When did LEGO catalogs in sets disappear?

[badbob001]

When I played with LEGO sets in my youth during the 80s, I remember every box coming with a little catalog of the currently available sets and I would spend so much time studying these tiny tiny photos, most likely imagining half of the details. To me, it was like an extra treat included in the box. But sets these days doesn't seem to have the catalog anymore, though I may have seen a tiny duplo-specific catalog in a duplo set a few years back.

Just curious, but does anyone know when LEGO stopped including the catalogs (I know you can request a catalog book from LEGO)? I suppose with LEGO being so readily available in retailers and LEGO-branded stores and of course the availability of information from the Internet, catalogs are really not needed. I suspect this is another cost saving decision coupled with there being too many LEGO sets to fit into a little catalog. But I think it's rather nice to browse a catalog, especially when they include a diorama of all related sets together.

[Hrw-Amen]

I also recall them, they used to be every where. I cannot say when they stopped them, but I am not sure I got them in my Insectoid sets that I bought, These were I believe the last sets I purchased before my dark age and I am certain they did not contain any catalogs.

At least you still get a fell for the range nowadays in most of them, they usually give details of other sets that come in the particular series if not the whole range.

[LEGO Historian]

I guess LEGO catalogs became a victim of TLGs success.

All sets since day 1 in 1949 had catalogs (except for some reason there was never a 1953 LEGO catalog produced... just a 4 page idea booklet that came with the sets). Early catalogs were just 1 sheet of paper... with info on the front and back... and it wasn't until 1964-65 that catalogs started getting bigger. By 1967 they were 16 pages.

In the 1970s all sets came with at least a mini or medium sized catalog, and larger sets had the full sized ones, sometimes folded in half, other times not. By the 1980s even larger sets may have had only a medium sized catalog... as LEGO catalogs became much more voluminous, as well as more costly to print.

... and today we don't see full sized catalogs or even medium sized catalogs, except from the LEGO retailer. I know that there were some exceptions with some sets, with TLG there always are!

But with the advent of the internet and online LEGO Shop at Home... I guess the need for LEGO catalogs isn't as great as it once was...

[zux]

Well I remember LEGO System sets in 90s had those one sheet 3-4 times folded "catalogs". And primary side was of the same theme as bought set and if I remember correctly it had a different diorama rather than in in store catalogue for same theme. This thing was very interesting and inspiring! I could study those for ages at that time

[Aanchir]

Yeah, those mini-catalogs used to be quite common in sets. I imagine the reason they stopped was for two main reasons: the first is obviously cost-cutting, but the second is that nowadays such things are no longer as necessary with the Internet becoming more accessible worldwide. Why print a mini-catalog out when you can just include the URL of your website on the box?

[LEGO Historian]

Agreed... also with mid year releases, catalogs now become too dated too quickly.

I remember how the years 1964-66 were strange years for LEGO catalogs in Europe. There were 3 catalogs in 2 years... 1) a Jan. 1964 to Oct. 1964 catalog, 2) a Nov. 1964 to Apr. 1965 catalog, and 3) a May 1965 to Dec. 1965 catalog. Then when 1966 started up again... there was a later version of the 1966 catalog that had LEGO trains and motors.

[badbob001]

I agree that the greater frequency that LEGO releases new sets easily makes any catalog obsolete. There use to be a mom-and-pa toy store near me and you can easily find new and old sets. Of course they didn't carry all the sets so the catalogs were very much needed. These days with big chain stores, old sets are quickly retired and taken off the shelves.

[Palathadric]

Where can I download the pdfs of the old LEGO catalogues? Need to get some nostalgia back.

[LEGO Historian]

Brickfactory and Peeron... although Peeron has been on life supports for some time now... I'm not even sure they still keep up their catalog pages with new ones...

But those are not PDFs... just image (page) downloads....

But I can see why you'd want a PDF... modern catalogs are pretty lengthy...

