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The following is a small part of the responses to the rec.toys.lego Roll Call. Refer to the Table of Contents or the Alphabetical Index for other parts of the Roll Call.
From: jonesnm@mail.auburn.edu (Nancy M Jones) Name: Randall Jones Age: 41 M.S.: Married Kids: Preston,13 and Alana,10 Employment: Pediatrician # of sets: 45 or so Oldest Set: Basics sets from about 1984 Favorite Themes: Alana and me: Castles: Preston: Space, by far Favorite Set: Mach II Red Bird Rig Model Team (new this Christmas) Education: University of Georgia and Medical College of Georgia
From: Chad Leinaweaver <cleinawe@lynx.dac.neu.edu>
Name: Chad Leinaweaver
Age: 23
M.S.: single
Kids: not quite yet
Employment: graduate student of history at Northeastern University
in Boston
Number of Sets in Collection: 75-150
Number of Pieces: 10,000+
Oldest Set: Basic sets from the mid-seventies
Favorite Themes: Town
Favorite Set in Collection: Main Street (from 1980)
Location: Boston, Massachusetts cleinawe@lynx.neu.edu
From: cando@dorsai.org (Alex) Name: Alex Lis Age:18 Married: No Kids: No Employment: Electrical/computer Engineering student. Number of sets: Unkown, all pieces semi-sorted by type (plate, brick, window, etc) in containers. Number of pieces: Between 25000 - 26000 (close estimate). Oldest set: Original Main Street Fire Department set + unkown set circa 78-79. Favorite themes: B Favorite set: Technic pneumatic line & older main st. sets. Education: ...getting there.. credit by credit... Notes: Build (only) large, fully detailed (inside, out) buildings. Biggest gripe: Not being able to buy Lego in large quantities & LSAHS not having and WHITE WINDOW & DOOR SETS!!!!!! Red windows don't stand out with RED brick!!
From: Barry Shell <shell@sfu.ca> Name: Barry Shell shell@sfu.ca Age: 43 M.S.: Married Kids: 7YO son Sam Employment: Science Writer/ Hacker Number of Sets in Collection: 20 + Number of Pieces: Thousands + Oldest Set: ca. 1989 Favorite Themes: motorizing, Castles, Vehicles, Technic and New Aquazone Favorite Set in Collection: The electric motor and battery pack. Location: Vancouver, BC Canada Bragging: Interested in putting together an on-line team to create a Lego CD-ROM software game that allows you to build virtual 3D models rotate them, animate them and even play with others over the network. Ideally, in the true sense of the hacker ethic this would be shareware. I'm collecting ideas and names of interested programmers.
From: teel@is2.nyu.edu (teel) Name: Kay Teel Age: 27 Married: No Kids: No Employment: Librarian Number of sets: Circa 30, maybe Number of pieces: No idea Oldest set: I had basic building sets as a kid, which my wicked parents gave to a yard sale! The oldest set that I still own is one of the little blue spaceships, bought in 1986. Favorite themes: Pirates, Castle. Favorite set: Black Seas Barracuda. Education: B.A., History, Boston University; M.S., Library Science, Columbia University. Notes: Some well-meaning friends bought me some Paradisa for Christmas. Although I like the roulette wheel, and the ice cream truck is kinda nifty (esp. the yellow drawer that pulls out), I hate the pastel colors! Yuck!
