LEGOLAND non-production parts

[Lyichir]

On 2/15/2018 at 6:58 PM, jonwil said:

I wonder what theme they intended the Egyptian bricks to be used for...

My guess is they decided the extra cost of making those parts wasn't justified and stickers or printed bricks were better choices.

 

Honestly I'd prefer stickers (or maybe prints) anyway, since it'd be weird to have the same exact series of hieroglyphs repeated over and over. In general the detail on that part also feels not particularly Lego-like—it reminds me more of the very naturalistic parts McFarlane's brick system uses (moreso than more geometric detail bricks like palisade bricks or masonry bricks).

[q_159]

On 20.5.2017 at 8:47 PM, antp said:

While wanting to buy from B&P a second pair of bright light blue minifig pants, I discover that the part was actually not in any set.

I got this fig from a "build a minifig" station in a Lego Store:

The hair is obviously from the Lego Movie figs, the torso from the ice skater collectable fig,

As these legs existed in printed version for Lego Movie figs, I guess that's their origin, they must have had an unprinted extra remaining stock they got rid via the Stores.

These unprinted legs in Bright Light Blue [BL] / 212 Light Royal Blue [Lego] came with the TRU exclusive figures: https://www.bricklink.com/catalogItemIn.asp?P=970c00&colorID=105&in=A

[bombcar]

Given the cost of molds and how many pieces they can produce, non production parts amaze me. (Production parts in other colors are reasonably boring, changing color isn’t expensive.)

I’d expect either non-production parts are made from less tolerant molds, or perhaps LEGO stores the molds for future use - I can’t see spending the amount a mold costs just to melt it down (unless some major structural problem were discovered). Heck, for some of these parts they could recover the cost of the mold by just selling the pieces directly.

Then again, maybe I’m off. Maybe a single piece in a single set requires many tens of molds, and so the cost of a one-off is not that high. Or maybe the non-production parts are from a bygone era. 

Anyone able to measure the tolerances on the non-production parts?

[antp]

On 18/05/2018 at 9:59 AM, q_159 said:

These unprinted legs in Bright Light Blue [BL] / 212 Light Royal Blue [Lego] came with the TRU exclusive figures: https://www.bricklink.com/catalogItemIn.asp?P=970c00&colorID=105&in=A

Now indeed yes, but when I posted my message that set wasn't listed on Bricklink, and it was not even released I guess (as its name mentions Bricktober 2017)

[Digger of Bricks]

For those who visit this topic, Flickr user Matth Cornelis (a.k.a. cornholiosbricks) also has a lot of unproduced bricks and parts he's shared over on Flickr, mostly composed of unseen recolors as opposed to unmade molds:

Flickr - minifigure related prototypes | Flickr - lego prototypes non minifigure | Flickr - marbled lego | Flickr - lego prototypes never released | Flickr - lego technic testcolors/prototypes/q parts 

Edited June 9, 2018 by Digger of Bricks

[Ragni Norgrimson]

Nice Parts!

I recently got one too. One that I did not expect to be one. Check it out yourself ;)

1x1 Brick Dark Brown by Ragni Norgrimson, auf Flickr

Edited June 28, 2018 by Ragni Norgrimson

[LEGO Historian]

On 6/9/2018 at 10:55 AM, Digger of Bricks said:

For those who visit this topic, Flickr user Matth Cornelis (a.k.a. cornholiosbricks) also has a lot of unproduced bricks and parts he's shared over on Flickr, mostly composed of unseen recolors as opposed to unmade molds:

Flickr - minifigure related prototypes | Flickr - lego prototypes non minifigure | Flickr - marbled lego | Flickr - lego prototypes never released | Flickr - lego technic testcolors/prototypes/q parts 

Buying LEGO parts in unreleased (in sets) colors is really quite easy.  It just requires browsing the Bricklink database.

For example... the 1x1 hollow stud round bricks are available in 8 additional colors not found in any known LEGO sets...

https://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem.page?P=3062b#T=C

The PRICE GUIDE INFO column (colors available for sale) for these round bricks lists 8 additional colors that are not found in the KNOWN COLORS column (colors found in specific known sets).  Many times these additional colors are "unreleased" only in that they were never found in a set.  One of these 8 unreleased colors is Maersk Blue.  I know that all Maersk Blue round bricks originated from the Windsor England model shop as surplus parts, and made it somehow to the secondary market on Bricklink.  6 years ago I had purchased 200 of these from different UK sellers, and one of them told me of their origins (but not how they were obtained).

So one could go thru the Bricklink parts database and obtain a nice collection of parts in colors not available in any sets.

