LEGO Historian Posted May 7, 2013 (edited) I have a good Dutch LEGO friend named Richard Bintanja. A while ago he got a very old LEGO set from the mid 1950s. He got it for a good price, but wasn't at all sure that all the parts in the set were original. Here's the box top... the LEGO Mursten... Mursten = Bricks in Danish, Norwegian and Swedish. This 700/1 basic set was sold in only these 3 countries from 1953-55 (only starting in 1955 for Sweden). These early LEGO sets had the bricks nicely displayed in a lower box in a checkerboard pattern, with a cellophane shrink wrap cover holding them in place. But once the shrink wrap was gone... mayhem took over... and the original set layout was often lost forever... Here we see in this circa 1954 700/1 basic set... the LEGO mayhem in full bloom!.... The windows/doors on these old LEGO Mursten sets were of 2 types... the oldest flat windows/doors that were produced from 1949-56 of the Automatic Binding Bricks type... and the 1954-56 tall classic windows/doors with "glass". These nice windows did not have studs on top... but had "wings" on the sides that fit into the slotted bricks to stay in place. For a 1 year period (throughout 1954) these 2 window/door types were found in basic sets simultaneously. As I said, Richard wasn't sure if these parts were original to this set, several collectors said no... but I said.... not so fast... let's see how they fit inside the box.... and try "checkerboarding" the bricks... So then this was what he came up with.... I said... well..... it looks like you got the wrong parts in the wrong partitions... try putting the bricks into the smallest partitions........ This seemed to have been the ideal location of the bricks, although a 1x2 blue and 2x2 yellow brick appear to be missing, and were later added. I mentioned that he should change the location of the baseplate and windows/door to the middle, and integrate the yellow/red bricks into the checkerboard layout... Well there's a saying in English that fits here... "it's what I asked for... but not what I want"... So I sent him a diagram of how to incorporate all of the colors into a checkerboard layout... and this is what came about.... Well this was the final redesign... and it got a lot of WOWs... from friends and skeptic's alike... In fact he even got offers to buy this now-determined-to-be-original set, for at least twice what he initially payed for this. This checkerboard layout was how this set likely looked when it was brand new, and restoring it to its' original state shows off some of the "poetry" of how early LEGO looked in its original packed state. Most of the 1949-65 LEGO basic sets were packed in this checkerboard design... but few came out looking so nicely, as seen in these colors!! In chapters 2 and 5 of my Unofficial LEGO Sets/Parts Collectors Guide, I show how these sets were originally packed, often showing old LEGO Retailer catalog images with this multicolor packing technique. Poetry in LEGO.... Gary Istok P.S. These early LEGO sets had "art cards"... cards that would fit into the slots on the sides of these early LEGO slotted bricks. You could easily build a LEGO picture frame with these! Edited May 7, 2013 by LEGO Historian Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Hey Joe Posted May 8, 2013 Interesting, thanks. Joe Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
LEGO Historian Posted May 8, 2013 Thanks! Here's a 1959-60 700/0 large basic set box.... And here's a large 700/0 set of 1961-65. From 1955-65 most of these sets had just red and white bricks.... with a few trans-clear ones. Also, 2x8 and 2x10 bricks were included... which added unfortunate disunity to the checkerboard look.... Here is a 1960 LEGO Retailer Binder image of some LEGO basic sets.... And here is one of my 1953-54 Retailer Catalog "cheat sheets"... I have many of these old retailer catalog images in my Unofficial LEGO Sets/Parts Collectors Guide on DVD/download... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Peppermint_M Posted May 8, 2013 Oh... Pretty! That is something you'd want to get a deep photo/art frame for and mount it on the wall. You know, if light damage wasn't a risk Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Alternator Posted May 8, 2013 Thanks for posting this - I hadn't seen pics of Lego sets of that age before... Imagine some of the kids that got those those sets, getting back into collecting now; dark ages for half a century! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
