Promotional stuff from toy shops

elazgar

Have you ever gotten old sets that used to be in a shop window?
I have been asking in a toy shop for a few month and now I´ve got 5,5 kg of old sets that were in the shop. The oldest set is from 1991 (8856) and the newest ones are a few bionicle. They have no box, no instructions and some sets have been glued.
First of all I have tried to identify the sets, once the sets have been separated I´m washing the pieces and trying to take apart the pieces that are not glued.
I am going to try ungluing the pieces with the method used to unglue the new magnet sets, but another problem is that the white pieces are now yellow (6456). Someone told me that there are some products I can use to "clean" this.
Do you now an efficient method to do this?

Would anyone buy some of these sets, in case I decided to sell them, at a cheap price in spite of being glued?

Johnnycogs

If the sets warrant it I'm sure you will find there is a healthy market! Keen to know what you've got now!!! =)

jwsmart

Here's the thread on whitening (or maybe de-yellowing) LEGO: http://www.bricksetforum.com/discussion/comment/4734

elazgar

Thank you for the link, now I´m trying to de-yellow two white pieces, if it works I will repeat the process with all the sets.

In case I sell something it would be Bionicle 8759 (glued) and 8697 (I still have to check if it is completed)

Martin

Separating glued parts may well be impossible - it depends the glue. Some models are not glued as such, more checmically bonded. MEK can be used to literally melt two bricks together and you cannot get them apart without damaging both bricks.

elazgar

I tried putting some bricks in almost boiling water and I have to say that it works, even though you can see that they have been glued. And also red bricks lose bright, son I´m just going to use this method with white and some gray bricks.

What do you think about collecting these special items that shops have (posters, LEGO statues, giant minifigs...)?

Istokg

Display models are a very desireable genre of LEGO collecting. Recently a Darth Vadar glued model sold for a few thousand on Ebay.

The beginning of glued models dates back to 1955, with the advent of the LEGO Town Plan system.

Here is a 1959-60 continental European Display Catalog showing glued models that retailers could purchase for their store displays...
http://www.redshift.com/~shifflett/lego/blue_form/blue_form.html

And below are some interesting display models (first 2 from England) such as the front of York Minster (largest surviving Medieval Cathedral in England), the Moulin Rouge, a window display from 1962 of a Detroit department store window, and a TLG display cabinet that they sold in 1960 just for displaying glued models. These images are in my Unofficial LEGO Sets/Parts Collectors Guide, the chapter on Toy Stores, Display Models, and Toy Fairs.

Glued models are usually more valuable glued together than the parts would be, when disassembled.

elazgar

Here you have some pictures of what I found in the box I got from the shop. I have just had time to clean and rebuild the Street Chopper 8857.

The Bionicle set is all glued, there you can see that I can not separate it more.

elazgar

Do the yellow bricks whith the number of the set printed on them have a special value? Are there many people interested in those ones?