Generation 03

Summary

The third MoldGeneration could in many ways be separated into two different parts - each with some very interesting characteristcs. Common for both parts, are bricks without stud-logo, but with blockletter logo underneath.

flowchart LR
    R["Generation 03"] --> R2("03a") & R3("03d")
    R2 --> R4("03b") --> R5("03c")
    R3 --> R6("03e") --> R7("03f")
    style R fill:#616161
    style R2 fill:#00C853,stroke:none
    style R3 fill:#00C853,stroke:none
    style R4 fill:#FF6D00,stroke:none
    style R6 fill:#FF6D00,stroke:none
    style R5 fill:#2962FF,stroke:none
    style R7 fill:#2962FF,stroke:none

03b->03a->03c

The first three Molds (03a, 03b, 03c) are closely related, as the top part of the mold has been re-used across all three Molds. The 03b Mold has a completely different bottom style than the other two: Whereas the 03a and 03c has a vertically hatched surface underneath (for the 2x2, 2x3 and 2x4 brick sizes), the 03b Mold has a smooth surface and a hand-written number - indicating the Mold position.

Mold Associations

There are no conclusive evidence within the brick samples regarding the order of the different molds, but it seems plausible that 03b was being used at an early stage, since many brick samples have the same colors as the previous generation (02). The following diagram shows how the MoldMembers are related across the three Molds:

flowchart LR
    R["Gen 03"] --> P2x4("2x4") & P2x3("2x3") & P2x2("2x2") & P1x2("1x2 - No associations found")
    P2x4 --> M1b("03b-01") & M2b("03b-02") & M3b("03b-03") & M4b("03b-04") & M5b("03b-05") & M6b("03b-06") & M7b("03b-07") & M8b("03b-08")
    M1b --> M1a("03a-01")
    M2b --> M2a("03a-02")
    M3b --> M3a("03a-03")
    M4b --> M4a("03a-04")
    M5b --> M5a("03a-05")
    M6b --> M6a("03a-06")
    M7b --> M7a("03a-07")
    M8b --> M8a("03a-08")
    P2x3 --> M9b("03b-09") & M10b("03b-10")
    M9b --> M9a("03a-09")
    M10b --> M10a("03a-10")
    P2x2 --> M11b("03b-11") & M12b("03b-12") & M13b("03b-13") & M14b("03b-14")
    M11b --> M11a("03a-11")
    M11a --> M11c("03c-11")
    M12b --> M12a("03a-12")
    M13b --> M13a("03a-13")
    M14b --> M14a("03a-14")
    M14a --> M14c("03c-14")
    style R fill:#616161
    style M1b stroke:none,fill:#00C853
    style M2b fill:#00C853,stroke:none
    style M3b fill:#00C853,stroke:none
    style M4b fill:#00C853,stroke:none
    style M5b fill:#00C853,stroke:none
    style M6b fill:#00C853,stroke:none
    style M7b fill:#00C853,stroke:none
    style M8b fill:#00C853,stroke:none
    style M1a fill:#FF6D00,stroke:none
    style M2a fill:#FF6D00,stroke:none
    style M3a fill:#FF6D00,stroke:none
    style M4a fill:#FF6D00,stroke:none
    style M5a fill:#FF6D00,stroke:none
    style M6a fill:#FF6D00,stroke:none
    style M7a fill:#FF6D00,stroke:none
    style M8a fill:#FF6D00,stroke:none
    style M9b fill:#00C853,stroke:none
    style M10b fill:#00C853,stroke:none
    style M9a fill:#FF6D00,stroke:none
    style M10a fill:#FF6D00,stroke:none
    style M11b fill:#00C853,stroke:none
    style M12b fill:#00C853,stroke:none
    style M13b fill:#00C853,stroke:none
    style M14b fill:#00C853,stroke:none
    style M11a fill:#FF6D00,stroke:none
    style M11c fill:#2962FF,stroke:none
    style M12a fill:#FF6D00,stroke:none
    style M13a fill:#FF6D00,stroke:none
    style M14a fill:#FF6D00,stroke:none
    style M14c fill:#2962FF,stroke:none    

All the associations shown have been verified by identifying surface marks and stud-ring patterns for bricks across Molds. In general, there are a lot of brick samples available for this MoldGeneration. If there are a full third evolution step, one should have identified more than two different 03c-specific MoldMembers. Especially since the 2x2-03c-11 and 2x2-03c-14 bricks are quite common.

