What is this?

[Ronan]

Hi everyone, I found this strange street piece in an old ideabook from 1985 http://peeron.com/scans/200-4/15 as you can see I'm talking about the gray road with white lines on it and with the trucks. I did many researches, but I didn't find wich piece it is. Does anyone know it?

[ToniMontana]

I think it's a brick built road.. hard to tell with fuzzy scan though

[BlockLogo]

There's a thread for help in identifying parts in the general discussion subforum where you might get a quicker answer.

[Ronan]

Is possible to move this thread there?

[1974]

Hi everyone, I found this strange street piece in an old ideabook from 1985 http://peeron.com/scans/200-4/15 as you can see I'm talking about the gray road with white lines on it and with the trucks. I did many researches, but I didn't find wich piece it is. Does anyone know it?

It's impossible to tell looking in the original catalogue. The photo/print resolution is very poor. It could just be custom pinted plastic (not actual 32x32 roadplates), but I don't think it's a brick build road. The rest of the scenery looks like something the picked up from the local hobby shop in Billund

Cheers,

Ole

[davee123]

At first, I thought it was a custom part. Looking at it, I can't see any brick seams, although it's at an angle that you might not see them. So I pulled out my copy, and then I noticed this: check out page 11, near the top. It uses the SAME road design as pages 14/15 (and also 22/23), but it's got a very visible seam:

That doesn't look like a baseplate seam to me-- it looks like a seam in a brick-built road with bricks laid on their side. And the edge even looks like it's about the width of a tile. So, I'm betting it's brick-built.

DaveE

Edited March 21, 2016 by davee123

[Junior Shark]

If it was a brick-built road, why would there be a seam? Wouldn't the builder just brick-build the seam away? In davee's picture, notice how the road striping on the right segment ends abruptly at the seam. I don't think Lego would print only a partial road marker like that. My money is on it being a non-Lego product, maybe something from a hobby shop like 1974 suggested.

Edited March 21, 2016 by Junior Shark

[davee123]

If it was a brick-built road, why would there be a seam? Wouldn't the builder just brick-build the seam away?

I think they built a few "long stretches" of road out of LEGO bricks, probably for the shots with the bridges in them. For the other shots, it's built into a bridge. And, notice how the bridge has a 1-stud "lip" underneath it on the rail? That's the PERFECT depth for laying down a 1-stud brick built road. Anyway, they line them up for the bridges, and it's great.

THEN, they get to the shot on page 10/11, and they want a road for the background, but they don't want to use baseplates (they do most everywhere else in the book), probably because they want it to cross over the water with the boat on page 10. Anyway, they lay out the long sections of brick-built roads, but without the surrounding structure of the rest of the bridge, it has a noticeable gap. Plus, they don't bother to make sure that the dashed-lines don't line up. And oops! It's in the final shot. Who's going to notice, anyway? (Well, I guess I noticed, some 30+ years later).

It also seems to match the "LEGO gray" color pretty well-- I note that under the helicopter on page 10, the smooth "dock" surface has a distinct change in hue when it gets to the road, but the road matches very well in pages 14/15 and 22/23. So, the smooth surface (also shown on 14/15, but without a good contrast to tell) is probably NOT LEGO-- it's probably painted or something. But the road matches very well-- so... I'm guessing it's made out of LEGO.

It COULD be something custom from LEGO. My first thought was a custom baseplate, with its own paint-job (which happens sometimes), but the brick seam makes it appear more substantial. Just the right height for a brick.

Anyway, that's my theory. And I'm sure everyone is on the edge of their seats trying to figure this out :)

DaveE

[BrickJagger]

At first glance, it appears to be some sort of road baseplate prototype. Lego was doing a lot of experimenting back then.

[Brickadier General]

Looking at it, it is hard to tell. My initial reaction is that it was custom made out of some material and put on top of the bridge. It wasn't unheard of for LEGO to use non-LEGO materials in their advertising (IE: the modeling landscaping materials used in castle ads).

You can also find this picture in the 1980s book, World of LEGO Toys by Henry Wiencek.