Fugazi

Thanks to all of you for your kind comments! The worst offenders were the late 70s sets which for the most part recycled earlier numbers... but there are many examples scattered through the years and themes, and some low numbers were used for 4 different sets or perhaps more! You're absolutely right, Ninja started in the 6000s before moving to the 3000s! Thanks for clearing this up! All true. But while Technic new sets use the 8000 range, 2010 Star Wars and Atlantis sets are also given 8000 numbers! Technic kept pretty much to the 8x00s all through the years, even when Bionicle forcefully invaded their territory and gobbled up so many of the available series! Well ok technically (no pun intended) Bionicle are part of Technic too. About the 1000 and 2000 series for promotional sets, I suppose that their days are over now and all promotional/value sets will from now on be issued in the 5-digit series (30000, 40000, 60000) -- but as with anything LEGO, I may be proven wrong!

Not sure how it came about, but I happen to have some interest in the numbering schemes TLC used for their sets through the years. So I thought I would post an overview of the way sets are numbered, just in case it might interest some of you. If there are requests, we can later discuss, correct and expand together any aspects of this brief introduction. Most of my research was done using Peeron, using their large collection of catalogue scans, so many thanks to them and to all who sent Peeron their scans. All the images are also from Peeron. The early phase The earliest sets that I could trace dating from the 1950s were numbered in the 700 series, with accessories and small vehicles (not brick-built) in the 1200s. I presume even earlier sets and wooden toys used lower series, but as of now I don’t have much information on those. In the event, accessories were soon renumbered to the 200 series, and during the 1960s many number series were created for emerging themes: Basic sets using the 000 series, Trains in the 100s, accessories in the 200, 400 and 800 series, regular sets now in the 300 series, and miniature cars in the 600s. In 1969, the introduction of 12V Trains had them grab the 700 series, while brand new Duplo was assigned the 500 series. The 1970s were a time of great expansion for LEGO, and many new themes were introduced. Basic sets were now numbered in the 1-99 series (without leading ‘0’ this time) as well as the 200 series. Homemaker sets also used the 200 series, the classic sets as well as the new Legoland sets were numbered in the 300 range, smaller Legoland sets in the 600s, Gears technical sets in the 800s, and accessories in the 900 series. The Legoland phase By the end of the 1970s, older 3-digit series had to be recycled in order to fit in all the new sets. New Legoland Town, Fabuland and Scala sets used the (second) 300 series, smaller Town sets used the (second) 600 series, while Legoland Space sets used available 800 and 900 series numbers. But it was obvious that the 3-digit system was nearly exhausted, and duplicating set numbers was likely becoming confusing for TLC. The System phase Starting in 1980 most of the new sets were given 4-digit numbers. The Legoland themes were all assigned to the 6000 range (6000s for Castle sets, 6300s for large Town sets, 6600s for smaller ones, 6800s for small Space sets and 6900s for large ones). Within each group, lower set numbers generally indicated smaller sets. Promotional and educational (Dacta) sets were numbered in the 1000s, Duplo in the 2000s, Fabuland in the 3000s, Ships in the 4000s, accessories and Model Team in the 5000s, Trains in the 7000s and Technic in the 8000s. In general, each sub-theme was assigned to a specific 100-number block that it would fill up over time. Meanwhile, Basic sets and some accessories would keep recycling old 3-digit series. This numbering scheme would last for over 15 years without major changes. New themes During the 1990s, new themes besides the classic System triumvirate of Town-Space-Castle were assigned new number blocks in the same general scheme. For instance, Pirates grabbed the 6200s, Aquazone the 6100s, Time Cruisers shared the 6400s with Paradisa, Wild West used the 6700 series, while Town expanded into the 6400-6500s. Moreover, new themes outside of the System sphere were assigned previously unused series, such as FreeStyle in the 4000s, Computer Games in the 5700s and Belville in the 5800s. By the late 1990s, the System 6000 range was becoming crowded, so new themes began using number blocks outside of the regular System scheme. For instance, Ninja (Castle) and Insectoids (Space) themes used the 3000 series, Adventurers the 5900s, Rock Raiders the 4900s, and Star Wars licensed sets were given the 7100 series. Dacta also moved to the 9000 series. Random numbers phase At some point during the early 2000s, for an unfathomable reason it was decided that assigning number blocks to specific themes was not the way to go anymore. Perhaps this was becoming impractical with the proliferation of short-lifespan themes. In any case, starting slowly circa 2000 and becoming the rule rather than an exception by 2005, new sets were issued numbers randomly in any available range, with little apparent logic. As a consequence, in the same number series one could now find say Duplo, Star Wars and Creator sets. This is the numbering scheme that prevails today, with some exceptions. Special series Indeed, a few themes or product categories still have specific number blocks. Starting in 2001, Lego Shop exclusives were assigned numbers in the 10000 range. The series include exclusive sets or accessories from any theme in roughly chronological order. In 2007, the 20000 series were issued to Brickmaster magazine gift sets in chronological order. The 21000 series is used for Architecture sets since 2008. Promotional polybags are numbered in the 30000 series since 2009, while seasonal sets use the 40000 series. Lastly, since the early 2000s some value packs have been issued numbers in the 60000 range. Since 2008, a 6-digit series is in use for special items such as key chains, pens and magnets, generally made in China and not part of the ‘core’ LEGO product range. These products are numbered in the 850000 series. As if 6-digit numbers were not long enough already, sporadically over the years but more frequently during the late 2000s other special items have been only issued a material ID number, made up of 7 digits. These numbers appear to be issued to everything LEGO: individual bricks, instruction sheets, cardboard boxes, etc. Some special sets only have this material ID number, often in the 4000000 series. The future Approximately 70% of the available set numbers in the 1-9999 series has been used at least once, so TLC is not yet in danger of running out of available 4-digit numbers. Moreover, with the recent introduction of 5-, 6- and 7-digit set numbers, TLC should have many centuries worth of set numbers for us to enjoy. Some random trivia - Between 1974 and 1979, all Lego sets in the US had a numbering scheme distinct from the European ‘official’ standard. Briefly, Duplo sets were numbered in the 000 series, Basic and Fabuland in the 100 range, Legoland Town and Space in the 400 and 500s, classic sets in the 700s and Expert Builder sets in the 900s. - Samsonite in Canada also used some distinct number series for their exclusive sets during the 1960s and 1970s, series that sometimes clashed with the ‘official’ numbering scheme. - Many US-exclusive sets of the early 1980s were obviously forgotten by TLC as their numbers were reused during the 1990s. For instance, 6375 Gas Station (1980) and 6901 Mobile Lab (1980) were recycled for 6375 Trans Air Carrier (1990) and 6901 Space Plane (1998) respectively. EDIT: Castle=6000 series.

