12v/4.5v grey era trainrims and stickers approach

[Reker1000000]

Hello EB,

As some of you may know by now I run 12v trains. I know my own guidelines for trainrims and stickers but I'm curious about yours- if you run pre-1990 trains, how do you approach trainrims? Do you purchase knockoff ones (eBay) or buy original ones? Grey or black for grey era trains? And stickers (not limited to pre-1990 train fans)- do you only use original stickers, or do you use reproduction stickers? Do you mix them?

Personally, I'm a purist in terms of stickers (I'd rather have no stickers than knockoff ones) but I'm ok with buying knockoff rims since they're way cheaper and I can buy them in high quantities.

[Andy Glascott]

If by rims you mean the tires on the motor, I use bicycle inner tube cut to size, it works brilliantly and is dirt cheap for the quantity you can get out of it.

[Paperinik77pk]

Hi there!

On stickers and rubber bands I'm quite open to reproduced things. On parts I'm a bit more focused on original parts on original models (e.g. 1x1x2 black windows). But I'm beginning to "feel" the price problem. 

Rims/rubber bands/tires are something I buy in huge quantities  - together with reproduced stickers of different kinds to see the difference and eventually evaluate the best ones. I've some original stickers around but they'll remain on their sheet until I will finally decide myself to make them literally copied by a printing store. 

For rims I prefer to stick to original colors of the prototype - so 7720 with 4,5v motor and gray ones. In some cases, especially for 4,5v versions there could be a "dilemma". A 7710 with an added 107 motor would surely have black rims "out of the box". But it feels so 70s...and then I use gray ones, available at the time as spare parts. I cannot accept, for example, 7760s with black rims, since there's the possibility for them to have the right color ones.

Ciao!

Davide

[emm]

Coming from model railways where I mixed brands, products, eras the lot i buy the best quality which might not be lego.

I am not a purist though. Even down to buying other brand of building blocks for scenics.

The major factor is Price. Lego rims / tyre bands / decals are now becoming to expensive to run in case of damage. Which is fine if it is a shelf queen….but i like to play with my toys lol.

But as always it is your hobby and do what you feel is right. If you want to be a purist be a purist. Nowt wrong with that.

[Reker1000000]

3 hours ago, Paperinik77pk said:

I've some original stickers around but they'll remain on their sheet

Do you have complete/new grey era 12v sheets? That would probably be a situation where I would buy reproduction stickers. The 7730 I bought had some stickers new on the sheet (tonnage, DB 7730) which I took off and applied to the engine. But for example if I was to buy a 7760 with a new unused stickersheet I would probably purchase a reproduction sheet and save the new one! Although, using a complete new sheet to apply stickers would certainly be an experience.

 

3 hours ago, Paperinik77pk said:

On parts I'm a bit more focused on original parts on original models

Original 80's parts? Or just original Lego parts?

 

14 hours ago, Andy Glascott said:

I use bicycle inner tube cut to size

Does the diameter of the tube work for the 12v wheels or do you have to narrow it?

[Paperinik77pk]

1 hour ago, Reker1000000 said:

Do you have complete/new grey era 12v sheets?

Eeeeh, not complete, but at least with some remaining stickers with numbers and DB logos (small and big, maybe a pair of black ones). 

But I found some repros which are not so bad, others are perfect from shape point of view, but too small. I got some stickers with stripes and these are PERFECT, even if third party. As an example, the dark "1" and "2" stickers of the 7740 are still missing since I did not find a suitable repro sticker (I still keep my original 1x1x1 bricks with the originals on it, but in a bag, together with other original stickers on bricks/doors) 

I also tried back in the days to redraw completely (in powerpoint!!!) all the stickers, before they became avaliable as spares. It can be done today using .png format and a more suitable drawing program. I still remember that the font was something like "Helvetica",and I found it in some free font site.

Ciao!

Davide

 

Edited October 15, 2021 by Paperinik77pk

[Reker1000000]

2 hours ago, Paperinik77pk said:

I still keep my original 1x1x1 bricks with the originals on it, but in a bag, together with other original stickers on bricks/doors

Does it bother you that you then have to have unoriginal pieces?

2 hours ago, Paperinik77pk said:

maybe a pair of black ones

That reminds me, I was lucky enough to get an extra 3 large black DB's with the stickersheet of my 7730!

[Andy Glascott]

4 hours ago, Reker1000000 said:

Does the diameter of the tube work for the 12v wheels or do you have to narrow it?

I can't remember the exact diameter, can check later, but racing bike inner tubes fit perfectly. 

[Paperinik77pk]

1 hour ago, Reker1000000 said:

Does it bother you that you then have to have unoriginal pieces?

 

Not at all, until they are (speaking of stickers/rims):

• of good quality
• correct from look 'n' feel point of view (color, shape)
• guaranteeing same or better functionality (e.g. old stickers tend to detach easily nowadays and old rims are simply gone).

Speaking of parts, I've always bought big wheels and black windows (2x1x2/1x1x2) when needed, red turnplates, 12v and 4,5v light bricks...now some of them are unacceptably high priced. Some parts are impossible to find, like the blue and red magnet holders of the Lego 722. so I reverse engineered them and printed in 3D. Better than nothing - plus look and functionality is preserved  

9 hours ago, emm said:

 

The major factor is Price. Lego rims / tyre bands / decals are now becoming to expensive to run in case of damage. Which is fine if it is a shelf queen….but i like to play with my toys lol.

Amen!