LEGO Historian Posted August 10, 2013 Posted August 10, 2013 (edited) When TLG started the first Town System sets back in 1955 as The Town Plan, they were very much trying to get adults to be interested in LEGO, as well as children... they tried this for nearly 10 years, until the mid 1960s, when they quit doing so, and from then onward LEGO ads and commercials were always geared to children (with the exception of Duplo, which occasionally showed moms playing with the young children). One of my new Unofficial LEGO Sets/Parts Collectors Guide's new chapters (free to current owners as well as new buyers)... shows this early LEGO attempt at the adult audience... Here is one of the first LEGO images with children and adults... a historic 1955 image showing LEGO owner (then Junior Director) Godtfred Kirk Christiansen, with his 3 children (KKK, Gunhild and Hanne), along with his older nephew Jörgen... And here is the new Chapter 74 - EARLY ADULT (AFOL) AND CHILDREN LEGO IMAGES (1955-65)... http://www.youblishe...Y-TLG-CAMPAIGN/ Lots of interesting Town Scenes... Enjoy! Gary Istok P.S. This Chapter is still a work in progress... Edited August 10, 2013 by LEGO Historian Quote
Hey Joe Posted August 11, 2013 Posted August 11, 2013 Hey, it's interesting, thanks. However, I thought YOU were the first AFOL Gary? Joe Quote
LEGO Historian Posted August 13, 2013 Author Posted August 13, 2013 Damn.... Joe... I thought I could sneak that one past.... Quote
Captain Green Hair Posted August 15, 2013 Posted August 15, 2013 Oh it looks great, love the sky scraper picture! Quote
1974 Posted August 15, 2013 Posted August 15, 2013 No, the first AFOL was Ole, born 1891. Gary may be older than ABS, but he is not that old Quote
LEGO Historian Posted August 16, 2013 Author Posted August 16, 2013 No, the first AFOL was Ole, born 1891. Gary may be older than ABS, but he is not that old Older than ABS... ... never thought of it like that... Mercifully Ole Kirk was born even before my grandparents... Quote
peterab Posted August 18, 2013 Posted August 18, 2013 Older than ABS... ... never thought of it like that... I don't ever want to think of that again Quote
LEGO Historian Posted August 19, 2013 Author Posted August 19, 2013 That first image with Godtfred Kirk Christiansen with his 3 children Kjeld, Hanne and Gunhild, as well as his nephew (older boy) Jörgen may look familiar to old time German LEGO collectors. This image shows the ONLY time that Godtfred Kirk Christiansen was EVER on a LEGO box. That would be the box tops to 1956-57 German and Austrian spare parts packs. It seems that someone added artwork to disguise him from view as a Policeman. Note the identical poses of everyone.... Very few at TLG knew that it was GKC on the box top... Cheers, Gary Istok Quote
CoolerTD Posted August 20, 2013 Posted August 20, 2013 А great selection of photos, very interesting, thank you for sharing with us this Quote
LEGO Historian Posted August 20, 2013 Author Posted August 20, 2013 Thanks CoolerTD!! Hanne, the little girl, is the one who died in 1969 (at age 18) in a car accident when the car in which she was a passenger skidded off a slippery road on the way to see a movie in a nearby town from Billund. Her older brother Kjeld (22 at the time) was severely injured, but recovered. To this day Kjeld will not talk about that accident. Kjeld and his surviving sister Gunhild are today the owners of Kirkbi A/S, the company that owns TLG. Quote
LEGO Historian Posted August 21, 2013 Author Posted August 21, 2013 Here's an image of LEGO founder Ole Kirk Christiansen with his 4 sons in 1957 at the 25th Anniversary of the 1932 founding of the LEGO company. Within a year Ole Kirk would be dead at 67 of health problems that he had for several years (requiring him to spend a lot of time in the warmer climate of Germany in the mid 1950s). The 4 sons are (left to right)... Karl George, Gerhardt, (Ole), Johannes, and Godtfred Kirk. After the February 4, 1960 fire of the wooden toy warehouse/factory... managing director Godtfred decided not to rebuild, and stay with plastic toys. This did not sit well with his brothers, and within 2 years Godtfred Kirk bought out his brothers shares of TLG, and became sole owner... a move that the descendants of the other brothers would likely regret today. Here's an image of the Godtfred Kirk Christiansen family during happier times.... in a 1962 photo for a German newspaper, with mother Edith, son Kjeld, father Godtfred Kirk, daughter Hanne and elder daughter Gunhild... Kjeld, his sister Gunhild Kirk Johansen, and his mother Edith are still with us today, although Edith must be in the upper 80s to early 90s by now. All of these images are from Chapter 73 of my Unofficial LEGO Sets/Parts Collectors Guide as DVD/download... that chapter has LEGO Sales/History by country. Quote
