LEGO Historian

Trans Clear LEGO Thru the years...

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Many of you have noticed that trans-clear LEGO elements have changed colors over the years. This is partly due to the fact that modern trans-clear (and other trans) elements are not made of ABS plastic.

Reason for that is that ABS in its' natural state is a milky white color, and therefore you cannot make trans-clear (or trans any color) from them.

But back in the 1950s and early 1960s, the trans-clear parts were made from Cellulose Acetate... a plastic which did come in a clear natural state.

When TLG switched over from Cellulose Acetate to ABS plastic in the early 1960s, another plastic had to be found for the trans-clear parts. This plastic turned out to be Polycarbonate. However, even Polycarbonate seemed to have some color additives during at least some of the last 50 years... or maybe some other additives. The reason is that the trans-clear parts of the late 1960s and early 1970s does not match that of the late 1970s and 1980s, nor the transclear parts since then.

Anyone who has a modern new macaroni brick will notice how almost invisible they are compared to older mint macaroni bricks.

It's difficult to date when different tints (or lack thereof) were used for trans-clear parts, mostly because of the TLG tendency to use old inventory until its' depleted. So trying to date different tones of trans clear parts can be very problematic.

My good Japanese LEGO friend Yoshihiro (without whom my new LEGO DVD/download chapter on Japanese OLO LEGO would not exist)... has done a beautiful job of photographing many of the nuanced differences between different trans-clear LEGO elements.

Here is one of his images (that he is letting me use in my next iteration of my LEGO DVD/download)... that is pure LEGO poetry.... I love this picture... and it does say a thousand words...

9112853595_cf39ee2d2a_b_d.jpg

The image on the far right is of Cellulose Acetate LEGO... produced from 1958-circa 1964. These pieces are often warped, and have a nice Champagne color, with the molding pip at the base of one of the shorts sides of the brick.

The 2nd from right is the circa 1965-78 type brick color, made of Polycarbonate, and has a more clear look to it. The molding pip can be either at the base of the short side of the brick, or in the middle of the short side of the brick.

The 3rd from right is the circa 1978-1985 type brick color. It has a bit of a cloudy look to it, and trans-clear windscreens and other parts are noticeably cloudy in their looks. These are also polycarbonate parts, and have the molding pip either on the side of the short end of the brick, or on one of the studs.

The left brick is a more modern brick, but I've also seen this brick color in older early 1970s parts. For older parts the pip is on the side of the bricks... for more modern parts, it is on one of the studs.

Again, dating these parts is very difficult, since there were many parts made in trans-clear... and each part had a different switchover date to the new brick style.

And then there is the modern trans-clear brick... that is so clear, it's amost invisible were it not for its' shape. here is a unique (to Japan) 4x10 brick in the brilliant modern trans-clear....

7959088522_85ef1fafac_b_d.jpg

The jury is still out dates for many of these trans-clear parts!! :wink:

Gary Istok

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The yellowish tinge to the cellulose acetate brick isn't that surprising. I believe that type of plastic is notorious for that type of color shift. (Just look at some older film and slides.) One question I have on the Polycarbonate bricks is do we know if they receive a similar flame retardent additive to the plastic like that which ABS get?

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One of the things going into my next DVD/download (free to folks who already own the first version)... are many of the very interesting 2x4 bricks known as Bayer test LEGO bricks... These belong to my friend Michel (known to many of you as Maxx3001 on Bricklink).

Check out these Bayer beauties in trans colors.... (wish TLG made all of these!! :sceptic: )

6185437518_812b251fb9_o_d.jpg

How about Trans-neon-green!!

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Or Trans-Black!!

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Or how about Trans-pink??

4868258995_dec12e727d_b_d.jpg

Or my favorite... Trans-glitter-red!! :sweet:

8549334712_3877f2094f_b_d.jpg

Just a few of hundreds of new images of rare LEGO items in my next LEGO DVD/download... :wink:

Gary Istok

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Great post Gary, trans-clear is my drug of choice. Please tell me more about that 4x10....?!

Sorry caperberry... but all I know (so far) is that it has only been found in Japan up until now... when I find out more... I'll let everyone know! But it is such a beauty!! :sweet:

The yellowish tinge to the cellulose acetate brick isn't that surprising. I believe that type of plastic is notorious for that type of color shift. (Just look at some older film and slides.) One question I have on the Polycarbonate bricks is do we know if they receive a similar flame retardent additive to the plastic like that which ABS get?

Polycarbonate has a similar "flammability" to ABS plastic, so the answer would be an educated "yes".

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Sorry caperberry... but all I know (so far) is that it has only been found in Japan up until now... when I find out more... I'll let everyone know! But it is such a beauty!! :sweet:

It would be so incredibly useful too... but I imagine I might never dare use it, if I owned one!

