Which sets did you 'lust' after as a kid?

beegeedee

Anything with a minifig but especially space - only had 2 sets. I was totally obsessed by sci-fi tv shows back then (Buck Rogers, Star Trek, BSG and the wed night BBC 2 sci-fi movies). I had a load of lego and between myself and my brother we had maybe 8 or 9 minifigs. I do remember being at a summer camp and going to a shop and being totally mesmorised by #6801 Moon Buggy. I got one and it was awesome.

I think by the time the really cool sets like the monorail was around I was in my dark ages - was when I got my first computer in 1984.

hantot

Another vote for space monorail, loved that set and all through my teens assumed it was in the loft with my Star Wars toys when it had actually been given away!

Big_Blue_Winky

Of the sets I got as a kid the ones I wanted most were anything Rock Raiders and Town, loved the Chrome Crusher and race car transporter in particular.

cheshirecat

^^ Oh my god.

jondesouzaCE

Of the sets I did have my favourites were:
#918 - my first Space set.
#6872 - the Xenon X-Craft
#6886 - Space Police
#6073 and #6080 - two castles for my opposing factions

The one I always lusted after and didn't get was #6980 - Galaxy Commander.

odueck

One of the sets I wanted most as a kid was the #5580 Model Team Highway Rig. At the time it seemed so big but by today's standards it's relatively small. I also really liked the #5550 Custom Rally Van.

Was also very jealous that my cousins had #6285 Black Seas Barracuda.

PeteM

As I spent my childhood endlessly flicking through the 7777 train ideas book, it was the #7740 that was the objective of my Christmas wishes every year! Then I got my first lego catalogue and quickly replaced that with #7745. Didn't get either (though was very lucky with getting many other wonderful sets).

Another vote for #6990 Monorail here too, my friend had one which he expanded with the extra track pack, and then he got the airport shuttle a few years later too ! I was very jealous... :)

Aquapolis

Definitely #4559 Cargo train and #5571 Giant truck. Saw them on the brochure but never got them.

lluisgib

For me it was the #6392, the first airport in the town. I remember hours in front of the catalog looking at the set, and going to a shop near to my Grandma's house and see the set through the shop window. That year I got the #6368 Jet Airliner, but never got the airport.

4 years ago, when I finish to be LEGO Ambassador, I got a very nice surprise from the people of my community. They all bought me a #6392 MISB and it is one of my LEGO treasures in my collection.

oldtodd33

The one set I just had to have was set #404. It was also my last Lego set as a kid.

wagnerml2

For me the list begins and ends with Yellow Castle. Guess that's why I buy every one I can get my hands on now!

oldtodd33

@wagnerml2 That's funny, I do the same thing with #404. So far I have 6 complete and 2 partials. How many do you have?

I wanted to add that many of the sets being mentioned here that people lusted over were sets I bought brand new when I came out of my dark ages including but not limited to 6990, 6399, 7722, etc., all great sets.

madforLEGO

Ill say, though I try to stay out of the 90's Pirate line, the sets are well built and imagination inspiring. I also keep finding Pirate LEGO to build back into sets and sell and each time I do I see how good the line was.

BeardedCastleGuy

497 and 6075 were sets I wanted back when I was growing up.

Sets 924 and 952 plus 6077 were some of the sets I did have and were played with a lot.

bellybutton290

Another vote for 6990 monorail.

rancorbait

"Hmmmm, where to start... Ah, the beginning!" Much like @CapnRex101, this was not even too long ago...

... It was on the Christmas of 2004, my grandma gave me #4500. I played with that set till the click-hinges wouldn't hold up and the printed bricks were bare, and I still kept on playing, but there was one other thing... the #4483 that was on the second last page of the instructions. Problem was, (stupid as it sounds) I thought that it was just an 'alternate build' as other sets had on the're instructions, and I just had to figure out how to build it, until my dad told me that it was a different set, it was then that the 'lust' started. But we didn't have much money, and $100 was "too much" for LEGO so I would spend hours just staring at the set on the instructions, counting pieces, or imagining building it. Then one day I couldn't find my instructions, (I wont say how I reacted to that :-)) So I had no #4483, or even a picture of it, then years later (last year) I bought one on eBay, I finally had one!... And now it just sits on my shelf... collecting dust. I definitely would have liked one more when when I was younger, but it is still a great set to have :-)

So "Which set did I 'lust after as a kid"? most certainly #4483 ;-)

Huw

Thank you all for the excellent suggestions and stories, like ^ above.

