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Country Specific LEGO parts....
Istokg
MichiganMember Posts: 2,202
in Collecting
One of the chapters in my LEGO Collectors Guide deals with only parts that were only sold in specific countries. This started out back in the 1950s with parts only being sold in Denmark... and some parts were only sold in Norway, others only in Sweden.. and then others only in Denmark, Norway, Sweden. Later came parts only sold in Germany, some only sold in Netherlands, others only in Italy... and (strange as it is) others only sold in Italy and Japan. Then you can add parts only sold in continental Europe, only in Britain/Ireland/Australia, others only in USA/Canada or only USA or only Canada... and finally only Japan.
Today this scenario is repeated in other countries around the world.
One of the coolest parts I've ever seen was recently shown to me by a Japanese LEGO collector.... a 4x10 trans-clear brick. These cool bricks were only found there, but their source doesn't seem to be a specific set (well not yet it doesn't)...
Today this scenario is repeated in other countries around the world.
One of the coolest parts I've ever seen was recently shown to me by a Japanese LEGO collector.... a 4x10 trans-clear brick. These cool bricks were only found there, but their source doesn't seem to be a specific set (well not yet it doesn't)...
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These very rare bricks had an Esso sticker on the brick, and were also found in the 1251 Esso Barrel Truck (1:87 Bedford truck series) of Denmark only. There were 3 of this oil drum bricks in each set, and they were either red or white bricks... with 3 sticker types... with either black, navy or gold background color to the sticker.
These very rare Denmark only stickered items are worth about $80-$150 each... depending on the color (gold is rarer, as is a white oil drum) and condition.
Was the "Year of the Snake" round door ever sold outside of China / Far East? I picked up a couple on replacement parts. It seems weird to restrict it in sets, then sell it online by itself to customers worldwide.
I see there are a few of these for sale on Bricklink.
Here is a prototype blue curved 4x8 plate showing these notches.
The irony is that these notches are standard on all curved or off angle plates today... but they were a novelty back in 1965.
Another interesting piece was the 4x4 corner brick piece, sold until 1972 in all countries in red, white, blue and yellow. In 1963 it was introduced in black in Samsonite USA and Canada in the 217 Spare Parts Pack.. but sold nowhere else in that color in the world.
Another cool part was the classic window 1x3x2 (short sill) in blue... only ever found in the Continental European 12V Train System 7760 Diesel Shunter Locomotive... two in a set.... and very $$$ today...
Here's a few parts that I have in my Collectors Guide chapter on Prototypes... and also in my chapter on LEGO Trees & Plants.... 3 LEGO trees (2 Duplo and 1 Fabuland) that i don't know where they came from... other than the fact that they weren't in LEGO sets... and were likely prototypes never put into production... I borrowed these images off the internet, so my apologies if they belong to someone here! :-)
Someone mentioned that the Duplo trees could only attach to Duplo bricks... BUT.... they also attach to a ring of 4 macaroni bricks!
Here we have a junbo sized Cypress Tree, a jumbo sized Pine Tree, and a Fabuland tree without holes thru it...
Norway had a toy import ban in the 1950s... which is why TLG Denmark had to get an Oslo Norway plastics maker produce the LEGO sets for Norway starting in 1953. By 1955 TLG was so busy getting ready for the intro of an explosion of new parts for the Town Plan System... that Norway had to also produce parts for the Swedish market (starting in 1955)...
Windows for Norway and Sweden included orange, green and yellow... colors not known in Denmark (nor were they aware that Norway was experimenting in these exotic colors). So the earlier Automatic Binding Bricks window/door types can also be found in many exotic colors, such as these in the 2nd image. I would not be surprised (just delighted!) if one day someone tells me that they found early classic LEGO windows in pink or light blue!! ;-)
Then entire discussion about the Norway/Sweden early years (Svein Strømberg & Co. of Oslo, Geas Konstharts of Gislaved Sweden, and A/B Lundby of Lerum Sweden) are documented ad nauseum in my collectors guide "Chapter 73 LEGO Sales by Country".
The folks at the Billund Collections/Archives often communicate... to share information about rare or unknown LEGO items. They have a copy of my collectors guide handy... ;-)
I've got a few of these that you've mentioned. I've a red Esso oil can that I've quite proud of. I have a few gray waffle bottoms I've picked up over the years, but no red or black ones. Two years ago I picked up some early classic windows in blue. And a few years before that I found 3 2x10 clear bricks in a 536 Designer Set. I've never been completely sure whether those went with that set or not. It sounds like they do.
