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John J. Ladasky Jr. wrote in message ...
> I have heard tell of a very useful part in the other groups to which I've
> posted. This part is a plate that has studs on both sides. Alternately, • there
> has been mention of a plate that can accept studs on both sides.
>
> A clone brand apparently offered parts of this kind at one time. Which • brand/
> brands? Are they still available? Did these parts "play well" with Lego • parts?
> A piece that was not both reasonably compact and a standard Lego thickness • would
> not be very useful to me. Plates with studs on both faces can and should • be one
> standard plate thick. To me, this appears to be the more useful of the two
> types of parts.
I have no exhaustive reply, but I can say what I know.
Tyco distributed converters like this with some sets in the
mid-to-late-80s. I do not
recall which sets, nor do I know if they still manufacture them; the ones I
saw came from
Tyco sets my relatives bought me when they couldn't afford real Legos. Since
I gave all
my Tycos and Legos away (idiot me), I no longer have any to hand. However, I
remember these quite well.
I can only recall three different pieces of this nature. First, there
were plates that took
studs on both sides; a F/F plate in rude construction parlance. The ones I
had were all
dark blue and 2x2 studs in size. They were, if I recall correctly, exactly
one Tyco-plate
thick; that is, the height from the base of a Tyco plate to the top of the
Tyco stud. Since
Tyco plates were two-to-a-brick instead of Lego's three, this would make
these pieces
one and a third Lego plates high. This seems awfully awkward, and I could be
wrong--
but I do remember not liking these as a kid because they were difficult to
incorporate.
I used them mainly as cross hairs on big guns, because they looked like
this:
-------------
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|-----o-----|
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-------------
(with the central circle being empty, and larger in scale, same size as a
Lego "tube-foot")
The other converters, the M/M, came in two kinds, both molded in light
grey. One was
a dot with two faces. This was basically equivalent to the Lego piece that
is a 1x1 plate
with a circular attachment at right angles into which antennae can go (minus
the plate, of
course). In fact, if I broke those Lego pieces by accident, I would then use
the "double
dots" exactly like the Tyco pieces. The M/M piece also came in a 2x2
variant. With studs
on both sides and a thin middle plate, they were (again, by memory) as high
as a Tyco
plate *minus the studs*. This made them far closer to Lego scale, and less
bulky-seeming
than Tyco always felt to me as a child. I used these pieces a LOT. I loved
being able to
build in ways Lego didn't accomodate, and the middle plate between the studs
was so
skinny, it was never obtrusive. The small size kept them from breaking.
These were basically the thickness of a Lego thin baseplate, only with
studs on both
sides. Perhaps they were even thinner. I no longer remember how well a
series of M/M
and F/F converters might fit into the Lego building scheme (i.e., whether
you could convert
back and forth and still attach everything solidly). Sorry I can't be of
more help; others can
fill in the gaps, I'm sure (bad pun).
I will say that the M/M connectors were fun and I'd like to have them
again. The F/F ones
were less useful, but it's not like I threw them out. One of the few areas
where Tyco did a
truly bang-up job, I think.
Sincerely,
Christian Smith
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