LEGO Historian Posted September 15, 2013 Author Posted September 15, 2013 (edited) Just recently came across something very interesting... The first LEGO was produced starting in 1949 by TLG Denmark in 1949... and called Automatic Binding Bricks.... made of Cellulose Acetate. (I may be older than ABS, but NOT older than Cellulose Acetate!!) The following year... 1950... TLG licensed a company in Gislaved Sweden to produce LEGO for the Swedish market. TLG has no records of this... and the company in Gislaved... called Geas Konstharts... is no longer in business. Geas Konstharts was a plastics maker. Here is a circa 1950-51 Automatic Binding Bricks set made from Geas in Sweden... (images from my LEGO collector friend Joao Mimoso of Portugal).... I've been trying to find information on the Geas company and just kept hitting brick walls in Google. Finally I tried a Swedish language Google search, and it gave me a hit for a 1947 Swedish Business Directory... which is located in the lower right corner of this image... It seems that the Geas company made electrical components (sockets, plugs and electrical components)...and these were made of "bakelit"... which is a 1907 discovered plastic known as BAKELITE. Bakelite was usefull in much of the 20th century for electrical components, and game board pieces (such as chess and backgammon pieces). Bakelite was also used for making Art Deco era jewelry and old plastic radios. Bakelite is a plastic that many very highly collecible items were made from.... such as old radios... https://www.google.c...4&bih=655&dpr=1 In the above image is a closeup of the Geas Automatic Binding Bricks box from Sweden, and an EBAY 1930s era Bakelite napkin holder... notice the nearly identical colors and finishes? So from 1949 until 1953 the Danish Automatic Binding Bricks, and the subsequent LEGO bricks until the 1960s were made of Cellulose Acetate, and since 1963 of ABS plastic. But the 1950 until about 1953 Geas Automatic Binding Bricks were made of Bakelite.... a plastic that is rarely used today, since it is so expensive to make. The folks at TLG Archives have no information on the Geas sets, nor that Bakelite was used... very interesting.... Here is an image from a Swedish Museum of a Geas set (the lighting is subdued in the photo, so the parts look dull)... notice the Geas catalog.... And here are 3 Geas sets that were found in an attic in Sweden... all Bakelite bricks... And here are 4 different catalogs showing the same set... the 700/1 TLG and Geas Sets... with a PRIMA set box (also made by Geas once TLG disallowed them to switch to the "LEGO" name in 1953, once TLG Automatic Binding Bricks switched to TLG LEGO). So Geas sets later became PRIMA sets from about 1953-55. Then in 1955 TLG opened their own LEGO subsidiary called A/B Lundby in another Swedish town called Lerum... and the Geas company had to stop all Bakelite brick production that resembled LEGO. Geas and PRIMA... the "un-LEGO".... Chapter 2 of my LEGO DVD/download talks ad nauseum on Automatic Binding Bricks (both TLG and Geas), PRIMA, and also Norwegian Automatic Binding Bricks... info you won't find anywhere else... not even in the LEGO Archives.... Gary Istok Edited September 15, 2013 by LEGO Historian Quote