I've tried to pick up a Samsonite road plate, but people are normally asking too much for these. I thought I had a black 4x4 L brick. But I'm finding it, so I must not.
One of the least known of all LEGO sets were the USA/Canada Department Store Catalog exclusive sets. These Samsonite LEGO exclusive sets were mostly found in Sears and J.C. Penney Department Stores, and upmarket FAO Schwarz Toy Store, which all had sets that Samsonite LEGO made just for them.
These Department Store catalog sets came in one of 2 varieties... 1) in store sale sets that came in normal colorful boxes... and 2) mail ordered sets that were shipped in a brown cardboard box that seconded as the outer box to the LEGO set. Since FAO Schwarz was an exclusive toy store, ALL of their exclusive sets came with colorful boxes.
Here are examples of the 536 box in the colorful box version, and the mail-order version.
The 536 set also appears to have had 2 model versions... an earlier one with a small LEGO garage (clear plastic box) with a LEGO 1:87 car. The 1969 catalog image of the 536 model shows this. At some point Samsonite USA ran out of the 1:87 vehicles (which were retired in Europe back in 1967). So with the car and its' garage no longer in production, Samsonite switched over the larger (235 set type) flip-up garage w/ door. Also changing was the elimination of the LEGO 1:87 car, and replacing it with a British MINIX model car... a rare occurrence of a non-LEGO product being used in a LEGO set. Although the 1971 catalog image shows the different garage (the box never changed the artwork), this set version should also have the Minix car.
The 15 years (1961-1975) that USA and Canada Department Store exclusive sales were sold, this produced a very unusual and varied series of sets that were not sold anywhere else in the world!
My LEGO Collectors Guide - Chapter 12 - USA/Canada Department Store Exclusive Sets, is an extensive look at all of these collectible sets, their images, and the catalogs that showed them.
I talk about these "waffle bottom" plates (ad nauseum) in my collectors guide Chapter 50 - LEGO Waffle and Circle Bottom Plates.
These plates date to 1956-63 in Europe, and 1961-71 in the USA/Canada. The waffle bottom plates use up 1/3 more plastic than the later circle bottom plates (a 4x6 plate weighs 12 gr. (waffle) versus 9 gr. (circle bottom)).
What happened was TLG started making circle bottom plates in 1962 to save on plastic. But they still had a lot of usable waffle plate molds left over. So they shipped them to Samsonite (USA/Canada)... where these leftover molds continued to produce the archaic waffle bottom plates until the early 1970s.
These old plates were NOT made of either Cellulose Acetate nor ABS plastic. They were made of some composite material... and what that material is... is a TLG secret. However, there seems to have been a problem with this material... over time it yellowed very badly. In fact some of these plates are almost orange in color, they are so baldy yellowed. What caused this yellowing? It could have been a MRI (Mold Release Agent), or possibly fire retardant (the culprit for much yellowing today). The weird thing is that I have many very old waffle plates that are yellowed, and others that are still pure (matte) white!
This "composite" material for these old LEGO plates appears to have been used for some time. Even though regular ABS plastic plates (shiny) were produced in other colors... the white plates in the 2x8, 4x8, 6x8 and 4x8 curved sizes... they appear to have been made of this composite material in many sizes for some time.
For anyone who has the blue track era LEGO Train System tracks and ties (sleepers)... those 2x8 rail ties are made of this dull white plastic... all the way until 1980 when the track switched to gray/dark gray.
Here is an image of a 1958 LEGO Glued Display Model, sold to European retailers. This model also shows the problem with the yellowed waffle bottom plates...
Here are all the 5 sizes of the waffle bottom plates produced. These particular old examples here do not display that excessive yellowing. Why that is, is still a mystery!
And here is a close up of the bottom of an earlier 1955-56 waffle bottom plate (no holes within the squares), and the 1956-71 version (with holes). The holes were added because the earlier molds caused problems with the studs on top of the plates fully being injected with plastic.
1) the 1245 or 245 or 445 lighting device set (1957-70). The last one for the UK was the 445A (1969-72) pack with blue cable ends. Also the lighting brick instructions brochure thru the years.
2) silver lamp post.... these were produced only by British LEGO Ltd. from 1962-72. From 1962-65 they were spray painted silver. From 1966-72 they were unpainted gray plastic...
