What Got You Started On Star Wars Lego?

[Archangel]

Well, I gotta get the post-count up, right?

I'm just curious about everyone's origins with Legos, SW specifically.

My story is, I had lot of small sets when I was very young, but for whatever reason, I never really had the patience for them. I know I had a few of the space and city sets from the 70s/80s, but those soon gave way to the original Kenner Star Wars toys and then the rest of the toy blitz of the 80's.

As I got older I grew more into scale models and away from the regular "kiddie" toys. The display factor was a big thing for me, and I even got into collecting 1:18th scale die cast cars.

Fast forward to the late 90's, I happened to walk into TLS at Woodfield Mall in Schaumburg and saw all the Star Wars Lego kits and thought they were cool, but not willing to ante up the money. This was about the same time Rosie O'Donell was pimping her Star Wars trivia knowledge in the run-up hype for the prequels, and she was giving away some of the Episode I kits as prizes. I thought "Hey that's neat, but I can't see myself spending the money".

I regret that decision, because I missed out on starting a great collection much earlier.

Middle of 2001, I broke my right hand/wrist in five places playing semi-pro soccer, and I lost a good deal of manual dexterity, putting the kibosh on any scale modeling (never was a good painter, and it just got worse).

I still had several collections of stuff that I maintained (soccer jerseys, die-cast cars, beer steins and bottles), but nothing that could properly fill a room. It was the summer of 2007 that my girlfriend at the time (no longer, haha) and I were garage-saling and she happened to find a revised Naboo Starfighter w/Vulture Droid brand-new for five bucks. She bought it for me because I was (and still am) a Star Wars geek, and thought I might like it.

That set sat in the closet for five months until one day I was bored out of my mind, and came upon it in the closet. I decided to build the sucker, and I soon became hooked. This was November of 2007.

My "addiction" began growing and Christmas brought me six more kits....the UCS TIE Fighter, the revised MTT, the AT-TP, and the Imperial Landing Craft. Forget Evercrack....it was all SW Lego for me. I fought a local Toys R Us for an hour over the pricing on a UCS AT-ST since it was listed at $44 on their website after Christmas 2007.

I soon began scanning Craigslist nationwide (hate eBay) for deals on and popping into the local stores for sales. Now in early 2009, I now have over eighty unique regular sets, about twelve duplicates (or triplicates), and ten unique UCS kits. I've become a completist, and my living room is a tribute to Star Wars Lego. I coveted my living room bay window into shelving space for a good part of my display, but I soon had to mount more shelves on the wall to accommodate the rest.

It was late last year I discovered FBTB and began lurking, and only recently had begun to post last December.

I wish I could become a MOC'er, but I don't think I cold bear to tear down the kits I've built. My current project is putting together thirty more sets I came across that were all in a tub in storage, and JUST finished separating all the pieces by color. What made it more difficult is that there were 27 kits from other genres mixed up in there.

So that's my story. What's yours?

[Iare Tosevite]

It was the A wing that started it all for me. Classic one.

[Solo]

I saw the ads for the sets when they first started coming out all those years back, but never jumped at any of them. That is until K-Mart was going out of business, and I found the Snowspeeder for $4. I remembered having a model of that from Disneyland from even further back in my childhood, so I grabbed it. I swooshed the hell out of that thing. From then on, I was hooked.

[Andi]

the 4502 X-Wing started my fascination with this subject.

[Firespray]

All I can really remember is that I saw the ads for them in the Club Magazine back in 1999. I was about 9 years old and thought Star Wars...plus Lego?! Best. Idea. EVER. Pretty much been hooked since then, and I still have that magazine issue, can't find it in me to throw it out

[DestructiveDelirium]

I was always a Lego fan even before Star Wars Lego, but SW really increased my fandom to a new level
First set was Anakin's Podracer, shortly followed by the MTT, and the Naboo Starfighter.

[Jake]

I've always been a fan of LEGO, and I had assorted themes that were MOCced into X-Wings and the like before Star Wars was official. When I got the 1999 LEGO catalogue I was in love, and my first set was the Snowspeeder, I legend among sets. It grew from there. I hit a greyish age around Episode II - pre-Episode III, but seeing the leaked pics in a playstation magazine (doing a feature on the then-new LEGO Star Wars game), brought me well and truly back in. A year later, I found FBTB. I haven't bought much recently, but that's the problem with your parents saying that you're too old, and then going to university, where money has to be spent on such inconsequential items as food. Still, I don't plan on forgetting my hobby any time soon.

[Ham Salad]

As a child of the 70's I was hooked from an early age and used to make starwars vehicles out of my space and town lego to fit the kenner figures. As I got older it always frustrated me that I could never build a proper x-wing or an AT-AT. I just wished that you could get Starwars in Lego. That would be cool I thought - never happen.

