What is the largest lego box for a set ever made?

[SNIPE]

What is the largest lego box for a set ever made?

the lego 8448 is quite big, this question is not specific to any theme.

[CM4Sci]

The UCS Millenium Falcon?

-Sci

[SNIPE]

do you know the dimentions roughly?

[General Magma]

  On 7/15/2012 at 9:03 PM, SNIPE said:

do you know the dimentions roughly?

Should be this in centimeters:

64.4 cm by 47.6 cm by 19.7 cm

And then there's the Taj Mahal's box, to compare:

65.3 cm by 47.6 cm by 12.2 cm

Which means that the Millennium Falcon wins here.

Edited July 15, 2012 by General Magma

[JackJonespaw]

Hm...well, what's the smallest box? Not polybag - box. I'm guessing the Harry Potter set Flying Lesson.

[purpleparadox]

  On 7/15/2012 at 9:56 PM, JackJonespaw said:

Hm...well, what's the smallest box? Not polybag - box. I'm guessing the Harry Potter set Flying Lesson.

I don't know the dimensions, but I remember there used to be small Bionicle boxes selling spinners or balls compatible with launchers from the theme. But I think Flying Lesson might've been smaller, I'm not entirely sure.

[AndyC]

Eyeballing it, the box for the 10030 UCS Star Destroyer is bigger though I don't have a tape measure handy at the moment to actually measure the difference.

[SNIPE]

  On 7/15/2012 at 10:14 PM, purpleparadox said:

I don't know the dimensions, but I remember there used to be small Bionicle boxes selling spinners or balls compatible with launchers from the theme. But I think Flying Lesson might've been smaller, I'm not entirely sure.

Ah yes I remember those spinners I got a box of them when I was like 4/5

[LEGO Historian]

.... those that have not learned the lessons of "history".... are bound to forget.... (or never to have known....)....

Thanks for the dimensions on the Millenium Falcon.... however there is a LEGO set that 99 out of 100 AFOLs.... nay.... wait.... make that 999 out of 1000 AFOLs aren't familiar with....

That is the 7100 set of 1963-65, which was sold in USA/Canada only.

Although this set had only a mere 3,250 parts, the box size (in this case a box made of wood).... was....

83.82cm X 54.61cm X 13.97cm = 63,946 cubic cm.

The Millenium Falcon dimensions only add up to 60,389 cubic cm.

The VERY RARE 7100 set was one of over 80 wooden box LEGO sets that TLG made, but you will be hard pressed to find more than 5 or 10 in ANY online database.... but all 80+ are shown in my LEGO DVD... Chapter 15 - LEGO Wooden Box Sets (1950-78).

And here is the very large and very heavy set in question.... in this 1963 USA LEGO Brochure...

[davee123]

The LEGO Soft starter kit box (#9020) is roughly 39cm x 39cm x 48cm, which is about 73,000 cm^3. But that's a LEGO Dacta/Education box, so I'm not sure if that counts. It's also not "system-scale", either. There may have been bigger boxes for other things like playtables and such that WAY outclass everything else.

I don't have the LEGO Soft box in front of me to measure, but I have one at home-- and I know it fit 8x8x8 "LEGO Soft" bricks dimension-wise, and each LEGO Soft brick is 6x the normal size. So the INTERIOR of the box is at least 384mm x 384mm x 460.8mm (plus some extra on top for the studs). It's also in a corrugated cardboard box, and I'm sure there's a little bit extra around the edges.

DaveE

[SNIPE]

Yes, any lego sub brand or theme counts as long as its a 'lego set'

I admire your knowledge Lego Historian, old meccano sets used to come in wooden boxes too.

[TheLegoDr]

Over 3000 pieces for $100. And the original Town Plan $25. That is really neat to see. Inflation is an interesting thing.

[LEGO Historian]

Thanks all.... I have an acquaintance who owns the only known (to me) example of that 7100 box. It came with some very pricey items... (a few were found in the 725/810 Town Plan sets) such as 8 VW 1:87 Beetles (260), a Bedford Fire Engine (255), a Bedford Esso Tanker (250) and a Bedford Tow Truck (256)....

And here is part of the paperwork that came with this set showing some of the town scene that could be built with this huge set (roadways were not included, these shown are not LEGO).....

Note: some of the models in this large Educational set may look familiar... there were enough parts to build two 717 Junior Constructor Sets, and two 801 Rocket Sets... both Samsonite LEGO exclusives. The 2 red and yellow models are the 717 Junior Constructor primary model, and one of the secondary models.

Edited July 16, 2012 by LEGO Historian

[SNIPE]

Wait a minute, I forgot to mention that the box size is as a 3d total, so it isn't just the longest box its the one with the largest volume.

[legomr]

Not sure if the 9020 Starter Set is a fair comparison as it's not really Lego Bricks in the usual sense and contains less than 100 parts: http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItem.asp?S=9020-1

7100 seems to be unbeatable at the moment, with a whopping 63946 cubic cm...

closely followed by the 10030 Star Destroyer with respectable 62357 cubic cm...

and the Millenium Falcon a distant third with 60387 cubic cm.

