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 Posted - November 08 2009 : 12:40:16 PM
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So I did not realize that Tyco made lego compatible blocks when the patent ran out! As I was in early adulthood when this happened, imagine my joy when that 50 pound box of Legos turns out to be HALF Tyco! Discovered of course when I was looking at one of the blue ones - which kind of match my avatar!
Off to work on the Lego train depot for my layout...
Rus
Starting my Tyco and other favorites collection over again after 37 years.
My still in progress list of inventory and wantlist: tyconut.com
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Posted - November 08 2009 : 12:43:23 PM
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yes Tyco did make blocks like Legos except they were a brick & a half bigger than Legos 
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Posted - November 08 2009 : 2:34:54 PM
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No - they fit Legos just fine. Lego makes 1/3 height legos, and Tyco had some HALF height blocks, which actually work pretty well for some things, as I've found out with a LOT of sorting right now.
I've also found out that the woman I bought these from bought her grandson at LEAST five of the fire engines, as it's got the booklets for them, and so far I've found over 100 wheels. It really looks like there is more like $1000-2000 worth of stuff here - all SORTS of people, and from examining the Lego forums & sites, many of these people only came with one set, one person per set. As in grandma was buying her grandson these things at a rate of two kits a month for several years, maybe more often.
And a few mega bloks in here too - including the army olive drab.
Rus
Starting my Tyco and other favorites collection over again after 37 years.
My still in progress list of inventory and wantlist: tyconut.com
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Posted - November 08 2009 : 2:46:29 PM
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well thats what I meant hehe  & dang Grandmas do spoil the kids don't they
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Posted - November 08 2009 : 3:12:15 PM
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Gotcha - the math works both ways.
Grandmas sure spoil the kids - I still can't believe I almost passed on this.
Right now I'm deciding between a red "brick" building or a blue one. Most of the roof pieces I have are red, although I might not have enough to do an HO scale 100' x 40' x 20' high depot. I've got plenty of doors and windows to go with, and there are some power transformers (the kind with stickers) and such. I've looked with interest at doing some DCC Lego trains. You'd have to either repower or use the old early 70s power kit, though. Does look like fun. Maybe I could have a Lego train with the Lego depot, since I'm doing the Disneyland train & depot too?
Rus
Starting my Tyco and other favorites collection over again after 37 years.
My still in progress list of inventory and wantlist: tyconut.com
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Posted - November 08 2009 : 3:18:52 PM
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Those Lego knock-offs are directly responsible for Tyco's decline and fall as a train company. When the original Lego patent expired in the early 80's, a group of investors called the Savoy Group was keen to enter the lucrative market with direct clones. So they looked for a company to partner with - ideally one well-established with manufacturing and distribution channels. They found a match in Tyco - and they promptly bought the company in its entirety from Sara Lee in 1982. After that, the train offerings whacked (all those beautiful 1982 paint jobs = GONE), outsourcing began (hello, Mehano), movie and TV tie-in sets aplenty crept in, and your choice of train set rolling stock was pretty much the same dozen cars for the next 10 years. Even the partnership with "New Mantua" was affected, as some of Mantua's offerings soon changed since they apparently no longer had access to certain tooling.
When the Super Blocks were successful, toy offerings continued to expand... until Tyco dropped out of trains altogether, and was big enough to buy out other names like Matchbox, and find themselves a takeover target of Mattel.
I had (and still have) a number of the Tyco "Super Blocks" including an embossed Tyco storage case. I'll be honest: the Tyco blocks sucked. Very hard to disconnect at times, and those half-height flats were so subtly different as to be maddening. The plain, standard blocks were OK, and different colors were welcome (Lego was still in the "you can have any color as long as it's red yellow blue white or black" phase). On the other hand, Lego actually painted their decorative blocks, whereas Tyco used these cheap vinyl stickers that either slid off, or had the ink rub off with the slightest touch. I had a transforming helicopter that was abysmal for fit and instructions, there were even some parts missing which never happened with my Lego kits (actually Lego often seemed to include random extra bits to be safe).
At any rate, mixing and matching was never as easy as it should have been. The line was successful nonetheless but me and my other friends always treated the Tyco blocks like stepchildren never to be used unless absolutely necessary.
Edited by - GoingInCirclez on November 08 2009 3:22:23 PM
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Posted - November 08 2009 : 4:02:07 PM
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Well that certainly is a bummer because since much of the blocks are Tyco, this is going to be "TycoLand" now, in honor of the Tyco legacy, plus I was so hooked on the trains when I was a kid that this seems an enjoyable project. I was out of college when Tyco's decline hit like that, not to mention when they stopped making trains.
I've already laid the foundation on the depot, and I'll have pictures soon. It's coming along nicely although I will not have enough roofing to finish. The Tyco roofing I have vs. the Lego roofing seems more detailed and it's fairly pretty.
Can anyone point me at good instructions for posting images here? I'd like to have full-size graphics - so far when I put in pics they seem to shrink themselves.
Rus
Starting my Tyco and other favorites collection over again after 37 years.
My still in progress list of inventory and wantlist: tyconut.com
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Posted - November 08 2009 : 5:10:03 PM
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Wow, this is really interesting. Tyco making LEGOs?? Buying out the toy giant Mattel?? (Then again, they may not have been as big as they are now when Tyco wanted to buy them out . . .) Incredible.
-Jacob
Quote: "I didn't fail, I just found 1200 materials that won't work"
-Thomas Edison
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Posted - November 08 2009 : 6:55:09 PM
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no Tyco bought out Matchbox BEFORE Mattel got Tyco 
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Posted - November 08 2009 : 8:25:23 PM
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Oops, thought GIC meant that Tyco took over Mattel.
-Jacob
Quote: "I didn't fail, I just found 1200 materials that won't work"
-Thomas Edison
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Posted - July 29 2011 : 1:43:06 PM
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I Have A Backhoe Kit I got For $7 on Ebay a While Back. It Was Factory Sealed when I Got It. I Still Have the box and Everything.
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