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Set 5642 -- does it exist in the wild?

ToddMyersToddMyers Cincinnati, OHMember Posts: 403
in Collecting
Somehow, 432 Brickset members claim to own Set 5642, but I have yet to find anyone who can show me either original instructions or the original polybag.  Does anyone have any evidence that this set was actually released by LEGO?  I do know that the instructions are available for download on the LEGO website, and several people have offered up printed copies from this download, but that's not what I'm looking for....

Anyone?

Comments

  • XefanXefan Member Posts: 1,148
    edited June 2015
    Isn't the fact that 432 claim to own evidence in itself that it was released?

    I doubt very much there's an international conspiracy revolving around 432 people lying about having the 27 piece Lego set #5642.
    TheBigLegoski
  • ACWWGal2011ACWWGal2011 Member Posts: 534
    Yes but there's a catch. How many people actually own the real deal and how many just recreated the set and claim to own it.
  • XefanXefan Member Posts: 1,148
    Is there something special about this particular set whereby people would go out of their way to claim to own it?
  • ToddMyersToddMyers Cincinnati, OHMember Posts: 403
    I'm not claiming international conspiracy.  Given that the instructions for this set have been floating around since 2009, I think that 432 people could have easily purchased copies of it or built their own version (I've seen it for sale on fleabay, but never with the original polybag and never with original instructions).  There is no rule on this site that, to mark it as owned, you have to have own the original set, packaging and all.

    But yes, the fact that 432 claim to own it is circumstantial evidence that it exists.  I just cannot explain why no actual evidence -- a photo of the original instructions or original polybag -- has ever cropped up.

    If you search for 5642 here in this forum, someone asked about this very issue back in 2014 and never got a response.
  • HuwHuw Brickset Towers, Hampshire, UKAdministrator Posts: 7,059
    There's a used one for sale on BrickLink but no indication as to whether it actually comes with bag and instructions: https://www.bricklink.com/store.asp?p=adichoen&itemID=16926505.

    Why not ask the seller?
  • ToddMyersToddMyers Cincinnati, OHMember Posts: 403
    Regarding your question if this particular set is special, it is if you are trying to obtain all of the 2009 construction sets (subtheme of City).

    One polybag from that era is listed as never released (4933), and yet 637 people claim to own this set.  How can that be?  Same reason as given above -- people assembled the set themselves using reprinted instructions and marked it as owned.
  • ToddMyersToddMyers Cincinnati, OHMember Posts: 403
    Huw -- I already did about a year ago -- no polybag and no original instructions, only a color copy of the instructions.
  • ToddMyersToddMyers Cincinnati, OHMember Posts: 403
    edited June 2015
    Also, in the BrickLink price guide for this set, one is listed as being sold back in February -- that one did not have the original instructions or original polybag, either.
  • BobflipBobflip Member Posts: 701
    Seems like a bit of a mystery! Maybe someone should write some sort of Unofficial LEGO Sets/Parts Collectors Guide.
  • ToddMyersToddMyers Cincinnati, OHMember Posts: 403
    I thought about asking Gary Istok, but his expertise is primarily pre-1990, so I think this would be outside of his area of interest.
  • CCCCCC UKMember Posts: 20,526
    ToddMyers said:

    One polybag from that era is listed as never released (4933), and yet 637 people claim to own this set.  How can that be?  Same reason as given above -- people assembled the set themselves using reprinted instructions and marked it as owned.
    It is because there is no official definition of what it means to own a set. It means different things to different people. If someone considers they own a bricklink'ed set that doesn't contain instructions or a box, then they can mark that set as owned.
  • IstokgIstokg MichiganMember Posts: 2,359
    edited June 2015
    @ToddMyers  I could feel the psychic blade between my shoulderblades.... :)

    Just to set the record straight I'm up to 2002 for my next version of the collectors guide (all future updates are free to current owners... I dropped the non-LEGO System stuff such as Belville and new Scala, LEGO gear, key chains, etc)... although I've been researching to 2015 for promotional and special items.

    I have to agree with ToddMyers on this one.... all the parts to the set (even the orange minifig) were produced in at least 50 other sets.

    Nothing is available online, except the same fuzzy image and copy of the instructions...






