I am new to this site and I keep seeing references to people coming out of their dark age in the articles and forums. Can someone explain what is meant by that?

It just means getting interested in LEGO again after not playing with them since a child.

LOL. I guess that is why I didn't understand. I didn't have one! :)

LOL. I guess that is why I didn't understand. I didn't have one!

So you are a total LEGO noob eh? Welcome to the site. What got you into LEGOs? The stories behind it are often times fascinating.

Actually, what I meant by not having a "dark age" is that I have been a fan of Lego since I was a kid and I never stopped building and collecting Lego! When I was a kid I loved Space, Castle, and plain old Creator Lego but once Star Wars Lego was introduced, it completely captured my interest. I didn't have much money as a teen (when Star Wars first came out I would have been about 13) so I mostly had the smaller sets. Once I reached adulthood, a friend and I started getting a bit competitive about collecting and since I had more spending money, I started buying the bigger sets. I am not a fan of the Star Wars prequels so I have focused on the original trilogy sets. Now I am lucky to have a copy of most of the OT Star Wars sets (many MISB). Even having only one copy of those sets takes up quite a lot of space (and cost a lot of money!) so I started telling people that I was investing to justify my obsession. Technically it was investing since I have many quite valuable sets and the current market value is likely 2-3 times what I originally paid. I have always dreamed about having a home with enough space to build and display all the models I have collected though so I am not sure if I can ever bring myself to sell them. I guess time will tell whether I have to resort to that or not. This site is quite interesting but so far I don't plan to change my strategy of only buying one copy of each new OT Star Wars set. I am convinced by the articles on Lego investing that Lego is much more sound than something like baseball cards were, but I also think that due to an influx of investors buying many copies of sets for resale, we won't see the same kind of value increases of Lego sets from now on. With my collecting habits, I am in a great position since I can choose to sell if the value gets too irresistible and I can always just build and enjoy my sets if the market collapses (though I doubt that the rare, out of production sets I own will do anything other than increase in value! Unless of course the new movies end up sucking and Star Wars fans lose their love of the franchise). It's pretty great that Lego investing is getting a lot of people to return to their childhood love of Lego, and in turn, introduce it to a new generation of builders.

Some people are lucky to never go through a dark age. I went through two. One from the age of 12 to 38. then 40 to 42. My second dark age was the inspiration for this site, but that is another story...

I was probably just lucky that the Star Wars line was introduced right when I reached the age that most people start to lose interest in Lego. What happened when you turned 40?

Some people are lucky to never go through a dark age. I went through two. One from the age of 12 to 38. then 40 to 42. My second dark age was the inspiration for this site, but that is another story...

I don't know about everyone else, but I sure want to hear that story! Perhaps you could just make another whole post about it. Hearing stories about collectors having to go through the dark ages sure makes me glad that I won't have to.

Some people are lucky to never go through a dark age. I went through two. One from the age of 12 to 38. then 40 to 42. My second dark age was the inspiration for this site, but that is another story...

So you are a double dark ager?