For comparison, the 10188 Death Star still measures 59620 cubic cm, the Super Star Destroyer 52040 cubic cm, and the Taj Mahal a mere 37921 cubic cm.

(All measurements except 7100 taken from Bricklink.)

[davee123]

  On 7/17/2012 at 12:33 PM, legomr said:

Not sure if the 9020 Starter Set is a fair comparison

Yeah, that's why I mentioned that it may not be quite in line. It's simply the biggest LEGO box for a LEGO product that I'm aware of offhand. As stated, I expect there are even bigger boxes that contained things like playtables and such.

There are quite a few caveats you could consider, like:

1) Is it an "education" brand? Stuff from LEGO Education/Dacta/etc are often meant for classrooms, NOT for individual people. Hence, you could argue that if it's from one of these, it might not really qualify. You could argue that for #7100, where it's meant for a classroom of kids.

2) Was it sold retail? Some stuff was never sold retail, or at least *general* retail. Some things are "custom", or otherwise not for general retail, so they might have HUGE boxes. That could be reason to discount anything at that level.

3) Is it a "bundle" or "combo" set? In some cases, LEGO associates a product number with MANY sets, or many COPIES of a set. For instance, LEGO Education might sell 16 copies of a kit, boxed together with a single set number. I've never ordered one of these, but it might ALSO raise a question of whether or not the packaging actually contains the "set number" in question (and isn't just a generic shipping box).

4) Does it contain actual LEGO building elements? In some cases, like playtables, sorting cabinets, etc., there aren't any actual building bricks, so it might not be worth considering.

5) Does it contain LEGO "System" elements? You might want to discount things that include other scales of LEGO, like DUPLO, LEGO Soft, Primo, Quatro, ZNAP, Scala, Clikits, "Jumbo", Modulex, etc. They might contain "building elements", but they're not quite the same thing (as is the case with #9020).

Anyway, I would guess the ISD could be the biggest in the strictest sense of the above (disallow 1,2,3,4,5), and 7100 is likely the winner if you disallow 3,4,5. And #9020 might be the biggest if you disallow 3,4. I suppose it COULD be the biggest if you allowed ANYTHING, but I doubt that pretty highly. ... I just don't have an example handy of a box that's bigger.

DaveE

Edited July 17, 2012 by davee123

[LEGO Historian]

The 7100 was called an "Educational Set" (along with a smaller 750 wooden box set)... if you look at the brochure that lists it (on the previous page), it mentions a retail price of $100... with a "special price" of $75 for educational or institutional entities.

Below is a 1965 Samsonite LEGO Retailer Order form (dated Aug. 65)... and it mentions both the 7100 and smaller 750 wooden box sets as being available for retailers to sell in their stores.... along with all the other regular LEGO sets and parts packs that were available at that time in the USA.

So the 7100 was available via LEGO retailers... whether or not many of them ever carried it is another question.

Today, a set like this would not have likely been available thru LEGO retailers... but probably only thru the LEGO Education website.

Was the ISD available thru retailers, or only thru S@H?

[davee123]

  On 7/17/2012 at 7:19 PM, LEGO Historian said:

Was the ISD available thru retailers, or only thru S@H?

I'm pretty sure that the UCS ISD was available at Toys 'R Us in the USA. And I *THINK* some select TRU's also had the UCS Millennium Falcon. I seem to remember seeing a box of one at TRU with a security device wrapped around it, unless I'm misremembering.

I also believe that a bunch of other UCS sets were available retail (but not all of them):

7181 - UCS TIE Interceptor - Definitely normal retail

7191 - UCS X-Wing - Definitely normal retail

10019 - UCS Rebel Blockade Runner - Definitely normal retail

10026 - UCS Naboo Fighter - Definitely normal retail

10030 - UCS ISD - Pretty sure normal retail

10179 - UCS Millenium Falcon - I think normal retail?

7194 - UCS Yoda - Not sure...

10018 - UCS Darth Maul - S@H only?

10129 - UCS Snowspeeder - S@H only? (and LBR)

10134 - UCS Y-Wing - S@H only? (and LBR)

10143 - UCS Death Star - S@H only? (and LBR)

10174 - UCS AT-ST - S@H only? (and LBR)

10175 - UCS Darth's TIE - S@H only? (and LBR)

10186 - UCS General Greivous - S@H only? (and LBR)

10212 - UCS Imperial Shuttle - S@H only? (and LBR)

10215 - UCS Jedi Starfighter - S@H only? (and LBR)

10221 - UCS SSD - S@H only? (and LBR)

10225 - UCS R2-D2 - S@H only? (and LBR)

10227 - UCS B-Wing - S@H only? (and LBR)

I... *think*... that's right. But that's from memory, admittedly.

DaveE

[SNIPE]

As far as the 5 things go, Id say that anything like playtables count as lego, non offitial LEGO boxes and packaging on top of the official box do not count, anything like ZNAP, count as LEGO educational sets are included, as for set bundles well I've never seen one of those before. non retail sets are also included, explaining why they wouldn't be is... complicated.