Edited October 8, 2013 by LEGO Historian

[Blondie-Wan]

Brickfactory and Peeron... although Peeron has been on life supports for some time now... I'm not even sure they still keep up their catalog pages with new ones...

I'd noticed that in recent years. For a while after I came out of my dark ages it was an excellent resource, but it seems that in the last two or three years the updates have become very sporadic; there are mass-market sets from 2010 that still don't have parts inventories, never mind sets from more recently than that. I wish it weren't so, but there it is.

As far as catalogs in sets go, I do know they were still around as recently as the early 2000s, as I have some that cover sets up to at least 2002 and I think 2003 or 2004. I think I stopped seeing them, though, in new sets from around 2004 or 2005; certainly they seem to have completely disappeared by 2006. I'm at work and away from my LEGO at the moment, but I want to say the last ones were in 2004, though I might be off by a year in either direction.

Edited October 8, 2013 by Blondie-Wan

[Kivi]

Well, 30011 Police Dinghy from 2010 has this kind of 'catalog' printed on back side of the instructions, though the reason for including it might just as well be the fact the instructions are extremely short and consequently something had to be put on the other side. But nevertheless it is a nice reminder of these mini fold-out catalogs from classic town/castle/space era.

[Lego Otaku]

It's not much of catalog. Just a few items related to the set you have. I do remember the separate catalog before my dark age in early 2000, and not seeing any since then when I came back to LEGO.

Stand alone catalog had to have been phased out in early to mid 2000.

[kermit]

I remember those catalogs. They came in the space sets I got. I remember spending hours looking at the various sets in the catalog and analyzing them.

[Carrera124]

Just curious, but does anyone know when LEGO stopped including the catalogs (I know you can request a catalog book from LEGO)?

I don't know, but I guess the reason is that today, much more new sets are released during one year.

Even the "big" printed catalog is updated twice per year.

If today's sets would be equipped with 80ies- like printede catalogs, these catalogs would be outdated nearly right after they were printed... and if a set is sitting in a store for 1-2 years, it would still contain a catalog that shows many sets which aren't available any more.

[naf]

I noticed this when I got out of my dark ages, and it doesn't really surprise me. Probably a combination of cost cutting/internet and the fact that there are a lot more themes now than there used to be, making the catalog larger and more expensive to print.

I have a pile of those old catalogs from the 80's and early 90's. It's always fun to browse through them. Each theme had a big scene that included all of the sets currently available on a nice looking backdrop (moon for space, a Caribbean island for pirates, etc) I used to circle the sets I wanted for Christmas or birthdays and give the catalogs to my parents

[badbob001]

I used to circle the sets I wanted for Christmas or birthdays and give the catalogs to my parents

I remember looking looking long and hard at a tiny 1-inch catalog photo of the Main Street set, then drawing a larger version on paper, and taping it up next to my parent's bed. You know, just to put the idea out there.

Never got it.

[badbob001]

I remember those catalogs. They came in the space sets I got. I remember spending hours looking at the various sets in the catalog and analyzing them.

And when I was done with the catalogs, I would look through the LEGO Idea books, which were like the catalog dioramas in that current sets are displayed, but then they are also expanded greatly. I never had the parts to build most of the stuff in the books but it sure was fun to look through them. But I would imagine that many of the ideas were designed to be possible to be built if one bought ALL the sets or multiple copies of some sets. I know there are similar third-party books these days, but I think it may be even harder to build those ideas since they are not directly tied to existing sets. Of course as adults, we can order parts from multiple places, but that seems more expensive than simply buying current sets.

I wish LEGO would produce dioramas in their current catalogs. They have physical ones in some retailers so why not in the catalog? I would think it would make you want to buy multiple sets.

[Blondie-Wan]

I remember looking looking long and hard at a tiny 1-inch catalog photo of the Main Street set, then drawing a larger version on paper, and taping it up next to my parent's bed. You know, just to put the idea out there.

It was a nice try!