That was until plans for Ep 1-3 came on the drawing board and then there was talk of Lego bringing out their own line of Starwars goodness. I couldn't wait, but found at that time of my life that buying Lego just couldn't be a priority . I look back now and kick myself at so many great early sets that now sell for packets. I got given a Naboo security speeder as a gift from one of my school students as a Christmas gift and I haven't looked back.

Now I have the time and more importantly the money to buy and build and have really taken to the whole Lego is just an awesome building medium and I am blown away by some of the fantastic stuff being made out there. I teach 8 and 9 year olds and by the end of the year their parents hate me casue all they want is Lego and Star Wars Lego.

Multiple sets which are displayed at home and a few in the classroom that I don't mind if they get busted. If they do I give the kids the instructions and say fix it. 2009 is looking awesome for sets and I hope Lego Starwars is here for a lot longer. It just takes so darn long to get down under.

[Joedward]

Same as Firespray really.
As far as I can remember my first set was either the first Landspeeder (more likely), or possibly the A-wing.
It was a really obvious step for me, I've had LEGO my entire life, Star Wars was the most life changing film I'd ever seen, and when the sets cam out while I was an impressionable 9 year old I had to have them all.....I don't, but I wish I did.

[AdamShadows]

Oh wow. Well, it was way back when and a buddy of mine always wanted to see SW Legos. And when Ep 1 came out, our dreams came true. I got the speeder bike, land speeder and the Darth Maul Lego's the day they came out and my mother bought me nearly the rest by the end of Summer. The only two I didn't have from the first series was the Millenium Falcon (SInce my mom dished out cash for every other one!) and the Pod Race (Cuz I didn't want it).

[Stefan]

When I was a small boy, I loved Lego and I loved Star Wars. So, that's easy math for you.
My first set was 7128 Speeder bikes, in 1999.

[Buster]

I've always been a fan of Lego AND Star Wars, with only a minor "Grey age" in high school. When the first Lego Star Wars sets came out in '99 I thought it was like combining two of the best things in the world!
I also graduated highschool in '99 and among my graduation loot I got the Naboo Swamp (7121) and the Lightsaber Duel (7101) from folks who knew I liked Star Wars.
From there it gradually became the addiction it is today. I went something like this- The first set I bought myself was the original Naboo fighter. I always liked Boba Fett, so I bought the first Slave 1. The tie fighter seemed pretty cool, especially the storm trooper minifig (first set to have one), so I bought it. Once a I had a tie fighter, I just haaaad to get an x-wing... When the AT-AT came out, I thought it was the coolest thing ever, so with part of my first paycheck after graduating from college I bought that thing after combing the internet for the best deal I could find.
I thought that might be the end of my collecting, but it proved to be all down hill from there... I now have a pretty complete original trilogy collection and a decent Ep III Clone Wars layout as well (ground battle and space battle). I haven't gotten into the new Clone Wars stuff though... It's kinda not in the budget right now, especially since I've been more interested in the non-licensed Lego themes.
So anyway, that's how it all went down...

[deco_droid]

cool stories -- yah, i was big into legoland space in the 70s, and as most kids were, big into star wars as well. i kept up with legoland space until the theme seemed to fracture into so many different sub-themes it just wasn't the same for me.....

it's funny, in 1999 i didn't have much spending money and had just gone on an interview to become a graphic designer (first real "career" job). so as i'm waiting to hear back if i got the job or not, star wars lego was released in april i believe. i went to my local walmart for the midnight "toy grab", and bought ALL the new star wars lego sets, which came out to be $300 or so. the bad thing was if i didn't get the job, i could not afford to open all these sets and would have to return them, so they sat in my apartment upopened for a couple of weeks until i got word that, YES, i did get the job! i can afford lego now!!!

i collect all the minifig scale sets, plus most of the ucs and some minis. yes, i have a lego room. yes, my wife shakes her head whenever she walks in, but she thinks it's kind of cool too.

[liquidcross]

I'd been a LEGO fan since childhood, but went through a dark age in high school and college. Towards the end of college, Episode I came out, and with it the LSW sets. That brought me right back into the fold! After the other two prequels came out, though, I got really sick of Star Wars, and completely avoided anything to do with the franchise. (You've seen the flicks; can you blame me?)