From: David G Williams <dgwillia@willamette.edu> Date: Mon, 6 Mar 1995 20:20:50 -0800 Organization: Willamette University, Salem, OR, USA Name: David G. Williams Age: 20 E-Mail Address: dgwillia@willamette.edu Marital Status:Single Kids:NONE Employment: Student Location: Salem, OR Number of Sets Owned: I am not quite sure of this number. I have two huge boxes filled with legos. I'm thinking, somewhere in the hundreds. Number of Pieces: Again this is rather ambiguous. See above. Oldest Set: circa 1980 Favorite Theme(s): Definitely the Town Theme Favorite Set(s): I am rather partial to both the aquatic motif, i.e. the fire ship and the police and coast guard boats. I also have a certain flare for aviatic themes. I have a circa 87 airport that I enjoy. I must say, however, that I have always enjoyed purchasing the little sets. When I was a Kid I would save my allowance til I got like ten dollars and then go to Toys-R-Us and buy the most I could with that. I was never much into playing with the stuff I built. I mostly enjoyed building things and since most of my sets don't have the directions with them I was forced to use my imagination more than once. Thank goodness. When I would get stuck without a piece to fit a certain way. I would whip out the graph paper and design the piece that I desired. I think several times I had my mom mail them to Lego. I don't know if she ever did because I never got a response; however, some pieces that exist today bear a striking resemblence to those that I had designed...hmmmm. I think that my best creation was built around 85 or 86. I built a ski resort in my room. By propping up my bed sheets on chairs and such I created the mountains(I didn't have enough pieces to build a mountain out of Lego's at the time.) I built several chair lifts and a gondola that went from the top of one mountain to the top of the adjacent one. This resort was complete with several mountain top restaurants and a chateau at the base. I even had a parking lot filled with cars...It was a busy saturday. I think I took a picture of it. I have no Idea where those are but now I want to go find them. Well, I may have gone a bit long on this roll call thing, but I enjoy talking about my childhood legos. I regret not bringing at least some of them to college with me. I do purchase a set now and then and enjoy them to the fullest. After writing this my interest has been peaked, I would be interested in hearing about CREATIVE creations...not just the typical town setting or moon scape. Let's hear the good ones. Again, I apologize if this has gone longer than usual, but If you read it all, then I appreciate it and look forward to hearing about your creations/inventions.
From: weldridg@haverford.edu (William Eldridge Lemming Ultimate) Date: Thu, 16 Mar 1995 18:26:14 -0300 Organization: Haverford College Name: Robert DeRose Age: 22 Marital Status: not that I know of Kids: just me Education: I plan to receive my B.S. (Biology) in May, then it's off to grad school Number of sets owned: about 25-30 (including old ones that have been permanently dismembered) Number of pieces: probably a few thousand Oldest set: I have the mid-'70s Hospital and Fire Station, from the time when minifigs didn't have movable arms and legs Favorite sets/themes: Space in general, especially Spyrius. Probably 80% of my sets are various space themes. I've also managed to get the two smallest Aquazone sets (Sea Sprint 9 and the little Aquashark guy), and if I ever find the bigger Aquazone sets in the local stores they'll probably become new favorites. Probably my favorite single set is the Spyrius Saucer Centurion.
From: Captain Jingle <vandercl@grfn.org> Date: Fri, 17 Mar 1995 20:51:02 -0500 (EST) Organization: Bethany Christian Services Name: Bob VanderClay Age : 19 M.S. : Single Kids : None Employment : Student Number of sets : Approximately 45 Pieces in collection : probably somewhere near 5000 Oldest set : Can't remember exact set name, a poice station from circa 1980. I think... Favorite themes/sets : Space. Although the new Aquazone is beginning to win me over. Well, I'd like to introduce myself to this newsgroup. I've played with LEGO as far back as I can remember. Unfortunately though, as I matured, LEGO became less of a focus of my life, and too much of a cost, so I end through a period where I bought LEGO very infreqently. (As know as the Dark Ages). With my introduction into the Internet, I quickly found this group, and my interest in LEGO was perked. Hearing discussion of the new Aquazone really made me want back into the world of LEGo, well here I am, a few months later, a few hundred dollars less, and with about 20 more LEGO sets. It feels good to be back into it. I forgot how much I love the sound of new LEGOS in a box. Hee-hee.
