Subject:
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Cool Score -- "Vintage" LEGO!
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.general
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Date:
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Tue, 25 Apr 2000 19:13:20 GMT
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Viewed:
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723 times
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This is probably ho-hum to those of you who never experienced a Dark Age, but
I received a really exciting gift this past weekend -- the remnants of a "too
cool for LEGO" young adult's LEGO collection. I just came out of my Dark Age
about a year ago, so I own very few pieces that were made before the mid-90s.
So when my sister-in-law offered me the remnants of her eldest son's
collection, how could I resist? (Yes, I felt a twinge of guilt about it at
first, but that passed as soon as she told me that she's had to ~GASP~ throw
away a lot of it because she couldn't store it all!)
So I've had a huge amount of fun digging through this treasure trove of well-
worn pieces:
http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=393
Right on top was the hull from a Pirate ship. (Happily, the masts were in
there also!) I also parts from a funky old train set where the rails are made
of "rack gear" LEGO pieces that snap onto separate ties. I even found a white
plate with the square "waffle" pattern on the back instead of the more modern
"circles" mold. A bunch of the white parts are stamped with the "Shell" LOGO
from a promotional set. Probably the most exciting score was a handful of
"old" (by my standards) castle figs, including a smiley Robin Hood and what I
believe is a "Forest Wench". But I've also found countless parts that are
unusual only in that I've never seen them in a particular color before.
The best, though, was when I showed it to my NLS who reacted "my brother and I
have a lot more LEGO than _that_ at my parent's house." I'm still hoping to
convince her to dig that up someday...
Unfortunately, the previous owner of this collection apparently ran out of
black bricks one day, because a good number of bricks have been colored in
with a magic marker. I am having limited results cleaning this off with
rubbing alcohol and an old toothbrush, but I would appreciate any cleaning
tips/suggestions that anyone might have...?
The previous owner also had no qualms about removing hands/arms/legs/heads
from minifigs, so most of the small pieces are missing from the 'figs. I have
several headless, armless torsos from the Space, Pirate, and Town themes, so
now I've gotta hurry up and build a hospital (or maybe just a cemetary) in
WhistleStop.
I also found to my horror that a small percentage of what was in the bin was
not LEGO! Sure, there was the usual suspects -- parts from other games and
toys (Risk, dominoes, chess pieces...) and random bits of modelling clay, but
these are easy to remove. Far more dangerous are the "imposter" bricks that
I've found in there -- Brio, MegaBloks, and Tomy to name just a few... But
it's amazing how with a little bit of training, you can learn to spot a single
MegaBlok in a whole bin of LEGO.
Anyway, I thought I'd mention this experience for the benefit of other AFOLs
who might not own any older pieces themselves. After the fun I've had this
week, I'm definitely going to visit a lot of yard sales this spring looking
for LEGO in order to increase the diversity of my young collection. It has
been a very interesting and educational experience looking through some older-
vintage LEGO for a change.
I also anticipate asking a lot of "what set did this piece come from"
questions on LUGNET over the next few weeks as I dig through the bin, so I
hope you'll all bear with me...
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Message has 2 Replies:
 | | Re: Cool Score -- "Vintage" LEGO!
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| Chris, (...) at (...) throw (...) Never feel guilty. Assimulating captive bricks into your collective is always a great joy! (...) well- (...) and I (...) to (...) Heh, my fiancee's brother finally gave in, after 7 years of pleading. : ) (...) (...) (25 years ago, 25-Apr-00, to lugnet.general)
| | | Re: Cool Score -- "Vintage" LEGO!
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| (...) Never! FOTW/Ms are definitely something that's fun to share, it's always fun to read about them and hope that I'll stumble upon one myself soon... (...) I've never *really* had a Dark Ages in the usual sense; I did take a break from lego for a (...) (25 years ago, 26-Apr-00, to lugnet.general)
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