I was watching Lego stop motion videos on youtube and like many others I stumbled upon the "Awesome Lego House" video of someone showcasing their Blockland creation in RTB.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tzaLRjayeY4
I remember getting really excited about this because up until this point I only knew of and played Lego Digital Designer which wasn't really what I wanted in a Lego game but it's all they had. and then there it was; everything I thought a Lego game should be and it actually existed, I purchased my key in the summer of 2007. I can definitely say it was the most significant $20 I have ever spent.
literally exact same story. but ill throw this in:
i hesitated getting blockland because despite never using a modeling program, i assumed blockland was not actually a game but some complex modeling/game engine type deal, so i didn't touch it till i found the video again a couple weeks later and figured, "forget it ill look it up".
i remember the initial butterfly feeling of building stuff from my lego instructions in demo mode and being able to walk in it and see the inside of my lego builds through the eyes of a minifigure. my very first time in blockland was building these 4
lego sets in bedroom. i got it that night