From: thomas (Thomas JACQUES aka 'Woody') Date: 21 Jan 1995 11:49:39 GMT Organization: Ecole Centrale Paris, France Name: Thomas JACQUES Age: 21 M.S.: single Kids: none Employment: Student in Engineering Number of Sets in Collection: about 15 Number of Pieces: 3427, plus half a spaceman's helmet Oldest Set: early 80's: the 2 very first space sets Favorite Themes: Space & Technic | e-mail: thomas@jenlain.via.ecp.fr | | jacquet7@cti.ecp.fr | | phone: (1) 46.83.79.48 |
From: bigb@citation.ksu.ksu.edu (Bryan K Klostermeyer) Date: 20 Jan 1995 11:57:16 -0600 Organization: Kansas State University Sender: bigb@ksu.ksu.edu Name: Bryan Klostermeyer AGE: 22 M.S: Single, not looking KIDS: My roommate is pretty childish EMPLOYMENT: Chemical Engineering student at Kansas State Univ. NUMBER OF SETS: 50-60, I think NUMBER OF PIECES: Not nearly enough :) OLDEST SET: Early 80's space set FAVORITE THEMES: Castle, Pirate, Old space FAVORITE SETS: X-1 Patrol Craft spaceship; Whirlwind Rescue helicopter
From: jgarden@prograph.com (John Garden) Date: 26 Jan 1995 11:04:32 -0400 Organization: Prograph International Name: John Garden Age: 30 M.S.: 5 weeks !! Kids: Mike (12) - acquired in expansion draft - see above Employment: Programmer/Prographer Number of sets in collection: ~10 Number of pieces: ? Oldest Set: ? Favorite Themes: Technics, Pirates Favorite Set: 8868 Air Tech Claw Rig Education: BSc - Dalhousie University, MCS (almost 8-) Technical University of Nova Scotia Notes: All mine is Technic. The master plan is to build a large, completely autonomous robot with a micro-controller brain and 2K of intelligence. Currently side-tracked by all the other cool things Technic can do (that, and the fact that the dog got hold of the brain). Mike has a million sets (all themes) and a kazillion pieces, just waiting to be expropriated when I need them. Carla just got her first set - the Blue Fury. It's fantastic.
From: randyf@u.washington.edu (Randy Fabro) Date: 22 Jan 1995 05:40:31 GMT Organization: University of Washington Name: Nathan Fabro Age: 12 M.S.: are you kidding Kids: none except me Employment: Student Number of Sets in Collection: 50+ Number of Pieces: lots and lots Oldest Set: 1987 don't know what it's called Favorite Themes: SPACE (federation sets) Aquazone Favorite Set in Collection: Ice Station Odessy and Alphpa Centauri Outpost NAthan A. Fabro (NAte) lego collector since 1987
From: wette001@gold.tc.umn.edu (Eric Wetterlind) Organization: University of Minnesota, Twin Cities Date: Thu, 26 Jan 1995 03:23:31 GMT Name: Eric Wetterlind Age : 24 MS : Married Kids : No Education : CSci and Computer Engineering Occupation : Software engineer Number : Around 10000 (had some time to kill when wisdom teeth pulled) Sets : Around 100 or so. Favorites : Castle, Ice Planet Last Creation : A cool castle with a couple of draw-bridges (about 2'x2'x2'). It underwent a seige, though. My cat powered his way through the royal guard and made off with the princess. Took a while to find her head :) Just catching up on reading this group and a lot of people were referring to an old conveyor belt thing. I have this set (545 Conveyor station) with full instructions. Others mentioned were the London bus (760) and that rescue helicopter (480 or 770 <- one of which had an ambulance, too). They bring back memories. These sets are all from around '73-'75. My brother (avid collector, too) and I used to build space ships (fighting over the LL924 pieces from the Space Cruiser) and then put them through drop tests. The less that fell off from the highest distance won. Didn't really accomplish much, but passed the time and kept mom happy.
From: kiyose@beauty.ucsb.edu (Kiyose Ryu) Date: 27 Mar 1995 19:12:45 GMT Organization: University of California, Santa Barbara Name: Daniel Sabath Age: 23 Occupation: Inbetween schools I have a BA in Aquatic Bio and am taking time off before grad school. Oldest Set: I first got one of those firemens sets w/ the figures w/o movible arms but i don't know what happened to it...the oldest set i still have is the miniture and older version of a Galaxy Explorer look alike. BTW it is still assembled as i don't have the instructions... Number of sets: 200+ Number of pieces: ??? lots. Favorite type of set: space though they are finally geting around to my field with the aquazone...i have a rather nice mobile hanging above the dining room table ( and a very understanding SO). The model team sets also attract my $$$. Biggest pet peeve w/ lego: the reduction and combination of pieces in some sets. eg the walls in the castle sets. I don't mind specialization of pieces but making one piece that can only be used for that one thing when it could be done with a few more 1xX and 2xX's almost lost lego my business. Kids: Just me and my SO. e-mail: kiyose@peak.org kiyose@mcl.ucsb.edu
From: jalling@winboss.dk (jalling@winboss.dk)
Date: 28 Mar 95 00:14:24
Organization: WinBoss: Yet Another Point/2
Name: Niels Jalling
Age: 42
E-Mail Address: jalling@winboss.dk ( jalling@ibm.net)
Marial Status. Married for 16 years
Kids: 4 ( 3y,boy; 6y,girl; 9y,girl; 12y,boy )
Employment: Systems programmer
Location: Frederiksberg (part of Copenhagen), Denmark (Home of LEGO)
Number of sets: 0, But my kids have more than 100 ranging from basic DUPLO
to the latest Technic sets.
