Throwback Thursday - LEGO slide frames
Posted by FlagsNZ,
In another Throwback Thursday article that seeks to reveal both something quirky and source information from the wider Brickset membership, this week's article showcases LEGO-manufactured slide frames.
Read on as I showcase this unusual LEGO item.
The frames
The slide frames (sometimes called slide mounts) are opaque plastic frames that support the slide film. They measure 50mm (2 inches) square. The window measures 23 × 35 mm (1 × 1 3/8 inches).
- The slide film may also be supported between two thin sheets of glass inside the frames. The glass panes offer protection against damage.
- Some frames may be glassless. The glassless frames offer a higher brightness of the projected image. They also avoid distortion due to Newton’s rings and fungal decay is prevented.
Printed onto the plastic frame it indicates that there is a patent pending and that this is a LEGO product.
There is an entry for this product on BrickLink.
These have clearly been manufactured in Denmark.
The concept
These SPEX slide frames can be opened up relatively easily and one frame of slide film can be inserted and located inside the frame.
Daipositivkassetten SPEX et lego produkt
The slide film used in slide frames is sometimes called dispositive, reversal film or simply slide film. It is called reversal film as it is a type of photographic film that produces a positive image on a transparent base without requiring a negative.
Obviously, this was during a time before digital photography!
The box states Daipositivkassetten SPEX et LEGO produkt. This translates into English as positive cassette - a LEGO product.
- Positive cassette, ie slide cassette or frame
Each box contains twenty slide frames. There are glass panes (wrapped in protective paper).
The pamphlet
The two boxes of SPEX slide frames from The BLOCKS Collection both have a small folded pamphlet. This small instruction sheet has been written in Danish, English and German.
There are some interesting hyphenation breaks in these translations.
Your feedback
Please add your comments below if you can shed light on any details of these SPEX slide frames.
The team at The BLOCKS Collection have really enjoyed reading all your comments on the previous articles I have written and would welcome your help on this topic today.
If you are in Auckland, come and visit The BLOCKS Collection
The BLOCKS Collection is located in central Auckland, New Zealand.
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26 comments on this article
It's pretty much like all plastic slide frames.
*diapositive
*Diapositivkassetten
Translates to "diapositive cassette", not "positive cassette"
Otherwise very interesting article! I wonder if they are compatible with regular slide projectors. Almost seems like a product they made for their own presentations.
@Tuzi said:
"*diapositive
*Diapositivkassetten
Translates to "diapositive cassette", not "positive cassette"
Otherwise very interesting article! I wonder if they are compatible with regular slide projectors. Almost seems like a product they made for their own presentations."
From the photos of them, they look like they are standard size and thickness for 35mm slides.
Très intéressant !
What about the production timeframe?
When were these first and last produced by Lego, considering the weight of their concurrents with plastic diapositives (Kodak, Agfa, …) ?
Wow. Never heard of those.
I wonder how these fit inot the product portfolio... It's bit of a stretch to define these as "toys".
Apperently the late '90s weren't the only time TLG tried to venture into new markets :D
Is this related somehow to other off-branched products made by Lego, like Modulex?
What is the connection betwwen this product and LEGO?
@Yooha said:
"What is the connection betwwen this product and LEGO?"
Delicious plastic
I am curious if the colour matches to any official color, just as a point of interest. I'm sure someone could think of a way this 'element' could be used in a MOC, although I imagine they're much too rare to be used as a gimmick.
What was the history behind this? Why did lego even produce this kind of item? I must be missing something here
The box looks like something from the 1950's. Was this from before they starting making bricks?
@Binnekamp said:
"What was the history behind this? Why did lego even produce this kind of item? I must be missing something here"
Agreed. This article is very lacking. It just seems to say "look at this cool thing!" with no other info...
@Murdoch17 said:
" @Binnekamp said:
"What was the history behind this? Why did lego even produce this kind of item? I must be missing something here"
Agreed. This article is very lacking. It just seems to say "look at this cool thing!" with no other info..."
The article said:
"In another Throwback Thursday article that seeks to reveal both something quirky **and source information from the wider Brickset membership**"
I guess finding out more about this was kinda the point of this article?
Points of copyediting:
1. "The slide film used in slide frames is sometimes called dispositive" -- s/dis/dia/, to match the linked Wiktionary article.
