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What is the most thoughtful LEGO gift you've ever received?
With 2016 Secret Santa coming up, I thought it might be fun to hear what
others' most thoughtful LEGO gifts have been. This might even give us
some ideas for this year.
6
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Comments
I think it has to be #10178 - Motorised AT-AT, which Mrs Lobot gave to me for Christmas in about 2009.
I was in my dark ages at the time, but it's a day that I look back on with great fondness; sat around our kitchen table building it, with my Dad and brother looking on in amusement! On the other hand, our cat wasn't quite so amused when it lurched across the lounge floor for the first time.....
Obviously, it's cost me an absolute fortune ever since but that's a minor point. However, it's fair to say that my wife has regretted that gift at many points in the last few years!
Well, in all seriousness, it would probably be getting #7130 from my parents, which started me on the Lego path...
It was around that point where I figured I should probably keep him.
Suffice to say, my lovely bride did not share my enthusiasm for a bag of 650 2x2 gray tiles.
(My UCS MF is often referred to as: The Two Mortgage Payments.)
Almost ten years ago we saw the new Taj Mahal set in the LEGO store at Tyson's Corner in VA. At $300., I gasped and said no way could we afford that. Hubby ordered it for Christmas and we ended up spending three days with our son (home from college for the holidays) building it. It was my favorite set for a very long time.
Absolutely guilty as charged. If a set even remotely alludes that it might look like a castle, odds are I'll get it. I think that's one of the reasons of my affinity for the Elves line.
and took me right to the airport and and we flew to Florida and went to legoland, in addition to staying down there for a few days for my birthday.
Maybe my mother saw the ten year old me in my face when I said it or maybe it was just the only solid thing I had asked for but on Christmas morning I was opening #5867 and #5891. One of my sisters and my father thought it was funny, an adult getting Lego, but as everyone here can probably relate to, I couldn't stop smiling then and over the next few hours, reliving my childhood, making a couple of great sets.
So my best Lego gift was a couple of really great Creator sets and an end to my dark ages.
Maybe if I had known then how much I was going to spend, even just on one day because of double points and a free bus, I would have given the sets to my cousins or something... Nah. I regret nothing!
That said, having got rid of a bed, chair and other items out of my bedroom over the past year may have helped the matter...
Generally speaking, the most thoughtful present I want is vouchers. None of this "I saw this and thought of you!" shenanigans that means I get something that makes me smile for 5 minutes and then I have to find somewhere to put it until it reaches the end of it's natural life. Of course, I'm not such a curmudgeon that I don't LIKE these presents - a gift is something that reflects the giver, as well as the gifted (giftee?) and for that I am thankful for all presents/thoughts sent my way. Some of them are even things I really want (Amazon wish list FTW)!
But the most thoughtful present, which I think I shared on this board earlier this year has to be the #6869 : Quinjet Aerial Battle set my wife bought for me on Father's Day. I'd wanted it for quite some time (although not when it was on shelves, unfortunately) but now it was EOL, I thought that there were too many current sets I wanted to justify paying the extra whatever % to get it from a reseller. But it was still on my wanted list, nevertheless.
So, Cathy found out I wanted it from looking at Brickset (she knows I use this site, but she doesn't normally visit to see what I'm doing!) and then she sourced it from a marketplace seller on Amazon - as that was the closest she could get to a 'normal' shop for reputability.
And it was a complete surprise when I opened it, and it blew me away. I mean I loved it when she bought the original UCS X-Wing that got me out of my DA, but that was a spur of the moment thing, and exactly the kind of purchase she makes for me (which I also love). This one involved research and planning and lots of other things that took her out of her shopping 'comfort zone' and it made my day.
It will always be the set I think of first when anyone asks me about my favourite Lego set.
But my brother-in-law gave me a small Star Wars expand-your-army set for my birthday a few years ago, and on the box he used a Sharpie to change the suggested age range to "6-40". That was good for a laugh!
(And for all you OCD collectors out there: I already had a copy of that set, so marking up the box was not a heartbreak...)
More recently, it was the Gingerbread House #40139 - I'd been trying to get my hands on one for ages as I missed the promo and had posted a few threads on the forum to buy / trade for one, but to no avail. And then... my ever-so-thoughtful BS Secret Santa had obviously spotted my cries for help in the LEGO wasteland and answered my pleas!!!! So thank you again!!
Phew!! Panic over... funny story!
- First was back in 1989, I received a 6257 Castaway's raft from my great grandmother and that really sparked the LEGO craze in me. It was my first 'themed' set and I went on to be a rabid Pirates collector for many years after!
- Second was a HUGE surprise, my dad found a 6973 Deep Freeze Defender on deep discount and totally surprised me with it. I was still really into Pirates and Castle at that time, and had wanted some large castle set, so as you might expect I showed my disappointment with a small tantrum. I soon calmed down, told him thanks and proceeded to build it. It was an AMAZING set, with all the modularity and crazy colors. I grew to really love that set and remember it as one of my biggest & best LEGO surprises.
-Third was much more recent, my wife surprised me with a 10210 Imperial Flagship, half for our anniversary & half for my birthday a few months later. We were not flush with cash by any stretch, so a HUGE LEGO gift was totally out of my expectations. She had scrimped and saved for it doing odd jobs. What a wonderful wife!!!
Of course, every once in a while he mutters something about "too much LEGO", but I'm not sure what he means by that.
Most thoughtful though was probably the police helicopter polybag my oldest son picked out on his own for me for Father's Day 2015 because "Daddy loves LEGO too." He then proceeded to ask me if he could keep it with his LEGO, which I, of course, let him. But every time we play with his police LEGO he hands it to me first because "I got this for you." You could say I enjoy being a dad quite a bit.
Only had a few older Star Wars sets before that but she knew I liked building things so brought me that set and it was a complete surprise.
It's also probably one of the few presents I have received that I didn't have the patience to wait to open and play with build.
I try not to remind her about it though as it brought me hurtling out of my very dark grey age to where I am now and she has probably regretted it ever since. :)
I'm in the UK, and a couple of years ago I asked on the forum if I could buy some polybags from a US member so that they could be sent more quickly to someone whose wife was in hospital in the US (they were also from the UK, she was there on business until falling ill). Several other members then unexpectedly offered to send some more polybags free of charge, which was amazing as I thought this would really help to cheer him up in the face of adversity.
Unfortunately everything went wrong, much quicker than expected. She died and he returned to the UK probably only a day before most of the polybags would have been delivered. Most of them got returned I think and I felt bad for the hassle, especially for those who sent polybags but didn't get them back.
He is quite into Lego now, so I still haven't told him about any of this.
This year someone (but not my secret santa cos that's all hush hush!) is going to be getting a set that was made in the same year as them (1976) and an advent calendar I made myself and filled with polybags :)
This year someone (but not my secret santa cos that's all hush hush!) is going to be getting a set that was made in the same year as them (1976) and an advent calendar I made myself and filled with polybags :)
Back in 2007, I think, when I was really into Exo-Force, my brother (knowing that my parents had stashed away all the sets from the theme already (they got a great deal on them)), built me a Mini-Lander of Takeshi. I forget how he got the detail on the hair just right- I'll have to try to find a picture.