3) the "Champagne" coloured trans-clear bricks are made of Cellulose Acetate (1955-62)... and are often warped (do they wobble when placed on a flat surface?). The more clear bricks are the newer bricks. When TLG switched to ABS plastic... that plastic could not be made into trans-clear... so another plastic was introduced... namely polycarbonate. So the clearer looking old bricks are these polycarbonate bricks produced at the same time as ABS bricks were introduced in regular colors.
This image (used for the chapter heading of my collectors guide chapter on BRICKS)... shows the evolution of trans clear bricks from the 1960s to the present. TLG kept making changes to the Polycarbonate formula for these bricks... and you can almost tell which decade old trans clear bricks originate from via this image...
Here's my "PRIMER" on Scandinavian LEGO flags.... hehehe....
Left colum (top to bottom)... Faroe Islands, Denmark, Iceland.
Right column.... Norway, Finland, Sweden.
The PHILLIPS, TOBAK, KINO, (large size) GARAGE, BANEGARD and KOBMAND are from a Danish 226 Printed Bricks parts pack, 1958-65 (1st image below shows a sample of the 14 different names that can be found in a 7 brick parts pack).
2) the POST, HOTEL, TAXA and (small letters) GARAGE, plus the 2 bushes... are from an early (1969-70) 990 Parts Pack (see instructions below)...
3) the 4 Sterling bricks and 1 "S" brick are from a 1551 Sterling Luggage Carrier Set...
http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItemInv.asp?S=1551-2
4) the white and red Shell bricks are from several Shell sets of the early 1970s (621, 648, 688 are examples)...
5) the BUS STOP sign and blue 1x4 headlight brick is from one of the 1970s Bus Stop sets...
6) the red TRANSPORT brick is from the 335 Truck Set...
http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItemInv.asp?S=335-2
7) the "crown jewel" of this group of parts has to be the LEGO oval. This was never sold in any set... but was part of a glued display model. Since it has the LEGO "dogbone" design... it dates to the late 1950s or early 1960s. This is very highly sought after by collectors... and if you were to sell this at auction... you should get a very good price!!
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For an encyclopedic collection of LEGO printed bricks, my Collectors Guide... Chapter 48 - PRINTED & PAINTED LEGO... has an endless listing of old printed bricks, and where they originated from...
http://www.1000steine.de/brickset/miscellaneous/Lego Chapter 48 Vol2.pdf
& thanks for all the information.
The crown jewel of all LEGO sets would probably be the 700/1 LEGO set of the very first year of LEGO... 1949... this set appears to have been produced that first year of LEGO bricks in a wooden box... but in extremely small quantities. So far only 1 set is known... and the early 1949 date was confirmed by the 4 sided folded brochure that came with this set. This set (a recent addition to my Collectors Guide images).... is unknown even to the Billund Archives, and is not in their collections. This very rare (and so far unique) set would very much be welcomed in almost any museum... and I would place a value of $10,000 on it... and on a good day... maybe more! ;-)
The crown jewel of LEGO parts (aside from those precious metal promotional parts)... would probably be the 1957 LEGO 1:87 cast Opel Kapitän auto. This came out by LEGO Norway in 1957 as a prototype, and never put into production. So far only 9 are known... a few years ago one sold for $4000.... so I would give a great condition example of this rarity a value of about $6000. Here are some images of all of the known examples... image from my LEGO Collectors Guide... Chapter 17 - LEGO Prototype Sets/Parts (1955-2014).
The first image showing the Opel's shows the 7 known examples, many in damaged condition. One very fortunate Norwegian collector sent me images (the yellow and the green cars)... of 2 additional ones that he had found in Norway this year (from 2 different sellers).... a very lucky man!! The green example is without a roof... and it may have been modified by company employees for whatever reason.
Although a damaged Opel does affect the value, because of the extreme rarity and uniqueness of the models, the value is not affected as much as one would expect.
How about the LEGO "Oval" from the "Palace Cinema" in my picture - does it has any price as single piece? and what could it be?
So they produced a 700/1 - 700/2 box size.... AND a 700/3 box size.
So in this case, the red wooden box was used for the 700/1 and 700/2 sets...
Now I've never seen a 700/3 wooden box.... but this box here is "unaccounted for"... and I bet that this was the very first 700/3 box... out of cardboard!!
Between this revelation... and the fact that the Geas and PRIMA sets were made in Sweden by the Swedish plastics maker Geas Konstharts.... I had to do some major overhaul (as well as a dozen new pics) to my LEGO Collectors Guide - Chapter 2 - Automatic Binding Bricks. ;-)