New Quiz: What train set misses wheel(s) in its inventory?

[Reza]

Hey guys,

Long time no see! :-)
I came back to Eurobrick with a new quiz:

What train set from 80s misses (train) wheel(s) in its inventory? (can be as regular or alternate)

Let''s restrict answer to 

7710, 7715,....7760,

7810, 7813, ...,7821

The missing wheel already exists in the catalog of bricklink but it is not added to one particular set yet. You can check bricklink for the inventory of these sets, but other sources are ok too.

[Jetflap]

Hey Reza, I'm having trouble following your question exactly, but before I dig too deep, the only oddball variation with 80s train wheels I can think of is the the black wheel sets with red pins variation, I believe they are only in some 7735 sets. Mine has them anyway. Is that it?

[Reza]

Hi :-)

4 hours ago, Jetflap said:

Hey Reza, I'm having trouble following your question exactly, but before I dig too deep, the only oddball variation with 80s train wheels I can think of is the the black wheel sets with red pins variation, I believe they are only in some 7735 sets. Mine has them anyway. Is that it?

I am not talking about those variation of wheels. Those are missing  from many sets, including 7735, 7745, 7823, 7816, 7817, 7839,...(what else?!) This variation does not yet added to the catalog of Bricklink or any other website. I know that TLG used red pins instead of black only in (about) 1986. I don't know exactly why. There are rumors that TLG made a mistake or had too many red pins at that time and wanted to get rid of them. Anyway, since 1986, the only train using red wheels was 7715 coming with seven red wheel bricks so coming with 14 red central pins but maybe this single set was not enough to use all extra red pins they had in 1986 and they got too much space in their stock rooms?! :-) 
But no, this is not the answer. Something is missing from one single set (as far as I know: only one set). :-) ;-)

Edited October 9, 2018 by Reza

[1974]

8 hours ago, Jetflap said:

Hey Reza, I'm having trouble following your question exactly, but before I dig too deep, the only oddball variation with 80s train wheels I can think of is the the black wheel sets with red pins variation, I believe they are only in some 7735 sets. Mine has them anyway. Is that it?

Also 7745

On 10/8/2018 at 9:36 AM, Reza said:

Hey guys,

Long time no see! :-)
I came back to Eurobrick with a new quiz:

What train set from 80s misses (train) wheel(s) in its inventory? (can be as regular or alternate)

Let''s restrict answer to 

7710, 7715,....7760,

7810, 7813, ...,7821

The missing wheel already exists in the catalog of bricklink but it is not added to one particular set yet. You can check bricklink for the inventory of these sets, but other sources are ok too.

So you want us to trawl through the BL cat to look for missing inventory? Why? That's a BL mistake (or Peeron or whoever made the inventory list) it's not a TLG quirk, so not really interesting imho

What is interesting is why TLG never used the large 7755 wheel in black since it does indeed exist

Cheers,

Ole

 

[Carrera124]

55 minutes ago, 1974 said:

What is interesting is why TLG never used the large 7755 wheel in black since it does indeed exist

Cheers,

Ole

 

I guess you mean 7750...

 

And there are many other mysteries... why did they sell a black 7865 motor, when 4 of 5 upgradeable sets (7710, 7715, 7722, 7810) would require a red one.

[1974]

Yes, 7750 - sorry!

TLG sold the black motor for those needing a replacement for the sets needing a black motor. Or perhaps also for those kids who wanted to MOC ;)

[Carrera124]

2 hours ago, 1974 said:

TLG sold the black motor for those needing a replacement for the sets needing a black motor. Or perhaps also for those kids who wanted to MOC ;)

They also sold the motor explicitely as an upgrade to the non-motorized and battery-operated trains.
You can find these hints in every catalog.

[antp]

I remember that in the catalogs indeed

[Reza]

18 hours ago, 1974 said:

Also 7745

So you want us to trawl through the BL cat to look for missing inventory? Why? That's a BL mistake (or Peeron or whoever made the inventory list) it's not a TLG quirk, so not really interesting imho

What is interesting is why TLG never used the large 7755 wheel in black since it does indeed exist

Cheers,

Ole

 

No, I don't. The wheels of each train has been checked since many years ago. Many people bought and sold this train on Bricklink or used the inventories as reference. They wouldn't have missed such an important part of a set, would they?

18 hours ago, 1974 said:

so not really interesting imho

My sincere apologies that you are no interested in this post. I thought it would be interesting for some people.