    So no polybags found anywhere yet.... hmmmm  looks to me like 432 people put together their own models from other parts.   :o

    I would give it a few more days to see if someone can step forward with a bagged version.... but I am already on ToddMyers side on this one.... "where's the beef"?


    I have an entire chapter in my Unofficial LEGO Sets/Parts Collectors Guide devoted to both sets and parts never put into production.  And this is a strong candidate....

    FYI... as a kid growing up in the 1960s.... the first Samsonite LEGO catalogs of 1961-63 in the USA (and all the way up until 1965 in Canada).... showed sets that were NEVER produced as shown...  Nothing on the left half of this catalog image was ever produced that looked like this (these were mock-up boxes, the catalogs were produced before the sets came out,  and the sets all looked different, even the Town Plan board!)....



    It took me 40 years to find out that the house set (717) I wanted as a kid was never produced in this "Cotswold Cottage" style!!  My (now 90 year old) aunt spent 2 years in vain looking to make her favorite nephew's birthday a happy one.... I had to settle for a freakin' bike!!  :o

    OK... the bike had to do..... :)

    "LEGO.... the dream crusher!"    :/

    P.S.   Not a single one of those mock-up boxes exists in the Billund Vault.    :'(

    thedingman5BobflipGothamConstructionCochuckp
  • IstokgIstokg MichiganMember Posts: 2,359
    edited June 2015
    Here's another one you'll never find..... unless you visit the Billund Vault (image from my collectors guide)....     :)




    Bobflip
  • HuwHuw Brickset Towers, Hampshire, UKAdministrator Posts: 7,059
    Image originally from Brickset, having been taken by me in the vault in 2004 :)
    BobflipPitfall69GoldchainsShibchuckp
  • BobflipBobflip Member Posts: 701
    I'd love to get the guide one day, but I know I'd lose so much time to going through it! Maybe when I have more free time, but I've been saying that about many things for a long time...
  • ToddMyersToddMyers Cincinnati, OHMember Posts: 403
    @Bobflip -- buy it!!  No need to read the entire thing at once.  I just got it a few weeks ago and I browse through it whenever I get some free time.  It really is a fantastic and fascinating resource.

    @Istokg -- thanks for weighing in!
  • BobflipBobflip Member Posts: 701
    I fully believe it's a fantastic and fascinating resource, the posts here are great! I currently have a huge hoard of almost-complete circuit bent projects, a load of music things that need finishing off, and a big pile of music magazines and books to read through, and have restricted myself from taking on anything new until I've reduced the backlog to something rather more manageable. And that process would be slowed down significantly if I got something as addictive as that guide is bound to be :-)
  • IstokgIstokg MichiganMember Posts: 2,359
    @ToddMyers  Thanks!  There's going to be a lot more stuff packed into the next version coming out.... Canada, Norway, Denmark and Iceland are keeping me awake at night with all the stuff they're finding... LEGO wise....   And now I'm trying to figure out how Argentina got LEGO so early.... and how Canada kept it so late (3 years after their license agreement ended).... and I just discovered that TLG made Kindergarten LEGO sets (regular bricks) as early as 1950 (year 2 of the bricks)....  in wooden boxes.   And Minitalia was never the result of LEGO banned as an import... but of a cheap alternative to LEGO to get Italians more interested in the more expensive real thing.... :)
  • IstokgIstokg MichiganMember Posts: 2,359
    edited June 2015
    @ToddMyers I wonder if any of the 432 people who own the 5642 set are among the 9 people that own the infamous (never released but found in 1996 UK LEGO catalogs).... 6500 set...  :D

    http://brickset.com/sets/6500-1/Holiday-Village



  • IstokgIstokg MichiganMember Posts: 2,359
    Actually I love old LEGO catalogs that were produced before the final decision was made for set productions (like the early USA/Canada Samsonite catalogs).

    In my Unofficial LEGO Sets/Parts Collectors Guide.... one of my favorite catalog gaffe's were this 1979 LEGO Catalog image showing the never produced 380 Hospital Set (571 Hospital Set number in the USA).  Unlike the 1996 UK catalog that actually had a set number,  the 1979 catalogs only had an image of the LEGO Town models, and didn't put the set number in for this never produced hospital set.  A pity, since that HOSPITAL road sign was never released, and I vaguely remember something about one of the minifigs in that set that was unique as well.  But many years later some AFOLs found that this was going to be the 380/571 sets.




