LEGO Historian
-
Content Count
1358 -
Joined
-
Last visited
Posts posted by LEGO Historian
-
-
On 2/10/2018 at 7:40 AM, Bricked1980 said:Thanks to everyone who has replied to this thread and given advice and tips on how to store lego.
It might seem as if I'm obsessing too much but it does worry me to think that things like plastic bags and even sunlight could be damaging my lego collection. I have got lots of old sets where the white bricks have become brown from being kept in direct sunlight. I would be gutted if this happened to my creator modular sets and some of the more expensive sets in my collection. What's the point in buying sets like this and not keeping them on display though.
I think I will carry on storing them as I have been but will keep a close eye on them. Think I will look at getting some plastic bags that are more suitable for storing lego as well.
Most of my LEGO has been stored in a dark basement for over 30 years, and I find that yellowing of white parts happened anyway. For some odd reason this was especially true for old Homemaker era (1979-82) LEGO sets where I had purchased about 50 USA Homemaker sets (261, 268,269, 5233, 5235)... and the bricks from these sets had a tendency for the white parts to yellow (almost to the point of looking beige) more than other parts.
-
IMHO.... a 1966-67 Fiat 1800 1:87 LEGO car (LEGO #605) of the Town Plan era. While common in white, gray, blue and red (worth about $50-$100), there are only about 5 known in black. This example (used) was sold about 8 years ago on Ebay for $3235.
-
I've had old 1980s and 1990s LEGO parts assembled in MOCs for over 20 years. When I took them apart (just bricks and windows/doors), all was fine... none broke, none were warped or cracked.
So I agree this issue is part specific.
-
Spoiler
These 10x20 were the main general types of "baseplates", as they were known before the advent of the thin baseplates.
Left to right.... 1953-60, 1960-65, 1965-70, 1970-1990s.
They were available is some odd, as well as regular colors back in the 1950s....
Spoiler
Images from my Unofficial LEGO Sets/Parts Collectors Guide....
Opps.... I clicked on the spoiler option... don't know what happened to the icon for displaying images. Just click on the 2 spoiler images to see the old 1950s-1990s 10x20 baseplates.
-
Glad to hear this....
I'm working on finishing a 9 Volume LEGO Encyclopedia book project for China. The first 6 of these 9 volumes will contain all the LEGO sets from 1949-2017. The 6 volumes are for LEGO sets... Volume 1 (1949-67), Volume 2 (1968-79), Volume 3 (1980-91), Volume 4 (1992-2000), Volume 5 (2001-2010) and Volume 6 (2011-2017). The last 3 volumes will be Volume A (rare LEGO parts), Volume B) (early LEGO wooden and plastic toys), and Volume C (LEGO display models and LEGO retailer items).
The last few volumes are now being written, and they will all be translated into simplified Chinese, by China's major LEGO book company. LEGO is sizzling hot in China right now... and with a middle class of over 340 million, China is an ever increasing market for LEGO and LEGO related items.
Fortunately I now have a book deal for USA/Canada for the English 9 volume book versions as well!
Thanks to my over 100 LEGO acquaintances worldwide... I have images of MANY sets not found in the Billund Vault, and a few (licensee sets) not found in the Billund Archives.
Gary Istok
P. S. More info can be found in the Eurobricks Marketplace Bazaar.
-
There's more than just Sleepy Hollow to Washington Irvings credit. There's also RIP VAN WINKLE... which granted consists of little more than him sleeping (with long beard) under a tree... but there's also the Catskill Mountains Dutch homestead as part of the Rip Van Winkle story.
Another interesting building is Washington Irving's SUNNYSIDE home in Tarrytown New York. Granted this one would be more of a larger build... not as part of a Sleepy Hollow series. But the house is an amazing Dutch Revival homestead dating to 1835....
-
There were 4 people who purchased the old Taj Mahal set on Bricklink in October.... as of right now it appears that only 1 of those 4 buyers went thru with the deal. 3 backed out... including one buyer who paid $4500 for the set. I do bet that that one seller was really depressed....
-
My 2800 page online LEGO Collectors Guide is being expanded to over 5000 pages in a 9 volume LEGO Encyclopedia hardcover series to be translated into Chinese.... and also reformated into English (for the USA/Canada market)...
The 9 volumes will be.....
==============================================
The 9 volume series will be sold individually in book form or as a set.
All the folks who ordered my Computer Desktop download of my smaller guide (2800 pages) will get the full upgrade to the larger book size (but online) for free. For a limited time, I can still sell the 2800 page online version for $29.95 that will be upgraded as a free download next year of the 9 volume set, for only a fraction of the price. 6 of 9 volumes are already nearly finished, with 2 additional volumes a work in progress.
If you want to see what is in the first part of the LEGO Encyclopedia... check the link below. If you are interested.... click on the link provided at the bottom of this post message.
The 9 volume book in hardcover will be much more expensive than the online version with free future upgrades!!
-
18 hours ago, NathanR said:<SNIP>
There are many rumours flying round at the moment, everything from modular building to the UCS Super Star Destroyer. Lego is doing a "classic" range next year to celebrate their 50th anniversary, but the "classic" name is shared with the basic brick boxes so it could be anything.