There are certainly some sets that many have mentioned -- monorails, large castles etc. -- so they definately deserve a place on the list.

jhuntin1

#6399 Airport Shuttle, definitely. I would have said #4558 Metroliner as well if I hadn't been able to get the #10001 version.

wagnerml2

@oldtodd33 - 6 complete with minifigs (and knight visors) and 2 complete castles without complete set of minifigs. Best one was I bought a collection off craigslist last year for $40 that just looked in the photo as a collection of bricks. As I sorted it out, I came across the yellow brick with the banner sticker on it. Found a plastic bag with ALL the figs and accessories at the bottom of the bin. Stickers in pristine condition. One of my best finds ever!

oldtodd33

@wagnerml2 I love getting a good deal like that also. Kind of makes you feel lucky when you get a set you didn't realize you were getting and complete on top of it.

The yellow castle is a great set but, I only have one. I got mine in a large lot also but the kid had put the stickers directly on the torsos. It took a while to peel them all off and get them on their chest pieces.

trickydicky0880

The set that I "lusted" the most when I was just a wee lad is easily #6097. I thought it was the coolest set ever. You couldn't beat the night lord with his awesome bat helmet or the black dragon at the time.

LEGO has drastically changed over the years. Now we get star wars, superheroes, ninja turtles, and lord of the rings LEGO sets. God bless LEGO...

taconight2

My memory of these thing is a little blurry now (80s lego), it's hard for me to pick out individual sets. What I do remember is lusting over parts that I could use for my own MOCs. e.g. big wheels, computer consoles, moveable joints, colored windows.

e.g.

#6941 I remember wanting those large wheels so badly. The extended yellow canopy was pretty cool too.



Anything with a large part count was good too.

soundczar

Easy question: 6390 Main Street. I first saw it in the catalogs in 1980, and did nt get it until 1994.

madforLEGO

Ahhh, Blacktron. I soo wanted the #6987, I was lucky to get the #6954 but wanted 6941 as well.

Bosstone100

#928 and still do!

khmellymel

Another vote for the monorail!

crazycarl

#6399, #6086, #6781, and #6986. I still have the first 2 but traded all my space stuff for city.

TheBigLegoski

Yeah!
#928 was cool too, the Titan among Lego spaceships. I never had it, and none of my friends or classmates did have one either. Only some older brother of one of them. Who told that in the back you could store the moon buggy, from the pictures in catalogues it appeared as humongous to me. Kind of brilliant that all these ships: #918 , and #924 , as well as #928 had the actual set number written on the side of the ship, like most cars have a series number attached on it's boot e.g. BMW 325, or Mercedes SLK 55 AMG etcetera. or like the numbers and letters on the wings of an aeroplane (I suppose the equivalent of a license plate).
#6985 Was another fabulous set, a giant space ship, with enough room for all your astronauts to travel around in. A set I also very would have liked to have. Check out the Eurobricks review with the photos on the box of the set with all the alternative builds. Shame TLC does not do that any more with any of their current sets, like it was customary back then.
eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=30101

Huw

I've input every set mentioned so far into a database and done some analysis.

The following list shows sets that are mentioned more than once and thus are officially the most lusted after!

