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I had Lego as a kid, it was just a couple of bases, and blocks of various sizes - long blocks, ones of 2, 4 and 8 nubs on them, a few windows and some trees. All you could really make was houses. As our house was a shithole hovel, my sister and I got lost in our imaginations creating places we could imagine living in. Anywhere but our actual home.
I'm not a fan of the kits. I like making my own things. Mostly big buildings and big vehicles.
When I was young someone on our street gave me a huge box of Lego. They had six kids and the last had moved off to school a few years before. As I got older I added to it but then like most everything I had prior to 1996 it was lost in a fire.
Since 2001 I have been buying used stuff. 3 years ago I built an 8 foot office tower and it has been standing until last week. I started dismantling it to make some Mars mining machines but damn, it never seems to be enough bricks to fulfill my vision.
My brother and I played with them back in the day when it was all freestyle. The box of them went to him and his two kids were of the initial "lego kit" kids so they added to the load. His firstborn ended up with the generational motherlode. Now, the third generation is adding to the collection.
It's the only thing I know of in our family that spans so much age time with so much play time.