About a year ago, I underwent major abdominal surgery. While recovering at home over the weeks that followed, I got back into the Star Wars franchise. Aside from the excellent LSW video games, which helped pass the time, I also picked up (once I was able to drive again!) a stack of the building kits. Specifically, I got the new Y-Wing, General Grievous' Starfighter, the Rogue Shadow, Anakin's Starfighter, all four of the 2008 "battle packs," and the Jedi Starfighter w/booster ring. Believe it or not, working on those while I rested and watched TV or whatever really helped me relax and feel better. I even dug out a few of my older kits and reassembled them for display. It's been that way ever since, and my collection has grown considerably.

Just thought I'd share. Anyone else have a similar story?

[weddlec]

I, like most kids, had many Lego sets as a kid. I had Castle, Space, and a litte bit of Town. I remember the sets coming out in 1999, but wasn't interested in buying any of them. They were too expensive. I remember being in college and perusing the toy isles at Target and seeing the fist MINI sets. I figured that for $3 I could afford this neat intermingling of 2 cool ideas (that being Lego and Star Wars). What I didn't realize was that all of the sets would go together to form another one (the TIE Bomber). I remembered being at Star Wars Celebration II and was very impressed by the Tantive IV set. I had found this site and someone said that it was 50% off at Toys R Us. I went home that very weekend and found it for $100. From there I ws hooked. I began my journey of ebay auctions and clearance sales to complete my collection. It has been a very cool hobby that my friends can admire, and one that I can now share with my 3-year old son.

[Monkfish]

I'm probably the reverse of most people here.

When the first sets came out I knew little to nothing about Star Wars and just thought they were really cool sets. After all, a space ship is a space ship! I went into my dark ages so I never bought any until I saw some of the recent Star Wars sets, especially the CW sets. I wanted to know more about what the sets were based on so I watched the Star Wars films just last year.

So it was Lego that got me into Star Wars, not the other way round.

[The Jinja Ninja]

I had no choice in the matter, my parents forced the sets on me for birthdays and Christmas! Also, it didn't hurt that I've been into Star Wars for as long as I can remember. First set was probably LIghtsaber Duel or Droid Fighter.

[BigBenKenobi]

I have always loved Star Wars since about the first grade or so...wow that seems like a long time ago even though I'm just in high school. But anyways, I missed seeing Episode I, and that was a serious bummer. I finally saw it when it came out on DVD/VHS, and I thought it was pretty good, but not as awesome as the OT. Well, a some time passed, and I still knew nothing of Lego making a Star Wars line. However, one of my friends pointed out one day in school that the new lego star wars sets were coming out for Episode II, and I didn't know what he was talking about, so he told me. I finally got my first set soon after, and here I am.

[Heady]

I discovered LSW in the 3rd Grade, when my grandparents got me that little set with Anakin, the Speeder Bike, and the Tuskens, from Episode Two. I remember thinking that he was Luke Skywalker, having not seen Episode II, so when I got the 4054 X-Wing, I was surprised seeing the Blond Haired Luke. From then on, I was really hooked, but came out of a Dark Age only last year.

[gr6120]

Some great stories here, and I'll add mine, too (this is my first-ever FBTB post ).

I grew up with the original three SW movies and had some Lego Space sets, but grew out of those as I got older. Little did I know that adulthood and having a son later in life would lead me back to Lego and SW ...

While living in Japan in the mid '90s to early '00s, my wife got me the Anakin's Podracer (7131) set as a novelty gift after we saw the re-released movies at the theater. I remember putting the set together, thinking "Cool," and then taking it apart again with the intention of giving it to my young son once he got old enough to not eat the bricks .

Fast forward several years later and we'd moved back to Canada. My son had a small but growing (non-SW) Lego collection and I figured the time had come to finally give him my Podracer set. He was delighted with it but knew little about SW at that point, and so the pieces and minifigs got mixed in with the thousands of other loose parts of his other sets, which were kept in a huge plastic bin. As he got a couple of years older, my son finally saw the movies and decided (as many of us do) that the SW series was the ultimate in cool. I rediscovered SW (and Lego) with him, remembering why I liked both as much as I did.

Then, about a year or so ago, I discovered FBTB (but couldn't join because of the ban at the time on free e-mail accounts), BrickLink and Peeron, among others. Since the original building instructions for my Podracer set had long been lost in our move overseas back to Canada, I was thrilled to find the PDF online and immediately set upon the painstaking task of salvaging each of those 134 pieces. After about a week of searching though bins, baggies and toy boxes, I was able to find most of them and presented my little guy with a (mostly) complete Podracer.

From that point on, I was hooked. Now, whenever my son gets a new SW Lego set, I have a blast putting it together with him (often staying up into the wee hours to get it done . Plus, I tend to pick up a set or two of my own, usually when I find them on sale, occasionally through ePay, or, if luck is on my side, through one of the local buy/sell websites if the price is right.

Sorry for the long read, but that was cathartic !