
cockpits and engines, landing gear (I had to improvise there).

BE>3) My fave was the early space system sets. I have all of then ones up to
BE>about 4 years ago. They are still mostly intact too. Now, they have a whole
BE>bunch of systems (anybody seen the commercials?) Sure is advanced now.
        I didn't have too many sets...and the early ones were blue
(gag!) so I could almost never use their parts.  But I made due with
what I had...I was pretty dang advanced, all things considered.  But
always limited to one-man crafts, for the most part.  My models were
always so far and away from the JUNK the Lego company sold.  Those dolts
had no creativity, and their models were mostly simplistic.  I would get
the set, build it once, and then never go back.  At first, I would keep
the new parts seperate, but eventually I would let myself blend them in
with older pieces (You had to...pieces got REALLY speciallized in the
mid-80's...you could do wonders with the radar dishes and landing gear
and such).
        Ya...a whole lot of new systems.  Last I saw, the space-sets had
been expanded to include three or four sub-levels...space police, space
pirates, galactic fighters.  And then there were high-quailty model
series, and newer boats, trains, aircraft...pirate ships, castles
(yuck!).  I never understood how someone could sit and build a castle,
when they could construct a medium sized interceptor with fuel tanks,
starboard computer array...lower missle turret, theater-specific
configurations (gras-hopper landing legs which folded into the belly of
the ship).  I even built ships with removable engine cores (nuclear, and
thus made of lots of blue light-disks) and collapsing
life-boats, hidden in a hatched compartment at the back of the ship.  I
was GOOD...I've never met a person who could build them as advanced and
sleekly as I could.
        Oddly enough...the 50 bucks birthday money I spent on the motor
was a waste...four c-cell batteries, which could have been replaced with
a nine volt for greater power and a handheld control which was REALLY
handheld.  The motors and gears were hard to build into a GOOD looking
model, and the engine provided less torque than a rubberband.  What a
ripoff.

        Hmmm...you know, I think I'll go dig out my old lego
collection...I could build one mean fighter-craft right now!  :->

        - Sean

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