Instead I believe that the two MoldMembers in the 03 generation represents re-tooling of the 03a mold, where the representative MoldMembers have been rotated 180 degrees sometime during the lifetime of the 03a Mold.

It is not possible to identify clear evidence that the two MoldMembers from the 03c Mold share the same bottom mold pattern as their 03a counterparts (rotated 180 degrees) - as is the case with some MoldMembers in the 05 MoldGeneration. Most probably, the two positions in bottom Mold was repaired for some reason, and when re-created, the logo was placed upside-down compared to the original mold.

03d->03e->03f

The last three Molds (03d, 03e, 03f) are also closely related, but in quite a different way. The three Molds represent an evolution from bricks with slots and no stud-logos to slot-less bricks with logos on studs.

flowchart LR
    R["03d - Slots, no stud-logo"] --> R2("03d - No slots, no stud-logo") --> R3("03e - No slots, with stud-logo")
    style R fill:#00C853,stroke:none
    style R2 fill:#FF6D00,stroke:none
    style R3 fill:#2962FF,stroke:none

Mold Associations

The bottom part of the Mold stays the same across the three steps of the evolution. In contrast to the earlier molds, the quality of the surfaces of the mold is rather good, with few obivous marks/patterns on the samples. This makes it more difficult to establish reliable "fingerprints" for each MoldMember, but from my comparisons there are high probabilites in actual re-use of both the top- and bottom-part of the mold. In fact, you can actually see clear lines on the slot-less bricks in 03e and 03f from the removed slots from 03d.

flowchart LR
    R["Gen 03"] --> P2x3("2x3") & P2x8("2x8") & P2x10("2x10")
    P2x3 --> M1d("03d-01") & M4d("03d-04") & M5d("03d-05") & M8d("03d-08") 
    P2x8 --> M2d("03d-02") & M6d("03d-06")
    M2d --> M2e("03e-02") --> M2f("02f-02")
    M6d --> M6e("?") --> M6f("03f-06")
    P2x10 --> M3d("03d-03") & M7d("03d-07")
    M3d --> M3e("?") --> M3f("03f-03")
    M7d --> M7e("?") --> M7f("03f-07")
    style R fill:#616161
    style M1d stroke:none,fill:#00C853
    style M2d fill:#00C853,stroke:none
    style M3d fill:#00C853,stroke:none
    style M4d fill:#00C853,stroke:none
    style M5d fill:#00C853,stroke:none
    style M6d fill:#00C853,stroke:none
    style M7d fill:#00C853,stroke:none
    style M8d fill:#00C853,stroke:none
    style M2e fill:#FF6D00,stroke:none
    style M3e fill:#FF6D00,stroke:none
    style M6e fill:#FF6D00,stroke:none
    style M7e fill:#FF6D00,stroke:none
    style M2f fill:#2962FF,stroke:none
    style M3f fill:#2962FF,stroke:none
    style M6f fill:#2962FF,stroke:none
    style M7f fill:#2962FF,stroke:none

There are unfortunately very few brick samples available for the 03e (1) and 03f (11) molds. The the steps of evolution indicates that there should be 2x3-bricks out there with ring-marks below and stud-logo above. But, it might also be a case of inconsistent mold properties (as seen in 05d and 05e), where only parts of the mold was upgraded to having stud-logo. Based on the currently available brick samples it looks like the 03e mold was used in a very short time-interval before it was being re-tooled into 03f, which itself wasn't being used very long.