    Another favorite was from the 1984 USA LEGO catalog that showed a scene with this never released (don't know what number it would have been assigned).... Exxon Service Station Set....




  • IstokgIstokg MichiganMember Posts: 2,359
    edited June 2015
    Well getting back on track to set 5642.... I asked the folks in Eurobricks... and I did get a reply.... someone remembers seeing them in a 2014 LEGO Movie promotion.

    Look familiar??  :)




    Now this doesn't solve the mystery.... a 2009 set design was used in a 2014 ad... 


  • Lind_WhispererLind_Whisperer ZotaxMember Posts: 65
    Here's a picture with just the #5642s in it:


  • IstokgIstokg MichiganMember Posts: 2,359
    @Lind_Whisperer Thanks!  (My info source from Eurobricks!)

    The story of this set or non-set is taking some very interesting twists and turns.... 

    One thing is for sure... TLG has always had a history over the years of "recycling" LEGO designs.  Even as far back as the Town Plan era of the 1950s and 1960s glued display models that were sold to European retailers would often be found in Idea Books, or end up as parts of sets, such as the very large 725 and 810 Town Plan sets.

    If this indeed was never a polybag set, then what was the reason for the instructions being on the LEGO website?  Stay tuned!  :)
  • LordofLegoLordofLego Member Posts: 310
    Istokg said:
    Well getting back on track to set 5642.... I asked the folks in Eurobricks... and I did get a reply.... someone remembers seeing them in a 2014 LEGO Movie promotion.

    Look familiar??  :)




    Now this doesn't solve the mystery.... a 2009 set design was used in a 2014 ad... 


    That's the magic of Lego. They find an obscure, adorable little polybag to use in their ad as an Easter egg for people to find.

  • oldtodd33oldtodd33 Denver 4800 miles to BillundMember Posts: 2,654
    Here is a possible explanation. I went to Lego.com and looked for the build instructions for this set. The search comes up with the description of "Tipper Truck Brick Based Promotions Themed". Could this set be something like what TRU does where the printed instructions and loose parts supplied then built where the promo was being conducted?
  • MAGNINOMINISUMBRAMAGNINOMINISUMBRA Member Posts: 993
    It would appear that the single page instructions contained a pictorial advertisement on the reverse side - this alone makes me think that the instructions WERE released. The fact that the single page also includes individual part nos for each element in the build makes me think that old toss is on the right track!
  • MAGNINOMINISUMBRAMAGNINOMINISUMBRA Member Posts: 993
    ^apologies to OLDTODD for that autocorrect!
  • IstokgIstokg MichiganMember Posts: 2,359
    Here is the PDF file in question....

    http://cache.lego.com/bigdownloads/buildinginstructions/4550227.pdf

    Here's an interesting item..... 985 units in stock.... USED?

    http://www.toysclues.com/lego-town-city-construction-set-5642-tipper-truck-promotional-set-great-condit-p-5471/?language=en

  • stustaffstustaff ukMember Posts: 50
    edited June 2015
    Is that site legit?  China based pretending to be English..?

    http://www.bricklink.com/message.asp?ID=914930
  • IstokgIstokg MichiganMember Posts: 2,359
    stustaff said:
    Is that site legit?  China based pretending to be English..?

    http://www.bricklink.com/message.asp?ID=914930
    With 985 units in stock?    Probably not!   :p

    Boy the things that you have to watch out for on the internet that look legit... and want your money/credit card info!!   :o
  • IstokgIstokg MichiganMember Posts: 2,359
    Well @ToddMyers it's starting to look like this was not a "Polybag" set in the normal way we think of LEGO sets.  This may just be a promo build with a set number... without a box.

    When you factor in items such as this 2008-2009 un-numbered set for Autodesk.... a boxed set with no numbers....  like the early UK Weetabix sets, or USA Life Cereal set....



    .... the definition of a "LEGO Set" starts to become more obscure....   :/

    That all started in 1963 at a Toy Trade Show in New York... when this little "Scottie" first made his appearance....




    Well actually this was only the first LEGO polybag item....   back in 1958 TLG made a little box with 2 of the new "tube bottom" LEGO bricks in it.... :)
  • ToddMyersToddMyers Cincinnati, OHMember Posts: 403
    Thanks for digging, @Istokg
    Istokg
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