The rec.toys.lego Roll Call

Part 8

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The following is a small part of the responses to the rec.toys.lego Roll Call. Refer to the Table of Contents or the Alphabetical Index for other parts of the Roll Call.



From: jonesnm@mail.auburn.edu (Nancy M Jones)
Name: Randall Jones
Age: 41
M.S.: Married
Kids: Preston,13 and Alana,10
Employment: Pediatrician
# of sets: 45 or so
Oldest Set: Basics sets from about 1984
Favorite Themes: Alana and me: Castles: Preston: Space, by far
Favorite Set: Mach II Red Bird Rig Model Team (new this Christmas)
Education: University of Georgia and Medical College of Georgia




From: Chad Leinaweaver <cleinawe@lynx.dac.neu.edu>

Name:  Chad Leinaweaver
Age:  23
M.S.:  single
Kids:  not quite yet
Employment:  graduate student of history at Northeastern University
             in Boston
Number of Sets in Collection: 75-150 
Number of Pieces:  10,000+
Oldest Set: Basic sets from the mid-seventies
Favorite Themes:  Town
Favorite Set in Collection: Main Street (from 1980) 

Location: Boston, Massachusetts cleinawe@lynx.neu.edu




From: cando@dorsai.org (Alex)

Name: Alex Lis
Age:18
Married: No
Kids: No
Employment: Electrical/computer Engineering student.
Number of sets: Unkown, all pieces semi-sorted by type (plate, brick, 
	window, etc) in containers.
Number of pieces: Between 25000 - 26000 (close estimate).
Oldest set: Original Main Street Fire Department set + unkown set circa 78-79.
Favorite themes: B
Favorite set: Technic pneumatic line & older main st. sets.
Education: ...getting there.. credit by credit...
Notes: Build (only) large, fully detailed (inside, out) buildings.
Biggest gripe: Not being able to buy Lego in large quantities & LSAHS not 
having and WHITE WINDOW & DOOR SETS!!!!!! Red windows don't stand out with 
RED brick!!




From: Barry Shell <shell@sfu.ca>

Name: Barry Shell    shell@sfu.ca
Age:  43
M.S.: Married
Kids: 7YO son Sam
Employment:  Science Writer/ Hacker
Number of Sets in Collection: 20 +
Number of Pieces: Thousands +
Oldest Set:       ca. 1989
Favorite Themes:  motorizing, Castles, Vehicles, Technic and New Aquazone

Favorite Set in Collection:  The electric motor and battery pack.
 
Location: Vancouver, BC Canada

Bragging: Interested in putting together an on-line team to create a
Lego CD-ROM software game that allows you to build virtual 3D models
rotate them, animate them and even play with others over the network.
Ideally, in the true sense of the hacker ethic this would be shareware.

I'm collecting ideas and names of interested programmers.




From: teel@is2.nyu.edu (teel)

Name: Kay Teel
Age: 27
Married: No
Kids: No
Employment: Librarian
Number of sets: Circa 30, maybe
Number of pieces: No idea
Oldest set: I had basic building sets as a kid, which my wicked parents
gave to a yard sale! The oldest set that I still own is one of the little
blue spaceships, bought in 1986.
Favorite themes: Pirates, Castle.
Favorite set: Black Seas Barracuda.
Education: B.A., History, Boston University; M.S., Library Science,
Columbia University.
Notes: Some well-meaning friends bought me some Paradisa for Christmas.
Although I like the roulette wheel, and the ice cream truck is kinda
nifty (esp. the yellow drawer that pulls out), I hate the pastel
colors! Yuck!




