LEGOLAND non-production parts

[Faefrost]

You know, I bet there's a reason why they did all those parts in transparent colors. I recall seeing a method of determining stresses distributed within a plastic object - the plastic object must be transparent, and the light being allowed to shine on the object must be polarized in some way. The example light source used in this case was the light coming from a typical computer monitor, with the stresses showing up as a distribution of rainbow patterns.

I went ahead and recreated that here with my computer monitor and a plastic drawer from those things that you put screws in - you can see the ripples quite well, but the rainbow effect is lost. It tends to work better the shinier the surface of the plastic, it would seem. As for why this is relevant: in theory one could see the stresses distributed throughout a particular element provided it's molded in a transparent color, which could be useful to match up with simulations or even to see how the part performed during the molding process before in-house simulations were feasible!

From my somewhat limited understanding of this sort of thing. (many discussions with ex roomates brother an industrial designer who designed and made things like some of the Chevron Car toys and another friend who has long owned an industrial injection molding plant for aircraft parts. Sadly my own knowledge and background of manufacture comes from the technology and consumer electronics industry and what little plastics understanding I have is more related to dealing with things like case and housing subcontractors and designs.) any, from what I understand the molds have to be certified and tested with the various types of plastic they will be used with. So if they plan on making any trans clear polycarbonate parts using a certain mold, the tooling must have a lot of test parts run through it. The unusual colors may be a factor that flaws will show up better in color, or they may simply be that they had a certain quantity of that colored plastic pellet surplus to needs at the time of the test. At least up until they went to their modern color injection system. These days I would guess the cost of adding color is minimal and it probably makes it easier to find mold flaws. Just as they likely use red ABS for testing as it discolors and shows certain stresses.

[1974]

Phoxtane, I really don't think TLG went with the new (at the time) anti freeze colours because of those theories. They we're just bored with old trans yellow

It's also interesting that two different kinds of plastic have been used for those trans-neon parts :

Faefrost, I've been told my parts are indeed mostly proper productionparts that for some reason just never made it into sets

Dagsbricks, parts are owned by me and my son and I think he'll outlast the both of us

[DagsBricks]

So long as you don't pass before he has full control AND any youthful indiscretions. ;-) That is, may he be beyond the consideration of selling the parts for taking girls on dates before he is the full steward.

[1974]

Future, so uncertain it is

Cheers,

Ole

[Faefrost]

Future, so uncertain it is

Cheers,

Ole

Ooo? I think I remember reading about that design. Wasn't it a scrapped design for one of the early space alien races? Possibly the cancelled "Seatron"?

Edited January 10, 2015 by Faefrost

[1974]

It shares some features yes, but it's the same as that green dood

I like the three studs on this fella

[DuckBricks]

It shares some features yes, but it's the same as that green dood

I like the three studs on this fella

Nice pics! Could you re upload or PM me some of the pictures you shared in earlier threads that I no longer can see? For some reason a lot of pictures just have "posted image" and not an actual pic... Thanks!

[1974]

Hmm, I thought I fixed that? Please give me a link to said thread, thanx

[DuckBricks]

Hmm, I thought I fixed that? Please give me a link to said thread, thanx

It's the 21st post on the first page of this thread, where you included a bunch of awesome images I would love to see. As of now I only see some, with "posted image" filling up the rest...

[1974]

Fixed! Sorry 'bout that

[DuckBricks]

Fixed! Sorry 'bout that

Thanks so much! I spent several minutes reveling in the glory of those parts...

[Saberwing40k]

Oh man how I wish I had some of these Technic parts in those weird colors. I hope that wit with the reinstatement of Bionicle, we see more parts from Technic in weird colors.

[1974]

Have I showed this one yet (the 2x2 black tile) ? :

[Lind Whisperer]

^Of all the specialized parts they've released, why oh why did they never release this one?

