Is there a way to know if Lego has officially stopped making a certain Lego element?
As an example, from the 580 Lego set, I haven't seen this conveyor belt (along with those wheels and the "Legoland" stamped brick, etc) since the 1970's, so I assume it's out of production:
But is there any official word from Lego that certain elements are no longer in production?