Da Count - LEGO Space

One of my favourite all time "toys" from childhood, and one that I never properly outgrew, would have to be LEGO. Of course, when they introduced their LEGO Space collection in the late 70's I was beside myself with joy.

At different times over the years, my parents bought me both the Galaxy Explorer and the Space Cruiser sets which I remember spending countless hours playing with in typical LEGO fashion (ie, first using the instructions to build the main design for the set, then trying out countless different versions of new types of spacecraft using the existing blocks from both sets)

Last week when we were home visiting my Mom, I'd been talking to Alexander about my great collection of LEGO and particularly the LEGO Space kits I had -- so when we finally found them packed away in a few different boxes in the basement, we were both jumping for joy.

We spent one whole afternoon creating the kit designs and then playing with them on the living room floor. While I know Alexander had a great time and was devastated when we left the LEGO at my Mom's place when we parted for home, I had just as much fun. (Can't you tell from the giddy smile on my face in these pictures?) What a great time for both of us.


This, of course, has reinvigorated my love for all things LEGO and I'm doing everything I can to hold myself down from going out and buying every single space-related LEGO kit I can get my hands on. I have to admit, however, that I'm not as excited about the more recent offerings in LEGO Space (right now it's the Mars Mission series). I'm still enamored with the more classic offerings, but perhaps I'll get used to them if we purchase a few kits and start playing with them.

I was also able to find some interesting information about the history of this series on Wikipedia which includes a nice breakdown of the different themes offered over the past few decades as part of the LEGO Space collection, as well as this group of like-minded folks passionate about Lego Space.

Right now Alexander is thrilled to have me playing LEGO with him, getting right into designing and building then playing with different creations. I think when Alexander keeps wanting and getting different LEGO kits as he gets older my main challenge might be trying to get myself in on the LEGO action in our home without him saying: "Dad, you're too old to be playing with my toys!"