Better late than never?

Mojoest

Hi all,

Having waded into the forum a few months ago now, and since then been on here most days; reading through tonnes of old posts, adding a few new ones of my own; taking on board some of the tips on offers and deals, whilst trying to do my bit to add any that I find; and making use of the collective set of spares the forum has to carry out a few trades; I've just realised that I've been quite rude and not introduced myself!

Outside the world of Brickset and Lego I'm a chartered waste manager (yes should a thing exists), working for a multinational engineering firm on a range of waste and recycling collection and treatment projects across the UK and Australia, (although as a lot of what I do data analysis and modelling, I'm still waiting to actually get a trip out to Oz :-( ). I also have a keen interest in photography and sit on the committe of my local photographic society.

In terms of my Lego history I guess my story is similar to many others. As a kid of the late 80's and early 90's Lego was my favourite toy. I can't remember what my first set was, (I think it might have been #6608), but some of the ones which stick in my memory are:

#6698
#6450
#6688
#6693 (maybe it was this that sowed the seed for my future career?)

With the standout sets being
#6392 and #6386

I went through a space phase (starting with what I think of as classic space but can now see it was actually a few years on from that, and through to Spyrius)

#6830
#6848
#6886
#6981
#6898

As a kid I had a friend who lived a few doors down from me and we would spend so many weekend afternoons playing with our lego. I will always remember his older brother having #8865 proudly on display in his room which we were never allowed to even consider playing with, (and probably the reason why a couple of years ago I bought myself #8070 )

Then as my teenage years set in and I got my first games console (an original playstation) as well as developing a love of Games Workshop's Warhammer 40K, the last set I can remember getting was #8437 .

Thankfully though my parents kept all my childhood Lego and its now sat in the attic waiting for me to resurrect it one day. :-)

I then entered my 15 or so year dark ages.

There were patches of light along the way, for example when I was early on with my use of ebay during uni and bought a secondhand #6973 (one of my childhood friends would always get all the space sets, including the big ships I would never get bought, and this one was probably the one I used to look at with most envy, and probably what I consider the best lego spaceship, apart from maybe #6986, which I will also have to add to my collection one day).

It was then the CMFs which started to bring me back to the world of Lego. I first of all got some series 8 figures after wandering into the LLDC at the Trafford Centre. Followed by picking up a select few others as a result of wanting to use them for a few photography ideas I had. It was then a friend buying me the minifigure encyclopedia last Christmas and shortly after TLM which really brought me back, (whoever it was at TLG that tabled that idea deserves a massive bonus for the trade it must have brought them).

Initially I concentrated on minifigures, but with somewhat of a scatter gun approach, buying a few from loads of different themes as I uncovered them and was overcome by a feeling of 'oooh I want that'. After a couple of months of that I realised that I needed a more concentrated approach and so have focused my efforts on the CMFs and SH, with both themes almost collected in full now.

I wouldn't consider myself anywhere near a professional reseller, but I'm also starting to find that I can raise some extra funds for my collecting by buying and selling Lego as my knowledge of values and what to look out for is increasing. I'm just hoping that I haven't joined in at the peak of some sort of Lego bubble and so that sets I'm buying now for resale in a couple of years won't eventually leave me out of pocket, (though again my investment is incredibly modest compared to some and so I could just pass the sets on to any kids I may have in the future for them to play with if the market isn't there anymore).

My current plans for where my collecting will go next in terms of minifigs is the original Batman and Spiderman themes as well as hopefully picking up a few of the SH exclusives. I've also recently moved house, so I'm thinking that the extra space might allow me to start getting a few of the modular buildings, (GE at the top of the list before it retires) and maybe even start MOCing.

So well, at a bit more length than I originally anticipated, thats me. Thanks to all of you on here for the interesting content it holds and that grows everyday.

Huw

Belated welcome aboard, Mojoest. That was a very interesting introduction, thank you.

madforLEGO

Welcome!
I remember getting that #6698 myself; great set as it had a lot of playability IMO.