From: David G Williams <dgwillia@willamette.edu>
Date: Mon, 6 Mar 1995 20:20:50 -0800
Organization: Willamette University, Salem, OR, USA

Name: David G. Williams
Age: 20
E-Mail Address: dgwillia@willamette.edu
Marital Status:Single
Kids:NONE
Employment: Student
Location: Salem, OR
Number of Sets Owned: I am not quite sure of this number.  I have two 
huge boxes filled with legos.  I'm thinking, somewhere in the 
hundreds.
Number of Pieces: Again this is rather ambiguous.  See above.
Oldest Set: circa 1980
Favorite Theme(s): Definitely the Town Theme
Favorite Set(s): I am rather partial to both the aquatic motif, i.e. the 
fire ship and the police and coast guard boats.  I also have a certain 
flare for aviatic themes.  I have a circa 87 airport that I enjoy.  I 
must say, however, that I have always enjoyed purchasing the little 
sets.  When I was a Kid I would save my allowance til I got like ten 
dollars and then go to Toys-R-Us and buy the most I could with that. 

I was never much into playing with the stuff I built.  I mostly enjoyed 
building things and since most of my sets don't have the directions with 
them I was forced to use my imagination more than once.  Thank goodness.  
When I would get stuck without a piece to fit a certain way.  I would 
whip out the graph paper and design the piece that I desired.  I think 
several times I had my mom mail them to Lego.  I don't know if she ever 
did because I never got a response; however, some pieces that exist today 
bear a striking resemblence to those that I had designed...hmmmm.  I 
think that my best creation was built around 85 or 86.  I built a ski 
resort in my room.  By propping up my bed sheets on chairs and such I 
created the mountains(I didn't have enough pieces to build a mountain out 
of Lego's at the time.)  I built several chair lifts and a gondola that 
went from the top of one mountain to the top of the adjacent one.  This 
resort was complete with several mountain top restaurants and a chateau 
at the base.  I even had a parking lot filled with cars...It was a busy 
saturday.  I think I took a picture of it.  I have no Idea where those 
are but now I want to go find them.

Well,  I may have gone a bit long on this roll call thing, but I enjoy 
talking about my childhood legos.  I regret not bringing at least some of 
them to college with me.  I do purchase a set now and then and enjoy them 
to the fullest.  

After writing this my interest has been peaked,  I would be interested in 
hearing about CREATIVE creations...not just the typical town setting or 
moon scape.  Let's hear the good ones.  

Again, I apologize if this has gone longer than usual, but If you read it 
all, then I appreciate it and look forward to hearing about your 
creations/inventions.




From: weldridg@haverford.edu (William Eldridge Lemming Ultimate)
Date: Thu, 16 Mar 1995 18:26:14 -0300
Organization: Haverford College

Name: Robert DeRose

Age: 22

Marital Status: not that I know of

Kids: just me

Education: I plan to receive my B.S. (Biology) in May, then it's off to
grad school

Number of sets owned: about 25-30 (including old ones that have been
permanently dismembered)

Number of pieces: probably a few thousand

Oldest set: I have the mid-'70s Hospital and Fire Station, from the time
when minifigs didn't have movable arms and legs

Favorite sets/themes: Space in general, especially Spyrius.  Probably 80%
of my sets are various space themes.  I've also managed to get the two
smallest Aquazone sets (Sea Sprint 9 and the little Aquashark guy), and if
I ever find the bigger Aquazone sets in the local stores they'll probably
become new favorites.  Probably my favorite single set is the Spyrius
Saucer Centurion.




From: Captain Jingle <vandercl@grfn.org>
Date: Fri, 17 Mar 1995 20:51:02 -0500 (EST)
Organization: Bethany Christian Services

Name: Bob VanderClay
Age : 19
M.S. : Single
Kids : None
Employment : Student

Number of sets : Approximately 45
Pieces in collection : probably somewhere near 5000
Oldest set : Can't remember exact set name, a poice station from circa 
1980.  I think...
Favorite themes/sets : Space.  Although the new Aquazone is beginning to 
win me over.  

