I grew up in Tempe, which is right next door to East Mesa. East Mesa = Mormonville. So that's probably part of what's driving this anti-hugging action.

Good for the kids. Standing up for what they believe in.

Funny how that photo is worlds better than anything he could have gotten by pointing and posing.

At the risk of angering the rest of the commenters, I'd like to raise my hand and say that I had the Futuron Monorail set. And it was BADASS. I remember making my own track shapes and bringing in Blacktron evildoers (I didn't have the Renegade, but I had a custom ship built from multiple small Blacktron kits) to destroy a piece of the track, etc.

The monorail set was awesome because it was totally modular. You didn't have to shape the track in the way on the box because all the stations and stops could be repositioned anyway you like.

I also had the M-Tron lifter that you listed. I was a Lego Space fiend. I dropped out of it before Star Wars came out, but there's a piece of me that would love to bring it back. Maybe if they built Star Trek lego sets with character minifigures. That would be cool.

I would love to see an interview with the designer fellow. I hope he emails you! Thanks so much for this post, it was wonderful.