Thanks for your comments! Actually I cheated a bit, as a few pieces do not belong to GG. As far I can remember, the brown bricks used for the door, the red flag, the green grass plates and the brown bits used as pebbles, plus a few tan plates used inside to build the stairs were from a different set. I probably could have managed without, but they all helped relieving the monotony of the muted Green Grocer colours.

Thanks for all your comments and encouragement! While GG is a great part pack, it still doesn't have everything I need to MOC a convincing landscape. I will certainly build more Castle-themed MOCs in the future, but first I need to boost my plant and natural colour brick inventory! And yes, get some appropriate minifigs!

Thanks for the scans, very interesting read and models! Boy that last diorama is awesome! The huge carrier ship is impressive and unusual in its form-follows-function style, instructions anyone?

Thanks for your comments! I wasn't sure about the roof myself, I didn't have anything in mind when I started MOCing so it kind of evolved this way, but I'm not sure it makes real-life sense.

I think that while this set has some nice parts and good playability, its design stretches credibility a bit too much. What's the point of the treasure being hidden behind a gate controlled by a complex opening mechanism, when it's so easy for a diver to swim around or above said gate? We're underwater here, it doesn't make any sense! I suppose this is the best the designers could come up with given a target size and retail price. But it makes for a disappointing set nevertheless.

This is my first attempt at a Castle-themed MOC, at 95%+ made up of parts from Green Grocer (!). It's probably not historically accurate in any way, and there's no background story as I was only trying to MOC a building that included some landscape. In the end, I'm not very fond of how the landscape turned out, I definitely need to get some plants and foliage from Bricklink! And a few more black tiles to repair the roof, right now it looks patchy at best. Anyway, please do have a look at the other photos on Flickr, comments good and bad all welcome!

It was difficult for me to part out Green Grocer as it's such a nice build... but I don't have a lot of pieces so in the end it was torn down after 4 days. Doesn't mean I won't rebuild it one day though.

