Subject:
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Re: LEGO parts -- genuine?
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.robotics
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Date:
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Tue, 23 Jul 2002 13:43:46 GMT
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Original-From:
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Liz B <liz@bookwyrmzIHATESPAM.com>
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Reply-To:
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liz@bookwyrmz.SAYNOTOSPAMcom
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Viewed:
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757 times
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Hi, Clark,
Thank you (and to other posters) for all the wonderful ideas and
advice. I'm 99.9% sure the slopes and columns are LEGO parts, as were
two of the tiles. The others were third-party.
Best of all, I satisfied my own curiousity and found new resources for
research. Thank you, thank you!
And now, I just need to resolve the 1 pound 2 ounces of non-LEGO parts
with the seller; I'm willing to eat the shortage, as the term "over" so
many pounds is rather vague. The seller hasn't replied yet, but I'm
just asking a straight exchange weight for weight. Next time, I'll
make sure to purchase from someone who seems more a "specialist" in
LEGO parts.
If the seller doesn't resolve the issue, I may just donate these third-
party pieces somewhere and post negative feedback. The actual LEGO
parts were quite interesting. I've gotten quite a few useful parts for
class and a bunch of parts for my daughter and me to build with. (I'm
just chomping at the bit to hear from the seller, because I don't want
to mix the new parts with "mine" until the issue is resolved.)
Thanks again to all who replied for their excellent advice and help.
Liz Bilbro
Teacher/Coach
CyberStorm Robotics Class and FIRST LEGO League Team
Sports for the Mind for Lubbock Homeschoolers
www.cyberstorm.us
> Liz,
> I've cross-posted this to the clone brands subgroup of Lugnet, where • you'll
> get people much more knowledgable of the similarities & differences • between
> Lego and other manufacturers. There are no stupid questions, although
> finding the answers may take some research.
>
> The two parts you describe (the 75 slope and the 1x1x5 brick) are • made by
> Lego. Lego makes several pieces with hollow studs. I don't know if • similar
> pieces were made by clone makers, although this newsgroup is the • place to
> find out. In my experience, clone slopes do not have the surface • texture of
> Lego slopes. The 1x1x5 brick sounds like Lego. It's hard to tell from • your
> description, but some Lego hollow studs have a tri-bar blocking the • inside
> stud. See this pic:
> http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?i=208855
> which shows the completely hollow Lego stud & the barred Lego stud.
>
> Lego has produced pieces that don't have their logo on them. Although • the
> studs have had a Lego logo on them since the late 1950's, it is only
> recently (during the 1990's) that the company has made a point of • putting
> the word Lego somewhere on most pieces. Specifically, the tiles you • mention
> do come in earlier versions without the word Lego stamped in the • bottom. The
> absence of the Lego word or logo is no proof, in-itself, that the • piece is
> not Lego.
>
> The "labels with a design" are called stickers. Stickers are used • alot by
> Lego and clones, although the designs on the stickers tend to be • different.
>
> The small single-digit & double-digit numbers you are seeing on parts • are
> what I call mold marks. I'm no expert on plastic manufacturing, but • I'm
> guessing that the first number is a die number (the giant metal block • used
> to mold plastic); the second number is the cavity number (each die • would
> have several cavities, each cavity producing one "piece"). They were
> probably used to track down quality issues during production, so they • would
> have no meaning to us. Such numbers have appeared on bricks since the • early
> 1960's.
>
> The "Patent Pending" is a mark placed on a piece to indicate a patent
> application has been filed. Patent Pending bricks appeared in the • 1960's &
> 1970's. You can see the same mark "erased" on some later bricks, • indicating
> that the Application was resolved. Eventually the mold was changed & • the
> Patent mark was taken out completely.
>
> For a visual tour of 17 mold variants of the 2x4 Lego brick, • including some
> of the above variations visit this link:
> http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=21453
> In the upper right corner there is a big pic & a matching text file
> describing the differences shown.