Set Number -- Times Mentioned -- Theme -- Set Name -- Year
6990-1 -- 14 -- Space -- Monorail Transport System -- 1987
928-1 -- 9 -- Space -- Space Cruiser And Moonbase -- 1979
6080-1 -- 6 -- Castle -- King's Castle -- 1984
6399-1 -- 6 -- Town -- Airport Shuttle -- 1990
918-1 -- 5 -- Space -- One Man Space Ship -- 1979
6074-1 -- 5 -- Castle -- Black Falcon's Fortress -- 1986
497-1 -- 4 -- Space -- Galaxy Explorer -- 1979
6285-1 -- 4 -- Pirates -- Black Seas Barracuda -- 1989
6970-1 -- 3 -- Space -- Beta I Command Base -- 1980
8860-1 -- 3 -- Technic -- Car Chassis -- 1980
6276-1 -- 3 -- Pirates -- Eldorado Fortress -- 1989
4558-1 -- 3 -- Trains -- Metroliner -- 1991
6980-1 -- 3 -- Space -- Galaxy Commander -- 1983
924-1 -- 3 -- Space -- Space Transporter -- 1979
6073-1 -- 2 -- Castle -- Knight's Castle -- 1984
6075-1 -- 2 -- Castle -- Wolfpack Tower -- 1992
6077-1 -- 2 -- Castle -- Knight's Procession -- 1981
920-2 -- 2 -- Space -- Rocket Launch Pad -- 1979
856-1 -- 2 -- Technic -- Bulldozer -- 1979
6085-1 -- 2 -- Castle -- Black Monarch's Castle -- 1988
6066-1 -- 2 -- Castle -- Camouflaged Outpost -- 1987
6927-1 -- 2 -- Space -- All-Terrain Vehicle -- 1981
7745-1 -- 2 -- Trains -- High-Speed City Express Passenger Train Set -- 1985
7740-1 -- 2 -- Trains -- Inter-City Passenger Train Set -- 1980
7722-1 -- 2 -- Trains -- Steam Cargo Train Set -- 1985
6989-1 -- 2 -- Space -- Mega Core Magnetizer -- 1990
6987-1 -- 2 -- Space -- Message Intercept Base -- 1988
6390-1 -- 2 -- Town -- Main Street -- 1980
6941-1 -- 2 -- Space -- Battrax -- 1987
6277-1 -- 2 -- Pirates -- Imperial Trading Post -- 1992
6781-1 -- 2 -- Space -- SP-Striker -- 1989
6780-1 -- 2 -- Space -- XT Starship -- 1986
6395-1 -- 2 -- Town -- Victory Lap Raceway -- 1988
6392-1 -- 2 -- Town -- Airport -- 1985
6391-1 -- 2 -- Town -- Cargo Center -- 1984
375-2 -- 2 -- Castle -- Castle -- 1978
6971-1 -- 2 -- Space -- Inter-Galactic Command Base -- 1984

Very interesting and useful, thanks everyone!

vitreolum

Hehe, all of these sets were EOL by the time I got into lego. I'm really surprised #6086 is not in the list, as I find that the superior to all the other castles. Or perhaps everyone had that one? :))

plasmodium

^I was wondering as well whether the age of the sets that appear on the list is skewed by the average age of the Brickset community. Because most of the sets I would have wanted would have been late '90s early 2000s, whereas this list is almost entirely late 70s to early 90s.

Huw

^ Obviously -- we can conclude that the majority here are in their 30s and 40s then :-)

FenrisAkashi

^Haha ya I was just thinking that as I read through the list. Most of mine are sets from the 90s, Pretty interesting model to get people to inadvetantly give away their age group ;D

plantman

As soon as the mini-figure space sets came out I wanted them all. I received #6970 for my birthday that year - and it was the last one I got. My mom didn't think it was worth the money. It drove me crazy that my cousin had every single space set made from the 70's and 80's and wouldn't let me touch them.

cheshirecat

^^^ Which is probably a fair generalisation of the makeup of the AFOL community.

icey117

I'm afraid to say this now... But I passed but I passed by a monorail at a Norwegian fleemarket. It didn't catch my interest, so I... left it! Reading this thread I realize that was a grave mistake. I could have made one person a bit happier had I put it on ebay :-(

cheshirecat

I came close to buying one on ebay yesterday, seemed to go quite cheap - about £80 although no box.

plasmodium

@cheshirecat - if you consider 18+ to be an adult (or 16+ according to forum rules), then all it proves is that the 30-40 year olds are the ones with money to indulge in the hobby and to spend on sourcing EOL sets ;-)

madforLEGO

I have had a few of each Monorail set pass through my hands, 6990 is great (and I have fond memories of seeing that at TRU on the shelf and in catalogs and begging and pleading for it at Christmas time), but when it is used and 20 years old a pain to find all matching white parts as many people put them on display.. in the sun... one side only. The 6991 is nice but the stickers tend to peel (but you get the switches in that one) and 6399 is my fav, never thought about it much until seeing it on eBay after my dark ages. Was lucky enough to find a mostly complete (with all stickers) one in box for 150 at the time.