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One of the things going into my next DVD/download (free to folks who already own the first version)... are many of the very interesting 2x4 bricks known as Bayer test LEGO bricks... These belong to my friend Michel (known to many of you as Maxx3001 on Bricklink).

Check out these Bayer beauties in trans colors.... (wish TLG made all of these!! :sceptic: )

How about Trans-neon-green!!

Or Trans-Black!!

Or how about Trans-pink??

Or my favorite... Trans-glitter-red!! :sweet:

Just a few of hundreds of new images of rare LEGO items in my next LEGO DVD/download... :wink:

Gary Istok

Woah, those are really cool bricks! Thanks for showing them to us! :-D

Edited by CopMike
Pics removed, no need in a quote!

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TheLazyChicken (I've never called anyone that before! :blush: )...

Thanks, my friend Maxx from the Netherlands has arguably the world's largest collection of different 2x4 bricks... and with 3001 being the official LEGO mold number for the 2x4 bricks... that's why he's known as Maxx3001 on Bricklink! :wink:

He as an AMAZING collection of rare Bayer and BASF (both German chemical giants)... test and pattern bricks. Probably all of these colorful ones above are from Bayer. And most of them date to the early 1960s The only one that is likely of more recent vintage is the trans-neon-green.

Also here are the very first LEGO trans-clear bricks... the one on the right is an early slotted LEGO bricks (dates to about 1951-56, 1949-50 slotted bricks didn't have the LEGO logo on the bottom). The one on the right dates to 1956-58, and is known as the hollow bottom brick. In January 1958 the new LEGO tube bottom patent was submitted (and was pending for quite some time apparently)... so the hollow bottom 1956-58 brick was a shortlived brick.

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And here is the bottom of the bricks... this slotted brick has what is known as the "block letter font"....

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These bricks are rare in that they are in such nice condition.

The large number of different trans colored bricks are a new feature of the LEGO DVD/download....

Gary Istok

And here is my all time favorite clear bricks spare parts pack... the 045 pack.... produced only by USA Samsonite LEGO from 1968-70. This is the only known source of the 2x8 and 2x10 trans-clear bricks (some of these are known in Cellulose Acetate, others are in Poly Carbonate). This pack was only sold from 1968-70.

Edited by LEGO Historian

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The LEGO trans colored pieces were only produced as bricks and plates in sizes 2x4 and smaller.

However from 1968-70 USA Samsonite LEGO made a very rare shortlived spare parts pack Trans-clear set 045... that had 2 very rare parts in Trans-clear. Those are the 2x8 and 2x10 bricks (one of each in the parts pack). USA Samsonite LEGO was therefore the only known source of the 2x8 and 2x10 bricks in this color. These are known in either Cellulose Acetate (yellowed and slightly warped), and also in Polycarbonate (clearer color).

Here is a set in Polycarbonate....

10029460014_f8850e7e9b_b_d.jpg

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I just love my Trans Dark Blue Glitter 2x4 :wub: :

gallery_148_29_121595.jpg

with the text TEST between studs 3-4 and 5-6.

Even Maxx doesn´t have that one (but boy does he want it :laugh: !).

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I just love my Trans Dark Blue Glitter 2x4 :wub: :

with the text TEST between studs 3-4 and 5-6.

Even Maxx doesn´t have that one (but boy does he want it :laugh: !).

LMAO... yes CopMike... Maxx would trade one of his 3 children for that one.... :sweet: lol....

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Why is the 4x10 trans-clear brick only available in Japan? Do they have sets we can't get? Are there other exclusive bricks that they have? Do we (in the US) have bricks exclusive to our market? Is there a whole another world and market of Lego I did not know about? I'm astonished, and so curious, but more importantly how can I get one?

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Why is the 4x10 trans-clear brick only available in Japan? Do they have sets we can't get? Are there other exclusive bricks that they have? Do we (in the US) have bricks exclusive to our market? Is there a whole another world and market of Lego I did not know about? I'm astonished, and so curious, but more importantly how can I get one?

dvsntt... if only I knew the answer to your last question?? I would have had one by now... :sceptic:

From time to time some of the model shops require parts that we don't see anywhere else. I'm assuming that's the case for this Japan only (so far) 4x10 trans-clear brick. I have noticed from time to time other parts show up in a single location... such as the 1x1 round bricks in Maersk blue all originated from the Windsor England LEGOLAND model shop.

What I don't yet fully understand is the fact that the number of some parts produced for the model shops... the production run for those must be quite small. This would therefore be quite costly for TLG to produce in their factories in Billund, Czech Republic, Mexico and China.... since they're always telling us that anything under 100,000 parts for a particular production run... is simply not worth the trouble...