2. "The box states Daipositivkassetten SPEX" -- s/Dai/Dia/, to match the artifact.
If you actually used these things, you're officially old.
It's owned by 0 Brickset members. If you want to add it to your collection you should really reconsider that.
I wonder what percentage of Bricksetters saw the words "Lego Slide Frames" and thought, "Huh?" and the hyphenation was just to fit the words into the space allotted, not some quirk of the translation.
@biffuz said:
"If you actually used these things, you're officially old."
I'm middle-aged, so while I've never used a slide projector to my recollection (although I have used a slide viewer), my dad used to drive tour buses for a living, and took a lot of pictures while he was out, so the family had a screen so we could look at the pictures he took, which we did on a regular basis.
Perhaps Stuart9, the person who created the BrickLink entry would know?
@Binnekamp said:
"What was the history behind this? Why did lego even produce this kind of item? I must be missing something here"
Dias were a big thing during the eighties. Hours of endless dia shows were to be endured by family members of photography enthusiasts. And they needed lots of those slide frames... so lego tried to use their plastic processes to get into the market of those thingys. I wonder if they made the holders, too?
@shirhac said:
" @Binnekamp said:
"What was the history behind this? Why did lego even produce this kind of item? I must be missing something here"
Dias were a big thing during the eighties. Hours of endless dia shows were to be endured by family members of photography enthusiasts. And they needed lots of those slide frames... so lego tried to use their plastic processes to get into the market of those thingys. I wonder if they made the holders, too?"
Same history here. Long evenings of watching slides (Dias) with family and friends. It was an event when dad unrolled the screen and started the projector. It felt like ones own little cinema in the living room, especially when the Dias were followed by "Super 8" cine films (usually by Kodak).
Sweet memories. This was also an event we often enjoyed while visiting our friends in England in the 80s, since they also had slides and cine films (they even had the version with sound, ours were of the cheaper silent variety).
Even Bricklink has NO info for these unusual items, and NO sales history!
They did come in the colour red though
Brings back memories of my 1st camera, a Kodak Instamatic 25 that I shot exclusively slide film. Didn't shoot prints until much later. Developing and mounting was always included in the cost of the (Kodak) film, so the only separate mounts I've ever bought were to replace a couple of damaged ones. Plenty of slide viewers (and copiers) still available on Amazon for those who don't want the aggro of setting up a projector!
@WideWonderfulWilliam said:
"The colour for this particular slide looks to be an eyeball-match for old (stone) light grey, but the BL-entry does not support this. The BL-image shows a red slide instead, but I'm not entirely certain it's a 100% match for Lego's bright red."
I wouldn't be surprised if the red was just made for testing purposes, as is often the case.
Since TLG didn't start mixing their own plastic colors since around the early-mid 2000s, it seems likely that there is at least something that would match, however I am a bit sceptical these are made of ABS.
The Lego logo used in the instructions (why are they hiding it that much?) puts it somewhere in the mid 1950s, just around the time the first "modern" brick sets would appear in Denmark.
I have read somewhere, that the first bricks ("Automatic Binding Bricks") were also sold with the company name and logo a bit more hidden. The author speculated that this might have been done intentionally, to make the connection slightly less obvious, should the product fail...
Certainly look easier to use than the ones we had when I was kid in the UK. Blue plastic on one side, with a white insert that clicked to a stud in each corner. A right pain to take apart. They would have been Agfa film, if I remember correctly. Kodak embedded the transparencies in a cardboard frame that buckled when you glared at it.
Family slide shows, though... painful...
Growing up, I knew my mom shot on film that could be used to produce prints, and that my dad shot exclusively on "slide film", but I never knew what the difference was, other than how they got sent back by the developer. And that we had to sit through slide shows, but only ever got handed a stack of prints to flip through at our own pace. And, yeah, there were 8mm recordings of us opening Christmas presents every year when I was really young. I'm not sure when my dad grew out of such things, but it was long before the advent of digital cameras.
For people who have pondered why this item is on a Lego site, it is because The BLOCKS Collection is made up of standard Lego product but also a lot of historic and unusual items.
The collection try's to find things that are rare, odd, limited edition, promotional and not main stream themes.
I appreciate FlagsNZ for compiling these articles to show some of the items from the collection. And appreciate the considerable feedback the articles are generating.
Regards Vaughan
Curator of The BLOCKS Collection