The In-Depth Guide to Rare LEGO - Vintage, Prototypes, Production Errors & More

[@derp-construction3341]

This is a great video essay. Well worth the watch.

[@automatticcomics]

I had a mr gold. Pulled him fresh from a pack. Sold him off paid for a holiday. Got kirk minifigure / buisness card when I met him. And other crazy rare pieces that mean more to me.

[@BrickSystemBros]

Crazy how much a little bit of plastic can be worth huh? I think it's interesting how everyone has their own reason for collecting LEGO, and how that puts different levels of value on each item.

[@UniverseDevon]

This video is great

[@BrickSystemBros]

thank you

[@UniverseDevon]

Just found a few things on this list and it reminded me of this video!

[@ncpstudios]

This is very interesting stuff to talk about!

[@queerutopia]

this is really great and goes into good detail, if u ever want to do a longer video on it I'll definately watch it all, but this is great thankyou its so good to see a video on something rarely talked about and i liked the slideshow style of it

[@BrickSystemBros]

Oh good, thanks for the support

[@SignedDiamond]

I managed to get a late 70s collection of legos from a garage sale. It was the home of a grandfather who had all these legos for when his grandkids visited and he apparently insisted that they put everything back in its box when done playing. The yellow castle was there, lots of classic space, tons of town theme and all with their boxes and instructions in very nice condition. Spent $100 for all of it and a NES was tossed in as well. Best deal I ever came across and I flipped it all for about $700

[@BrickSystemBros]

For the serious collectors that prioritize box condition and like things to be as "mint" as possible, those kind of situations are good for the preservation aspect. Going back a few more decades to the 50s, anything LEGO produced during that time was in much smaller production runs and very few people were interested in those items from a collecting perspective: they were toys. As a result of LEGO remaining an enduring brand and now having a vintage appeal, the items from that era are very desirable and valuable.

[@SignedDiamond]

@@BrickSystemBros he wasn’t even a collector or anything. I think he just considered them like puzzles for his grandkids. You don’t just build a puzzle once then take it apart and toss the pieces in with a tub of other mixed puzzle pieces. Same with LEGO I suppose. Very neat and tidy.

[@Kgn-kgsjejdnne91]

Very Intresting Video Its Very Well Made And Fun To Watch I'm Halfway Through Watching It and it's good! 👍

[@BrickSystemBros]

I'm glad you can take the time to watch it, I hope to help more LEGO fans understand what makes certain things "rare" or not and it takes a lot of explanation to cover what we know

[@eoau]

You deserve a lot more subs your channel has great content

[@BrickSystemBros]

Thanks Seb. For me (Nathan) it's not so much about lots of subs, just if my videos can help LEGO fans learn more. All the subscribers and running ads are just a bonus!

[@thomasstewart9752]

I have a couple of mold error parts, but none of the categories you described, it's a technic part with an axle hole that is rotated a few degrees off the proper angle, resulting in an out-of-system connection.

[@BrickSystemBros]

Ooh, that's interesting. Do you have a picture posted anywhere?

[@thomasstewart9752]

@@BrickSystemBros I can email a few pictures to you, would that work?

[@BrickSystemBros]

sure, send them on over to bricksystembros@gmail

[@thomasstewart9752]

@@BrickSystemBros I sent them, what do you think?

[@BrickSystemBros]

@@thomasstewart9752 replied, thanks.

[@dollhousesisters6130]

Nice Job!

[@dmitryvoronin1]

Well done 👍 amazing info

[@BrickSystemBros]

Thank you

[@cruxdeluxe]

Somewhere, in deep space, Flargulon the Cruel nudges his buddy, Incinerator Gorgulex. "Check this out, Gorg! According to this clip on the Galactic Intertubes, there may be a second set of the little Spaceluminum figures you found, somewhere on planet Ee-yarth!" "Well, that's going to tank the value of my collection. Get the laser-cannons primed, we're going to have to destroy that planet, just to be sure."

[@dikenlikalp]

Wow this was very informative yet I didnt realised how the time passed.

[@BrickSystemBros]

Thanks for watching

[@czfclone6929]

Just recently started getting into this after figuring major misprint I had a on clone trooper as a kid was considered rare is just mind blowing to me as I always hated that one minifigure of mind as a kid due to him having two faces. Recently decided to pick up one of the multicolored lego test bricks as well due to curiousity.