Well, I'd like to introduce myself to this newsgroup.  I've played with 
LEGO as far back as I can remember.  Unfortunately though, as I matured, 
LEGO became less of a focus of my life, and too much of a cost, so I end 
through a period where I bought LEGO very infreqently.  (As know as the 
Dark Ages).  With my introduction into the Internet, I quickly found this 
group, and my interest in LEGO was perked.  Hearing discussion of the new 
Aquazone really made me want back into the world of LEGo, well here I am, 
a few months later, a few hundred dollars less, and with about 20 more 
LEGO sets.  It feels good to be back into it.  I forgot how much I love 
the sound of new LEGOS in a box.  Hee-hee.  




From: thomas (Thomas JACQUES aka 'Woody')
Date: 21 Jan 1995 11:49:39 GMT
Organization: Ecole Centrale Paris, France

Name:  Thomas JACQUES
Age:  21
M.S.:  single
Kids:  none
Employment:  Student in Engineering
Number of Sets in Collection:  about 15
Number of Pieces:  3427, plus half a spaceman's helmet
Oldest Set:  early 80's: the 2 very first space sets
Favorite Themes:  Space & Technic

| e-mail: thomas@jenlain.via.ecp.fr                 |
|         jacquet7@cti.ecp.fr                       | 
| phone:  (1) 46.83.79.48                           | 




From: bigb@citation.ksu.ksu.edu (Bryan K Klostermeyer)
Date: 20 Jan 1995 11:57:16 -0600
Organization: Kansas State University
Sender: bigb@ksu.ksu.edu

Name: Bryan Klostermeyer
AGE: 22
M.S: Single, not looking
KIDS: My roommate is pretty childish
EMPLOYMENT: Chemical Engineering student at Kansas State Univ.
NUMBER OF SETS: 50-60, I think
NUMBER OF PIECES: Not nearly enough :)
OLDEST SET: Early 80's space set
FAVORITE THEMES: Castle, Pirate, Old space
FAVORITE SETS: X-1 Patrol Craft spaceship; Whirlwind Rescue
helicopter




From: jgarden@prograph.com (John Garden)
Date: 26 Jan 1995 11:04:32 -0400
Organization: Prograph International

Name: John Garden
Age: 30
M.S.: 5 weeks !!
Kids: Mike (12) - acquired in expansion draft - see above
Employment: Programmer/Prographer
Number of sets in collection: ~10
Number of pieces: ?
Oldest Set: ?
Favorite Themes: Technics, Pirates
Favorite Set: 8868 Air Tech Claw Rig
Education: BSc - Dalhousie University, MCS (almost 8-) Technical
University of Nova Scotia
Notes: All mine is Technic. The master plan is to build a large,
completely autonomous robot with a micro-controller brain and 2K of
intelligence. Currently side-tracked by all the other cool things
Technic can do (that, and the fact that the dog got hold of the brain).
Mike has a million sets (all themes) and a kazillion pieces, just
waiting to be expropriated when I need them.
Carla just got her first set - the Blue Fury. It's fantastic.




From: randyf@u.washington.edu (Randy Fabro)
Date: 22 Jan 1995 05:40:31 GMT
Organization: University of Washington

Name:  Nathan Fabro
Age:  12
M.S.:  are you kidding
Kids:  none except me
Employment:  Student 
Number of Sets in Collection:  50+
Number of Pieces:  lots and lots
Oldest Set:  1987 don't know what it's called
Favorite Themes:  SPACE (federation sets) Aquazone  
Favorite Set in Collection:  Ice Station Odessy and Alphpa Centauri Outpost

NAthan A. Fabro 
(NAte) lego collector since 1987




From: wette001@gold.tc.umn.edu (Eric Wetterlind)
Organization: University of Minnesota, Twin Cities
Date: Thu, 26 Jan 1995 03:23:31 GMT

Name: Eric Wetterlind
Age : 24
MS : Married
Kids : No
Education : CSci and Computer Engineering
Occupation : Software engineer
Number : Around 10000 (had some time to kill when wisdom teeth
pulled)
Sets : Around 100 or so.
Favorites : Castle, Ice Planet
Last Creation : A cool castle with a couple of draw-bridges (about
  2'x2'x2').  It underwent a seige, though.  My cat powered his way
  through the royal guard and made off with the princess.  Took a
  while to find her head :)

Just catching up on reading this group and a lot of people were
referring to an old conveyor belt thing.  I have this set (545
Conveyor station) with full instructions.  Others mentioned were the
London bus (760) and that rescue helicopter (480 or 770 <- one of
which had an ambulance, too).  They bring back memories.  These sets
are all from around '73-'75.