Oldest set: Cant say. I have played vith LEGO as long as i can remember. My
grandmother (and later my mothers sister) had a toys shop in a small town,
Hobro. My aunt was the one of the best shops to visit when looking for the
newest, and largest LEGOsets, the LEGO rep says. Unfortunately she had to close
the shop before Christmas last year (she is 78 years old).
When I was a kid, the number of different LEGO bricks was very limited. We only
had the standard bricks, later the flat bricks came. Doors and windows vere
placed in an recess in the brick, doors was 2 dots wide and 3 blocks high,
windows 2 or 4 dots wide and 2 blocks high. There vere no tubes in the bricks
to keep them together. We could go to the toys shop and buy 1 single brick !!
Lego only produced a small number of gift sets. A garage, a gas service
station, a church, a villa as far as I remember.
At the same time as introduction of the tubes in the bricks, a new style of
doors and windows with frames vas introduced. The windows came in sizes from
1*1 to large shop windows. (I have a dealers box only missing a few doors and
windows)
LEGOLAND in Billund, I have been there twice. Its nice looking place but there
are too many people visiting the relative small area. Too much time is used for
waiting.
Well this must be enough for now. I'll return with more LEGO history another
time :-)
Bye, Niels Jalling
PS: besides playing LEGO with my kids I collect and play with Meccano/Erector.
Its much easier to build a clock with :-)
From: davidric@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (Ricardo David ) Date: 28 Mar 1995 03:53:05 GMT Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Name: Ricardo(Rick) David Age: 24 Marital Status: Single Occupation: Finishing Master's in Mech. Engr. about to go engineer cars for the Ford Motor Company. Oldest Set: Just took a peek at my old lego collection at home and don't know what my oldest set is but probably a vintage '72-74 set. Number of Sets: No idea, just a box of stuff, but I just bought 5 new sets. Number of Pieces: No idea. Favorite Type of Set: Love the current Space Shuttle sets, just bought all of this type except the airplane/shuttle combo. Biggest Pet Peeve: Why are they making pieces that should be 6 stacked pieces as just on piece 6 pieces high. Just stared lurking around this newsgroup about a week ago and have since gone lego mad. Last weekend I went home and collected all of my old lego together. Since I will start working soon I can't wait to spend some of my new money on Lego. I hope to build a complete lego town. As a start I have my own Cape Canaveral(sp?) already with my lego buying spree last week. It feels good to know that since my lego town is just an idea in my head I can use this group as friendly resource to make it the best it can be. So much to buy so little money! -- email: r-david1@uiuc.edu WWW: http://www.cen.uiuc.edu/~rd5130/rickhome.html
From: Ken Schiele <pcs@halcyon.com> Date: 29 Mar 1995 03:47:15 GMT Organization: Northwest Nexus Inc. Name: Ken Schiele Occupation: General Manager / Instructor at PCS-Redmond Education: BSME, Gonzaga U. 1993 (Are all the technic freaks MEs?) LEGO history: Sure, I had LEGOs when I was a kid, but through various moves, lost 'em all. The real stuff is more recent. I started working for PCS during my senior year of college. PCS was started about ten years ago in Nampa, ID by Pat McShane. For more details on present day PCS, check out: http://www.halcyon.com/pcs/pcshome.html I could go into details, but suffice it to say that PCS does alot with technic LEGOs. After finishing a DRY four-year ME program far to heavy on the theory, LEGOs were a godsend. So I've been lucky enough to say that I just about get paid to play with LEGOs. Robotic arms, 5 foot ferris wheels, and the usual bunch o' amitious LEGO projects, all for work. I am lucky. --------------------------- On another note: I saw that bruce@algol.demon.co.uk posted some info about doing some efficiency testing on worm gear gear-trains. I'm interested in having the various PCS schools continue with the testing, and would love to hear from any that have done anything in this arena. Ken S. at PCS soon to be pcsred@blarg.com