Did you mean 40 years (1978)? Because 50 years would take us back to 1968... and I see nothing significant in that year milestone?
-
Actually.... the 2012 Employee set was the 4000007 OLE KIRK HOUSE. The workshop, which was not made into a set, was located on property behind the house.....
https://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem.page?S=4000007-1#T=S&O={}
-
From my LEGO acquaintance Michael Christiansen of Denmark (no relation to the LEGO family)....
Esso Petrol Pumps, along with a production Esso Pump set......
These date to about 1956.....
-
1 hour ago, paul_delahaye said:Well apart from the monorail track moulds.......
Don't get me started....
.... there's the Cypress tree moulds....the old rail cap moulds.... and on and on.... 
-
I wouldn't read too much into anything that TLG does.... and try to make logic out of it. They've done so many things in the past that make absolutely no sense, that I sometimes wonder if different parts of the company were at one time run like little fiefdoms (or maybe it was in the past)... and they were not always on the same page for the greater good of the company.
Also, LEGO never threw anything away.... so if they had some new boxes produced, but not yet put into production... they weren't going to throw them away because they decided to make a big change in their individual systems. As long as items were still in inventory... TLG continued to produce older products, even though new ones were ready to come online.
-
One slope I had always wanted was the 2x2 (45 degree) outside corner (convex) slope in trans-clear.... I always wanted to use them with the bazillion regular 2x2 trans-clear slopes I had.... and when I heard that TLG was going to put out an architectural set of part of the Louvre Museum with Le Pyramid in clear... I was momentarily excited that they would create the outside corner in trans-clear. But for some odd reason TLG decided to go with a "weird build technique" that wasn't as smooth as just using 45 degree trans-clear slopes....
TLG... the dream crusher!!
-
I always get a chuckle when dealing with LEGO anniversaries.... usually because LTG doesn't always get it right.... for example....
1957 (late in year) first appearance of the tube bottom brick, but Patent was sent in in January 1958. Where do people get the idea that LEGO bricks didn't exist before 1958? There were (1949) slotted bricks and (1956) hollow bottom bricks, before the advent of the tube bottom bricks.
So many LEGO anniversaries are either ignored by TLG or they got them wrong.
I remember the 1998 introduction of the Silver Anniversary Bucket (with silver 2x4 brick) and Tub sets to mark 25 years of LEGO in the USA. Well that wasn't quite right. 1973 was the first year that TLG took back the USA LEGO license from USA Samsonite (they had it since 1961).... and not the true anniversary of the first year of LEGO in the USA.
Sometimes TLG produces ambiguous anniversaries... that aren't quite right... but close......
Some anniversaries get skipped altogether by TLG.... so if you don't anticipate them.... you won't be disappointed when they're not celebrated.
-
The key comment to the Original Posters description was "flappable handle". None of the Samsonite carrying cases (made in either red or blue from 1966-71) had a flappable handle... they were all non-moving handles.
However... that said... even the European carrying cases were of a non-moving handle type.....
-
Ole, I love to look at your prototypes....
The one (in my opinion) that would be the most useful would be the 2x2x3 78 degree concave corner slope. would make some great Mansard roofs.
Not only desn't TLG compete "systems" that would be useful when used together... but they don't have them in matching color combinations. Such as the 3x3 33 degree slope double convex corner that they used for the first time in the Robie House architectural set. They don't make them in colors that are useful with other bricks of that type. TLG got away from their "System" back around 1998 when the LEGO color explosion started....
-
4 minutes ago, Capparezza said:Wusste ja gar nicht, dass du ursprünglich aus Deutschland kommst. Sprichst du noch Deutsch?
You've mentioned that your encyclopedia available online will disappear when the books are getting into print production. Any clue when this will happen? I'd love to buy your digital version, but currently I lack the funds to do so. Would be a shame if I'd miss that last opportunity.
Na sicher kann ich noch Deutsch sprechen.... meine Mutter hat Fränisch gesprochen, meine Vater hat Donauschwäbish gesprochen und ich habe Hoch Deutsch in die Schule hier in Amerika gelernt. Da kenne ich noch 3 dialekten!
The online version will be around a while longer.... and current owners will get updates with all the information in the 9 volume set... since the online guide is the baseline dcument.
I just don't know exactly when I have to stop accepting additional orders of the online guide.
-
Yes, I'm familiar with'No Starch Press' I know several LEGO books on building (such as Allan Bedford's book) that are self published.
The first country is as I mentioned China that will print my 9 volume series. However they will also promote and advertise my volumes, just like they do other LEGO volumes that they produced for the Chinese market.
Here's a little bit of a background about me and the volumes (and online collectors guide)... I've been a builder, a collector, and now historian after 56 years.
-
On 4/18/2017 at 9:06 AM, LucyCol said:I shall definitely look forward to an English print edition of this, as an 'old 'un' o much prefer to read from a book than a computer screen.
I can understand your reasoning.... but there's no guarantee that it WILL get printed in English. Logic would have it so... but apparently the really deep pockets publishers appear to be in Asia...
