Unofficial LEGO Sets/Parts Collectors Guide (2800 pages). What to read in quarantine!!

[LEGO Historian]

In these trying times during the Coronavirus, a lot of people are bored and have little to do.  My 2800 page Unofficial LEGO Sets/Parts Collectors Guide was purchased in the last month by 10 Italians and 3 Frenchmen... all bored from being quarantined... many have told me they really enjoy going thru thousands of pages of reading and learning.  No shipping, no Customs... just a 10 minute 668MB download!!

 

As one of the leading authorities on LEGO outside of TLG (this year will be my 60th year of collecting, since I was 7), I wrote a 2800 page Unofficial LEGO Sets/Parts Collectors Guide, which used to be available on DVD, but now is only a 668MB computer desktop download, available without shipping or customs... just a a series of 84 PDF files that you download (a Table of Contents, 73 chapters, and 4 appendices

I go all the way back to year 1 of the first LEGO bricks... 1949.  For those of you who wish to see many of the rare and unique items in the guide (many of which are not even in the LEGO Vault... you can check out my Flicrk pages....

https://www.flickr.com/photos/82930629@N08/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/istokg/

Alsoi included in my computer desktop online guide is a pre-1980 pricelist of all LEGO sets... a 400 page guide in US dollars, and 400 page guide in Euros.  Those sets since 1980 are more easy to value with them being more common on Bricklink and Ebay. 

I have been working since 2006 in collecting data and images from the Billund Archives, as well as 150 friends from around the world. 

My guide costs $29.95 US via Paypal (for your protection).  

You can order it here (I ship it out personally), and in addition I send you another free LEGO guide on old plastic and wooden LEGO cars (1952-57).

http://legocollectorsguide.weebly.com/

Also, if you want to know what can possiby take 73 chapters.... here is a writeup by Huw Millington of Brickset.... including the 73 chapters and many subchapters.

https://brickset.com/article/3064/unofficial-lego-sets-parts-collectors-guide-free-chapter!    

Here is what a sample chapter of my guide looks like... an in depth look at the hundreds of Printed LEGO bricks from 1955-80, in a mind boggling number of colors... these are listed by language and country.... (although most chapters are on LEGO sets... by the thousands.

https://www.1000steine.de/brickset/miscellaneous/Lego Chapter 48 Vol2.pdf

And finally... here are some of my favorite images from the guide....

1949 LEGO set 700/2 Automatic Binding Bricks...

 

1957 Swedish Institutional Wooden Box set... sold to schools, beauty parlors and barber shops (to keep the kids busy while parents are getting their hair done....

 

1963 USA Samsonite LEGO glued display model of the British Houses of Parliament.....

 

 

Only known example of a 1958 306 VW Garage set... except this Norwegian set substituted rare Opel Kapitän cars, instead of the VW Beetles that usually are in this set.

In 1957 Norway made a few of these very rare Opels (fewer than 25 known)... and an inside factory worker put this one together with the rare Opels... which sell for 4000 Euros each in excellent condition, making this set worth about 8000-9000 Euros.  

 

10 1980s Fabuland blister packs... they decided at the last minute not to release them... and ended up sending the few ones they did produce to 2 toystores near Copenhagen.  These are not in any online database, and are extremely rare.

 

 

Like Russian nesting dolls... TLG made many differen sizes of LEGO spare parts packs in the 1960s...

 

The only known example of a 1309 Norwegian Esso Garage Set.  The Billund Archives have no info on this Norway produced set...

 

A close-up of the only known Norway 1309 Esso Garage...

 

 

The very first LEGO catalog type leaflet of 1949... including the first sets, and the first known LEGO model (large building) is of the LEGO wooden toy warehouse... which burned down on 4 Feb. 1960...

 

One last thing.... anyone who already owns (or buys) this guide... will get a free end of 2020 upgrade to my expanded 4500 page computer desktop guide... that will include all LEGO sets up to 2020.... FREE!!

 

Edited April 18, 2020 by LEGO Historian
Typo

[LEGO Historian]

I received a nice feedback from a French quarantined LEGO collector who just bought my guide this week.... 

 

"Hello Gary,

 

I love your book ! Can't describe the pleasure and memories it brings to me especially in these times of confinement !!!

 

And if ever you need help on anything for your next edition you're working on, be it LEGO related or computer wise or anything really, just let me know !

 

Kind regards and congratulations again !

 

David Lefebvre"