My brother (avid collector, too) and I used to build space ships
(fighting over the LL924 pieces from the Space Cruiser) and then put
them through drop tests.  The less that fell off from the highest
distance won.  Didn't really accomplish much, but passed the time and
kept mom happy.




From: kiyose@beauty.ucsb.edu (Kiyose Ryu)
Date: 27 Mar 1995 19:12:45 GMT
Organization: University of California, Santa Barbara

Name: Daniel Sabath
Age: 23
Occupation: Inbetween schools I have a BA in Aquatic Bio and am taking time
off before grad school.
Oldest Set: I first got one of those firemens sets w/ the figures w/o
movible arms but i don't know what happened to it...the oldest set i still
have is the miniture and older version of  a Galaxy Explorer look alike.
BTW it is still assembled as i don't have the instructions...
Number of sets: 200+
Number of pieces: ??? lots.
Favorite type of set: space though they are finally geting around to my
field with the aquazone...i have a rather nice mobile hanging above the
dining room table ( and a very understanding SO).  The model team sets also
attract my $$$.  
Biggest pet peeve w/ lego: the reduction and combination of pieces in some
sets. eg the walls in the castle sets.  I don't mind specialization of
pieces but making one piece that can only be used for that one thing when
it could be done with a few more 1xX and 2xX's almost lost lego my
business.
Kids: Just me and my SO.
e-mail: 
kiyose@peak.org
kiyose@mcl.ucsb.edu




From: jalling@winboss.dk (jalling@winboss.dk)
Date: 28 Mar 95 00:14:24 
Organization: WinBoss: Yet Another Point/2 

Name: Niels Jalling
Age: 42
E-Mail Address: jalling@winboss.dk   ( jalling@ibm.net)
Marial Status. Married for 16 years
Kids: 4 ( 3y,boy; 6y,girl; 9y,girl; 12y,boy )
Employment: Systems programmer
Location: Frederiksberg (part of Copenhagen), Denmark (Home of LEGO)
Number of sets: 0, But my kids have more than 100 ranging from basic DUPLO
                to the latest Technic sets. 
Oldest set: Cant say. I have played vith LEGO as long as i can remember. My
grandmother (and later my mothers sister) had a toys shop in a small town,
Hobro. My aunt was the one of the best shops to visit when looking for the
newest, and largest LEGOsets, the LEGO rep says. Unfortunately she had to close
the shop before Christmas last year (she is 78 years old). 

When I was a kid, the number of different LEGO bricks was very limited. We only
had the standard bricks, later the flat bricks came. Doors and windows vere
placed in an recess in the brick, doors was 2 dots wide and 3 blocks high,
windows 2 or 4 dots wide and 2 blocks high. There vere no tubes in the bricks
to keep them together. We could go to the toys shop and buy 1 single brick !!
Lego only produced a small number of gift sets. A garage, a gas service
station, a church, a villa as far as I remember. 

At the same time as introduction of the tubes in the bricks, a new style of
doors and windows with frames vas introduced. The windows came in sizes from
1*1 to large shop windows. (I have a dealers box only missing a few doors and
windows)

LEGOLAND in Billund, I have been there twice. Its nice looking place but there
are too many people visiting the relative small area. Too much time is used for
waiting.