[@in2brickl426]

Nice presentation and helpful to get an overview what to look at, thank you very much, btw. The colorful bricks are made by intention to see the flow of the plastic inside the mould, maybe the explains a bit why they are sometimes in mixed colors. Some companies use silver plastic to see the flow, because silver never mixes up a 100% and you see the stream

[@bagea]

very interesting and informative 👍

[@Ayden_77]

9:39 i have a few of these because my grandpa's brother had the set

[@brickhistory]

Fascinating and well-put together video! I don’t mean to be annoying but I have one correction: the support bricks you show in the prototype parts section were actually included in some sets. Their part number is 2580c01.

[@BrickSystemBros]

Thanks for the correction, it was in a 1980s space shuttle right? I think I meant to have that piece in the Q-part slide because it has a few unreleased colors, but it doesn't belong in the prototype slide.

[@brickhistory]

Yeah, that part was used in space shuttle launch towers. Anyways, it’s not a big deal. Thanks for making this video, it’s rare to see in-depth analysis like this!

[@Titodublot]

Thanks for the PowerPoint Slide Show

[@victortoothy9983]

What is more rare than the Juno minifigs is coming across a channel that talks about this stuff

[@BrickSystemBros]

This kind of stuff fascinates me (Nathan), I'll probably never be able to afford the super rare items but it's cool to know that they are out there. Thanks for the kind words!

[@autumn702]

Very interesting video! I'm not really into collecting rare pieces, though it might be nice to have, but the only one I would really want is a Sea-tron alien minifig. A few years ago someone found two or three test prototypes in trans neon green but the one in regular green is still elusive.

[@chuckschwa]

Where do Bionicle kanohi from 2001 fit in here? There were 12 masks produced in colors not intended for release. They were released in blind boxes only in Europe. We call them misprints, but they're not really prints, and they're not test molds or prototypes. Lately, more of these masks have turned up in even more limited numbers (I think there's at least 15 now for just the 2001 molds). Would these be considered limited release? Or accidental production?

[@BrickSystemBros]

I'd personally put those specific masks in the "release rare" category, seeing as they were still available through a retail channel. I didn't (and still don't) know much about mask collecting at the time I recorded this vide, and it is somewhat niche within the world of general LEGO collectability. That being said, it is incredible how much variety exists within this subset of collectibles. I took a brief look at biosector01.com/wiki/Sets/Collectibles and realized it would take more than a quick afternoon read to make sense of the variations and get a proper understanding of how things rank within Bionicle collectibles. So for the "European misprints", are those items that you could potentially stumble across in bulk or on eBay, perhaps listed by someone not familiar with their rarity? At that point they may be uncommon, but in the same league as certain production parts that saw low distribution. Thanks for the question, this is a fascinating topic and I'm not the right person to give a definitive answer here, but I believe my "ladder of rare" structure can still lend some context when discussing this kind of thing.

[@MrRailden]

I think you actually forgot a subcategory of prototypes: Test/Final forms, or TF/FFs. For example, take a look at 8510 Lava. In the front it has part 32307. However the look of it is different in the promotional images compared to the released part. This is because that is a "Test form", and the mould is not finalized yet. "Final form" is usually a bit later in the process. Some pieces that should be labelled FF have no label at all even. In my opinion it's important to cover the nature of these because as the parts go through the development process you can get a *spectrum* of parts from early test stage (TF) and sometimes even variations of FF parts up until final production version (even FF is not fully final). Then there might be mould updates later in production too. Needless to say, such TF/FF parts are incredibly rare because they are usually lost after the prototyping stage, and even if they get into the hands of commoners most would overlook the slight mould variations or rough machining (maybe even throw such a part away for looking fake) and thus they rarely surface. They are very interesting to take a look at though, as they give a glimpse into the design process of Lego developers!

[@BrickSystemBros]

Thanks for the explanation, I have not heard of this distinction before actually, but it makes a lot of sense. Like you say, it all falls under the broad "prototype" category, but there is so much going on in this realm with LEGO so it's hard to get into details for every variation. If I go into more depth on prototypes parts in the future I will discuss this more.

