LEGO Historian

I don't think you're likely to get a reply from facesad.... he posted his one and old comment back in Sept. 2013... and since his post count is still at ONE.... he hasn't posted another comment on Eurobricks in 6 months....

The FAO Schwarz flagship store on Fifth Ave. at 58th St. is a must see store... Although it is up-market, I think that the LEGO prices may be in line with MSRP prices. The store itself is an amazing place to visit... with all sorts of wonderful displays. The 150 year old FAO Schwarz name has sold LEGO in the USA since day one (Christmas 1961) of LEGO sales here. Back then Samsonite had the LEGO license, and there were many wonderful FAO Schwarz exclusive sets during the 1961-72 Samsonite era....

Thanks Mattfl.... I love the slogan back in the early 1960s for Samsonite LEGO.... when, it appears they weren't sticklers about capitalizing LEGO.... "Lego is the mind opener".....

Thanks Ridge Montante!! Joe Certa probably used the 1958 glued display image of that tower to come up with his artwork... but he didn't understand the workings of macaroni bricks or the classic 1x2x3 doors. each of the two side wings has 3 macaroni bricks (we can see the notches of 2 of them) facing away from us, and next door are 3 more macaroni bricks facing us (the inside curve)... and next to them is a classic door. But of course this odd arrangement all looks strange in what appears as a medium (almost Maersk) blue color. The original dark color would have been red. Also what is peculiar in this image are the 2 large windows on the main floor if the building. These are VW Showroom windows... which are shown here (from VW Showroom set 307 and parts pack 261)... The irony of these odd looking 3x8x3 windows (which are made of Cellulose Acetate and are NOTORIOUS for being warped beyond usability) is that they were never produced or sold by Samsonite LEGO for either the USA or Canada marketplace... but Joe Certa would never have known this.

Many people have discussed the corrosive effects of time on history. And this is so true about LEGO. So much of what has happened in the past about LEGO has unfortunately not been well documented, even by the LEGO Archives in Billund. However, this is by no means unique to our building toy. In my drive to squeeze every bit of information out of our distant collective LEGO past, I some times accidentally stumble onto some items... rather than research it. This was true in regards to a relatively obscure comic book illustrator by the name of Joe Certa. Mr. Certa worked for DC Comics back in the golden era of the 1950s. Interestingly enough very little is known about Joe Certa, except that he lived in California, worked for DC Comics for about 15 years, first produced the images for their Super Hero Martian Manhunter in 1955, worked freelance in the 1960s, produced the artwork for the Dark Shadows magazine, and retired in the 1970s. Also known is the fact that Joe Certa lived from 1919-1986. Joe Certa in the 1940s.... Fast forward to 2014.... the Martian Manhunter DC Super Hero that Joe Certa first drew in 1955 has been updated over the years... and in 2014 Martian Manhunter came out as a Super Hero Minifig Set 5002126.... This minifig super hero is a bit different from the Martian Manhunter that Joe Certa drew in the 1950s.... So far this is just the background on who designed a DC comic hero that many decades later became a LEGO minfig super hero. Now reverse 6 years to about 2008. In an Ebay auction that a friend brought to my attention, a group of nearly 100 artwork images of Joe Certa's estate were auctioned off in 1 block. Unfortunately I didn't have the money to buy it at the time... but I wish I did today. I'm sure that interest in the Joe Certa artwork would be very desireable by the Comic Book collectors crowd today. Anyway... in that auction of Joe Certa artwork were 2 images that caught my eye. One was for a Samsonite suitcase ad, during the time that LEGO in USA/Canada was licensed and sold by Samsonite Corporation. Here is the very high quality Samsonite ad artwork... not sure if it ever actually made it to an ad or not.... It was however another ad in this large group of artwork that caught my eye. And that was this 1963 Samsonite LEGO ad artowrk that Joe Certa produced... This ad artwork is very nicely produced, and Joe Certa's talents were never in question. However this artwork did tell us a few things about Joe Certa.... 1) he likely never had LEGO... since the way the boy in the artwork was holding the brick seems very odd to us today, 2) the windows/doors style seems very alien (no pun intended) to us... no LEGO windows ever looked like that, and the doors were disguised on the 2 side wings so that we would not guess them to be doors, and 3) the colors used, especially what looks like lime green and Maersk blue, were both unknown to LEGO builders of the 1960s. Also the use of LEGO doors along with the inside curve of macaroni bricks are totally disguised in the 2 side wings of this building. Also, when I first saw this artwork by Joe Certa, I knew I had seen that building design before... but couldn't place it right away. Eventually I remembered that it was a model (0711) from a 1958 continental European Glued Display Catatlog... in black/white. Also, the artwork layout also looked familiar to me, and eventually I found that it was from a 1963 LEGO magazine ad, which I had an image of. And here we have all 3... the original display model from a 1958 catalog (left), the Joe Certa artwork (middle) and the final 1963 magazine artwork image (right)... So now it came full circle... The Samsonite LEGO folks, while appreciating the artwork talents of Joe Certa, likely didn't agree with the interpretation of the LEGO building and colors used in the ad image. So they eventually opted instead to use a photograph of a LEGO building display with a human model, rather than the more abstract artwork from Joe Certa. So although Joe Certa never lived to actually see the day that his artwork acutally made it to LEGO in 2014... it's very interesting to see that his involvement with LEGO goes back some time. And it was only thru luck that we are able to know about his involvement with LEGO!! (From my new LEGO Collectors Guide chapter on LEGO Stories, Anecdotes and Histories! )