I only hope that an English language publisher pickes up the option before the English online version becomes a closed edition....
-
10 hours ago, L@go said:Looks interesting indeed! Just wanted to point out that while Volume 1 goes from 1949 to 72, Volume 2 goes from 1970 to 80. So unless there's a specific reason why 1970, 71 and 72 is apparently covered twice, you might want to fix that if it hasn't already been fixed ;)
Yes, the dates didn't match up at first, because in order to balance out each volume to about 450 pages, we had to guess on the preliminary artwork. Volume 1 is actually 1949-67, Volume 2 is 1968-79, Volume 3 is 1980-93, Volume 4 is 1994-2002 and so on....
Here's "Volume B"...
-
Here's an example of some of my chapters (that will be in the Chinese books, as well as my online computer desktop guide)....
LEGO Classic Castle is already in the online guide....
http://www.youblisher.com/p/687306-LEGO-DVD-Chapter-27-CLASSIC-LEGO-CASTLE-1984-90/
And early LEGO Basic Sets (1953-65) has been updated... it is probably the most complex chapter in the guide.... some sets come in as many as 11 different box types....
http://www.youblisher.com/p/1762849-LEGO-Collectors-Guide-Chapter-5/
On a different note..... LEGO sets.... Volume 4 of the guide....
-
Here's how one of the miscellaneous volumes will look like.... what I call Volume A, rare and varied parts thru the ages. This Volume will also have a chapter on Fake LEGO Parts... such as spotting the fake radar dish to the pricey 10179 Milennium Falcon set, and other valuable rare parts. Fake parts and boxes/inserts are becoming a big problem in the LEGO world! Most of the chapters in this volume are from my desktop computer guide. There will be an added chapter on the LEGO marbled and test bricks (Bayer, BASF, Grangemouth, etc).
This is "Volume C"... which will have mainly LEGO retailer items, including glued display models... retailer display stands, LEGO stores thru the ages, and retailer catalog images that we never got to see!
Those chapters that aren't already in my current computer desktop guide... will get added to that as well.
-
I've missed being on Eurobricks for quite some time now...
I haven't been around because I've been working on a secret LEGO project that no longer has to be secret any more... a multi-volume LEGO Encyclopedia of all LEGO sets from day 1... 1949 until 2017. This will be a 6 volume series (450 pages per volume)... the production date will be later this year. Then I will work on 3 additional volumes (350 pages per volume)... LEGO rare or unusual parts (Volume A), Early LEGO toys... wooden and plastic, 1934-60 (Volume B), and a unique book (Volume C) that covers mainly LEGO retailer items, such as display stands, glued display models, and related promotional items... as well as LEGO store displays thru the years.
Now that's the good news.... the bad news is that the first country to sell this is China... and it is being translated to simplified Chinese.....
LEGO is sizzling hot in China right now, and the publisher (who publishes all LEGO books in the China market) offered a large hard cover book deal.
I'm talking to a USA publisher about printing this in English, but that is just in the talking stages right now.... I hope to have it out in English soon, but there are no guarantees.
For those of you who have my online version of my LEGO Collectors Guide.... the good news for you folks is that all the info going into this much larger paper (hardcover) guide, will be available to you as free updates (in English
). The publisher wants me to stop selling my online guide (still available, but not for very much longer).... the paper volumes will be much more expensive than the immediate $29.95 online computer desktop version. So I will not be able to offer that one much longer... except as free updates to existing owners.... as the volumes are completed. In fact it's my online guide that is being broken up (and brought forward to 2017) to create the 6 volume set encyclopedia, as well as the 3 additional volumes.
Message to all "hardcore" collectors of the grey 12v train era 1980-1990
in LEGO Train Tech
Posted · Edited by LEGO Historian
First of all I have a big time collector friend (Yashihito) who lives in Japan, who showed me the 12V blue track trains pictured in the above Japanese catalog. But he said that he has NEVER been able to find one single 12V blue track era train in Japan. so he thinks that the Fujisho Corp., which was the distributor for LEGO in Japan from 1969-78, never sold them to toy stores, even though blue track 12V trains appear in the above Japanese LEGO catalog. So I doubt that they were sold elsewhere in Asia (Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan) in the blue track era as well.
As for the blue track 12V trains... they were not sold by British LEGO Ltd. (which includes Britain, Ireland and Australia). Could people special order them? I don't see why not. An acquaintance in England was able to special order the 080 large basic set (1967-70) as a teenager, and that was never sold in Britain either. British LEGO Ltd. (a Courtauld's subsidiary) appears to have been very accomodating, to customers, so they "could" have ordered the blue track 12V train from Denmark, I guess.
Starting with the 12V gray track era sets... they WERE sold in continental Europe, Asia and Britain/Ireland/Australia. No 12V trains were ever sold in USA or Canada... despite the blue shunter locomotive showing up on the 1982 and 1983 Canadian catalog cover pages.
I do believe that all 12V trains were sold in blue and gray track eras in all of Scandinavia. I'm not sure about Spain and Portugal. TLG seemed to have a smaller selection of items to sell in those 2 countries.