Edited June 29, 2018 by LEGO Historian

[anothergol]

3 hours ago, LEGO Historian said:

For example... the 1x1 hollow stud round bricks are available in 8 additional colors not found in any known LEGO sets...https://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem.page?P=3062b#T=C

Pretty sure that several are just seller mistakes, though. When a part is sold by just 1 seller and it's under 20 cents, it's most likely a mistake, or a bait.
So there's probably no "trans medium blue", "aqua", "dark flesh", "dark turquoise", "flat silver" or "light green" one. And these colors are easily mistaken for others, so, most likely all mistakes.

 

Edited June 29, 2018 by anothergol

[LEGO Historian]

On 6/29/2018 at 3:41 PM, anothergol said:

Pretty sure that several are just seller mistakes, though. When a part is sold by just 1 seller and it's under 20 cents, it's most likely a mistake, or a bait.
So there's probably no "trans medium blue", "aqua", "dark flesh", "dark turquoise", "flat silver" or "light green" one. And these colors are easily mistaken for others, so, most likely all mistakes.

 

Oh I'm sure that there are many BL sellers who make mistakes... but a friend has the light aqua 1x1 rounds... and 5 years ago I purchased 205 of the Maersk Blue 1x1 rounds at only 15 cents each... back before some sellers realized the rarity of the parts.

When buying "off color" parts, it pays to discuss it first with the seller as to how sure they are that they have the right color.... and even when you receive them you could still get the wrong color.

Prices for both rare and set produced parts on BL can be all over the price spectrum.  A few years ago a seller had 150 of these on sale for 15 cents each... I could still kick myself for not having bought the lot..... now they are at an average price of $5.18....

https://www.bricklink.com/catalogPG.asp?P=30614&colorID=48

 

[anothergol]

5 hours ago, LEGO Historian said:

When buying "off color" parts, it pays to discuss it first with the seller as to how sure they are that they have the right color.... and even when you receive them you could still get the wrong color.

Exactly, I've too asked sellers if their LBG part was really LBG, since it's only supposed to exist in old grey. They insist that yes, and of course it never is, so I don't even bother anymore.

Similar thing with "DBG 4mm tubes", which I now believe don't even exist, despite half of sellers "having" them, it's always old black tubes which had a slight blue tint.

5 hours ago, LEGO Historian said:

Prices for both rare and set produced parts on BL can be all over the price spectrum.  A few years ago a seller had 150 of these on sale for 15 cents each... I could still kick myself for not having bought the lot..... now they are at an average price of $5.18.... 

Yeah but for parts like that roof, it may be a temporary inflation. It's quite a specific part, it's possible that a MOCer needed a lot of them and made the prices rise, but there seems to be too many of them on BL for that price to stick, for such a special part.

Although I'm not a collector, I've tried to stock some parts that I used a lot, when they were cheap. Like this one that is slowly getting rarer & expensive, even though it's still in production in other colors, and I hope one day Lego will make them in DBG again:

And this one which is now overexpensive. I have a dozen of them, no one wanted them, despite it already being rare. But here I believe I'm partly responsible for their inflation, after having used 2 of them in a shared MOC. It only takes 20 people to buy 2 of a rare part at the same time for prices to skyrocket. Prices range from 5 to 30eur now. I've bought some for exactly 15 cents too in 2015.
The most silly is that the only set it came in, even though it's rare on BL as well, is sold for less than the part itself.

Old 1x1 tiles+clip are starting to get out of control as well. Already from 3 cents to 10 cents in many places, probably because the new clips are ugly & have mold marks.

Edited July 1, 2018 by anothergol

[mpfirnhaber]

Some recent acquisitions.

The top brick is a modern 3001, probably the result of switching from pink to green while making bricks. These transition bricks are usually destroyed.

The bottom brick is a Bayer test brick in trans-neon green.

[1980-Something-Space-Guy]

Does anyone know why Lego destroys marbled bricks? They'd make nice giveaways for people at random events. Such a shame.

Edited August 10, 2018 by BrickHat

[Ragni Norgrimson]

On 8/10/2018 at 5:14 PM, BrickHat said:

Does anyone know why Lego destroys marbled bricks? They'd make nice giveaways for people at random events. Such a shame.

The quality of marbled bricks, depending on what colours are used, might not be the same as you would expect it from a Lego Brick. Bricks that cannot guarantee the quality of Lego can`t be regularly given out.

[Digger of Bricks]

Check out this prototype Anubis mask that was apparently developed for Adventurers' Desert subtheme... 

 

[kelceycoe]

 

On 6/2/2019 at 12:22 PM, Digger of Bricks said:

Check out this prototype Anubis mask that was apparently developed for Adventurers' Desert subtheme... 

 

Where is it? Are you talking the storage container that was released as a mummy coffin?

[Digger of Bricks]

15 hours ago, kelceycoe said:

On 6/2/2019 at 11:22 AM, Digger of Bricks said:

Check out this prototype Anubis mask that was apparently developed for Adventurers' Desert subtheme...

