markisnot has selected a mid-1980s set with heaps of playability today:
Growing up, my older brother and I would get a few small Lego sets from family as gifts; typically a small car/spaceship. Many times, to keep disputes down, we each got the same set.
Our first large sets were the 6930 Space Supply Station; which, since we both received it, we would either combine or build different designs. The following Christmas was a lot of castle items, 6073 Knight's Castle for me, the 6080 King's Castle for my brother (which again, were shortly turned into a mega castle).
But Space and Castles were not my favourite themes, and I had my eye on the greatest Lego set ever made: 6391 Cargo Centre.
If I had to choose the Lego set that's been most striking and most memorable to me, I would go with 6396 International Jetport. I was only two years old when the set was released, and I believe my dad purchased it around that time, so it's one of the few sets I have literally not known life without - that is, I have no memory of getting it; it's just always been there.
Apg1808 chooses a set from when I was a lad today:
149 Fuel Refinery is probably the oldest set that's been featured on Brickset so far. Moreover, it is definitely an unusual choice for me to write about, in more instances than one; given that 70% of my collection is taken up by BIONICLE, Hero Factory and Star Wars, and that having been released in 1976, this set is even older than my own parents' oldest set.
Yup, it's that old. Now the question remains, why would a 20-year-old AFOL review a 44-year-old set which is part of a theme that is far from being his favourite?
minifig_jez highlights a set from the first year of proper minifigures:
Being the youngest of three brothers, in my early years there was lots of Lego around the house, but it was all late 60’s early 70’s basic brick sets, some Homemaker sets with their huge figures, and a few of the old non-articulated Minifigures.
But when Christmas 1979 came along my parents bought me my first proper Lego set of my own, 377 Shell Service Station.
One of the fascinating things about our 'Featured set of the day' articles, in which readers nominate and write about a set that's special to them, is that some of the choices have been quite surprising. That's certainly the case today. Bpk2300 picks an unusual set from a very short-lived theme that was not sold in Europe:
Let me start off by saying that Avatar: The Last Airbender is my favourite television series of all time. Although I crave more of the show, part of what makes it so special is that it was a perfectly laid-out story that had a superb ending after 3 seasons. Here's to hoping the upcoming Netflix live-action remake does it justice!
daninu12345 has chosen a Ninjago set that helped him through a difficult time in his family and prompted him to follow a particular career path:
When I was a kid, my older brother struggled with Leukaemia. It was always a part of my life, and I always knew something was off, but it was somewhat normal for me as I grew up around it. But as I grew older, I became more aware of what this condition meant, and his relapses became more serious. As many can relate to, during times of uncertainty, LEGO was there to distract me.
benredstar tells us about a set from the short-lived fan-designed Factory series:
10191 Star Justice has special significance to me as it’s the set that brought me out of my dark age. At the time, about 10-12 years ago, my interest in LEGO began to flicker back to life and I started cheekily looking at the LEGO web store when this set caught my eye. I’m a child of the 80s and this was clearly the most Classic-Space-like thing they had, and therefore “proper LEGO” in my eyes. I remember it was about £25 reduced from £50 but still I debated for some time whether to buy it, even dragging my wife into my deliberations.
The_Rancor waxes lyrical about an exceptional Star Wars set today:
No one will be surprised to know my featured set is a Star Wars set, but the one I’ve chosen is far from my first. I’ve been playing with or collecting Lego Star Wars since 1999 so the latter honour probably belongs to 7128 Speeder Bikes.
As much as I love scout troopers, the set I’ve chosen is younger... and far more powerful. If you were a prequel fan, 2008-9 brought a fantastic range of Clone Wars sets, but none greater than 10195 Republic Dropship with AT-OT Walker. The technical build was excellent, minifigs were plentiful and the vehicles have never been recreated since -- in my eyes a true icon!
SimonSpace70s has selected another Classic Space set for us today, albeit a rather unusual and, some might say, unsightly one:
My age makes Classic Space the LEGO of my childhood. It started with the 924 Space Cruiser which was always the flagship of my fleet, 6927 All Terrain Vehicle headed up the ground team and 6930 Space Supply Station was home base. But there was one set that was unlike any of the others, 6951 Robot Command Centre.
Today, artdog141305 has chosen a relatively recent set for us:
Like many other AFOL, I took a hiatus from LEGO for part of my life. By the time I became a teenager in 2005, playing with LEGO faded into the background. I didn’t make the mistake of putting my childhood collection on our lawn for a ridiculously low sum in some yard sale; I kept it all in a large box in my mother’s basement for years.
I always kept LEGO in my peripheral. I would frequently sneak a trip to the toy aisle in Walmart to take a glance at the current offerings. I remember Space Police and Atlantis always catching my eye. One day, when I was in college, I took another secret trip to the toy aisle and discovered something incredible: 6868 Hulk's Helicarrier Breakout.
