Question about set 1526

Legorunner · May 2011

I was browsing through the space category looking at some classic sets. I came across the set 1526 - http://www.brickset.com/detail/?Set=1526-1

I'm interested in building this one since I have extra lego. This resulted in acquiring several lego from old friend of mine a bin full long ago.

My only problem is that in the review posted by Jenfire11 that was posted in 2008 that listed a site called www.legoat.com no longer exist and I have no way of finding the instruction to build it. Is there any alternative where I could find the instructions?

JP3804 · May 2011

They have them at cubiculus.com/building-instructions/lego/1526. There is also a parts list at Bricklink. Use the links tab in Brickset. Hope this helps. Happy building

madforLEGO · May 2011

Wow... neat set.. cannot believe I have missed this one...
Try Bricklink, or Peeron.com

Huw · May 2011

Ah yes, the mystery set I 'discovered' in the vault in Billund in 2004. Actually it wasn't a set, just a stapled up empty box, and I suspect it was never actually made.

Complete ones have never been sold on BrickLink: those that are are just collections of parts.

Still, it should be easy enough to assemble it if the inventory is correct: in fact I quite enjoy trying to build models for which I have an inventory but no instructions, trying to work out where each part is used.

rocao · May 2011

^ My first LEGO set as a child was Universal Building Set, 7+. It was actually bought by my parents because it was marked down and put into storage because I was only two years old at the time. I believe that part of the reason it was marked down was because it was opened, because there never were any instructions. I built every model on the front and back of the box by the pictures, as you mention. It was tremendously satisfying, particularly when there are moving parts and gears.

Legorunner · May 2011

I got it built. It's a joy to build this set. It's alot of fun and made my day more fun out of utterly dull day other day. It's really enjoyable. Now that I've marked this one in my list as "own" now.

@Huw, I saw that 'article' when you visited the vault in Billund. My only question is why didn't the Lego company didn't released this set. It was so much fun to play with this. It made my imagination run wild with few other classic space sets I own.

romdam · May 2011

How did the box get out?

Legorunner · May 2011

@romdam, the box didn't get out. It's at the vault in Billund at the Lego Company. Huw was invited to the vault by them to document Lego sets among other things. Huw came across this and photographed it.

That would make it a prototype that Lego did but never released. I know of one other set that appeared on UK's catalog yet never released. That would be the 6500 Holiday Village set. http://www.brickset.com/detail/?set=6500-1

Huw · May 2011

^ Quite correct, Legorunner. There was also a Spider-man/Studios wrestling set that made its way into catalogues that was never released: http://www.brickset.com/detail/?set=1375-1

Istokg · May 2011

Wow!! Very interesting thread... you guys go into much better depth on LEGO topics than they do on the Bricklink forum... where internal bickering or insipid small talk about who had the most sales seems to be norm...

@rocao - Most of the 1970s (and 1960s) basic sets did NOT come with separate instructions. Many basic sets had instructions on the bottom of the box in the 1960s, and just the box images all around the box in the late 1960s Samsonite and most 1970s sets (until the late 70s). So there were no missing instructions in that #7 set.

@Legorunner - Thanks for the number of that Holiday Village Set - I was wrecking my brain trying to remember the UK set that was never produced. What I vividly remembered about that set was the fact that it had curved and straight 1x4x2 railing fence pieces in RED... not found in any other set until 2001 (Sopwith Camel) set for the curved piece (3 other sets later had them)... and the straight pieces were only ever found in the 2004 Captain Redbeards Pirate Ship. So although they made those fence pieces for the prototypes... they must have had a huge supply of them lying around (can't just crank out a few when doing mold color changes) at the LEGO factory for many years until they were finally used in 2001-2005 pirate and airplane sets.

@Huw - Funny how you mentioned that they had sets (or empty boxes) in the vault that were never actually put into production... right now I'm waiting for confirmation from the folks at the LEGO Collections... on an 800 set produced in 1966 (and found in the 1966 Danish, French and Norwegian catalogs)... but no one has ever found one in circulation! See the attached first 3 files for images of the box top (outside and inside... identical to a 1960s #200 EU Town Plan board front and back) and the contents, plus the 1966 French catalog image. Also shown is an image from the Vault of the box itself (found below the UK 810 Town Plan set). The Fantasia folks missed this box as well when they went thru the vault photographing images of sets for their LEGO book. Someone else sent me this vault image... so it could very well possibly be yours! :-)

drdavewatford · May 2011

Mmmm - those photos of the LEGO vault give me chills - I reckon you could lock me in there for months and I still wouldn't want to come out at the end !

Istokg · May 2011

Drdavewatford.... just send in food and a port-a-potty... we'd be there for a year.... LOL

Matthew · May 2011

Don't forget the 's' on the end of year!

Legorunner · May 2011

Yeah the vault would make anybody drool bad. :-p Only thing is, you can't crack them open at all to build and play with.

drdavewatford · May 2011

^ Oooh, I dunno..... Sure, if there's only 1 then breaking the seal causes me pain, but multiples are fair game !

Legorunner · May 2011

That would depend on the older sets :-p

Speaking of vault, it would be nice to put names to those "unnamed" set like this one and set 1968 among other unnamed sets if they ever inventorized those.

rocao · May 2011

From the photos I've seen of the vault, I'm thinking about putting together a proposal to organize how the sets lay on the shelves in exchange for access :P

rocao · May 2011

@Istokg : sorry, I left the set number off of the mention. It was actually set 733 which did have instructions, the 7+ was just part of the title specifying the target ages.