cheshirecat

^^ No, not really, because if you're playing with LEGO at 16 or 18 then you were probably playing with it at 12 and 14. Hence you probably could get most of the sets you want at the time (as an example my parents would never get me the 6990 for christmas but compared to many toys kids have/want for christmas all but the most expensive sets would be relatively cheap) or you could pick them up relatively cheap so soon after EOL. Lets be honest, with a saturday job you could quickly afford all but the most expensive sets.

Its the 30/40 year olds that had a substantial dark age, that grew up in a time where (it seems to me but perhaps I'm not seeing things straight) the amount of money spent on gifts by parents and all other members of the family was considerably less. I know it seems relatively tough economically now but, at least in the UK, speak to the generation above me about what it was like with interest rates around 16% (even with houseprices much much cheaper my farther-in-law's mortgage payment was 90% of his take home) and you can understand why. Anyway, thats loosing the point, but those big sets were genuinely out of all range to even fairly well off kids growing up in the 80s and early 90s. Perhaps something like the death star is an equivalent today.

cheshirecat

^^ Im fortunate to have someone kindly lend me a 6990 in the coming weeks - can't wait for my first monorail experience and have those fantasy dreams of a 10 (or so) year old come true even if only on a temporary basis.

Rast

Flying Ninja Fortress, Found all the Ninja sets hard to come by.

mressin

@Huw, since #928 and #497 are really the same set, just with different set numbers for the European and American market, wouldn't it make more sense to combine its votes?

It would also make the race between #928 Galaxy Explorer and #6990 Space Monorail much more interesting...

hewman

I think #928 and #497 should be added together

Huw

^ Yes, you're right, I should have done that.

Ambroise

#928 obviously... I finally got one last year.

TheLoneTensor

Another for space monorail. Motorized sets back in the day were gold.

Another vote for just crater plates too. You could never have enough, and always lusted for more.

odueck

Much love for #928 I see. My uncle got this set around the time I was born and I played with it often whenever we went to visit my grandparents.

Lobot

cheshirecat said:

Its the 30/40 year olds that had a substantial dark age, that grew up in a time where (it seems to me but perhaps I'm not seeing things straight) the amount of money spent on gifts by parents and all other members of the family was considerably less. I know it seems relatively tough economically now but, at least in the UK, speak to the generation above me about what it was like with interest rates around 16% (even with houseprices much much cheaper my farther-in-law's mortgage payment was 90% of his take home) and you can understand why. Anyway, thats loosing the point, but those big sets were genuinely out of all range to even fairly well off kids growing up in the 80s and early 90s. Perhaps something like the death star is an equivalent today.

I totally agree. My parents had a massive overdraft & mortgage to finance a farm in the 80s & 90s & I remember seeing the bank statements; the amount they paid in fees & interest was scary.

I'm amazed how many presents my nephews & nieces receive, perhaps times have changed but my expectations were far lower in comparison to theirs. I must be getting old, but I don't think it's necessarily for the better.

madforLEGO

Lobot said:

cheshirecat said:

Its the 30/40 year olds that had a substantial dark age, that grew up in a time where (it seems to me but perhaps I'm not seeing things straight) the amount of money spent on gifts by parents and all other members of the family was considerably less. I know it seems relatively tough economically now but, at least in the UK, speak to the generation above me about what it was like with interest rates around 16% (even with houseprices much much cheaper my farther-in-law's mortgage payment was 90% of his take home) and you can understand why. Anyway, thats loosing the point, but those big sets were genuinely out of all range to even fairly well off kids growing up in the 80s and early 90s. Perhaps something like the death star is an equivalent today.

I totally agree. My parents had a massive overdraft & mortgage to finance a farm in the 80s & 90s & I remember seeing the bank statements; the amount they paid in fees & interest was scary.

I'm amazed how many presents my nephews & nieces receive, perhaps times have changed but my expectations were far lower in comparison to theirs. I must be getting old, but I don't think it's necessarily for the better.

Just because more is spent today does not mean it is wise to spend it.