I’ve been collecting LEGO® sets for around a quarter century now, and while I can’t remember exactly what set I first received as a young tot, I do remember a couple of sets that really stuck out in my mind.

Police Units were the first non-basic set that I ever received. It’s very notable in my collecting history because it’s the only set I ever owned that had non-articulated minifigs. I really wish I knew where they were, but most of my pre-college bricks are packed in large, heavy boxes in the houses of my parents and some of my deceased grandparents.

Probably one of my favorite sets from early on was the Yellow Castle , which looked really strange, but I never really got into the whole Town thing. No offense to Town collectors, but I always figured that if I wanted to see a town, I could always step out the front door. Town, as far as the eye could see. Real castles, on the other hand, were in very short supply in western Michigan.

The other line that really interested me was the Space line. Before the themed lines started shipping, one of the coolest sets I got was the Space Supply Station , which I mostly cared about because of the cool lunar crater plate and the little hovercars. I almost always had at least one hovercar built. The only Space theme line that I really ever truly loved was Blacktron. I’m not talking about the white outfits with the giant ‘B’ on the chest. I’m talking about the cool ‘special ops’ looking guys. I didn’t manage to get all of the sets because I was too young to have a job at the time. The first one I got was the Invader , though I think most of the special parts are currently tied up in a giant hoversled inspired by the old Flash Gordon comic books that’s probably still collecting dust in one of those two attics that house most of my pre-college LEGO® bricks.

Back to the Castle theme, one of the sets that I still wish I’d been able to get my hands on was the Camouflaged Outpost I got a couple of the other Forestmen series, but I never managed to get one with the black-sleeved Forestman. I also remember being told by my dad that I was too old to buy the Forestmen’s Crossing . I haven’t asked recently, but I do have to wonder what he thinks whenever he visits my apartment. The living room is lined with the new action figures on one side and the Star Wars™ LEGO® line on the other. I also decorate my two fishtanks with LEGO® sets, cause they’re just that cool.

Anyways, I’ll let you read this while I go back to searching through the LUGNET database for sets I owned and others that I still wish I’d owned…