[@countrabricksbuildcraze8916]

You didn't talk about the skulletn mini fig. .. like the white Ninjago one s. mini fig .. in Stirling silver. Is rear think it's a key ring or just a mini fig but it has the Lego logo on its back...

[@BrickSystemBros]

I skipped a few, can't possibly fit every rare item in a 50 minute video. But yes, sterling skeleton is quite exclusive, 50 total produced. Here are some links with the skeleton and some of my other favorites; Sterling Silver Skeleton: kzbin.info/www/bejne/mZnahK1oqJKKftk Life on Mars alien from ISS: kzbin.info/www/bejne/gau6dGh_pNV9kJI Biff & Sandy from 2002: kzbin.info/www/bejne/ZpXcqauMoK2Vr5o

[@clarkee_09]

Another rare piece is that piece of resistance. I think you can only get that in the Lego movie sets

[@BrickSystemBros]

Correct, I think it's been in a few of those sets from 2014. First place you can check is the prices on Bricklink, that will help you see where demand is at and how much people are willing to pay for it.

[@thirteenspiders13]

Can you tell me about the large white goblet #33061 with the round, curved bowl. I have 8 of them. Was told by a Lego collector, that they are rare prototype pieces.

[@BrickSystemBros]

Yeah, a nice uncommon piece even in it's releases colors. It looks like the white ones pop up on Bricklink from time to time, although they're not selling for as much as I would have guessed. www.bricklink.com/catalogPG.asp?P=33061&colorID=1

[@thirteenspiders13]

@@BrickSystemBros thank you, the collector offered me $60 for all 8, so I wanted to check into this.

[@beaneo_the_1]

Would the Pneumatic Air tanks in white count as rare?

[@BrickSystemBros]

Don't know, what's the part number? Remember, "rare" can mean in just a few sets OR that it's an unreleased color. That's why I talk about "production rare" vs "unreleased"

[@beaneo_the_1]

@@BrickSystemBros The part number is 67c01. The white tank only appeared in one set I believe.

[@BrickSystemBros]

@@beaneo_the_1 Yep, an educational set from 2008 (9641). So in terms of a production part it is about the rarest you can have without jumping into the unreleased color territory, right on the edge because the education sets are not generally sold through retail channels.

[@beaneo_the_1]

@@BrickSystemBros cool, I have two of these in white and I believe one in blue

[@Kgn-kgsjejdnne91]

At 46:58 I think I have some of those bricks in Collectors Collectors edition

[@Charlieworth]

bid on a red lego yoda. went to over £200 on ebay and didnt have that kind of money to spend on a single figure. shame i havent seen any other ones like it online

[@BrickSystemBros]

proto Yoda, can't say I've ever spotted one. You're right; that's a lot for one figure...

[@timemeddler7730]

The old test Bricks usualy dont have the Lego Logo tho, we have tons of them here xD.

[@BrickSystemBros]

Yes, it is cool when they do though.

[@nick11jl]

46:30 wait how rare are those yellow bricks in the bottom right I have a bunch of them

[@BrickSystemBros]

Might want to look closely at the inside and make sure they are LEGO, that style was widely copied from that era. If they are genuine then you have more than I do, but still not super rare, especially around certain areas of Europe. Probably worth a couple dollars to the right person

[@nick11jl]

@@BrickSystemBros oh right thats cool i hope i still have them i may have thought they were fake without really checking but ill see

[@Pacca64]

So jealous of saturns lego minifig collection lol

[@whiteswj]

Wow…I almost feel famous. Very nice video.

[@BrickSystemBros]

Hi Walter! Thanks for stopping by

[@cornholiosbricks8307]

As always better ask people if you can use their pictures :')

[@curtisnewton895]

boring

[@michaeldida]

i have lego 010-1 it is super rare demark only. set, i dont know what it is worth

[@BrickSystemBros]

This the one? www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem.page?S=010-1#T=S&O={%22iconly%22:0} Looks like maybe $50 to $100 (US)

[@ItsDangerX]

I got a superman hair thats mis-moulded (or what you call a shortshot), the sideburn on the left side is missing and the right side is more round than the usual. Its neat to have now that I realize its real and its from the 2010-2020s so its not as common like ones by samsonite. The seller likely didn’t realize either cus it was just sold with superman like a regular fig.

[@BrickSystemBros]

Nice find