Random part of the day: End Piece For Truck Body
Posted by Huwbot,
Today's random part is 30022, 'End Piece For Truck Body', which is a System part, category Frames, Windows, Walls And Doors. It was introduced in 2015 and was last used in 2020. It was made in 2 colours and has appeared in 6 sets, one of the first of which was 60083 Snowplough Truck.
Our members collectively own a total of 32,458 of them. If you'd like to buy some you should find them for sale at BrickLink.
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15 comments on this article
Introduced in 2015? I have a couple of these in (old) grey from 6575 (2000) and one in yellow from 9736 (1999).
@HAL_9001 said:
"Introduced in 2015? I have a couple of these in (old) grey from 6575 (2000) and one in yellow from 9736 (1999)."
Official LEGO part numbering is limited to the last 20 years or so. And I am pretty sure this is a dump truck box end rather than a truck cab end.
@HAL_9001 said:
"Introduced in 2015? I have a couple of these in (old) grey from 6575 (2000) and one in yellow from 9736 (1999)."
Interesting, Bricklink does say this part was introduced in 1996, not 2015.
I have none of this version of the part, but when I got ownership of our entire childhood collection, I got one of the old version in yellow. For those who wonder what the difference is, part 3145 only has the center two studs seen here, and lower down there are two bar-like pins with a slight taper that were apparently used for side-tippers on rail cars (the pins would rest between studs on a plate or brick, and act like pivot points, while the taper would keep them from pinching between the studs). It was produced from ‘69 to ‘82, in 24 sets. A more significant difference is that it was sometimes paired with 3436 to make a complete dump truck tipper.
On further investigation, I may have obtained an unmatched copy from 9736.
Nice shape, the trapezoid
@MeisterDad:
The original side-tipped end came out in 1969, but the dump truck tipper end didn’t show up until 1972. While the side-tipper end went away in 1982, the dump truck tipped end lasted until 1998. It showed up in a few Train sets paired with itself as a little hopper, but it was only paired with this tipper end once, in set 6581. These days, they have alternate options for dump truck toppers, so this version of the part may continue to show up paired only with itself for some time to come.
I've never seen this part before, the SNOT potential is glorious! I'm drooling...
@GSR_MataNui said:
"I've never seen this part before, the SNOT potential is glorious! I'm drooling..."
Check out how it's used in 80008 and 80015!
I have the original 'tipper end' part with 2 pins 3145 from 1968 appearing in 662 , as well as freight trains and Technic sets 856 and 8848 .
I built a spaceship for a Lego competition back when I was 5 for a local department store. (I won a prize and got my photo in the paper!) and when my spaceship came back it had one a similar mysterious piece to this (in black but with the face pins) fixed to it that had obviously fallen off someone elses model.
I'm 44, so these were definitely in sets since the early 80's!
New Elementary wrote about this part last year: https://www.newelementary.com/2020/06/30022-lego-3436-vehicle-tipper-end-3145.html?m=1.
I think I also have a few of the old yellow ones. Wasn't even aware of this newer variant.
There actually was an older version of this part (ID 3145, released in 1969 with some of the very first Train sets) that had little pins on the ends to allow it to rock around in between 2 studs (though of cause this wasn't very secure, since the parts are virtually not connected, except by gravity...). By the mid-late '80s these parts were phased out, because the connection method seemed dated I guess.
In 1972 a counterpart that represented the opened end of a tipper truck was released (ID 3436).This one lasted quite longer, although still a bit of an uncommon part. It did appear in the infamous Idea Book 260 of 1990, despite the fact it wasn't available in any color for a few years at the time! If we are to believe the last instance of this part in a set back then (740) was still available in 1989, then there was a 7 year gap before it would reappear in 2 sets from 1996, then vanishing forever.
1996 would also mark the point, where they felt the need to introduce this RPotD in Town set 6581. It saw a very sparse release with 1 set per year containing one or two of them from 1996-2000, some of them a bit obscure like Mindstorms expansion set 9736 or the limited release Train sets 2126 and 3225. After 2000, the part disappeared like it's comrades for many years, reappearing as late as 2015. Whether there were alterations done to the mould I can not say. However it seems weird, that it would have survived the 2004 purge, so maybe the newer parts are indeed a different mould...
Appeared in 3 colors: 24 Bright Yellow (most common), 2 (Old Light) Gray and 106 Bright Orange (1 set each).
I have more than a few of these, I'm sure. It's a weird part and difficult (virtually impossible) to use in planned mocs.
@Huw, can I make a suggestion?
For each of the Random Part of the Day articles I've read thus far, they have been about recent parts for which there was an interesting history; today's part is a great example, since variants have been around for decades. The RPOTD on its own might be somewhat interesting (or not), but for parts that have gone through variants such as this one, jumpers, 2M friction pins, etc., there can be some interesting history there.
I know... "Come on Huw, can't you do MORE work?!?" Just thinking it could be really interesting in comparison to these comparatively closed-ended shorts.