Istokg · May 2011

LOL..... I think I must have about 8 sets of mint instructions lying around for 733.... I bought about a 10 of those sets when they came out in 1980... (plus 1 722 and 1 744). Yes those DO have instructions....

Legorunner · May 2011

@rocao - if you look closely at the last photograph about the vault, you'll see in the picture that a shelf has a year labeled on it 1966.
I believe the vault has shelves that goes by the years lego sets has been released. I don't know how they organize the sets on the shelves.

I think it would be ideal to organize them by year then by the nbrs of the sets in order per years i.e. year 1980: set 491, 492, etc.

Huw has visited the vault. I'm sure he may chime in and comment about that when he can.

Huw · May 2011

I certainly will chime in when I get a mo' later...

Huw · May 2011

The current vault is underground in Billund and is a long thin room filled with mobile shelves (like http://www.alibaba.com/product-gs/317931302/mobile_shelves.html)

It's organised by year and by box size within the year. 1950-odd to 1971 fills one side of one shelf. 1972 to 1980-something fills the next two. The 80's fill another two or so. Then for the 1990s-2000s, with the explosion in the number of sets, most years have at least a shelf side to themselves.

There is just one example of most sets, and this particular vault only holds regular sets and Dacta. When I visited it in 2004 it was in a different building, near the hotel, and it had more of each set and a lot of promotional sets from the 70s and 80s. Shortly after, that building was sold off, I'm told, and the collection was spilt, I've heard in 3 ways, so I guess the ultra-rare stuff like the Maersk trucks and ships are in a vault that nobody gets access to. I guess it makes sense not to have all your eggs in one basket...

When we visited in 2009 the shelves were in a bit of a mess. We were told that was becuase the people that has been in and photographed for the Collector book weren't particicularly careful and did it in a rush. Needless to say, it was much tidier after we'd finished. Megan made a point of making sure it was.

bluemoose · May 2011

While Huw & I were taking the photos & taking notes, Megan was selecting the boxes for us to photograph. She was doing an excellent job of carefully reorganising & replacing the sets on the shelves once we'd finished. In general, once we left, within each 'year' section, the boxes were clustered by theme, and then stacked by box size, larger boxes at the bottom, smaller on top. The archivist seemed very happy with what we'd done :-)

The Vault we visited, we were in there over 3 days (afternoon of the first day, all day on the 2nd day, and the morning of the 3rd day). It was underground & climate controlled; all the lighting was artificial, from fluorescent strip lights (a pain; they weren't really bright enough for the photography, but had a different colour balance from the flash units - mixing lighting sources with different colour balance characteristics is a PITA). There was a constant hum & vibration from the climate control equipment.

Many of the older sets were wrapped in 'cellophane'-like shrink-wrap plastic; a lot of sets used to be sold with this style of wrapping, but I'm not sure if this was the original wrapping. In many cases the wrapping had shrunk & split, partially crushing the box & letting in dust. I guess it's worth noting that the purpose of the vaults is not to preserve old sets in museum-quality condition for the joy of future generations; it's to act as a reference for current staff, but mainly for legal reasons, should there ever be a legal question about a set in the future.

The staff that looked after us were excellent; friendly & helpful, and a fantastic source of information.

bluemoose · May 2011

I'll just add, before anyone else has the bright idea of contacting LEGO to ask if they can arrange a visit to the Vault, we were invited by LEGO to help fill in some of the missing set images on Brickset. Turns out Brickset has a bit of a following in Billund :-)

If you want to visit the Vault, there is an official way - book yourself on the 'LEGO Inside' tour ...
http://aboutus.lego.com/en-us/visits/insidetourhighlights.aspx
You also get to visit the factory & other normally 'private' areas :-)

atkinsar · May 2011

^ "If" you want visit the vault? If? One of my kidneys is already on ebay.

I've just got my wife to agree that this would be a suitable 40th birthday present, T-minus 5 years and counting...

bluemoose · May 2011

I've never done the 'Inside' tour, but have had the opportunity to do most of the things it covers over the years. Those that have done the formal tour speak very highly of it ... if you can afford it, it's a must :-)

drdavewatford · May 2011

I tried to book a couple of places on the 'inside tour' at the end of last year and was told when I called that all the slots were filled for 2011. The nice lady in Billund who coordinates the tours was incredible apologetic and seemed genuinely non-plussed about it all, telling me that she had never known so much interest in the tours. This I think speaks to (1) the explosion in popularity of LEGO over the past few years, and (2) the ever increasing numbers of AFOLs; the tours aren't cheap - well over £1000 per person not including flights, so I doubt there are too many kids or even TFOLs coughing up for these tours.

Reminds me - I need to get on and book otherwise it'll be full up NEXT year as well.... Anyone else up for it ? May or June 2012 is the next opportunity....

brickmatt · May 2011

^I've seriously considered going, if I ever have the money. Who knows, maybe we'll end up on the same tour :)

AETerry · May 2011

Those pictures are awesome.

rocao · May 2011

@drdavewatford: you're going to have months worth of blog material :P

drdavewatford · May 2011

^ LOL ! And you can guarantee I will write about it in ridiculously excessive and mindnumbing detail. As usual.

;-)

georgebjones · May 2011

I'd love to go on the inside tour, but I am still at the stage where I think "How much LEGO could I buy with that much money?"

georgebjones · May 2011

^Maybe when my wife tells me I can't buy any more LEGO, I will spend my money on the tour. :)

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