What is the worst thing that happened to your collection?

creature

As the title explains, what's the worst thing that happened to your LEGO collection?

Mine was a couple of years ago. I had a room where all my sets were built and sorted on shelves with a large table in the middle with a city display including trains, fire, police, ...
But somhow my brother came into the room when i wasn't home playing with a toy and completely smashed everything to pieces so i have to rebuilt everything.
I still have 17 boxes full of bricks that i have to rebuilt (luckily i kept all my instructions).
so far i've managed to ruibuilt half my collection but i'm afraid that alot of pieces have gone missing over the years.

So now you guys :)

wagnerml2

My mother.....

mirandir

I've had a few polybags stolen. I suspect one of my kids former friends that we actually did catch in the act of stealing some cash. But i lack any kind of proof on the polybag theft.

Coder_X

about 15years ago, I smashed my 5590 Whirl and wheel super truck http://www.brickset.com/detail/?Set=5590-1 into 1063 pieces when I found out my parents were getting a divorce...

LOL @ wagnerml2

rocao

^ Ah, I love the Model Team theme -- the benchmark of realism in LEGO sets. Some of the recent Creator sets might qualify, but I think LEGO would do well to relaunch the theme.

Lego_Lord_Mayorca

Growing up in the 90s in a room where half the walls were covered in windows and only some modest, non-adjustable curtains on the lower half of them...and a huge Lego collection on permanent display, in which just about every set had white pieces.

You all know what happened after a few years. But it really hit home to me only after I moved before high school and started re-opening all those boxes, only to see this sickly yellow hue emanating from every thing that was once pure white.

fox171171

Water damage/mold.





Very sad. These are only two of many. Too horrible to show more.

Yellowcastle

Had a longterm relationship end in 2000 but couldn't take my Lego sets right away. Returned a week or two later only to find out she had let her kids play with all my original Star Wars sets and they were, of course, no longer whole. Thus, I left my entire SW collection behind. Luckily, I was able to rescue my pirates and old west sets. :o)

Town

Water damage/mold.
Very sad. These are only two of many. Too horrible to show more.

Please don't. That's painful to look at.

Coder_X

Had a longterm relationship end in 2000 but couldn't take my Lego sets right away. Returned a week or two later only to find out she had let her kids play with all my original Star Wars sets and they were, of course, no longer whole. Thus, I left my entire SW collection behind. Luckily, I was able to rescue my pirates and old west sets. :o)

Sounds like a huge female dog to me! :-(

Water damage/mold.
Very sad. These are only two of many. Too horrible to show more.

Oh the humanity! Did you have insurance? How many sets did you lose that way?

madforLEGO

Worst thing to even happen to my lego collection?
Me..
I mean you should see some of the teeth marks on my pieces, wrecked stickers, sometimes magic markers parts, wear on the figs , especially the space ones (white ones with gold graphics are almost impossible to find at times) I mean I played with my toys..(not violently, but as a lot of kids did)...

Consequently the best thing to happen to my Lego collection was Bricklink :-)

I guess it could be worse, when I was building my '80's', and train, collection I was buying part lots off of eBay: bite marks, sun wear, (Like DEEP yellowing) Graphics missing, stuff that I presumed/hope was chocolate on the parts, magic marker, glue, paint, smoke smell, POUNDS of hair, mold, mildrew on instruction books.. water damage on boxes and instruction books stuck together...etc... and by teeth marks I am talking animal teeth...
I have gone through lots and have had blackened hands from the dirt and dust.... So I guess I was not too bad...

wander099

White bricks gone yellow on my Imperial Flagship...oh, and that set is horribly dusty too... Unfortunately I got that one when I was very young and it was on display for years-in the sun. *facepalm*

Nellis

mine collection burned down in 1998 together with the house they were in.

highlights were 6542, 6339, 4564, 6385 and a lot of smaller sets they were all complete, after all those years i have decided to slowly build back the beginnings of another town collection.

FowlerBricks

It won't stop growing. ;)