This mold is still puzzling me.
- Regular production bricks seem to be found in the UK
- Dark brown bricks have been found in Germany
- The mold was (much) later revised and used to produce Q-elements in Denmark.
Molds can move, but it looks like this mold had an unusual life…
Logo: Modern logo
Material: ABS
I would expect to find Polycarbonate (transparent) also….
Inner wall: thick
Inner ribs: yes, visible as a frosted line on both the short and the long side.
Inner tubes: slightly tapered or rounded on the inside
Flowrib / center line inside top surface: Yes.
Mold pip: just above the center on the short side.
Mold number: 3 above left tube
Mold position numbers: 09 to 16 below left tube
Intellectual property protection: None
Colors known:
Regular production bricks
- red
- black
Non-LEGO colors
- Orange
- Dark Brown
- Blue with silver flakes
- (and more?)
Remarkable features:
- By comparing the mold numbering to other bricks, we can determine that LEGO had already transitioned into the molds with the injection point at the stud at the time these bricks were made. A few molds with the mold pip on the side and a flowrib were still being used for transparent bricks. Those transparent bricks are made from a different material. and that was probably not suitable to be used with the new mold design. So it looks like this mold was made to be used in the production of transparent bricks. However, no tranparent bricks have been found yet….
UNANSWERED QUESTIONS
- Where was this mold used for regular production?
- Were transparent bricks made in this mold?
- Where were the test bricks made?
- When was this mold used? The mold design indicates it was first used in the late 1960s-early 1970s. The revised mold with cross-support was used to create special bricks for the Allianz Arena model in 2005. What happened to the mold in the years between? Such a long life span is very unusual for a mold.
[Original post and comments on Flickr.]