The funny thing with this set is, even the rabbit on the box picture looks like it's having colour issues. So with LEGO, what you see is *really* what you get!

I read somewhere here that the actual UK price will be £1.99.

I stand corrected! Indeed, the badges had the minifigs in alphabetical order, while the leaflet has them in... random order? I will correct my list to reflect the official leaflet list, for the sake of it.

Well that's interesting, I missed that bit of information! This probably means there will be 3 of some, and 4 of most minifigs in each box. Indeed, the rarity factor is quite irrelevant then. It's good news actually, I hated the idea of having major discrepancies in the odds. Thanks for the info, and just forget this whole topic!

Ha! While this train is a wonderful collectible, I kind of remember from the old catalogs that is was very expensive compared to the regular train sets. Moreover, as a parent I would never make the mistake to buy my kids a whistle-operated train, unless I need constant headaches for next 5 years! I wonder if this has anything to do with TLC eventually withdrawing this concept.

I totally agree, and I've posted this minifig rarity topic in the General sub-forum, as the minifigs pretty much cover the spectrum of the existing themes.

Less than 3 months to go before the first wave of collectible minifigs officially hits the market, and already some lucky chaps have been able to get their hands on a few of the minifigs! I'm sure more will appear soon, before the official launch date. This far, it has been predicted that among the 16 minifigs some will be rarer than others, but as far as I know there are no official details from TLC. My two main questions are: Which minifigs will be rarer, and by what factor? Will the content of every box (of 60 minifigs) be the same? In order to answer those questions, in the event there is no official information from Lego, I suggest we start this thread to keep tabs on the minifigs that we buy. Please post here the number of collectible minifigs of each type that you have acquired, if and only if they have been bought randomly. This is important, please don't post what you have acquired from Bricklink, trades, or freebies given out at toy shows (the latter are possibly not randomly distributed). And if you feel the bags for the cheerleader's pom-poms, that's not random either! Especially helpful would be total inventories of full boxes, if you have bought any. Moreover, please keep the general minifig discussion to the appropriate topic, this thread is devoted only to the rarity of the minifigs. So here's the list of the 16 minifigs from Series 1, and I have given myself the task to keep this post updated with the figures you send in. 1. Indian 2. Cheerleader 3. Caveman 4. Clown 5. Zombie 6. Skateboarder 7. Robot 8. Crash Test Dummy 9. Magician 10. Wrestler 11. Nurse 12. Ninja 13. Spaceman 14. Robin Hood 15. Diver 16. Cowboy

Well done! I think it totally nails down the 70s-80s building architecture style. Very realistic! Oh and interesting design on those conference room chairs!

I agree with you that a tram could turn out complicated to implement, but there are simpler ways. I could envision a separate right-of-way for a tram or LRT that would be slightly elevated (just 1 brick) to accommodate the depth of the rails. This is not unusual in real-life modern tram settings. It could even be done with the existing rail parts. Being off-street it wouldn't restrict road traffic. Of course I would love purpose-made street plates including tram tracks, but I'm just dreaming!

Very interesting! It could well be a bus, a train and a mixed-mode rail/bus station, but then with 2 other train sets coming out this year it seems like overkill. Maybe the train will actually be a tram? That would be awesome! In any case, this set looks like a great follow-up to City Corner!

Yes, this was shown before in a slightly different way (see here), but thanks anyway! Although the massive size of the buildings and the quality of the designs are impressive, I don't feel like the 5 buildings realistically fit together in the same street. As much as I love what LEGO comes with for the Modular house sets, I wouldn't just throw them together on my layout without some serious modding or other buildings in-between to give the street a more reasonable look. Alas I can't show what I'm talking about, I only have GG so far!

Right, thanks! I had it all wrong! Hmm I wish they would bring back the idea books

Wow well done! Nice details and good looking overall! Love the use of turntables and the tower's peak.

Ahah this is so good! My favourite would be orange... well or dark grey... tough choice! So I gather that there are missing elements to build a green one, I wouldn't have though.

Same here! Although if a Star Trek LEGO license were ever to see the day, it would be the end of my life savings ahah!

There was a running gag about a '47 conspiracy' in Star Trek, as the number 47 kept appearing in background (or sometimes very obvious) graphics. But I'm sure it's totally unrelated to this! I'm trying to remember what was the bus destination sign sticker in the 6000 Idea Book, was it '36 Legoland'?