Well this must be enough for now. I'll return with more LEGO history another
time :-)

Bye, Niels Jalling
PS: besides playing LEGO with my kids I collect and play with Meccano/Erector.
Its much easier to build a clock with :-)




From: davidric@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (Ricardo David )
Date: 28 Mar 1995 03:53:05 GMT
Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Name: Ricardo(Rick) David
Age: 24
Marital Status: Single 
Occupation: Finishing Master's in Mech. Engr. about to go engineer cars for
	    the Ford Motor Company.
Oldest Set: Just took a peek at my old lego collection at home and don't
	    know what my oldest set is but probably a vintage '72-74 set.
Number of Sets: No idea, just a box of stuff, but I just bought 5 new sets.
Number of Pieces: No idea.
Favorite Type of Set: Love the current Space Shuttle sets, just bought all
			of this type except the airplane/shuttle combo.
Biggest Pet Peeve: Why are they making pieces that should be 6 stacked
		   pieces as just on piece 6 pieces high. 

Just stared lurking around this newsgroup about a week ago and have
since gone lego mad. Last weekend I went home and collected all of
my old lego together. Since I will start working soon I can't wait
to spend some of my new money on Lego. I hope to build a complete lego
town. As a start I have my own Cape Canaveral(sp?) already with my
lego buying spree last week. It feels good to know that since my lego
town is just an idea in my head I can use this group as friendly 
resource to make it the best it can be. So much to buy so little
money!
-- 
email: r-david1@uiuc.edu                   
WWW: http://www.cen.uiuc.edu/~rd5130/rickhome.html




From: Ken Schiele <pcs@halcyon.com>
Date: 29 Mar 1995 03:47:15 GMT
Organization: Northwest Nexus Inc.

Name:  Ken Schiele

Occupation:  General Manager / Instructor at PCS-Redmond

Education: BSME, Gonzaga U. 1993 (Are all the technic freaks MEs?)

LEGO history:

Sure, I had LEGOs when I was a kid, but through various moves, lost
'em all.  The real stuff is more recent.

I started working for PCS during my senior year of college.  PCS was
started about ten years ago in Nampa, ID by Pat McShane.  For more
details on present day PCS, check out:
http://www.halcyon.com/pcs/pcshome.html

I could go into details, but suffice it to say that PCS does alot with
technic LEGOs.  After finishing a DRY four-year ME program far to 
heavy on the theory, LEGOs were a godsend.

So I've been lucky enough to say that I just about get paid to play
with LEGOs.  Robotic arms, 5 foot ferris wheels, and the usual bunch
o' amitious LEGO projects, all for work.  I am lucky.

---------------------------
On another note:

I saw that bruce@algol.demon.co.uk posted some info about doing some
efficiency testing on worm gear gear-trains.  I'm interested in having
the various PCS schools continue with the testing, and would love to
hear from any that have done anything in this arena.


Ken S. at PCS

soon to be pcsred@blarg.com




From: rsather@wimsey.com (Robin Sather)
Date: Wed, 29 Mar 1995 07:48:34 GMT
Organization: Wimsey Associates

Name:  Robin Sather
Age:  29
MS: Married (to the older sister of Tim Westcott - a regular contributor to 
RTL!)
Kids:  Nope!
Occupation:  Self employed computer consultant/programmer
# of sets:  almost 200
# of pieces:  roughly 26,000 (I actually only counted 2/3 of the sets from 
box counts, and estimated the rest)
Oldest set:  Oldest set would be a small red & white freighter from 1965 (no 
number), although I've gots lots of really old stuff!
Fave themes:  Castle and Technic (but I love them all!)
Fave set:  probably 6077 (Forestman's River Fortress), 8880 (Super Car), but 
alas I love them all!

Miscellaneous comments & opinions (I've wanted to respond for so long!!!):
(This will probably dredge up all those old threads!)

1)  You gotta love this news group!  It's so refreshing to see people HAPPY 
for a change.  Takin' it easy, having fun!  Don't ever change it.

