LEGOLAND non-production parts

[L@go]

A lot of rare stuff to see here, and very interesting to see prototypes of the bricks that never were. Thanks for sharing!

Can't help but mention, though, that the 2x2 trans-clear tile has actually been released in a set. I know, because I had one as a child, and didn't even realise it was rare until I needed one for a MOC. I naturally assumed that all the parts I has as a child were common :)

[SithMageHenry]

Whoa, what set were the trans-yellow arms and hands from? Or where did you get them?

[1974]

Read my posts .. All those parts are NOT in any sets, they're prototype parts! And they're not trans-yellow unfortunally, they're that ugly 'anti-freeze' trans neon-green (CP5670 mind your pulse!)

And, yes, those minifig hands+arm are quite interesting. They were made at least 13 years before JEK-14

Time for some Blacktron 3?

A lot of rare stuff to see here, and very interesting to see prototypes of the bricks that never were. Thanks for sharing!

Can't help but mention, though, that the 2x2 trans-clear tile has actually been released in a set. I know, because I had one as a child, and didn't even realise it was rare until I needed one for a MOC. I naturally assumed that all the parts I has as a child were common :)

Set 6590, never to return

Edit : There may be more parts that I have shown that are actually common, if so, let me know. I don't have half the brains that Gary has

Edited April 1, 2014 by 1974

[LEGO Historian]

Ole... I'm sorry, I wasn't paying attention... I was busy wiping the drool off my keyboard....

So many many parts... so hard to focus....

The ones that I loved.... 1) classic 1x1x2 window in brown.... .... the trans clear parts... 2x6 brick, 2x6 and 2x8 plates...all those other cool curved slopes in that color.

I also love that Moorish pointed arch... and the brown 2x2x3 steep slope double concave slope... love it love it love it!!!!!

This will need a couple of days for me to absorb... definitely....

There is one other thing I wanted to mention about LEGO employees getting parts... for many decades employees have been able to buy LEGO parts that others could not. Some parts in the past were the marbled bricks, and also printed bricks (mostly 1x6/1x8 white bricks with printing)... which were sold to employees very cheaply as Factory Seconds.

There have also been other times where employees were offered LEGO parts to purchase... and at times even parts that were given to them as promotional items.

So employees getting parts from TLG has always been one way of items getting to the secondary market.

[1974]

This will need a couple of days for me to absorb... definitely....

I know you too well, it'll take days, weeks! If I had a gable in say xxxx colour would you mary me?

Okay, enough for tonite folks!

Later, LEGO nerds ..

[Faefrost]

Fishy definition as given by a Google search:

2.

informal

arousing feelings of doubt or suspicion.

I could not have used a better word. No retracting from me.

I am actually glad that these "unexplainable" parts exist in BL, and I may have even bought some of them (although I try my best to avoid them but sometimes... well... human weakness...) since it is the only way us mere mortals can have (very expensive) access to them but I still don't like what I see as a principle.

I would never get jealous over a Lego thing, it is just not me.

There are much better reasons to get jealous although I don't remember the last time I got jealous.

Oh, no, I remember, when my wife, still as my girlfriend, a few decades ago, started what I thought getting interested in another man.

Fortunately, I was wrong..

They're are not unexplainable. If you are googling "fishy" it's easy enough to also do a bit of Internet investigation into where most of these come from. In most cases there is nothing overly fishy about them.

1. Large bulk blocks of things in unusual or unseen colors almost always originate from places like the Model shops or the Parks maintenance shops. Remember when they create a long term display piece such as a park display, or the more recen life size X Wing or Bag End, they also create enough of any specially needed parts to maintain it. Make repairs, replace worn or weathered parts etc. however storage capacity is finite. When they retire the statue they sell off the extra parts. They retired a large airplane display last years. A lot of people were able to get lots of some unusual colored parts from that.

2. Smaller lots of unusual or Unique parts, such as 1974's stuff is more often than not prototypes or mold testing. Once again TLG does have finite storage capacity for this sort of stuff. Remember a test run or prototyping can produce thousands of non retail quality parts. Stuff that they will not use in sets, for whatever reason. Prior to Lego's patents expiring this stuff was considered trash. There was no real interest in anybody else copying Lego's designs. Essentially floor sweepings. They used to sell it to employees and locals for pennies on the dollar. Often they just dropped it in the trash dumpster. I bet most of 1974's parts come from the local area around Billund or select factories.

3. Old factory or warehouse stock? Once again storage is finite. They don't keep stuff that they will practically never use again. Once a mold is retired, if it is not replaced with a new very close revision, chances are the old parts get removed from active design and production use. They will use some of the remaining parts for replacements, for a reasonable time frame after which they will dispose of the excess product. Either trashing them, selling them dirt cheap, or selling it in bulk lots to some sort of local clearance partner. The key word here is local. They will not bother to ship this sort of thing worldwide. They just want it gone. In a manufacturing business the two most expensive things are time, as in production time, maximizing the use of every piece of the production chain. And Space. Real estate. How much space do we have to put stuff, put people, make stuff, store stuff, move stuff etc. 3 cubic meters of parts they can no longer use As product is wasted space. It will be gotten rid of, and not by fishy means.

4. Local testing or development. Once again, before the expiration of Legos patents and the rise of clone brands it would not surprise me if Lego sent stuff home with staff for basic play testing and feedback. Just take some of these new parts home and tell us if it's any good? And again very local distribution. And the stuff probably sat in bins of parts for years or generations until the rise of the Internet community and things like Bricklink and EBay.

