Calling all Classic Space GURUs!

[SupraTT]

Hey guys! What's up?! I'm a new member (Hello everyone!) and was wanting to get some help going through some old Legos from my childhood/my uncles childhood that I just got from my parents recently. Like most, I actually hadn't thought of a Lego in years, and finally got out the totes that I had in my house that housed about 1/3 of my old sets from childhood (I had mostly space (pretty much every set from 1987-1994 excluding 6987, 6990, but all the SP1/2, BK1/2, Mtron, Ice P, and Spyrius) and some castle/pirates), anyhoo, there was also a huge amount of bags from my grandmas house that I guess I assumed were just "old boring legos" and was gonna stuff them away again, but I looked at some parts sorted out a handful of what I figured were unique parts and made an "Urainium search vehicle" using bricklink inv list and online instructions. As a kid I always thought that the "old space" was boring, but now that I made one its actually kind of cool, and most importantly my two sons love legos and I like building things for them!

Anyways, there are POUNDS of old space stuff including at least a Beta 1 command base (6970....found this out based on the one off part 3754pb01), 6971 IG command base (have big pile of blue windows and a few solid blue 4228 parts), robot command ctr (couple solid blue "rocket" pieces and a handful of solid blue canopies), couple fx star patrollers, gamma V laser craft, another Uranium search vehicle, and prob at least 10 more sets (theres a couple 924 and other numbered bricks in there too). Sooooo, here's where I need your expert advice! I'm obviously on the right track using bricklink, etc. but, is there a way to know what "generic" (ie 1x4, etc) brick was from what time period? (ie: look at the mold numbers from the lot it was created on?) I figure if I'm going through all this trouble I might as well try to get it as close to original as possible, esp because these sets are a pretty big deal I guess! ( just bought my son a 6990 since I didn't have one as a kid and figured that would be expensive, but had no idea that these old space bases were worth so much, which makes me want to keep them and pass it on to my children/grandchildren!). Also, any other suggestions would be great too (ie general research/building and if there is a way to ask for older pieces when ordering off bricklink.com, etc in case I need to get a couple bits to finish out a set??). Thanks a bunch guys!

Here's a few pics (this is just a little bit of what I've sorted already and the Invader/UFO ship/Forestman thing are just what my son had out from my stuff while I was working on this):

Sorry, it's not letting me upload any more pics! I have some large 'windscreen looking things that have the space logo in both large and small sizes, as well as a few others I'd like to have you guys look at but it keeps saying it is too big! I'll try again later on my computer (this is as small as it will let me make it on my phone, sry!)

Thanks again for all you help!!!!

[DPrime]

Argh, how I wish you would bequeath that find to me. :)

I LOVE Classic Space, and like you, I've only recently re-discovered it through a combination of local finds, Bricklink, and getting a hold of my own childhood collection.

First off, try giving this thread a thorough read: http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=74458&hl=restoration

We've discussed some of the things you're looking through there - and maybe we can get that thread moving a little bit again, too! :)

Offhand, I know that the earlier sets you're talking about - stuff like the Beta-1, late '70s/early '80s sets - had a lot, if not all, of the pieces with the molding pip on the side, rather than the stud... but we can tell that the molding pip on the stud was in production during that time, since most of the "LL" bricks I've seen (which all date to the earliest CS sets), have the pip on the stud. That's probably the biggest difference you'll have to deal with when rebuilding vintage sets from that period... Some of my later childhood sets date to '86 or so, and the pips on the studs were becoming more common.

One thing I haven't quite figured out are the 1x2 and 2x2 tiles... I would GUESS that the earlier ones just have the single mold number on them (on the bottom), but I wonder if someone knew this for sure...

That's a start, anyway. I'm a bit tired so I'll leave it at that, but hopefully some of the other collectors (to be honest, there doesn't seem to be that many Lego fans with the "collector" mentality other toy lines have, at least not here...) will chime in as well.

Good luck! (And welcome!)

Dylan

Edited March 5, 2015 by DPrime

[Peppermint_M]

The forum upload space is for a user image/avatar. If you want to post more pictures you can embed from an external source.

That is a great "inheritance"! My uncle sold all his LEGO to buy a bike when he was a teenager. Hmph.

[SupraTT]

Argh, how I wish you would bequeath that find to me. :)

I LOVE Classic Space, and like you, I've only recently re-discovered it through a combination of local finds, Bricklink, and getting a hold of my own childhood collection.