Good eyes... I hadn't noticed that... back in that era there weren't as many SNOT techniques used in LEGO display models (and virtually none in LEGO sets)... One thing I noticed was the minifig in the small house at the base of the castle... it had that very rare minifig white pigtail hairpiece... $$$ http://www.bricklink.com/catalogPG.asp?P=x103&colorID=1 Sigh... somewhere I have 2 of these sitting at the bottom of a super huge lot of unsorted LEGO!

Well got a really nice writeup from a French LEGO website.... merci mille fois!! http://www.city-brick.com/unofficial-lego-setsparts-collectors-guide/

Well a LEGO collector who bought my Unofficial LEGO Sets/Parts Collectors Guide (desktop download) just found some rare 1:87 LEGO items at a retailer in Switzerland... and bought these 5 retailer boxes up in a heartbeat... And for good reason.... they're worth a total of over 5,000 Euros!!

How about the ultimate vertical castle.... circa 1980 glued display model...

Well this brings up many interesting points in many different areas. One would definitely be quality. Mattel may try to bring up the quality of MegaBloks to LEGO standards. That would definitely make them more competitive. Another area would be the licensing. However, one area that Mattel may look at is this... What are the weaknesses of LEGO? And that is where they could make inroads into the LEGO unverse. One area where LEGO is very weak is that being a construction toy... they have a very very weak selection of variety of windows. And even those windows that they do have are not uniformly produced in many colors. Need I say more than "the back of headlight bricks"?? If Mattel were to produce an amazing array of windows for their product, then I could see them makeing some inroads into the LEGO market. But that's just one narrow area....

Something tells me that it would be a Generic Dr. Who... and any attempt at a "to scale" Tardis would probably involve a call box with the sides using a 1x4x6 window with decals for the sides of a similar vein as those used in Spiderman's Doc Ock's Hideout windows.... (note: this sticker sheet has 7 1x4x5 stickers)... Using stickered windows for the wall panels would be a good way to keep the Tardis to scale, and also keep the price down...

On to a different, more modern vehicle.... also very rare... OK... this 1985 Canadian 106 UNICEF Van Set, is very rare.... And the rare part (besides the box and instructions) are the two 1x4x3 printed panels with the UN emblem. There is a used blue panel (with scratches) in BL selling for $150. And then there's a single (no box, no instructions) used 106 set selling in BL for $1,499... (mighty pricey for 2 non-scratched panels!) Well that is a unique to Canada LEGO part. Then there is a unique to Germany part, which is still undocumented (although it is in my collectors guide... ) The 6661 Mobile TV Studio Set.... This unassuming 1989 set was sold in all countries. But a German TV station WDR (West Deutsche Rundfunk) had a LEGO executive whip up a few hundred or thousand promotional sets with a "WDR" emblem on the truck panes. The folks at the LEGO Archives in Billund, and the German LEGO marketing group have no records of this happening... but that doesn't mean it didn't happen. There are many known instances where TLG did things "under the table"... So there have been some German owners of 6661 sets with the polybags still sealed inside... that had the WDR on the 1x4x3 panels... (although the box and instructions show "TV").... As you can see, this close up shows that the WDR was overprinted on top of the earlier "TV" logo. Although not as valuable (yet) as the UNICEF logo... it's just a matter of time as this set starts becoming more well known, once online databases catch up. One BL friend of mine found the set at auction for only $60... which I told him to snatch up right away... for even 5 times that price!! Well he got it, without much fuss, at such a bargain. I try to tell people that there's a gold mine of rare and valuable parts out there... but so many seem to be more smitten with all the common new stuff... The old time collectors don't seem to mind though!

Hehehe... too bad Galidor LEGO sets weren't shown in the movie (haven't seen it yet).... It would be a refreshing change to see those stinkeroo sets flying off the shelf in BL stores...

As far as this entire discussion goes... it's over 1/3 of a century too late... The first female castle minifig already had a low neckline and jewelry in the 1979 Knight's Tournament Set 383... and the female pigtails hairstyle even predates minifigs going back to 1975 with the early minifig stiffs. So lets not make an issue of this 35 years later.... too little too late..

Here's what I call... "Poetry in LEGO".... This is the cover picture to my LEGO Collectors Guide chapter on 1965-90 Spare Parts Packs. A series of 5 spare parts boxes in a sort of 'Russian Nesting Dolls' type arrangement. Left to right the boxes originate from... 1) Britain, 2) Continental Europe, 3) USA/Canada, 4) USA/Canada, 5) Canada.....

