Subject:
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Re: Ageing Lego Bricks
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.general
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Date:
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Fri, 16 Mar 2001 15:41:42 GMT
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Viewed:
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888 times
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Hi Guido,
The problem with 99.9% of all old bricks not fitting together well anymore is due
to one simple answer. And that has absolutely nothing to do with storage or heat
(unless you're talking about a fire or oven temperature). It is because the are
made of Cellulose Acetate. That material was in use from 1955-63 in Europe, and
from 1961 (the first North American LEGO) thru 1968. Cellulose Acetate can most
easily be spotted in red and yellow bricks. The red bricks are somewhat lighter
and more orange in color, the yellow bricks have a lighter more "lemon yellow"
color than later bricks. Blue CA looks slightly different than blue ABS, but white
and black bricks are very difficult to tell appart (CA vs. ABS). And in gray, no
CA bricks were ever produced (they came out later), only some CA plates.
ABS plastic started being produced in 1963, but for some reason, the Samsonite
folks (maker of Lego in USA/Canada at the time) must have had a warehouse full of
Cellulose Acetate, because there was still a lot of CA Lego in sets as late as the
late 60's. There are a lot of cases where Samsonite mixed bricks (usually red or
yellow CA, and blue or white ABS). As to the yellowing of bricks, white obviously
has the most yellowing, but blue and gray bricks also exhibit a lot of yellowing.
But most of the yellowing occurs with ABS bricks, not the earlier CA ones.
Hope that helps explain it.
Gary Istok
Guido Heunen wrote:
> Hi
>
> Recently I looked into boxes containing some older lego bricks (1970-1985), and
> I was very unhappy when I tried to build something. What happend is that these
> bricks don't fit anymore easily. I had to force them to be connected. To
> deconnect them I had to put (of course) a lot of force on them.
>
> An other problem is that all the white bricks (for sure the older ones) change
> colour. Although I keep them in a dark container. For this reason I don't want
> to construct my "white" models
> (such as the hospital (town) and space shuttle (technic))
> because the sunlight (and maybe normal light) makes this problem even worse.
>
> Did someone have the same experience and what can I do.
>
> Guido
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Message has 2 Replies:
 | | Re: Ageing Lego Bricks
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| Gary, I don't think that is the problem, because I started to play with LEGO in 1976 and I was living in Holland. So I am pretty sure that all my bricks are ABS. I suspect that even keeping ABS at room temperature the bricks change slightly over the (...) (23 years ago, 16-Mar-01, to lugnet.general)
| | | Re: Ageing Lego Bricks
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| Correct. The problem is present especially with older roofbricks. I have plenty of them in BLUE, about half of thme is unusaeble cause they are "skewed". Thay also are lighter blue in colour. There is nothing to do about it AFAIK. I would like to (...) (23 years ago, 17-Mar-01, to lugnet.general)
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Message is in Reply To:
| | Ageing Lego Bricks
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| Hi Recently I looked into boxes containing some older lego bricks (1970-1985), and I was very unhappy when I tried to build something. What happend is that these bricks don't fit anymore easily. I had to force them to be connected. To deconnect them (...) (23 years ago, 16-Mar-01, to lugnet.general)
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