Who made the easy transition from TFOL to AFOL?

ChrisJThunder

I'm not quite there yet - still have four days to go - but looking back on my Lego fan hype, I have not gone through any dark age stage whatsoever. I've been a Lego fan since I was old enough to be one, and still kept up with the Lego hype throughout middle and high school. I'm in college now and my days as a TFOL are ending - I'll be an AFOL soon. And considering that I can't be the only one here, who else skipped over the dark ages from TFOL to AFOL?

Aanchir

Me, definitely. I think in my case the BIONICLE theme helped me through what could have been my dark age. A number of the purchases in my teenage years were either BIONICLE sets or sets that I thought might have cool parts for BIONICLE MOCs, and most of my involvement in the online LEGO fan community during that time was on BIONICLE fansites. Then again, if BIONICLE hadn't been there, maybe I'd have found some other theme to indulge in.

matticus_bricks

I had a few years in high school where I didn't buy/ask for any new sets, which is a shame because I missed some really great stuff. I kinda started regaining interest in the second half of high school and now that I'm in college, it's become a more serious hobby of mine. I wonder if it's becoming increasingly common for people to never "outgrow" LEGO, as the world becomes more accepting of peoples' differences? I've noticed a lot of TFOLS active on the internet, which is something I never knew existed when I was a CFOL.

LusiferSam

I've never had a dark age. I've been continuously collecting since 1988. About the close I've come to a dark age is 1995. I only bought 8 sets that year out of 11 that I currently own. That's simply because there weren't a lot of sets I like made that year. Castle and Pirate mostly fueled my KFOL to TFOL and TFOL to AFOL phases. SW was mostly kept me going in the early 2000s.

In middle and high school I didn't care what people thought of my hobbies. And in college I started to meet others who were collectors like me. The internet also helped by keeping me informed.

plasmodium

I never really had a dark ages, but then I don't tend to buy a lot of Lego sets. I've continuously kept up with the news, but in the past few years, I've only bought a few sets per year. (Also, as a student, I have to pack up every year, I only have limited space and there are better things to spend my money on...)

Legonizer

I've been a fan nearly since the day I was born (I have a picture from the baby shower where one can spy a duplo bucket hiding in the corner), and I haven't really had a dark age. In middle school though, I was starting to lose faith in my fandom, my peers teased me, and I built less, but I didn't stop defining myself as a Lego fan. My high school is full of nerds and geeks though, so I was accepted with open arms, and that coupled with becoming active in the online community and attending Lego conventions really helped me easily transition into an afol. I'm a high school senior now, but I'm a little nervous about the transition to college; my Lego collection is so vast I'll probably have to leave a temporary Lego museum in my parent's house until I get my own place.

prof1515

I had no transition really. From the age of 5 when I got my first Lego set until today I just kept going. Although for a couple years following my auto accident I didn't buy any Lego, I did keep up with their product lines. Not really a dark age so much as I was simply preoccupied with health issues.