LEGO Historian Posted September 17, 2013 Author Posted September 17, 2013 1957 was the last of LEGO before the tube bottom brick patent was introduced in January 1958... it was also the last full year of LEGO founder Ole Kirk Christiansen's life, since he would die in the beginning of 1958. But 1957 was also the 25th Year Silver Anniversary of the 1932 founding of TLG. And this historic TLG image produced in the middle of 1957 (prior to the August 12 birthday.... showed the entire range of LEGO items produced that year... the items on the left side of the picture were the wooden toys that TLG made, the items on the right were the plastic toys (mainly the System of Play) that TLG made... As mentioned earlier in this thread, the February 4, 1960 the wooden toy warehouse and factory burned down, and all the toys on the left side of this image were discontinued to concentrate on the Plastic LEGO System of Play parts and sets seen on the right. This image from Chapter 73 - LEGO Sales/History by Country... of my LEGO DVD/download. Quote
Hey Joe Posted September 17, 2013 Posted September 17, 2013 Interesting. They really produced a large range of wooden toys, didn't they? It must be very difficult to find those in decent condition nowadays. Did they put any sort of Lego mark on the toys? Which book are those photos from, the comb-bound one above? Thanks a lot! Joe Quote
LEGO Historian Posted September 17, 2013 Author Posted September 17, 2013 (edited) Hey Joe... that book is the 1957 25th Anniversary LEGO Book of about 50 pages. This very rare book was only given to employees and a few business customers. By August 1957 when this book came out, there were only 140 LEGO employees. So the entire production could not have more than 200-300 copies... making this very rare indeed!! Wish I had a copy!! As to what the LEGO marking was on the wooden toys... From 1936-1944 the upper logo was used here. From 1944-1960 the lower colorful logo (with some variations over the years) was used for wooden LEGO toys... These 2 are among the 36 different LEGO logos used from 1936-present. Of these 36 logos, 34 were used from 1936-72. Edited September 17, 2013 by LEGO Historian Quote
Lasse Posted September 17, 2013 Posted September 17, 2013 If somebody wants to read the whole 1957 book, it can be found on this dutch website: http://www.miniland.nl/Historie/25%20jaar%20lego%20boek.htm Quote
LEGO Historian Posted September 17, 2013 Author Posted September 17, 2013 Yes Lasse, that's Clark Bakker's book images. He was very luck to find such a rare LEGO book! Hey Joe... here are some more LEGO logo images of the past... Quote
Hey Joe Posted September 19, 2013 Posted September 19, 2013 If somebody wants to read the whole 1957 book, it can be found on this dutch website: http://www.miniland....r lego boek.htm Yes Lasse, that's Clark Bakker's book images. He was very luck to find such a rare LEGO book! Hey Joe... here are some more LEGO logo images of the past... Hey, thanks guys! Joe Quote
LEGO Historian Posted September 23, 2013 Author Posted September 23, 2013 (edited) One of the more interesting photos from that 1957 25th Anniversary LEGO book is from this page on the right.... This image in the upper right is a reverse negative image of a LEGO artist designing a set box image. The set that he is designing is the 1957-59 version of the 308/1308 Fire Station Set, as seen here (image from my friend Rohnny from Belgium).... Here is a blow up of the correction of the reverse negative image of the box design and artist, showing the 308/1308... OK... as I'm posting these images, I had another revelation (and this gets pretty complex).... This image shows the first design of this boxed set. However... this image is a mirror image of the finally produced box. If this was a image reversal error... then this above image should have the word "LEGO" spelled backwards! So what it appears to have happened is that they took a reverse image of this box as the final box design (with the word "LEGO" spelled the correct way around). Anybody still following me?? Edited September 23, 2013 by LEGO Historian Quote
LEGO Historian Posted September 25, 2013 Author Posted September 25, 2013 It was this topic of the LEGO Fire Station that got me off on another tangent... the first LEGO Town model sets that were introduced in 1956-57. These 5 sets use the very highly collectible LEGO 1:87 vehicles. I posted these set images and history in Eurobricks General Discussions... http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=83307&st=25 Quote
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