LEGO Historian Posted May 8, 2013 Thanks for posting this - I hadn't seen pics of Lego sets of that age before... Imagine some of the kids that got those those sets, getting back into collecting now; dark ages for half a century! Alternator... you must be psychic!! A Portuguese collector friend of mine Joao Mimoso underwent exactly what you described... he was in the dark ages for 45 years!! Here is his story of how his late mother saved all the sets he had as a child, but never told him that he saved them, until he went thru her estate after she passed away... a very touching and informative story!! http://www.legos.tabacaria.com.pt/Textos/collPort.htm I owe a lot of knowledge about the still relatively obscure story behind Portuguese LEGO based on Joao's anecdotal evidence!! I knew that TLG never made Portugues printed bricks... but always wondered what they did sell there?? As it turns out... they sold the Swiss printed bricks parts pack... including Swiss box... and using mainly the international language bricks. Gary Istok Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Collector245 Posted November 1, 2019 (edited) Hello, I am sorry to bump such an old topic but my question is very relevant to this topic. I have a Lego Mursten 700/3A and I need help with the contents. My set is Swedish and seems to be a later version that was packed by the seller with earlier bricks. 1: this set has a mix of dogbone and blockletter font on the bricks. 2: This set has an ABB baseplate not a 700/e baseplate. 3: My set has a mix of 3 different colors of bricks while I have heard later versions only have 2 colors. Maybe @LEGO Historian could help? I have attached pictures below. If you need more information please feel free to ask. Thanks for your help, William Edited November 1, 2019 by Collector245 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
LEGO Historian Posted November 4, 2019 Hi, Yes it looks like your seller pack the box exactly like this set from a Portuguese collector... this image is 10 years old.... https://www.inverso.pt/legos/Pt2/txt/700/700_3A_Dk01.htm This Portuguese collector put together the box (which was empty) as he thought it should look like (your seller must have used this image as a guide to pack the box). Sweden started selling LEGO in March 1955. By then all the Swedish 700/x basic sets should have only had red and white bricks (with 2 clear 2x4s). The windows would have been the tall classic windows/door (of 1954-56). The last page of this Nov. 1954 leaflet shows what a 700/3A set of 1955 should build. The 10x20 baseplate color is not important, but it should be a thick baseplate, and not a thin 10x20 ABB baseplate. https://www.inverso.pt/legos/Pt2/txtBk/54a.htm Also, the windows/doors were not always red. I have seen examples of some with other colors (yellow, green, orange, blue)... all very rare colors for the tall classic 1954-56 windows/doors, or even the common white. Gary Istok Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Collector245 Posted November 4, 2019 (edited) @LEGO Historian Thank you so much. I was also wondering if the bricks should have the dogbone logo or the blockletter logo? Edited November 4, 2019 by Collector245 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
LEGO Historian Posted November 12, 2019 On 11/4/2019 at 6:32 AM, Collector245 said: @LEGO Historian Thank you so much. I was also wondering if the bricks should have the dogbone logo or the blockletter logo? The block letter logo is earlier than the dogbone font, but since TLG never threw anything away, mixing bricks in the same set is not unusual. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Collector245 Posted November 13, 2019 @LEGO Historian I tried to lay it out correctly (with the bricks I had). Do you know anybody that is selling or willing to trade the Items I need to complete the set? (just some red and white slotted bricks and a set of tall classic windows/door)? If you do know somebody that would like to sell/trade for these items you have my email or you can send me a PM, whatever you prefer. I am sorry I can not post a picture because eurobricks has an image size limit. I have described the parts I need to the best of my abilities. Thank you for your help. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
LEGO Historian Posted November 24, 2019 On 11/12/2019 at 7:24 PM, Collector245 said: @LEGO Historian I tried to lay it out correctly (with the bricks I had). Do you know anybody that is selling or willing to trade the Items I need to complete the set? (just some red and white slotted bricks and a set of tall classic windows/door)? If you do know somebody that would like to sell/trade for these items you have my email or you can send me a PM, whatever you prefer. I am sorry I can not post a picture because eurobricks has an image size limit. I have described the parts I need to the best of my abilities. Thank you for your help. I don't know any particular seller that will part with his old LEGO, but there are some sellers on Bricklink that will. You have to look under the parts section under "CLASSIC".... https://www.bricklink.com/catalogList.asp?catType=P&catString=423&itemBrand=1000 In order to save shipping costs, this one Danish seller seems to have a lot of the parts you might need... https://store.bricklink.com/iggugak?itemID=124186772#/shop?o={"itemType":"P","catID":"423","showHomeItems":0} Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Collector245 Posted November 27, 2019 Sounds good. I asked because there is another store I know of that sells slotted bricks but it is closed right now. I may wait to see which one can give me a better deal. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
