So I got a call from my mom this week. She told me that the middle school where she works is cleaning out a bunch of it's old science lab stuff, and that a fair amount of it was Technic Lego kits from the mid 90s... nothing complete (it's all meant to tech basic mechanical systems to students) but a lot of basic parts. Since all of this was classified as 'old junk' by the school district, she told me that if I wanted any of it, it was mine. Being still a Lego-maniac at heart, I said go for it.

She brought by the stacks of aging boxes (many held together with duct tape) and I went through all of it. Lots of good Lego bits, things to fit into the 'spare parts' category.

However, the real find was not the Technic kits. The real find was the three big boxes at the bottom of the stack. Three big boxes with 80's print and pictures, and big lettering saying 'Capsela' on it. I literally started giggling gleefully.

For those who don't know, Capsela was a building toy from the 1980s and 1990s, with clear plastic capsules that contained various functionalities (electric motor, gear reduction, wheels, propellers, etc, read this for more info http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capsela). As a kid, I'd had only the most basic kit (the manual was a horrible tease... it had instructions for ALL of the things that could be built, even if your basic kit didn't have all of those parts, so all you could do was look longingly at the hovercraft or super robot instructions that you couldn't build because your kit didn't have the impeller module or double battery case). Still, I'd had a lot of fun with it, and I couldn't help but get a little nostalgic.

Going through the kits from the middle school (dated 1990 on all three boxes), I was surprised to find most of the parts intact and in relatively good condition. All of the kits were master-level, so they had everything (except for a few missing bits), so hovercrafts and super-robots are now all within easy reach. One of the kits was even a special programmable version, complete with a floppy disk for use on any Commodore 64 computer... all of the programmable electronic components were still sealed in plastic, and as far I can tell, were never used. I dug out some AA batteries and tested all of the electric motor capsules, expecting some of them to be choppy or malfunctioning after however long in storage, but all of them powered right up with healthy whirring noises. Just goes to show how well toys were made back then.

Anyway, I basically spent a few hours just playing around with the various mechanical bits and pieces, thinking back to all of the submarines and race-cars I built with my old kit (texted mom to ask her if we still had it anywhere... hopefully it never ended up in the garage sale pile). I also thought back and wondered it all that time snapping modules together helped me get into engineering and put me where I am now. But, enough wistful flashbacks. I've got three kits worth of mechanical parts to combine into some ultimate construction... be on the lookout for some maniacal coyote trying to take over the world with some mechanical doom robot powered by AA batteries, simple toggle switches, and a few propellers just for the hell of it.