I mean, I get that it's fairly limited in its use, that only having the one stud could impede even normal uses of it, etc., etc., but think of the star-fighter cockpits that could be built with that...

[danth]

Damn, just read the whole thread. I'm super jealous of those trans green and trans neon round shields!

[jonwil]

I cant put my finger on exactly why but if someone showed me that black tile without telling me its LEGO I would probably think its a clone, it has the look of something a clone brand might do.

[1974]

Yeah, I have the same feeling There's just some off about it, not quite LEGO'ish

It's marked "FF" on the bottom side as are other of my parts

Should be geniune LEGO though

[RTZX9R]

Very cool stuff Ole! I can only imagine all the other items that the general public has not seen from TLG! Parts, colors, sets, and themes. I'll leave it up to my imagination to think there have been revised monorail sets prototyped...

[1974]

I reckon there are thousands. Just look at the prototype space/castlesets, they're full of them (and I don't have a single of them)

What I find interesting is not so much the oddball parts, but 'logical' ones like inverted slopes (why where they never put into production when non-inverted was?) and the early minifig experiments (some of them ended up in CMFs) at a time where a minifig was rather plane

I also like ordinary parts in new colours. This is generally a LEGO pet peeve of mine, I'm not so much yearning for new parts, but existing parts in new colours. Those are the parts I use the most (like all the trans parts in green and anti freeze)

I find it strange that there never was a need for trans-coloured inverted slopes and 6091s wich is in more than 600 sets in a load of colours, none of them trans?

ETA : No monorail parts not known as far as I've been able to find out. I think those patents where actually never produced in real life. But who knows for sure?

Cheers,

Ole

Edited January 16, 2015 by 1974

[Shawn]

Here is the only part that I have that was not released to the public. I have seen one other of these at a convention years ago. Do any of you have this one? Someone on brickset forum aslo mentioned picking one up in 2011.

http://www.minifigpr...ARS_sw010a.html

Edited January 18, 2015 by Shawn

[1974]

Don't own it, but who in their right mind would pay 1500$ for something as boring as that? Or is that figure just pulled out from a certain part of the body?

(The $, not C-3PO - haha)

ETA : I see it's you site? Where does these oddly round numbers come from? ('Cept the outer space ones, 220000000 and one, not two or zero $?)

Btw, I have these for sale. Unique, only one of each exists and I only want a cool billion$. What do I win?

Cheers,

Ole

Edited January 18, 2015 by 1974

[Shawn]

The 2 billion is a joke. That was meant to be funny. Based on what it would cost to go to Jupiter and retrieve them. Heck that may not even be enough. The $1500 is based on what people are offering for it. I have passed up offers as high as $2500. I am really not looking to get rid of it. I would however be interested in that red headed guy if you ever decide to sell him. :) Do you know what he was supposed to be? He is really neat.

The 2500 for the George Lucas figure is based on a confirmed sale. Those Star Wars guys will pay anything. :)

The Gold and Silver Figures are based on educated guesses and I am betting that if they come to market that my numbers are a little low because I think that those would grab the attention of the real Star Wars collectors and not just the minifigure collectors.

The rest of the prices are based on a rounded average of confirmed sales over a period of time.

Unfortunately, I do not collect space minifigures. I am not sure I could track all of those down without going nuts. So many and so many old ones. :) Do you have all of the space ones? I have not added the space figures yet because I have not reviewed all of the prices on those and looked for outliers.

If you see any prices that you do not think are realistic, please let me know and I will take a look at them.

[1974]

Thanks fro the info Shawn

2,5k for one minifig? <1974's head explodes>

I have all Classic Space figs + Blacktron + Futuron, but hen again, that's only nine, so not that hard to keep track on

[Phoxtane]

I'm pretty sure I have a non-production part, now that I think of it:

I'm not sure how rare/common it is, or even if it is a non-production part. I got it at a LUG parts swap, and I trust the judgement of the person who I got it from though!

[1974]

That's a real nice part!