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Comments
When you start talking about the LEGO vault and the contents of it; you start talking about purity. Unless you hold in your hands exactly what LEGO intended for you to hold, then you can create and create and buy and buy and make your own "creation" but it's not the original found in said vault.
I can purchase instruction manuals, spend lots of €£¥$ on LEGO and even buy original boxes, but unless I buy it all as one directly out of the factory I don't intrinsically own that set.
And anyway, nothing anyone collects is the original found in the LEGO vault. The only thing remotely similar is a MISB collection. I'm not sure how anyone can intrinsically own a set they themselves buy. And regardless, it depends on the collector's definition of "own" in the context of their collection.
I'm gonna give you a Like because I'm dizzy from reading your post. ;)
What did they intend customers to own when they change a set part way through a run? How many people have ticked off the zombie hearse when they have the version without glow in the dark stickers? From the artwork for the series, the intention was clearly that this set was meant to have glow in the dark stickers. Yet for whatever reason it was changed part way through the run and the later sets were not as originally intended. Do they still count as owning a set?
Now if you bought all of the parts to an original Cobra and built it then yes it is owning one. Wait now we are getting into 'Purity'? For one, aren't ALL the sets in the vault MISB? I think that is what makes them vault worthy, not having a bunch of opened boxes or loose sets. Again this is debate that will never end as there are those with varying opinions as to how they see collecting sets.
I have checked the "own" box at Brickset for two modulars that I have sourced with lots of modifications - very impure. My criteria is that those pieces are now dedicated to those builds, so they can't count towards "owning" any other sets. But wait -- I used parts from my second Grand Emporium, but I still "own" two Grand Emporiums. What to do, what to do. My head is spinning.... there is no place like "own", clicks her red heels together .......
If the price of a set were to become simply "too high" would it not make sense to just piece it together from BL? Once the MISB piece is out of the equation then I think its all out the window.
You may as well spend far less and piece the set together that way...of course, then it isn't MISB and the effervescent question of whether you own the set rises up and then it's all mute anyway. :smile:
Anyway, I wonder how much Bricklinking a Town Hall would be, now that it is retired and the prices are steep?
It also matters how much those pieces now cost that are discontinued.
I would not try to BL a Cafe Corner for example due to how much some of those parts skyrocketed in price. That and the piece count and cost, even back then, would have driven me batty to try to keep up with will piecing it together. (especially after Bricklink'ing Market Street).
Finally, are you using any type of replacement? For example, windows for Market street are a certain 1x4x3 train window, and it is not just any of those as there are two type of train window, you can tell which because one goes for far more on BL than the other (at last check). And the instruction cost is insane.
Some people are obviously buying any parts to build Market street to sell because you can tell they have the wrong hoses, windows, or doors.. Sometimes do not even have the Dark Blue arch ways, or are using the 'new' 1x8x2 archways from the WVM and not the appropriate ones from the era of the set.
Now I know I'm being nitpicky but it bugs me when I see a 'complete market street' up for sale when it is obvious by pictures and language used in the listing that the parts are not accurate to the year the set was released, but that is just my peeve about it. However when people are paying 500 USD for a set not accurate to the time period, especially when they may believe it is, it bugs me. I know I may stir a debate as to why is that a big deal, but it is just my opinion.
With that said, personally if it has the same style of part (new or old), I'd consider it legit. No, it isn't the same era, but it is the proper color/shape. Taking WMV dark blue arches into consideration. Looking at it, you can't really tell the difference. Although I think technically the underside is reinforced and doesn't hold certain elements underneath anymore like they used to. So it technically is a new mold.
But when you are looking at the dark red roof slopes for CC and some have open stud and some are closed stud with no other apparent differences, I think it is silly to question if you own a set or not. But it leads back to if you are trying to sell it as original, then it should have original parts.
For personally owning a set, there must surely be limits, but the bar for claiming you own a set is relatively low.
But if you ever try to sell that set or give it to someone else, you may have to be a lot more stringent, up to the standards of the person you're selling/giving it to.
I.e. if @Pitfall69 were selling to me, he could get away with giving the correct mixture of the right specification of bricks according to dimensions and colour.
But if I were selling to him I would have to make sure the bricks were the original bricks from that set, any replacements were noted, and bricks would need to be correct according to age and other more specific details such as internal details of the bricks.