2)  Keep ALL lego stuff in one newsgroup, including auctions, all themes, etc.

3)  Regarding specialized vs. basic pieces;  I love having lots of basic 
pieces, to build with bulk and size.  I also love having specialized pieces, 
for added realism and detail.  Thankfully, I can buy lots of both types of 
sets, especially this year, with the new freestyle sets with just 1xn's and 
2xn's (set number 1715 - 400 pieces for about $15, or 1717 soon with 600!).
So I don't want to hear any more complaining!

4)  Regarding copying/distributing instructions;  I think it's a bad idea 
to do anything illegal, especially right under Lego's nose!  If I lost a 
set of instructions for a set I own, I would try to get them from Lego first, 
then perhaps from the net.  If I simply want the instructions, I think I'm out 
of line going to the net for them.  We should simply keep lobbying 
lego to reissue them in books, CD ROM or whatever.

5)  Lego CAD;  I've seen probably 5 "serious" attempts at this sofar.  Look 
guys, give it up!  Do you have any idea of the complexity of the task!  Lego 
must use something in house.  Again, we should lobby Lego to make it available 
to Lego computer maniacs (and that's us, folks!).

6)  People have dissed good ole' Jeff Crites for his Castle Listing (I know
this is an old thread, but anyway ...) You gotta love him!  I mean that.  
I appreciate his Castle listing, and have used it on occasion to identify some
old sets.  If you don't like the listing, ignore it.  I don't like the price
estimates, but as he is extremely careful to point out, these are simply
observations of what has actually happened on the net, so they're accurate!
Keep it up, Jeff!

7)  You also gotta love Todd Lehman.  People like him are the backbone of this
group, people.  "Auczilla".  What a concept.  All of us, whether buying or 
not, drool all over our keyboards just looking at the listing (496 gold coins, 
25 black horses, 48 castle corner walls ... drip, drip).  You help to keep 
this group going.  I'm looking forward to conversing.  I can't believe how
much money this guy must spend !!

8)  Although I don't see his name as often, I think Dik Winters is the "Old 
man", the guru, the "Grand Poobah" of the net.  He has the most info about 
really old stuff (ie. Fabuland in recent posts), and I'm glad he's still 
logging on to monitor what's going on.  Anyhow, good to meet you, sir!

9)  Stickers, decals, etc.  Never use them, store them, look at them, but
never actually stick them on.  Too much hassle!  My 2 cents.




From: schmitdj@cda.mrs.umn.edu (David J. Schmitz)
Organization: University of Minnesota, Morris
Date: Sat, 10 Jun 1995 22:51:48 GMT

Name: David Schmitz
Sex: M
Age: 20
Marital status: Not technically, but practically
Children: Only myself
Occupation: Retired Proletarian turned Student
# of sets in LEGO collection: who knows?
# of LEGO pieces: about three boxes worth.  
Favorite theme(s): castle, of course.
Favorite set(s): Galaxy Explorer, even if I have broken several pieces 
and lost the instructions.
Current project: Building an in-scale castle on top of a rocky mountain, 
above a roaring sea.  Needless to say, I need more pieces.




From: groves@noao.edu (Lee Groves)
Date: 10 Jun 1995 23:04:00 GMT
Organization: National Optical Astronomy Observatories, Tucson, AZ, USA
Originator: groves@yam.tuc.noao.edu

Name: Lee J Groves
Sex: Male
Age: 35
Marital status:  Married
Children:  One daughter, 7, lives with her mom, but is budding lego-maniac :)
Occupation: Real-time programmer, National Optical Astronomy Observatories
# of sets in LEGO collection:  ~10
# of LEGO pieces: 7000  (some pre 1970, working 1st generation 4.5v motor!)
Favorite theme(s): Trains, Technic
Favorite set(s): Claw Rig.
Current project: New load-n-haul and 2nd metrostation



Last updated Thu Jan 6 02:26:36 EST 2000 .

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