Where is it? Are you talking the storage container that was released as a mummy coffin?

Huh, it was an Instagram post, one that's not embedding properly...  ...well, here's the non-embedded link at least:

https://www.instagram.com/p/ByNYLRjobBTzsS1Y9DCgoHZULbWS_fvlHIKhGs0/

[kelceycoe]

Except... that is a private Instagram so you have to follow them. Any chance of attaching the photo here?

[Digger of Bricks]

5 minutes ago, kelceycoe said:

Except... that is a private Instagram so you have to follow them. Any chance of attaching the photo here?

Ah, alright...  ...well, how 'bout this? 

 

[kelceycoe]

Looks good.

There were never any Anubis mini-figures in the 1990s Adventurers sets (statues, not figs) and it looks like the ones from Pharoah's Quest.

So I'm guessing the seller has no clue what he is talking about, it's too advanced and detailed in its design to come from Adventurers.

[Digger of Bricks]

4 minutes ago, kelceycoe said:

There were never any Anubis mini-figures in the 1990s Adventurers sets (statues, not figs) and it looks like the ones from Pharoah's Quest.

So I'm guessing the seller has no clue what he is talking about, it's too advanced and detailed in its design to come from Adventurers.

Well to me, the mold's shaping looks characteristic to the late '90s, though its color seems to suggest otherwise. 

[kelceycoe]

Ok... I'll take the time to show...

In 1997 this was the Pharaoh's headpiece. At that time, the Pharaoh Hotep was the ONLY Egyptian minifigure - the rest were either adventurers or crooks. The gold and blue are not ridges, it's paint. Notice the design is very basic?

Now jump to 2011's Pharaoh's Quest, which lazily reuses the same mold for all the "Mummy's" BUT the Anubis, still being basic, resembles the one above, just without the details (1998 sets  didn't have as detailed molds):

The one with the red minifigure looks almost like a prototype for a modern Anubis "Collectible Minifigure" minifigure or something out of Ninjago.

 

[Digger of Bricks]

5 hours ago, kelceycoe said:

In 1997 this was the Pharaoh's headpiece. At that time, the Pharaoh Hotep was the ONLY Egyptian minifigure - the rest were either adventurers or crooks. The gold and blue are not ridges, it's paint. Notice the design is very basic?

Now jump to 2011's Pharaoh's Quest, which lazily reuses the same mold for all the "Mummy's" BUT the Anubis, still being basic, resembles the one above, just without the details (1998 sets  didn't have as detailed molds):

The one with the red minifigure looks almost like a prototype for a modern Anubis "Collectible Minifigure" minifigure or something out of Ninjago.

Oh, I know there was never any Anubis figure for the first Adventurers sets as we know them, as it's merely speculated that this could be test mold for a headgear part that didn't make the final cut into those sets. But, I do see your point regarding complexities this prototype mold has, though I still think it looks too big and blocky to have been made in mind for the Pharaoh's Quest theme. I don't know, maybe it was rather made for Studios? It does somewhat remind me of that theme's blocky-looking headgear for Frankenstein's Monster and the Wolf Man. 

[Aanchir]

On 6/5/2019 at 11:55 AM, kelceycoe said:

Now jump to 2011's Pharaoh's Quest, which lazily reuses the same mold for all the "Mummy's" BUT the Anubis, still being basic, resembles the one above, just without the details (1998 sets  didn't have as detailed molds):

I'm not sure where you're getting the sense that the Pharaoh's Quest mummy designs were"lazy", particularly as the Pharaohs Quest mummies DIDN'T all reuse the classic Nemes piece from the 90s— the winged mummies had an entirely new Nemes piece with a falcon shaped upper part.

Anyway, I think y'all are looking too closely at the shape and not at the color, which is probably a bigger clue as to when this prototype might have been developed. The color of that prototype resembles either the color "Cool Silver, Diffuse", which was mostly in use during the mid-2000s to early 2010s, or a metallic spray finish similar to the helmet and armor of the LEGO Atlantis Portal Guardian and Golden King minifigures in 2010 and 2011.

So it being a Pharaoh's Quest prototype would make a lot more sense than an Adventurers prototype, unless LEGO was testing color finishes of this type a LOT earlier than they actually ended up releasing any (it's not out of the question, considering how many prototypes they had for stuff like "alien" minifigs with uniquely molded heads and bodies, years before they actually released any figures like that in sets).

[Digger of Bricks]

Check out this strange prototype torso... 

 

[Vindicare]

4 hours ago, Digger of Bricks said:

Check out this strange prototype torso... 

Down a bit on that account there’s a leg that goes with this odd torso. That would be one funky looking robot.