Found in the wild in the Netherlands…
Might this be a Dutch marbled one?
But no, it is a Grangemouth brick that found its way to the Netherlands on its own 🙂
——————————————————————————————————————————-
Gary Istok:
Marbled LEGO bricks, Borg-Warner plant Grangemouth Scotland (called Grangemouth bricks). These marbled (very valuable) bricks were made by 2 wayward Borg-Warner employees in 1978. Borg-Warner produced the small ABS (color dyed) pellets for LEGO bricks sold by British LEGO Ltd. (a LEGO licensee, and subsidiary of Courtalds Ltd of the UK), the licensee for Britain, Ireland and Australia starting in 1960.
The collectors of these valuable bricks were led to believe that the release of these marbled bricks caused TLG to take back the LEGO mold from Borg-Warner, when TLG found out about these unauthorized bricks. Well the truth to this is a bit different. It seems that by 1978 (when regular color LEGO bricks ended test production) the Borg-Warner folks already knew that they would no longer be making regular single color test bricks, because the British LEGO Ltd. LEGO license would be reverting back to TLG (all UK LEGO would be made by TLG, and no longer in the Wrexham Wales LEGO plant) by December 31, 1979.
So it is likely that since Borg-Warner would no longer be the brick/color tester for British LEGO Ltd., the 2 Borg-Warner employees were aware that their LEGO 2×4 test brick mold would be returning to Denmark, and decided to have some fun with some of the remaining ABS plastic pellets, and made these crazy looking marbled bricks. If TLG did find out about this, all they may have done is take back the test LEGO mold earlier than they were planning. So the return of the test brick LEGO mold by TLG may have happened sooner, but it was going to be happening anyway.
On January 1, 1980, TLG started making their own LEGO parts, under the name LEGO UK Limited (the new UK sales office name), with their brick testing done by Bayer Corp. in Germany. The Wrexham Wales LEGO plant was used by TLG (either sold or leased by Courtald’s Corp.) … but mainly as a distribution center, while the LEGO parts came from Denmark and elsewhere in continental Europe. British LEGO Ltd. ceased to exist (1960-79).
—————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————-
Matthew:
Grangemouth bricks are highly coveted pieces of LEGO history. Many collectors have heard the legends behind their production, but what’s the real back story?
To unravel this tale from half a century ago, first hand memories and documents from the 1960’s & 70’s have been combined to provide unprecedented insights below. These interviews included a former Grangemouth plant Physical and Colour Technician and a Shipping Clerk, as well as recollections from children of former employees that received bricks from the plant.
The story begins in 1961, when Anchor Chemicals in the UK formed a joint venture with Marbon Chemical of the USA, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Borg-Warner Corporation. It established the first major UK plant for the production of ABS (acrylonitrile, butadiene, styrene) polymers. This new plant was strategically located in Grangemouth, as butadiene and styrene were already available there. These thermoplastics were to be marketed as “Marbon Cycolac ABS” by Anchor, who were already Marbon’s sole British distributor.
Two years and six million pounds later, the Grangemouth plant was completed by Constructers John Brown Ltd in 1963. Located on a 40 acre site fronting Bo’ness Road, it produced ABS polymers through emulsion polymerization for vacuum forming or moulding into domestic appliances, telephone handsets, automotive components, vacuum cleaner parts and much more.
The acrylonitrile, butadiene & styrene were piped in liquid form to the plant from the large British Petroleum (BP) Chemicals facility across the road, delivered through underground pipes below the intersecting road. The acrylonitrile was made by Border Chemicals, butadiene directly by BP Chemicals and styrene by Forth Chemicals. Border and Forth received their raw materials from BP and their facilities were co-located with BP Chemicals. Colour pigments were provided in powder form by Imperial Chemical Industries (I.C.I.).
The LEGO Group (TLG) made British company Courtauld’s Corp the UK Licensee for LEGO in 1960 under the name British LEGO Ltd. After two years of importing LEGO parts from Denmark, local LEGO part production in the UK commenced through a new factory in Wrexham. TLG had simultaneously switched to ABS plastic in 1963, and Marbon’s Grangemouth plant was selected as the ABS supplier to the new British LEGO factory located in Wrexham.
The Grangemouth ABS plant operated 24 hours a day, seven days a week. It’s primary roles in ABS production was to extract fire-retardant inhibitors from the three individual raw ingredients, mix and heat them to produce ABS pellets in any selected colour with added pigments. The plant’s main extruder used in production had mixing tanks, a large hopper for raw materials, and a screw mechanism at the base which pushed the molten mixture through a steel plate with holes in it. This produced long round strips of ABS, which were put through a dicer to cut them up into pellets. These pellets were put into 25kg bags and palatalised for shipment to Wrexham by truck.