From: rsather@wimsey.com (Robin Sather) Date: Wed, 29 Mar 1995 07:48:34 GMT Organization: Wimsey Associates Name: Robin Sather Age: 29 MS: Married (to the older sister of Tim Westcott - a regular contributor to RTL!) Kids: Nope! Occupation: Self employed computer consultant/programmer # of sets: almost 200 # of pieces: roughly 26,000 (I actually only counted 2/3 of the sets from box counts, and estimated the rest) Oldest set: Oldest set would be a small red & white freighter from 1965 (no number), although I've gots lots of really old stuff! Fave themes: Castle and Technic (but I love them all!) Fave set: probably 6077 (Forestman's River Fortress), 8880 (Super Car), but alas I love them all! Miscellaneous comments & opinions (I've wanted to respond for so long!!!): (This will probably dredge up all those old threads!) 1) You gotta love this news group! It's so refreshing to see people HAPPY for a change. Takin' it easy, having fun! Don't ever change it. 2) Keep ALL lego stuff in one newsgroup, including auctions, all themes, etc. 3) Regarding specialized vs. basic pieces; I love having lots of basic pieces, to build with bulk and size. I also love having specialized pieces, for added realism and detail. Thankfully, I can buy lots of both types of sets, especially this year, with the new freestyle sets with just 1xn's and 2xn's (set number 1715 - 400 pieces for about $15, or 1717 soon with 600!). So I don't want to hear any more complaining! 4) Regarding copying/distributing instructions; I think it's a bad idea to do anything illegal, especially right under Lego's nose! If I lost a set of instructions for a set I own, I would try to get them from Lego first, then perhaps from the net. If I simply want the instructions, I think I'm out of line going to the net for them. We should simply keep lobbying lego to reissue them in books, CD ROM or whatever. 5) Lego CAD; I've seen probably 5 "serious" attempts at this sofar. Look guys, give it up! Do you have any idea of the complexity of the task! Lego must use something in house. Again, we should lobby Lego to make it available to Lego computer maniacs (and that's us, folks!). 6) People have dissed good ole' Jeff Crites for his Castle Listing (I know this is an old thread, but anyway ...) You gotta love him! I mean that. I appreciate his Castle listing, and have used it on occasion to identify some old sets. If you don't like the listing, ignore it. I don't like the price estimates, but as he is extremely careful to point out, these are simply observations of what has actually happened on the net, so they're accurate! Keep it up, Jeff! 7) You also gotta love Todd Lehman. People like him are the backbone of this group, people. "Auczilla". What a concept. All of us, whether buying or not, drool all over our keyboards just looking at the listing (496 gold coins, 25 black horses, 48 castle corner walls ... drip, drip). You help to keep this group going. I'm looking forward to conversing. I can't believe how much money this guy must spend !! 8) Although I don't see his name as often, I think Dik Winters is the "Old man", the guru, the "Grand Poobah" of the net. He has the most info about really old stuff (ie. Fabuland in recent posts), and I'm glad he's still logging on to monitor what's going on. Anyhow, good to meet you, sir! 9) Stickers, decals, etc. Never use them, store them, look at them, but never actually stick them on. Too much hassle! My 2 cents.
From: schmitdj@cda.mrs.umn.edu (David J. Schmitz) Organization: University of Minnesota, Morris Date: Sat, 10 Jun 1995 22:51:48 GMT Name: David Schmitz Sex: M Age: 20 Marital status: Not technically, but practically Children: Only myself Occupation: Retired Proletarian turned Student # of sets in LEGO collection: who knows? # of LEGO pieces: about three boxes worth. Favorite theme(s): castle, of course. Favorite set(s): Galaxy Explorer, even if I have broken several pieces and lost the instructions. Current project: Building an in-scale castle on top of a rocky mountain, above a roaring sea. Needless to say, I need more pieces.
From: groves@noao.edu (Lee Groves) Date: 10 Jun 1995 23:04:00 GMT Organization: National Optical Astronomy Observatories, Tucson, AZ, USA Originator: groves@yam.tuc.noao.edu Name: Lee J Groves Sex: Male Age: 35 Marital status: Married Children: One daughter, 7, lives with her mom, but is budding lego-maniac :) Occupation: Real-time programmer, National Optical Astronomy Observatories # of sets in LEGO collection: ~10 # of LEGO pieces: 7000 (some pre 1970, working 1st generation 4.5v motor!) Favorite theme(s): Trains, Technic Favorite set(s): Claw Rig. Current project: New load-n-haul and 2nd metrostation
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