First off, try giving this thread a thorough read: http://www.eurobrick...&hl=restoration

We've discussed some of the things you're looking through there - and maybe we can get that thread moving a little bit again, too! :)

Offhand, I know that the earlier sets you're talking about - stuff like the Beta-1, late '70s/early '80s sets - had a lot, if not all, of the pieces with the molding pip on the side, rather than the stud... but we can tell that the molding pip on the stud was in production during that time, since most of the "LL" bricks I've seen (which all date to the earliest CS sets), have the pip on the stud. That's probably the biggest difference you'll have to deal with when rebuilding vintage sets from that period... Some of my later childhood sets date to '86 or so, and the pips on the studs were becoming more common.

One thing I haven't quite figured out are the 1x2 and 2x2 tiles... I would GUESS that the earlier ones just have the single mold number on them (on the bottom), but I wonder if someone knew this for sure...

That's a start, anyway. I'm a bit tired so I'll leave it at that, but hopefully some of the other collectors (to be honest, there doesn't seem to be that many Lego fans with the "collector" mentality other toy lines have, at least not here...) will chime in as well.

Good luck! (And welcome!)

Dylan

THanks Dylan! Wow that's a great link on the CS resto! Fortunately most pieces seem to be in really good shape (I was shocked that there weren't really any chin straps broken, etc; some of the assembled sets are so nice they look literally brand new! (those must have been only built once and then never touched again for 30 years)). Thanks for the advice on the mold numbers and the pip mostly on the side, I will try to compile those first! Also, as far as crater plates go, I heard that the older ones had a more 'coarse' molding around the crater part (ie the later ones were smooth(er)).

Also, any advice on where you got your local finds? Just go to garage sales, estate sales, etc? It would be neat to find some 'barn finds' at local places.

I also thought there were TONS of Lego collectors, and figured many would hang out here, or are most simply trying to flip the sets? Just looking at recent sales on ebay and BL prices, seems like there must be a decent demand given the prices.

The forum upload space is for a user image/avatar. If you want to post more pictures you can embed from an external source.

That is a great "inheritance"! My uncle sold all his LEGO to buy a bike when he was a teenager. Hmph.

Thanks P! Hopefully it was at least a motorcycle/moped that he got in exchange!

[DPrime]

I got a few sets through kijiji.ca (like craigslist, bit Canadian), and also traded some GI Joe stuff for some on Hisstank.com (I'm a big GI Joe collector too).

There are definitely a lot of people collecting vintage Lego but I've never found an online community, really. Certainly some of us here do, but the forum is overwhelmingly just Lego fans in general, more of the type that create MOCs and stuff. There might be some FB groups, though...

[SupraTT]

Gotcha! Though it def seems like there is a lot of demand for old lego sets (maybe just people trying to resell on ebay, etc?), it does seem that most of the forums are MOCs, etc. Though judging from some youtube vids, there seems to be some big collectors too, maybe they just don't do the forums much (theres a lego space vid where a guy has a huge futuron track and even an classic space/futuron train going around a huge room with lots of other sets.

Thanks for the ideas on where to get vintage stuff. CL around here seems pretty hit and miss as most of the posts when I just searched were either higher prices than what bricklink would charge for a set, or was people wanting to buy legos (almost half were this, so there must be some decent response rate, maybe I could try this, LOL)

[DPrime]

Oh yeah, big demand.. But I guess it's like any vintage toy collecting - the new stuff is what gets talked about online for the most part, but the classic old stuff sells consistently on eBay, toy shows, and the like. :)

[Trainmaster247]

I have some from my dad including the original benny but he lost the jet back to his old dog

[DPrime]

I have some from my dad including the original benny but he lost the jet back to his old dog

Lol, original Benny. :)

That's awesome. Shouldn't be too difficult to find a replacement for that part.

[___]

Well, as I have complete collection of all the LEGO Space sets ever build (oh, OK, like 10 sets still missing) I identify "the black tyre with black inner part" in the middle picture in its upper left section: if we are talking about CS, then it is either from the set #6950 from the year 1982 ( http://www.bricklink...em.asp?S=6950-1 ), or the set #6952 from year 1985 ( http://www.bricklink...em.asp?S=6952-1 - this was my 5th CS LEGO I had as a child in the 80's so I'm pretty familiar with it, you know )

Edited March 12, 2015 by bublible