Subject:
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I'm Back.... (and some info on Counterfeit LEGO)
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.general
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Date:
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Tue, 22 Jun 1999 15:54:49 GMT
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Viewed:
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640 times
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Folks, I'm back. I want to thank all of you who sent me personal
condolences. My father is now no longer suffering, so we are happy for
that. The rest of the family is doing fine. Thanks again, Gary
And now back to LEGO (or else Todd is gonna gig me, heh-heh). While I
was away, someone sent me an EMAIL about possible counterfeit LEGO. I
thought I would share it with you:
Subject: Question re. counterfeit LEGO
Date: Fri, 18 Jun 1999 07:50:50 -0700
Gary:
I seem to have found a bunch of it, and Andreas Stabano referred me to
you
to determine if it was indeed counterfeit.
I have, in general, 3 groups, they're all 2xX bricks (a few are 4x4 L's)
They all have LEGO printed on the studs.
1) The majority are Red and made of a much cheaper plastic that LEGO
uses
today.
2) The next smaller lot is White, same cheap plastic.
3) The smallest group has the LEGO on the studs in a slightly different
font
that LEGO uses...
I'm pretty certain it's fake, but I wanted to know if you had heard of
this
before.
If there's some USENET thread on fake LEGO I should be referring to,
please
let me know.
Thanks for your assistance.
Regards,
Jon Kozan
-----------------------------------------
Hi Jon,
Well guess what, it's real LEGO. I can tell for sure from your
description. Here's why: LEGO made bricks from Cellulose Acetate from
the mid 1950's until about 1963 or 1964. (They have been made from
non-warping ABS plastic since then.) Cellulose Acetate was an inferior
plastic. And after a few years the pieces would warp (study the bottom
and see if the bottom straight edges of the bricks are warped). This
happens even with pieces that have never been played with.
The greatest amount of warping seems to take place with the sloped roof
bricks (from that time they were only in red or blue), and the old style
LEGO windows from that period.
Another reason that gives me a clue as to the authenticity of the LEGO
is the 4x4 corner bricks. These were only made from the 1950's until
the mid 1960's. They have never been made since then. All of the 4x4
corner bricks in my collection (predominantly red or white) are of the
Cellulose Acetate material (and again are all warped).
As to the different font, I have seen LEGO bricks in about 1/2 dozen
different fonts over the last 40 years.
I have never in all my 40 years of LEGO collecting, seen counterfeit
LEGO that uses the LEGO font on the bricks. The LEGO clones will more
than likely not emboss their bricks with any writing on the studs.
Hope that helps,
Thanks,
Gary Istok
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