Also, there are some LEGO parts produced in LEGO sets over the last 64 years that were only produced for or by specific countries. The 2x8 and 2x10 bricks above are an example (USA only).

And then of course there are the test runs... I wish TLG would produce more test run parts for release to the collectors. But that doesn't appear on the horizon. :hmpf_bad:

Here's another image of some modern parts released from the last year. Unfortunately I wish that TLG would release some of these in greater quantity (these may likely be model shop surplus)... because some of these go for quite a bit of money on the secondary market... somebody is making a killing.... :angry:

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Also there's a chapter in my DVD/download that is strictly LEGO parts only produced for specific counries... (over 100 parts listed). One example would be this 1x6x5 window frame... only sold in the USA in yellow (1982-83) in the 5235 Schoolroom Homemaker Set, and in gray in 2 Maersk Truck sets... $$$

http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItem.asp?P=3761

Gary Istok

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Very helpful topic, thank you. I work a lot with lighting in LEGO (for my company, Brickstuff), so I'm building a large collection of trans-clear elements. I have a large amount of 1x1 round plates that look dirty/milky in the bag-- I believe they are newer stock, though they could be polycarbonate. At least now I know they're not dirty-- just made of a different material. I do like the way light shows through the milkier elements-- it adds a nice softness, especially working with LEDs as I do.

--Rob

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Thanks for your LEGO DVD/download order Rob! :sweet:

Some of the parts shown here won't be ready until the next version of the download... which should have been done by now... but as ALWAYS the case... when I'm ready to complete something... a whole lot of new (old stuff) comes flooding in... I just got a whole lot of rare items from Norway and Sweden to add... as well as some very interesting info on LEGO by British LEGO Ltd. (1960-92), a Courtauld's subsidiary licensee of LEGO. Also working on updating all my chapters with LEGO information from Asia. But when that version is ready, you'll be getting another free download (on into perpetuity...).

I have some of the trans-clear larger parts (1x6x3 windscreens, 2x2x2 slopes)... that all have a milkier color than the very crisp trans-clear modern LEGO parts. Apparently the additives they used in the 1980s era made for a milkier look to the trans Polycarbonate parts than they do today.

Rob, your DVD/download should be on its' way in a few minutes! You can download it to your Mac or PC, I-Phone and I-Pad (all of these if you wish!). Merci! Free resends if you have virus issues or a new PC!

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Happy to support the continued creation of such high-quality work. That was a mighty large download! I was salivating just looking at the first few pages. I need to allow some time to properly absorb all the great work you've done (and continue to do). Bravo! Keep it coming....

--Rob

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Happy to support the continued creation of such high-quality work. That was a mighty large download! I was salivating just looking at the first few pages. I need to allow some time to properly absorb all the great work you've done (and continue to do). Bravo! Keep it coming....

--Rob

Thanks Rob! :classic:

Adam Reed Tucker, the LEGO Architect, got his download, and replied to me that the first time he looked at it, he just wanted to browse thru it and see what's in it (2800 pages, with over 6000 images) without reading the details... he said a "quick browse"... lasted 6 hours!! :blush: heheheh....

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Well my Dutch collector friend Michel keeps finding more and more old Bayer test bricks...

Here we have Trans-clear, Trans-clear-black, and Trans-black...

10211868674_a56842f18f_b_d.jpg

Just how green is Trans-green?? :wink:

Again from Michel (and will be in my DVD/download)...

8 shades of Trans-green... the upper right one is the closest to the newly released Trans-green bricks....

10212064513_a16406fae7_b_d.jpg

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The bottom middle 2 bricks look the same color as window glass. Ever viewed a piece of window glass thru the edge? That's what those 2 bricks look like.

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The bottom middle 2 bricks look the same color as window glass. Ever viewed a piece of window glass thru the edge? That's what those 2 bricks look like.

Interesting point Splatman... I wonder if that's not related to a "prismatic issue" of the colors of the spectrum thru a light source... such as glass?

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Trans-clear LEGO bricks have not been produced in abundance in recent years. Anyone who has done large scale constructions with trans-clear bricks usually involve the addition of old bricks.

Here's the dilemma in doing so... having a mix of colors of the trans-clear parts from different decades.... :sceptic:

8623474295_7782b3f2c1_b_d.jpg

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Trans-opaque light blue? :wacko: And how the hell does he get all these Bayer test bricks? They must cost a fortune.

Dat 4x10 brick... :wub: :wub:

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Trans-opaque light blue: Just how on Earth is that not an oxymoron? If you mix transparent and opaque, you get translucent. If that's not the case, then what part of the Circular Square Universe is this from?

Edited by splatman

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