You should know, and it's always good for our personal culture, that between 1962 and 1988 it was Samsonite who manufactured the bricks under license and distributed the LEGO brand in Canada and the USA. Manufacturing stopped in the United States in 1973, when LEGO moved to the United States. TLC then moved to Canada in 1988 when the first brick separator was released, but that's another story.

From this time, rillette11 posted on his flickr gallery photos of original boxes or scans of catalogs. Something to impress, and if you understand English, linger on the comments of each photo, you will learn many things about this LEGO by Samsonite era. You will find other visuals on the same theme at this address.

To go even further in the discovery of the LEGO company and the evolution of the visual identity of its products over the years, visit the reference site: Brickfetish.com.

Be careful, we quickly spend a few hours without realizing it. There is so much to see on this very well documented site.

And yes ! Another Batmobile in the running for the Wheels of Justice competition .... This one is amazing with its double cockpit that can accommodate two minifigs, its many built-in weapons and the use of batarangs as tuning accessories in different places . We will retain the spinners particularly successful rims .....

I like the Buggy side of this MOC, an improbable cross between the Tumbler and a Warthog, with a serious and well thought out finish.

To see more and also discover BrickJunky's Green Lantern Mobile, visit his flickr gallery.

SHARPSPEED aka Adam Janusick offers us an interesting Batmobile with an aspect that immediately reminds me of the range Racers. The cockpit opens and a minifigure can barely slip inside.

Simple and efficient, this Batmobile does not do a lot, it simply displays compact shapes and a sleek line. It's not the MOC of the year, but I like this take on Batman's vehicle. 

To see it from other angles, go to the flickr gallery of SHARPSPEED, you will also discover the BatCycle situation I was telling you about in this article in the streets of Gotham City with in guest stars the Joker and Harley Quinn.

I didn't know what to wear for the title. And it shows.

It is on the occasion ofan article written on the subject that I decided to order two sets that were missing from my collection: The Comic Con Exclusive Clone Wars Set (comecon001) sold for $ 75 at Comic Con 2008 and produced in 1200 copies and the Mini Republic Dropship Mini AT-TE Brickmaster Pack (comecon010) printed in 500 copies and sold for $ 49.99 at Comic Con in San Diego in 2009.

After some customs tribulations, which will have cost me the VAT and customs clearance fees, here I am in possession of these two sets that I wanted so much .... I note in passing that the contact with the service in charge of customs clearance parcels from abroad improved significantly.

I wouldn't be talking about money here for these two sets, that's not the point. The only thing to remember is that you must be prepared to set yourself a maximum rate that you consider to be the limit of decency or your means. It is at this price that you will be satisfied with your purchase and that you will not be frustrated with spending indecent sums on your passion.

These two sets are not even an investment. They will only be of interest to collectors at the end of the line, who are looking for the rarest pieces and who have already acquired most of the range. But these collectors are rare and many are those who give in under the lack of space or the need for cash and who abandon their collection to newcomers on eBay, Bricklink or Le Bon Coin ....

If I speak to you about this notion of investment, it is in reference to the report broadcast this evening on M6 in 100% MA and which featured Festibriques, a passionate MOCeur apparently a member of FreeLUG and a guy by the name of David who accumulates at his home, in a dedicated room, boxes for later resale.
The report is well done, honest, but the presentation of this guy disturbed me. She misleads the viewer who risks believing that the few boxes of LEGO he has are worth gold.

It also conveys a rather pejorative image of the AFOLs that we are by highlighting a guy who is not an AFOL. We must not hide our face, there are many speculators in the LEGO world and the second-hand market lends itself to active speculation as the capital gains are enormous in some cases.

But the community is not just home to this type of collector-speculator. Of which act.

If you want to discuss it and share your opinion, do not hesitate to post a comment or to go to the already cult dedicated topic at Brickpirate.

Below is the extract of the report broadcast on M6 which really makes us look like imbeciles .....

If during the 2000s you were in the middle of the Dark Age or were just too young to care about LEGOs and MOCs in particular, you might not know Reto Geiger.

However, this character is at the origin of many vocations and his work remains today a reference for many MOCeurs. His UCS MOCs are today a source of inspiration for some of the most talented young MOCeurs.

Its MOCs from Barc Speeder UCS or UCS Tie Fighter were also at the origin of many variants produced by MOCeurs who have themselves become references over the years.

Reto Geiger has also produced numerous instructions for its MOCs. They are very well done and he makes them available on his Brickshelf gallery. In these pages, you will find something to assemble many models and you will discover many techniques, some unseen at the time, and which are still used in the world of MOC.

It includes instructions for its UCS Desert Skiff that I particularly appreciate, for its UCS Anakin Skywalkers Jedi Starfighter or for his UCS Trade Federation AAT.

He has also produced many custom vehicles for which he also offers detailed instructions for download.

You would have understood it, the Brickshelf gallery of this talented Swiss MOCeur is a cave of treasures that you owe it to yourself to discover or rediscover if you have a few minutes to devote to it. You will not regret it...