[1974]

I just LOVE those old catalogues! I have a complete collection of the large catalogues from 1983 to 1992 (and a bunch of small ones, many posters etc) and of course all the Idea Books. I still think TLG could sell them (Idea Books, I mean) but sadly they don't care. There are several other people doing new 'Idea Book's and they problably sell well. Enough for No Starch Press to make it worthwhile I guess

Yes, there's the internet, but I do know that my old paper stuff is a highlight for my son and his friends when they come around

[CP5670]

I'm a big fan of the catalogs as well, having spent countless hours staring at them as a kid. I think they disappeared in 2004, around the time TLG had their big reorganization. One advantage of catalogs is that they are permanent. The websites for themes from even 3 or 4 years ago have been removed from the Lego site, but the catalogs don't change and remain snapshots of the past. At least we still get the S@H catalogs and occasionally dioramas in the back of the instructions.

[1974]

Yes, dear CP5670 .. catalogues are so ever permanent (well, nothing is infinite, but they'll last my - and my son's - lifetime). One should not forget about tangible documents like that in this modern brave new virtual world. They still make a powerfull impression on young LEGO builders (<- and some of them will become AFOLs with a lot of money to spend in the future). I wonder if they'll collect snapshots of 201X websites in 203X?

(Sigh, did I just earn the 'old fart' tag here?)

[badbob001]

This may be something that may never happen, but it would be sad if one day they no longer included the printed manuals but have you access the manual electronically.

[Aanchir]

Yes, dear CP5670 .. catalogues are so ever permanent (well, nothing is infinite, but they'll last my - and my son's - lifetime). One should not forget about tangible documents like that in this modern brave new virtual world. They still make a powerfull impression on young LEGO builders (<- and some of them will become AFOLs with a lot of money to spend in the future). I wonder if they'll collect snapshots of 201X websites in 203X?

(Sigh, did I just earn the 'old fart' tag here?)

I've learned a lot of things from old catalogs. A while back I went through a lot of the catalog scans on Peeron and Brickfactory to compare LEGO Space and Castle set names from different countries to see if I could pick up any valuable story/marketing tidbits. It was fascinating work. Nowadays, with so much of this stuff either not being printed in catalogs or not being scanned and uploaded online subsequently, it could be a lot harder to do this in the future. Of course, these days the story and marketing for themes is more homogenous, so there may not be so much to learn, but it'll still be a bit of a loss if this is not recorded (especially since so many online LEGO databases, even today, exclusively use the English set names).

[Galaxy Explorer]

2003 was the last year I received a product catalog in a set. It had the new Creator line featured on the cover, and was updated for the fall. Those catalogs were an obsession for me when I was young, as it was the only way to find out about all the new sets coming out that year. I remember buying a set just to get the catalog- I had to make sure I bought a big enough set to get the full booklet and not a little fold out one. Every once in a while, I would get a catalog from overseas, which had a very different selection of sets I was not aware of. That was very frustrating to see a bunch of sets I couldn't get to!

[WaysofSorting]

I love the old catalogs and dioramas they used to have. I never blinked that parts were lego and parts were clearly not. I think there should be a term for when you are out of the Dark Ages, but then willingly revert back to some more innocent state - when a sheet could be water and the ocean doesn't necessarily have to be a bazillion 1x1 trans clear round studs. I love re-embracing LEGO as a child would, not really caring if I'm being Purist, or doing TPU, or what. Just telling a good story and being happy.

That's what the catalogs mean to me. I never felt they were mis-representing anything or being dishonest trying to sell me anything or get me to give up my valuable information. They were honest displays of product, not some glossy soulless, overly-focus-grouped marketing ploy. And I would pour over them for hours.

I'd love to see some "homages" to this being used to market the new LEGO Movie and sets. I don't need it in physical form - a downloadable wallpaper would do. Hear me, TLG? Get out your foam mountains and trees and instagram-filters. Sell it to us like in the olden days...