I was about to answer with right I know, how comes my kids have almost zero interest in it. I used to play entire afternoons with it, especially the Technic kind.
I started lego in the mid 70s with my brother's Apollo lunar lander kits (pre-minifig), and enjoyed the heyday of the early 80's space ship kits.
the lego city line is very enjoyable to me as an adult, and has very few "special" parts.