Today we have a change from Classic Space: a set from another highly revered subtheme, chosen by Forestman_Bygger:
Waiting for Christmas Day as a 7-year-old is surely one of life's great endurance races. My mother had a tradition every year of celebrating Advent together during the weeks leading up to the holiday. This wasn't part of our church's relatively low-key approach to the season, so instead happened during our weekly 'Family Night' which was always on Wednesday evening.
Each year, the weeks of Advent were centred around a kid-friendly theme: music, food, crafts and the like. This year, the theme was 'The Senses' and we spent time each week thinking about the Christmas story through the lens of sight, smell, touch and taste.
Unique for this year was that instead of waiting until Christmas Day to receive our gifts as usual, we would get smaller gifts connected to each sense every week of Advent. What could be better for my young (tiny) reservoir of patience! The great endurance challenge would not be as draining, aid stations were distributed along the way.
leuerb's selection todayshows once again how influential early classic space sets were:
The 1980s were not an easy time in Brazil. We were in the waning years of a military regime, with recession and hyperinflation making the economic situation dire. My own childhood was also not so easy, but playing with LEGO was definitely a big highlight. It allowed me to build a better world, one that I could fully understand and control.
I’m fairly certain that most people reading this won’t remember this set, and if it had come out today, I doubt I would either. Looking at it objectively now, it’s a nice build for a museum, something that we don’t see too often from Lego nowadays, and the playability is good, but considering that most of the set is taken up by fairly generic police vehicles, it doesn’t stand out too much from Lego’s hundreds of other police sets.
So, why choose this over stunning builds such as my Creator Expert sets?
The year 2005 not only brought about an exciting end to the Star Wars Prequel Trilogy, but the start of a saga in my life that has yet to conclude. At 6 years old, I received my very first Lego Star Wars set, 7250 Clone Scout Walker, and I still have the memory of opening and building it.
Although I do not recall any specific occasion, my brother and I each received one from our mother.
I think we've had more space sets than any other theme in our featured set of the day series, with good reason. Derekthetree has selected another:
The early 90s was peak childhood Lego for me, and the space lines were definitely the favourite. So when I got 6988 Alpha Centauri Outpost for Christmas I was overjoyed.
Michael B has written about a Classic Space set from 1981 for us today:
Whilst building the recently released 60225 Rover Testing Drive, it reminded me of the very first Lego set I ever owned, 6927 All-Terrain Vehicle.
I received this set one Christmas that we spent at my grandparents in the west midlands in 1982 when I was 5. I hadn’t experienced Lego before that I recall, and I was besotted with it. The transparent blue windscreens, the huge rocket engines that swing away to release the base module that had transparent yellow windows and a tilting roof. I was blown away and spent hours and hours playing with it.
I love the fact that the base module is raised off the ground by closing the engines and that you could fit a minifigure inside it to monitor all the various screens as he scanned the lunar skies with those big dishes with trans-green nodes.
Today, a UFO set from 1997 has been retrospectively appraised by whaleyland. Due to an error on my part on what has been a stressful day for me, this is a revised repeat of a previous submission.
Lego in the mid- to late 1990s was in a strange transitional period, and the UFO subtheme of Space was certainly no exception. I purchased 6979 Interstellar Starfighter in July 1997 using a combination of birthday money and allowance. It was only the second “expensive” set I had ever purchased with my own money and, like the first one (for the record, 6494 Magic Mountain Time Lab), I had no plans for which set I was going to buy when I walked into Kiddie World that summer afternoon. I certainly did not foresee returning home with this unusual vessel.
danieltheo has chosen the set that brought him out of his dark ages and started him on a slippery slope, one I'm sure we are all aware of...
Despite having received my first Lego set at the age of 2 (I was an early starter), 361 Tea Garden Cafe in 1975, and from that moment on being completely absorbed by Lego up until the age of 11, my featured set which ended my dark ages is much later, 10220 Volkswagen T1 Camper Van.
I discovered the set by accident; having an interest in classic cars, the magazine I sometimes buy always has a feature on die-cast models, accessories, books and other bits and pieces. I spotted the van and felt a wave of nostalgia – could I justify the purchase though; sure this was Lego but it was an ‘adult’ sculpture and a mile away from any of my old sets, which were still at my parents house – those that were left anyway, most of my collection having been sold off or given away in my teens.
Like many, I grew up with Lego (I have fond memories of building 6285 Black Seas Barracuda with my brother), but entered a dark age during college. When I graduated, the variety of new Star Wars sets brought me back.
After completing a law degree in 2008, I received my bar passage right when the economy collapsed. For several years I found myself unemployed or in various temporary assignments.
Lego City has undoubtedly been the greatest influence on me as a Lego theme. However, when I think about a specific set, it would have to be the Lego Creator 31034 Future Flyer.