The TLG quality requirements were very high, and above the standards or specifications of other customers. The colours in particular had to be perfect. It was clearly understood that if any batches were sent that didn’t meet TLG specifications when moulded out at Wrexham, they would be returned, which happened very rarely.
To assist with maintaining high standards of quality control, the plant owned an injection moulding machine. Situated in the Testing Lab, it was utilised by the Physical and Colour testing teams. Both teams operated on four shifts. Initially each team was comprised of four people each per shift, with this increasing to five people in the 1970’s as production levels rose. The Physical team used the moulder to test ABS flow rate for each batch, ensuring it filled all the mould cavities, as well as impact and tensile strength. The Colour team used eyesight to match ABS batches with colour swatches, as colour spectrophotometers weren’t in use at the time.
Starting in the 1960’s, TLG provided the Grangemouth plant with a sequence of 2×4 LEGO brick moulds for testing ABS in their injection moulding machine. From bricks subsequently found locally in the area, we know these included old production moulds, such as a twenty slot D mould and a 20 slot Y mould. Bricks from a four slot 8-11 mould have also been found, that mould was made from old parts but was specifically assembled for use in quality testing. More moulds may have been used during these early years at the plant. Around 1968 a final mould arrived, it was a four slot F mould, that was purpose built for quality testing.
LEGO test bricks were made by workers in the Testing Lab, and these were largely solid colours solely for ABS batch testing. Mixing of colours did sometimes occur between colour changes, resulting in small quantities of marbled bricks. To clear mould injectors of prior colours, natural ABS without pigment would be injected. This produced another type of marbled bricks, with a unique cream colour mixed in. Bricks that failed physical and/or colour testing quality standards were called “Rejectable”.
Test bricks were supposed to be recycled, turning them back into pellets by chopping them up into small pieces, melting them down and putting them through the ABS extruder again. These pellets were not used by TLG, but instead sent to factories outside the UK, mostly in China. Some Testing Lab staff found these test bricks popular with their children, and at times took them home rather than recycling them.
Starting around Christmas 1970, Grangemouth plant Management decided to complement the seasonal gifts of whiskey and turkey to staff with something very unique. The whiskey was seen as being for the men, and turkey for their wives or female employees, but there was nothing for the employee’s children. So this year, they added a bag of LEGO bricks made at the plant as a present for each of the employee’s children.
Testing Lab staff were tasked with producing and bagging the Christmas bricks using the F mould. This first utilised waste pellets, which came from batches rejected for minor reasons and pellets from completed batches that were no longer needed for testing. These were then supplemented with production pellets as required to produce enough bags of bricks. For ease of production, large amounts of pellets were put into the injection moulder hopper irrespective of colour. It was set to automatic, continuously producing bricks until empty and creating the marbled bricks collected today. Most bricks made through this process were marbled as a result of the screw mechanism at the bottom of the hopper mixing pellets, but some single colour bricks were produced. Gifting of these bricks became an annual Christmas tradition. Staff without children didn’t receive a bag of these bricks.
It additionally became understood by employees at the plant that if they wanted some bricks for their kids, they could ask a member of the Physical and Colour Testing teams for some. The bricks given out this way were only the test bricks available at the time of request. Recipient staff didn’t get to choose colours, or to have them specifically made upon request. This was utilised sporadically by staff from management down and were typically only bricks of a single colour. Eventually TLG heard about the misuse of their mould, and staff were advised TLG weren’t happy.
TLG returned the production of bricks in-house in early 1979, ending their need for Grangemouth produced ABS. This decision was unrelated to misuse of the mould. With the Wrexham factory ceasing production, and Grangemouth ABS no longer needed, the F mould was returned to TLG from the Grangemouth plant in late 1978. The Christmas bricks for employee’s children were made for a final time in 1978.
The Grangemouth plant injection moulding machine remained at the plant and continued to be used for testing ABS until 2009 when the plant closed. It was primarily used to produce a 6cm x 1cm plate for impact and colour testing. This moulder is currently held by the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh, having been donated by the plant’s final owner SABIC. The Grangemouth plant on Bo’ness Road was demolished in 2011.
Many thanks to Wouter van Iersel for his advice and assistance in editing this article, and Bella De Montes for this and many other gorgeous photos of Grangemouth bricks.
Posted by maxx3001 on 2018-05-18 12:21:32
Tagged: , Grangemouth , F1 , Wrexham , Lego , 2×4 , brick , test , fun , top , pip , Uk , marble , marbled , color , colors , blue , white , tan , England , Flame , flamed , F4 , bayer , basf , farbe , probestein , 3001old , 3001 , rare , rar , swirly , marmoriert , htf , bunt , farbton , testfarbe , mischfarbe , abs , ca , farbverlauf , anguss , injection , point , plastic , plastik , farbmuster , röhren
