An old piece, or broken piece?

[bemuser]

Although I found it in a sorry state (snapped in part), I've never seen an underside like this. It looks like a genuine Lego piece on the top (has "Lego" on the knobs). Is this an old connection type or just badly broken? Judging by the amount of dirt on it, it's certainly mid 70s, if not earlier. Either way, it's heading straight for the bin

[mpfirnhaber]

These are known as "waffle" plates, and are the earliest form of plate. They come in plenty of sizes. Late 50s into the 60s.

[bemuser]

Oh, what a shame it's in such a bad state :(

Edited April 5, 2015 by bemuser

[mpfirnhaber]

They're not particularly rare or valuable. Well some odd colors can fetch a few dollars each, but not really the white ones.

[LEGO Historian]

The waffle bottom plates come in sizes 2x8, 4x8, 4x8 left curve, 4x8 right curve and 6x8. They were produced from 1955 until 1963 in continental Europe, Britain, and Australia, but were found as late as 1971 in USA/Canada. Since the circle bottom plates use up 1/3 less plastic as the waffle bottom plates, TLG got rid of their molds ASAP, and shipped them to USA/Canada Samsonite... where they continued to make waffle bottom plates for many years (1971). Samsonite made a few in gray (common), red (rare) and black (rare) in sizes 4x8. I recently sold a mint red and black 4x8 waffle plate for $85 each.

But the truly rare Waffle bottom plates were those produced for Denmark, Norway and Sweden from 1955-57 in white and red (their first years)... and the rarest of these were red ones. These early waffle bottom plates did not have holes in the bottom (middle of each waffle square). Also these early plates did not have LEGO on the studs, but once on the underside in what is called a "dogbone" LEGO logo.

Here is a 6x8 red waffle bottom plate from Sweden... from 1955-56....

Here is the waffle underside without the holes in each waffle.....

The LEGO logo is easy to spot in this image.

These early red waffle plates are worth $20-$50 each depending on condition.

Even rarer than the red waffle bottom plates are the old 820 garage baseplates that came in garage kits 235/1235 in the 1955-70 era. The early Danish, Norwegian and Swedish versions came with either a white (common) or red (rare) garage baseplate.

The red garage plates alone are worth well over $120 each, as seen here in this Swedish garage set (with box).....

I talk about these rare plates, garages and other rare LEGO items that people may have stashed away in attics or basements in my Unofficial LEGO Sets/Parts Collectors Guide (computer desktop download), now on sale in the Eurobricks Bazaar.

[bemuser]

_{Wow, thanks for the information. It's a fascinating history}

[mpfirnhaber]

Good info as always, thanks :)

Edited April 8, 2015 by mpfirnhaber