My kingdom for a spaceman...

Stardate: 1979-1980   Age: 9
His LEGO was always separated and sorted by color, whereas mine was a mess in a box that once held a telescope. Mark had gotten into LEGO before me, and he even had some of the sets with the funky bendy figs in it.

"Hey kid I got some
candy and cool van"

"We're different."

They were super goofy, and how the heck would you have enough bricks to build something those guys could sit in?  Their legs weren't even bendy. I never understood them and I still to this day don't have one.  All I had was the stupid oddball small figure things that came out in the mid '70s.  It was a creepy blank faced guy with a hat, two arms shoved in his pockets and Charlie Chaplain feet.  At least the "old" figs at Mark's would move, heck they even smiled...

Mark's house was in the country, I was from the city... ok town.  Ok, Warrenton.  I grew up in the kind of town people made the "don't spit or you'll flood it" "don't blink or you'll miss it" while driving through.  Fortunately, we had Norwood nearby so we could tell the same joke.  Trips to his house were at least 10 minutes, an eternity.  It was a warm day when I saw them, a miracle of intelligent design...the minifig.  NO WAY we're playing outside this day...

I'm in charge here.

dat radar, 3 dudes.

We sweep up a lot.

 These guys, this set, the new parts, the baseplate, printed computers, INVERTED PRINTED COMPUTERS...  I must have them.  That radar dish, luscious.  I could spend hours with this.  LEGO hit the right notes with the first space line.  The box covers with Stanley Kubrick lighting took you to a moon of Jupiter.  Like Roddenberry, the crewmen had different colors for different jobs.  The angled ships and grey vehicles seemed straight from Lucas himself.  I needed these dudes for my adventures.  Oh and that radar dish, what a prime example of form and function.

"MOM, CAN I GET A LEGO SPACE SET?"  I'm not sure I said that, not sure of the answer, but I knew the next trip to Augusta I would be in the Toy Box in Daniel Village shopping center searching for the perfect choice.  I needed a minifig. I needed it bad.  No longer would my ships be piloted by some faceless freak with no hands.  So my first minifig came from:

Slopes that were 3 wide, THAT's a part innovation in 1979.

I'm sorta spacey...

Yeah I know.  Not a space set.  But, it had space potential.  I mean look, it's a cylinder almost.   Cheap set, good parts, and a dude.  Sign me up. Anyway, Captain Awesome or, whatever I called him, flew in some interesting ships.  They were multicolored and badly suited for for the vacuum of space, much like he was.

I kept going to Mark's house, and he still had the Alpha 1 base.  Putting the space man on the back of the radar dish and saying "PEW PEW PEW" was a priority.  Every time. When 1980 rolled in, I had one purpose... my own spade dudes.

It was one of those summer Wednesday trips to Augusta.  The kind of heat you'd get a permanent scar from the burn of the seat belt buckle.  It's a good thing we didn't use em.  We took visit to cloth world, the realm of complete boredom. Then headed to Woolsworth for a patty melt and that fruit drink mixed in something resembling an aquarium.  FINALLY, we took a walk down to the Toy Box corner store.  Mom liked the porcelain fancy dolls there.  I needed space...spacemen, radar dishes, and rayguns that aren't officially deadly (but we knew differently).  It was agreed that I would get "a small one."   

Yeah, I'm ugly but I'm more space
than Insectoids.

Decisions.  I looked and thought, "This set was out of the agreed price range, but could I cry her up a few bucks?  Nah, better not risk crashing the whole deal."  Captain Lostmycap would baldly go back into the void of space, alone.  As I continued, "This set was cool but only had one dude and only one brick with the space symbol on it." Decisions.  Mom finished looking at the doll, and time was short.  I need a ship... "What about this one?"  Mom had arrived on scene and was in her hurry up offence.  She, however, picked magic.  My first LEGO spaceship was... a rover.  6901 Mobile Lab.  I can still build it from memory.  It had all the right moves.  Spacemen, radar dish, raygun, and many printed parts.  Wait, were those the same arms from Mark's old weirdo figs?  I guess I didn't see how disgusting a grey flailing human tentacle was.  In space, all parts are space parts.

I had adventures. 

Me and my Legodudes.  By the way, you also never take your bricks to a friends house.  Someone could lose an eye in a fight over "WHOSE 1x1 CLEAR GREEN PIECE IS THIS??  Finally though, I had all the parts to warp into space.  I haven't stopped.

I'm not sure if we chose what influences us, or if it is chosen for us.  I think it's both.  All of it is woven into the fabric of our lives.  My son is the same age that I was in 1980.  What a responsibility my wife and I have in watching over what influences him.  My folks had eyes on much of it.  Mom knew how safe Mark's house was, she was there at the toy store, and she approved of the tank koolaid (sometimes).  Even those little things stick with us, and I'm grateful that the Creator gave me a good guide through it. 

Oh that radar dish from Mark's house?  Years ago I built it from memory.  I've had it for years and, it's still the coolest thing I've ever seen built with LEGO.  It sits on my shelf, reminding me of simpler days.