A Different Kind of Set Building

2009 Topps Heritage Heroes of Spaceflight Relics #SSC3

1981 was a pretty exciting year for firsts.  The STS-1 became the first orbital space shuttle flight when the Space Shuttle Columbia launched on April 12th at the Kennedy Space Center.

On August 1st, MTV is officially launched and impacts a generation of music enthusiasts.

1992 Starline Americana #125

A little over month later on September 25th, Sandra Day O'Connor takes her seat as she becomes the first woman to serve on the United States Supreme Court.

1981 Fleer #574

1981 Topps #261

1981 Donruss #119

And somewhere within those twelve months, my parents bought me my very first baseball card set (1981 Fleer)while on a trip to Seattle.  That year also involves my earliest memories of collecting baseball cards in general... as I can vaguely remember trading 1981 Topps and Donruss cards with the other neighborhood kids.  It would ultimately play a huge role in my life off and on for the next thirty-nine years.

But I'll save that story for another day.  Today's post was inspired by Trevor over at Bump and Run Football Card Blog.  He started a Blog Bat Around and asked his readers to write a post about a collection outside of sports cards or sports memorabilia, so I decided to show off my collection of Legos.

According to my records I started with the purchase of this UCS Lego set:

Google Image

I've been a Star Wars fanatic first took me to see the iconic film when I was four years old.  That's approximately four years before I opened my first pack of baseball cards.  At some point, I became obsessed with Boba Fett and his ship:  Slave I.  It's still one of my favorite ships in the saga.  My set sat on a shelf in my office as a display piece until I put it in storage to create space for other Star Wars memorabilia.

I never built this set and I'm not even sure I intended to.  Like unopened wax boxes, I also enjoy collecting unopened Lego sets.

I quickly learned that although I found pleasure and comfort in building Lego sets, they were a little more challenging that I anticipated.  So far, I've stuck to smaller sets that require three hours or less to build.

Here's a look at the nine different sets I've constructed...

Set 75038:  Jedi Interceptor

Set 75135:  Obi-Wan's Jedi Interceptor

Set 75153:  AT-ST Walker

Set 75168:  Yoda's Jedi Starfighter

Set 75172:  Y-Wing Starfighter

Set 75173:  Luke's Landspeeder

Set 30611:  R2-D2 (2017 May the 4th Promotion)

It took a few years, but I stepped out of my comfort zone and built a couple of Lego Architecture sets:

Set 21043:  Architecture San Francisco

Set 21047:  Architecture Las Vegas

In addition to these sets, I have at least ten, maybe twenty more that are in storage.  The three that are standing in the on-deck circle are the Lego Iconic Chess Set (set #40174), the Volkswagen T1 Camper Van (set #10220), and an X-Wing Starfighter (set #75218).

In addition to those three, I just ordered the Boba Fett Helmet (set #75277) and preordered The Razor Crest (set #75292), since Lego is in the midst of their annual May the 4th promotion.

I'm not exactly sure when I'll get around to building my next Lego set, but in preparation for this post, I did go out and purchase this special vacuum attachment that helped me dust all of the sets pictured in this post.

If you're interested in reading about other collector's hobbies, I encourage you to check out Trevor's phone card collection as well as Greg's political, sports, and rock band button collection.

You can also share your other hobbies in the comment section below.  

Better yet... join in on the Blog Bat Around and write a post about a hobby outside of collecting sports cards or sports memorabilia.

And you didn't think I'd leave you without playing...

Happy Saturday and sayonara!