I am referring to something specific. To give a hint, the discussion for this post is already referring to the answer.
Back in 80s, TLG sold these sets in certain countires. For example, no 12v train was sold outside Europe (unless by private retailers). Also, for each country, a variation of box were used. At that time, nobody knew about these differences but the managers of TLG. It is now with the help of internet that we are discovering so many odd things. It looks like it never ends. 

19 hours ago, 1974 said:

What is interesting is why TLG never used the large 7755 wheel in black since it does indeed exist

If you are interested in this, you might be interested in the answer of my quiz. I don't know your country (or the country you were used to live in 80s) but what sets did you have in your childhood?
If you are referring to the big red wheels of black train 7750, then I am not sure they exists also in black. Nonce in black is for sale on BL. Do you have a photo of them?

[1974]

I live 100km from Billund and did so in 80's as well allthough in another town. I had 7740, 7760, 7838/9, the stop lights/automated switches and a few rolling stock. Sadly it's all gone now

I sold two 7750 black wheels on BL for 50EUR/each but it's more than six months ago so they won't show up in the priceguide

Cheers,

Ole

 

[Carrera124]

I bought them ;-)

[Reza]

12 hours ago, 1974 said:

sold two 7750 black wheels on BL for 50EUR/each but it's more than six months ago so they won't show up in the priceguide

OMG! How did you find these?!

I am collecting Danish boxes of trains 7710, 7715,... . It is so hard for me to find and buy them from where I am: Canada.

Edited October 11, 2018 by Reza

[PeteM]

On 10/9/2018 at 1:05 PM, Carrera124 said:

I guess you mean 7750...

 

And there are many other mysteries... why did they sell a black 7865 motor, when 4 of 5 upgradeable sets (7710, 7715, 7722, 7810) would require a red one.

Yes - really annoying! I started with 7710 then ‘upgraded’ via 7865 as shown in the catalogues of the time, but would much have preferred a red one to match the bricks and wheels I had just taken off. And availability (and affordability!) on the current secondary market would be much better...

[Carrera124]

Still waiting for the solution ;-) Which set misses it's wheels in the inventory, and why?

[Reza]

8 hours ago, Carrera124 said:

Still waiting for the solution ;-) Which set misses it's wheels in the inventory, and why?

I am busy but will post the solution soon. (by the way, I have already give you the answer in a private message but I know you want other know the answer too)
Concerning the last part of your question " and Why?", I found out the answer yesterday.

[Reza]

Last year, I missed one auction of boxed train 7710 from Calgary, Canada. The Canadian Ebay being almost useless for buying and finding used Lego, it is even harder to see a vintage train like 7710 with box again. However, I found the photos of that auction (after one hour googling) Here there are:

This train was never sold in USA, but was sold in Canada at least since 1981, as we can see the catalog of 1981 in this photo. On north of America, no service pack (for trains at leas) was ever sold in (early) 80s so the service pack 1134 blue battery wagon of 7720 was not available. In these photos,  we can see one extra informative photo, in which it says
"Four Lego drive wheels have been included in this set. This should be used with the #107 motor set if you wish to motorize your Lego train."
In all European catalogs, it was mentioned that one can motorize 7710 using a 12v motor from 7865 and 4.5v motor from 107. See page 12 of this
https://images.brickset.com/library/Catalogues/c80detr.pdf
or page 27:

https://images.brickset.com/library/Catalogues/c83uk.pdf

This paper has been only seen in this auction from Canada. But why the Canadian 7710 got four extra wheels with black rims below as we know that the motor set 107 had these four wheels anyway?

I don't know if it was the Canadian Samsonite who included these extra wheels and the paper? We know that Samsonite had its own way of packaging. The Canadian sets had different boxes than those of elsewhere.
Can we say that TLG wanted to include four extra train wheels anyway, as the train rims could perish? (as other 12v sets had extra train rims) Not convincing, because they even made an effort to include an extra informative paper. 

The answer is simple but interesting: The Canadian 107 didn't have these drive wheels but different ones. The image of the box show a different wheel. One image on the back of the box is also different. See

 

Edited October 21, 2018 by Reza

[Jetflap]

Very interesting find! I really don't know much about Samsonite Canada, does anyone know what years they operated? During that time period were all sets sold in Canada produced by Samsonite?

The paper inserts are interesting to me as well, and quite a few sets from the period had extra white paper inserts for various reasons, usually to make a correction to the instruction book, but the reason for their use in this 7710 is unique to my knowledge, although various other sets have them to show how batteries or add on motors work with a set.

Edited October 21, 2018 by Jetflap