>
> Hope this helps & good luck in your quest,
> Clark
>
> Visit my Vintage Parts pages, submissions always welcome:
> http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=8642
>
>
> In lugnet.robotics, liz@bookwyrmz.com writes:
> > I have what y’all might consider stupid questions on the • identification
> > of some parts. But please consider that I’ve only played casually • with
> > LEGOs as an adult, never as a child, and have only the last several
> > months been really learning the ins and outs of Mindstorms, etc. As
> > part of that, I have become intimately familiar with many LEGO,
> > technic, and Mindstorms parts. However, I’m still getting the hang • of
> > the thousands of LEGO standard and specialty parts (okay, I’ll never
> > come across or recognize all of them!).
> >
> > I have recently been adding many Technic, Mindstorms, and LEGOs parts
> > to my collection for class to allow us more building and programming
> > flexibility. (We’re currently up to 8 Mindstorms sets, 8 RoboSports
> > sets, 1 Ultimate Accessory Set, 1 Vision Command Set, 1 extra • camera, 8
> > extra motors – not counting those that came with RoboSports -- 5 • extra
> > touch sensors, 9 battery boxes, and about 15 extra pounds of misc.
> > technic and LEGO parts to build with. If that doesn’t keep them • busy,
> > I give up!)
> >
> > In adding the non-Mindstorms parts, I have been buying bulk LEGOs on
> > eBay (seems to be cheaper than other sources). However, the last • batch
> > I bought was about 1/8 Tycho, MegaBlocks, Fisher Price, etc., and not
> > LEGO. It was supposed to be a mixture of LEGO specialty parts – lots • of
> > those, I think someone was building spaceships and castles – and
> > regular LEGO bricks, a little short in that area. Anyway, so I’ve • been
> > sorting the pieces down to report back to the seller (sorry, but I
> > resent being shorted pound-wise in the first place, and then have 1 ¼
> > pounds turn out to be definitely not LEGOs).
> >
> > I have come across some pieces that are pretty identical to LEGO, but
> > are MegaBlock or Tycho, so I know some pieces can be VERY close and • not
> > LEGO. I’m being compulsive about the LEGO, because I don’t want non-
> > LEGO pieces getting used and mixed in with competition sets (I’m
> > coaching two FLL teams).
> >
> > However, I have run across two different parts (of sufficient number
> > that I am concerned) that I cannot tell what they are. One is an
> > elongated slope. It appears to be a black 75 2x1x3 slope (3 being • the
> > height), but the stud is open (hollow) and there is no LEGO mark. It
> > is textured exactly like the smaller LEGO slopes. There is a tiny
> > number stamped inside the slope, but I can’t read it (it might be 1- • 61
> > or something like that). Is this a LEGO?
> >
> > The other is a black column 1x1x5 (5 being the height) that has a
> > square opening at the bottom and an open (hollow) stud at the top • (some
> > have a tiny “bar” across the bottom of the opening). Is this a • LEGO?
> >
> > Also, there are a few pieces here and there that appear identical in
> > every way to the LEGOs with the exception (such as small tiles) where
> > the numbers printed on them are different and there is no LEGO mark
> > (one does say patent pending), some are plain, some have a label • with a
> > design (not painted on the brick). I’m assuming these are not LEGOs,
> > despite the similarities. Are there older LEGOs that did not have • the
> > LEGO mark?
> >
> > Okay, that’s the end of the amateur hour.
> >
> > Thanks for any and all education in identifying LEGO parts,
> >
> > Liz Bilbro
> > Teacher/Coach
> > CyberStorm Robotics Class and First LEGO League Team
> > Sports for the Mind for Lubbock Homeschoolers
> > www.cyberstorm.us
> >
> >
>
>
Teacher/Coach
CyberStorm Robotics Class and FIRST LEGO League Team
Sports for the Mind for Lubbock Homeschoolers
www.cyberstorm.us
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