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When I was a boy, my cousin and I built LEGO space ships. This was the last one I remember building, and my folks recently found it in an old storage box. 9 of the 19 lights still work. A bank of dip-switches control the engine lights, and a pair of more ergonomic buttons on the sides control the laser cannons. One of the challenges was to leave enough internal routing space between the LEGO structures for all of the wires.

Toys are on my mind as I head out to the Black Rock desert tonight for XPRS… =)

11 responses to “Frontiers of the Imagination”

  1. Leino88 Avatar
    Leino88

    ..thanx.
    you just made me cry a little.
    😛
    can’t believe you found that!!
    can’t believe how lego has changed since "the good ol’ days"
    …can’t beleive how we have too!

    Reply
  2. Todd Huffman Avatar
    Todd Huffman

    Have fun with the rockets! Maybe someday you can send that spaceship into space!

    Reply
  3. Head_First_Only Avatar
    Head_First_Only

    Now I really feel old. I can remember getting the first Lego motor for Christmas as a kid – a huge blue brick that you connected to a battery pack and which could drive four wheels, forwards and backwards. That was amazing high tech for Lego, back then. A couple of years later, they introduced gears, and I was in seventh heaven!

    Enjoy the rocketry this weekend – I’m sure you’ll have fun!

    Reply
  4. PhOtOnQuAnTiQuE Avatar
    PhOtOnQuAnTiQuE

    Nice one… We should all have kept our Lego’s SpaceShips, and sent them to the Google Lunar X Prize = ) (funny..i had Toy/fun too, today, making this picture

    about : Google Sponsors $30 Million Lunar X PRIZE to put robotic rovers on the Moon

    Have a good night…Your mind up to the Stars ; )

    Reply
  5. schoschie Avatar
    schoschie

    No way! You remember the last LEGO model you built?
    That LEGO looks like it just came out of a new box, too. But the parts and colors look a lot like the LEGO I remember from when I last toyed with it, in the mid- to end-80s.

    Reply
  6. jasonmcconnie Avatar
    jasonmcconnie

    Wow this picture looks like I could reach right into the monitor and grab it!

    Reply
  7. Vanita Avatar
    Vanita

    Kudos to your folks for having the insight to save that for you.
    :

    Reply
  8. msamaclean © Avatar
    msamaclean ©

    You are lucky to have this! A real classic ‘keeper’ ! I wish I just had pictures of the erector set machines, Ferris wheels & ‘mouse trap’ type contraptions that my neighbor & I made in his garage, with BBQ rotiserie motors, back in the 50s. (before the space race…;-))) )

    Reply
  9. biotron Avatar
    biotron

    wow – what a great find!

    Reply
  10. !MimosaMicheMichelle! Avatar
    !MimosaMicheMichelle!

    There is a short phase in one’s young adult life when we want to eliminate some reminders of our youth and surround ourselves with symbols of our now grown-up selves. Then when it is time to have a family (whether we have one or not), we soon want to revisit the past and connect it with our future, such as with our family’s new generation. That is when we sometimes regret having departed ourselves with childhood memorabilia. When parents who understand this can foresee that possibility and keep souvenirs for us tucked away in a safe and sometimes forgotten place, we are most appreciative of their foresight once our old things are found and dusted off. I think that this find is a real treasure! It brings back all the memories of youth, connects people from the past and the present, and it stimulates the imagine once more. Great!

    This LEGO space ship probably never looked so good as it does now against this counter top. 😉

    Reply
  11. The Rocketeer Avatar
    The Rocketeer

    When I was a boy, I drew plans for electric LEGO’s in a diagram and wrote Samsonite (owners of LEGO) about my ideas to put lights, batteries and switches built in to bricks for LEGO products. There were contacts on both sides of the brick so you could complete circuits by putting the right types of bricks together and have lighted projects. I still have the rejection letter in my safe. With my idea, there would be no external wires and it would teach kids how to make circuits. It would also be easy to make a short circuit, so safety features would have to be included as well if they had actually made them like that. Too bad I can’t collect anything on my ideas…

    Reply

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