The LEGO community is full of stories, anecdotes, and tales both tall and heartwarming. Sometimes, all you need is a prompt to get them out! So we’re starting a weekly feature here on the Brothers Brick: TBB Asks. It does what it says on the tin: quite simply, we ask a different LEGO-related question every week, and invite contributors and readers alike to share their stories and answers! These may vary from what your favourite set is, to what minifigure tool would be best suited to a zombie apocalypse. (I think it’s a lightsaber, incidentally.) This week, we’re asking: What was your first LEGO set?
Make sure to leave your answer in the comments – and if you have an idea for a question, feel free to leave that there, too!
Daniel: While I did have system sets before the launch of the first wave of classic space sets, the space cruiser was one of the first sets I remember getting when I was 10 years old. The classic yellow castle set also stands out as one of my earliest sets.
Kimberly: Duplo farm 2650. If we want to go way back, I did get Duplo for my 1st birthday; 6085 Black Monarch’s Castle was my first set. We had Samsonite era Lego passed down from my Uncle.
Steve: Technically, my first set was #387 Excavator and Dumper / Road Construction Vehicles. It was a 3rd birthday gift and I was too young for it, and my father and uncle built it overnight. I clearly remember being both disappointed that I didn’t get to build it and delighted by the tread elements and other play features of the finished model. The first set I built myself (at 6) was 442 Space Shuttle. Both are still in my collection.
Bre: I know that there were others, including simple boxes of bricks, but the first set that truly stands out was LEGO Adventurers 5987 Dino Research Compound. As an 8 year old kid with a newfound interest in paleontology, I lost my freaking mind when I unwrapped this set for Christmas.
Lino: It was this one, set 367. That got me started on a lifetime of building with LEGO.
Kyle: I don’t remember which set was the first, but my earliest LEGO memory is building 6508 Wave Racer.
Ralph: I used to play with my sister’s Duplo, but the first set I remember owning was the Police Launch (with the original hands-in-pocket minifigs). I still have some of the parts, the figures, the hull and the counterweight.
Theo: I had the odd Duplo set, I’m sure, but the first one I remember playing with – or more often than not, its constituent parts – was 7111 Droid Fighter. I was barely old enough to have seen Star Wars at the time, let alone the Phantom Menace, but it still stands out after all these years.
Jake Forbes: I don’t remember my first set – LEGO was always present in my childhood. I had some of those pre-minifig buildable figures as well as the earliest unjointed minifigs in my collection, but I don’t remember getting them. Most of my early years of building are a blur, but it was mostly Classic Space. I never kept the sets assembled long, so all the parts got folded into my collection. One of the earliest sets I remember distinctly is when I first got obsessed with castle, starting with the Forestmen set Camouflaged Outpost. I loved that line of sets with all the secret entrances.
I suppose that’s why Jake decided to practice his tree-building techniques on his Forest Hideout set. And neat though those trees are, I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t a bit jealous of Bre’s dinosaur hideout! Heck, I’d freak out if I got that for Christmas now. But now, it’s over to you, readers! What was the first set to set you on your LEGO journey? Tell us in the comments, and come back every week for more from TBB Asks!
Whatever this one was:
https://share.icloud.com/photos/015kUcj3L9ZtrRujLKOAwDNAw
I loved those DUPLO trains. For years.
The first set I bought with my own money was 6071 Forestmen’s Crossing
I always had a giant box of bricks before… i remember getting this set as the first one I ever got with “instructions”… after a lifetime (thus far) of blocky brick builds, I was fascinated with the smooth plates and segmented articulating arm.
Been collecting all sorts of models ever since, but Space will always have my heart.
https://brickset.com/sets/6901-1/Mobile-Lab
The very first LEGO ‘set’ I got was 1638, the blue Basic bucket. The first proper set I got was 6813, the Galactic Chief from the Space Police 2 line.
‘The yellow trucks’ is the only way it has ever been in my memory; I knew it was Creator and I knew the rough year, but I found it!! I would have been 3 at the time!
https://brickset.com/sets/4096-1/Micro-Wheels
605, the taxi for my fourth birthday. I’m still hooked on Lego cars almost 53 years later.
Much like Daniel, my earliest sets were the 487 Space Cruiser and and 375 Yellow Castle. I still have the castle/instructions – the box is long gone. I am still totally a Castle Guy, can’t pass up a castle set from any era.
My first Lego was a collection of bricks given to us by my father’s German colleagues, but the first actual set I received was 115 Starter Train with Motor.
The first set I bought with my own money was 9719 Robotics Invention System, Version 1.0
1464 Pirates Lookout. I was barely over 3 years old when i got. Havent stopped collecting since, especially Pirates.
My first set was a Basic 5-in-1 that let you build a house, gas station, cat, boat, or helicopter. It was around in the mid-1980’s.
This question prompted me to visit Brickset and pore through their year-by-year guide, because I didn’t actually remember! I know I had some Fabuland figures … not sets, just figures, which makes me think I was either given some of the small character packs or my mom snagged a bunch at a garage sale. But the earliest full LEGO set that I remember getting was 6378 Shell Service Station from 1986. I quickly gravitated to the Space and Castle themes (6066 Camouflaged Outpost from 1987 is still sitting atop one of my bookshelves), but I remember that initial service station build being totally captivating. I should dig through my bins and see how many of the original parts I still have … I know I’m always stumbling across the black 1×8 brick with the very worn “SHOP” sticker!
I still have some of my first sets on display in my living room. 6503 and 3797, the small Shell racecar and the small Fabuland fire truck.
325 Shell Service Station
The big sign is broken, and the flap of the automatic tilting garage door snapped off, but I still have the bowsers/pumps and the Shell roof sign.
I notice Lego Stig started with the 605 Taxi, which was my sister’s first set and one which I coveted for many years.
The first one I remember “receiving” as a gift was the 554 LEGO Exxon Fuel Tanker. It came out in the late 70s but I recall getting it circa 1982.
1.5M pieces later and counting.
I don’t remember the exact set to be the first. We had earlier LEGO in the house from my older brothers. I was born in ’78 and probably got my first own early in the 80s. I’m pretty sure one of the first I got was Red Cross Helicopter 6691 (from 1981), but I eventually got several in the fire series, including the Fire Station. I also remember getting Post Office 6362 as an xmas gift from my oldest brother who had a job delivering post that year.
Looking at the old catalogues, I quite certainly got some older sets, but presumably these were still buyable back then.
#590 Engine Co. No. 9
I had a basic set from 1973, so maybe 8-3. I built and rebuilt and rebuilt houses for hours. I don’t know why no one thought maybe I’d like more.
Mine might have been when I was 4 years old: set 6107 Recon Ray. I remember thinking the helmet and the printed submarine piece were so cool, but my mom made me throw out the knives because she didn’t want us to have violent toys ????
I was 5. It was 1963. Tall cardboard box, maybe 10″ x 4 x 4. The top of the box was a red flat base plate, full brick thickness. No tubes on the bottom. I still have that piece.
So many cool sets. And nice to see I’m not the only old-timer ;-)