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Subject: 
Re: When did the "fingernail groove" appear?
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.general
Date: 
Fri, 27 May 2005 02:39:58 GMT
Viewed: 
900 times
  
In lugnet.general, David Simmons wrote:
Hey all,

After another major re-sort of my collection, I decided to separate all the
1x2 grille tiles without the fingernail groove out of my big bag of the
grooved kind since it's kinda hard to tell 'em apart while digging.  I was
surprised to find that I had quite a few of the non-fingernail groove type
in colors that I would not have expected (most especially green).  Green was
a pretty scarce color outside of baseplates and trees for quite awhile so I
got to thinkin' that some of these pieces must be pretty old.  But just how
old are they?

For the record, I have the following colors in non-fingernail groove grille
tiles (in order of quantity):

Black
Gray
White
Blue
Red
Yellow
Green

Paging Mr. Istok!  :-D

Dave S.

Hi Dave, looks like others beat me to the punch....

But speaking of grooves, Lego tiles, which first came into production in late
1965, came without grooves in the tile parts packs #510 (1965), and #471
(1966-68).

Trying to date a specific time when something started or ended is very tricky
with Lego.  I have seen this time and time again.  I have a MIB 1974 #266
Child's Bedroom set (one of the large head people sets of the 1970's).  That set
has about 84 tiles in it.  The colors are white, black, gray and red.  All the
1x2 and 2x2 tiles have a groove (regardless of which color).  All the 1x1 tiles
have no grooves.  So one cannot really say when production of the grooveless
tiles ceased, as long as they were in stock, they were used up.

I find this to be the case with a lot of Lego parts....

Cellulose Acetate ended production in Europe in 1963, except for the 2x8 rail
ties that were produced with the first train sets in April 1966.  Those sets had
ABS parts, but CA ties.  And in the USA you could still find CA parts in yellow
as late as 1970.

Waffle Bottom plates production ended in 1962 in continental Europe, and 1972 in
the USA.  Circle bottom plates first were produced in Europe in 1962, and in
1962 in the USA.  So what ended up happening was from 1962-72 most USA Samsonite
sets had a mixture of waffle/circle bottom plates.

USA Samsonite Lego sets of the 1960's.... if the word "LEGO" isn't on the
bricks/parts in more than 2 different fonts on the Lego bricks and parts, then I
would be suspicious as to whether the set had original parts.

Sometimes it wasn't a matter of just using up the existing old style parts (or
plastic), but the matter of not wasting an old style mold that had seen little
use (and wear).

I call this the "Lego Churn".

Gary Istok



Message has 1 Reply:
  Re: When did the "fingernail groove" appear?
 
(...) Oh, I forgot to mention.... as an example of old part continuing to show up in new sets... the old gray, old dark gray and old brown will be showing up in various sets for years to come, as we are already starting to see. As long as there is (...) (19 years ago, 27-May-05, to lugnet.general)

Message is in Reply To:
  When did the "fingernail groove" appear?
 
Hey all, After another major re-sort of my collection, I decided to separate all the 1x2 grille tiles without the fingernail groove out of my big bag of the grooved kind since it's kinda hard to tell 'em apart while digging. I was surprised to find (...) (19 years ago, 27-May-05, to lugnet.general)

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