As I said above until the combination of the loss of patent protections on their product and the rise of the Internet Lego community all of this stuff was literally factory floor sweepings. Like sawdust in a chair factory.

[Legogal]

1974,

Very nice parts! Thanks for showing some of them to us.

It is fun to own a few rare parts; each to his own.

Cheers!

[CP5670]

Read my posts .. All those parts are NOT in any sets, they're prototype parts! And they're not trans-yellow unfortunally, they're that ugly 'anti-freeze' trans neon-green (CP5670 mind your pulse!)

But, but, but... trans-neon green glows! GLOWS.

It's great to see the rest of your special parts collection. You have stuff in just about all of the classic transparent colors. I wonder why the 1x2 inverted slopes are especially common. Some of the other pieces look like variations of certain Aquazone bricks, like the dark gray 3-sided bricks and the trans-clear 2x2 octagon. Maybe they were intended to be part of that theme at one point.

Love the double-sided plates as well. I figured they must have made prototypes of that kind of piece at some point. I'm hopeful that they will release a piece like that into regular production eventually. We have been getting things like the inverted 2x2 tile lately, which would have been hard to imagine in the past.

Nothing wrong with these parts being distributed either. On the contrary, it's a good thing if these wonderful pieces are filtering out to fans who can make use of them. As Faefrost said, they would probably just get thrown out otherwise.

[Rick]

I'd like you to retract that 'fishy' part. You have no basis to say that, okay?

I could not have used a better word. No retracting from me.

Google all you want, I'm done with you

Please treat each other respectfully. We don't need these kind of arguments on EB. Let's focus on discussing LEGOLAND exclusive parts in this topic. I've changed the title of the thread accordingly.

Just to be clear: this argument is over. If either of you has anything more to say about it, use the PM system, so the rest of the EB member base isn't bothered by it. Thanks.

[antp]

wow, nice collection 1974 !

I really like to discover new parts like that (and I find sad that some were not put in production...)

This reminds me that nice collection of purple technic parts that you posted on another similar thread, but picture links are dead unfortunately.

http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=10689&st=175#entry1738379

Can't help but mention, though, that the 2x2 trans-clear tile has actually been released in a set.

Indeed, I wanted to mention the same thing

[1974]

I'll upload them again, sorry! I'm also getting a new bunch of odd parts next week

[sithewok]

Nice collection of rare bricks, 1974. Thanks for sharing pictures. It would be really nice if some of these made their way into production, eventually. Still cool to see some 'what ifs' even if they don't.

[Clone OPatra]

Fun pictures! It's always a treat to see parts like these.

I can point out that the trans-clear treasure chest appeared in sets though. It at least came in the original Hogwarts.

[Faefrost]

Fun pictures! It's always a treat to see parts like these.

I can point out that the trans-clear treasure chest appeared in sets though. It at least came in the original Hogwarts.

I think the Trans Clear Insectoids helmet also showed up in Agents. Didn't Slimeface wear one?

[Toby Adams]

I admit I have 4 1x1 trans-clear plates. Are these rare?

[Darkdragon]

I admit I have 4 1x1 trans-clear plates. Are these rare?

They are in 155 sets so far.

[CopMike]

I admit I have 4 1x1 trans-clear plates. Are these rare?

Only appeared in 155 sets so far.

[Toby Adams]

Actually, I meant 1x2....

Edited April 2, 2014 by Toby Adams

[antp]

Actually, I meant 1x2....

157 sets... http://www.bricklink...colorID=12&in=A

Edited April 2, 2014 by antp

[Toby Adams]

I'm not sure which sets I have from that list....

[zux]

1974, wow, nice list of yummy parts! I'd love there would be a thread you guys could share your parts collections that did not appear in any set.

[jonwil]

And I thought my not-seen-in-any-set 2 x 2 round plates in trans-clear were cool, that's nothing compared to some of the drool-worthy parts in these pictures, especially the not-seen-in-any-set part shapes (most of which I suspect are prototypes that didn't get far enough to be turned into an actual mold for a full production run)

[rob-cubed]

@1974: loving those 2x1x2 translucent curves and the double-sided SNOT bricks. If there are two areas I'd really like to see new parts development, it's SNOT and curves.

88292 (1x3x2 curved arch) is my favorite part to date... it solves so many problems elegantly. Hard to believe they didn't exist just a few years ago...

[DagsBricks]

Just saw this. Very nice parts. I feel lucky that I got a handful of trans-clear 2x2 round tiles a while ago.

Should you unfortunately pass on, is there someone who would take good care of these pieces? I would love to offer but I'm sure there are folks that are closer. :-)

[Phoxtane]

You know, I bet there's a reason why they did all those parts in transparent colors. I recall seeing a method of determining stresses distributed within a plastic object - the plastic object must be transparent, and the light being allowed to shine on the object must be polarized in some way. The example light source used in this case was the light coming from a typical computer monitor, with the stresses showing up as a distribution of rainbow patterns.

I went ahead and recreated that here with my computer monitor and a plastic drawer from those things that you put screws in - you can see the ripples quite well, but the rainbow effect is lost. It tends to work better the shinier the surface of the plastic, it would seem. As for why this is relevant: in theory one could see the stresses distributed throughout a particular element provided it's molded in a transparent color, which could be useful to match up with simulations or even to see how the part performed during the molding process before in-house simulations were feasible!

Edited January 10, 2015 by Phoxtane