A Month of Lego - 497 Galaxy Explorer
19So, there have been months of Boats, Inflatables, Distractions, Diesels, Features, Ships (this might have been the boat month) and most recently Shrubberies (or maybe it was Fruit Trees). But if you’re semi-old like me, you grew up with a popular toy called Lego. I happen to be an AFOL, so every day this month I am going with a set from Lego. Some will be from my childhood. Some will be from yours. Some you will have never seen. I will likely even throw in a few MOCs.
Let’s start with some fun facts. The Lego group was started in 1932 by a carpenter named Ole Kirk Christiansen and is still family owned today. There are over 400 billion Lego bricks in the world and if stacked together would be over two million miles tall (10 times the distance to the moon). The original Lego brick is compatible with the sets made today - the original design has never changed only been added to with additional parts. Speaking of parts, over 3700 elements are currently in existence. Lego Bricks (for the most part) are made of ABS.
On to one of my favorite sets. 497 - Galaxy Explorer. As Lego continued to expand in the 1970s, they came out with three play themes - Town, Castle and Space. I was 6 when this set came out, just in time according to the age limit. I loved this set and while I like to think it was the inspiration for Benny from the Lego Movie. However, he was Blue and this set only came with Red and White astronauts. The Blue and Yellow were added later. Regardless, I had many hours of enjoyment and made me into the AFOL that I am.
If you don’t enjoy Lego, that’s fine. Blame me all month long.
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Afol = adult fan of lego.
Today I learned.
How did you feel about the Lego movies?
@RiotDemon I think they are pretty funny. Good for the kids with enough adult humor to keep you engaged. Also, I am pretty sure Will Farrell’s Dad character is me.
@RiotDemon Thanks! I was too lazy to look it up so I made up my own: Avid fan of LEGO
This should be fun. Looking forward to the daily updates!
I too am a AFOL. As are many others here. Looking forward to the magic!
6 or so years back I came across a small LEGO set and after that I amassed a massive collection of a few dozen large totes of loose LEGO and hundreds of sets. Mostly from yard sales and goodwill online. The goodwill pickup center used to call me the LEGO guy. I know I have a problem.
@StrangerDanger
Only person so far to actually call them LEGO. And they are LEGO bricks, never Legos. (Pedantry over.)
This will be a good month!
@KNmeh7 @StrangerDanger According to LEGO, yes, they are called LEGO bricks. If they ever refer to them as legos, they can lose the copyright like Johnson & Johnson did with Band-aid.
If they officially refer to them as legos, then the term lego applies to the bricks and not the brand. So, officially, they keep calling them LEGO bricks. Unofficially, everyone has always called them legos, and that’s okay because they won’t lose the copyright if they don’t encourage it.
This is going to be another good month.
(I bought the VW Beetle #10252 set a while back; haven’t found the downtime needed to build it yet, though.)
@earl_danger That’s immediately what I thought of. Love Charlie in that part.
Everything is Awesome …
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Blame because hopefully I just got that song in people’s heads
POPSOCKETS! COURT DOCKETS! FOLK ROCK HITS! AWESOME!
I had that set when I was a kid and it was the coolest thing ever!
the voltron 21311 has been my favorite build so far.
one day, i’ll do the millenium falcon (75192) build, but that’s a whole lot of pennies away.
For you LEGO fans, if you haven’t seen it, you should see “A Lego Brickumentary - Beyond the Brick” (its on Amazon Prime). Episode 5 of the Netflix series “The Toys that Made Us” is excellent also.