The Fiat 1800 in black (fewer than a dozen known)...commanded $3250 at auction 3 years ago... and that's for a used model without an MISB box...

One of the coolest use of plastic for baseplate and other uses has to be the 1962-65 Architectural System (continentl Europe only) spare parts pack boxes... 518 (2x4 plates), 519 (2x3 plates), 520 (2x2 plates) and 521 (1x2/1x1 plates). These small parts packs had an outer sleeve that held a trans-clear plastic box (8x11x3) with a gray 8x11 baseplate (unique size only ever found in these parts packs). You could use the trans-clear box as interior support for your building projects, and the 8x11 gray plates for roofs. A very cool combination that was never repeated again by TLG... From my Collectors Guide chapter on the shortilved and unpopular Architectural Series of sets of 1962-65...

Unfortunately that's very difficult to say. I supplied the entry for the Bricklink database and images (I got the images from a British Columbia collector)... and I don't recall ever seeing one available for sale. Being a Canada only item, there would likely not have been altogether that many produced.

If only we had hindsight with so much about old LEGO.... Anyway, here's another Samsonite of Canada LEGO exclusive... the 1979 large #001 Classic LEGO Space Poster.... (size in inches)....

Scott.... shhhhhhhhhh!!!!! My vintage LEGO collector friends kindly ask that you not say that too loudly!! Hehehehe.... New collectors do seem to be preoccupied with the more common new stuff, thus driving up new LEGO prices, while the truly rare older stuff goes for some very decent prices at auction... thus many old time collectors buy much more than they really need at decent prices... Which is why my collectors guide helps out those collectors who want to start collecting the true rare items... the older LEGO!!! Opps... forgot the rare UK stuff....

Rather than open a new thread, I thought I would reuse this year old one from last year, but with a different twist... LEGO Set sales by country.... There were a lot of LEGO items that were not sold in all countries... and in some instances it may have just been the packaging that was different (such as the 384/760 London Bus Set)... or the contents that were different (such as the 325 Shell Station with different colored garage doors). One of my recent additions to my Unofficial LEGO Sets/Parts Collectors Guide was including rare items that folks might find if they were at a flea market or (UK) boot sale... especially things that are very rare and valuable to look out for. So I added a new chapter in my collectors guide for this... and it would be something to have handy on a iPad or SmartPhone (which my collectors guide can be downloaded to). Here's an example of this... say you lived in Portugal... Portugal first started selling LEGO surprisingly early... in 1957 (the same year that sales started in Netherlands, Switzerland, Austria, Belgium and Luxembourg). However LEGO sales there were never quite as popular as they were in the Germanic language speaking countries of Europe. But there were some items sold ONLY in Portugal that are worth a very pretty penny!! Take these items.... (from a 1966 Portugal LEGO catalog).... These 1:87 LEGO cars are very valuable to begin with... however they are not known in plastic garages under the 602-668 numbers. All of these are only known in cardboard boxes in other countries. The 661-668 cars are known under a 261-268 number in other countries from earlier in the 1960s... but not under these numbers. The 602 and 604 cars are totally unknown under these numbers anywhere. They are known in cardboard boxes under th 603 and 605 numbers respectively. Here is what these Portuguese items are packaged with.... image on the left (from earlier 261-268 cars) shows what these very rare Portuguese items are packaged in, including a paper banderole. The item on the right shows how these are packaged in all other European countries in cardboard boxes. Ordinarily a 661-668 car in a cardboard box in mint is worth about $200. But if they were packaged (with the same 661-668 numbers) as the one on the left... then they would be worth well over $1000!! And a 602 or 604 would likely go for much much more ($1500+) in a plastic garage with a paper banderole around it. If you had a 604 Fiat car in Black (only about a dozen known)... that 604 would be worth about $5000!! None of these items are listed (as the Portuguese variations) in any online LEGO databases. So for you Portuguese AFOLs... keep on the lookout!! I've done a country by country breakdown of very sets and items only sold in specific countries... some are still so recently discovered (such as the German 6661 TV Mobile Studio set with the WDR German TV Station logo on the truck) that the value of the sets have not yet caught up to the reality. I saw one of these sell for only $60 on Ebay!! (pennies on the dollar!!). I've got these rare sets/items divided into the following categories... Denmark/Norway/Sweden Germany Netherlands Italy Portugal Switzerland Continental Europe Britain/Ireland/Australia USA Canada Lots of rare and unusual LEGO items found in these specific locations... some very old... others more recent. But there are still a lot of rare items that can be found either at flea markets or even Ebay or other online auctions... a lot of it STILL unknown to many collectors!!

I can't speak for why they don't do this more often, although it would be nice if TLG did make the plastic containers as part of the building landscape. The first occurrence of using a box part available for building was in USA/Canada in 1961, when Samsonite LEGO sets 702 and 703 were introduced with a tall box with a 10x10 brickplate.... This was followed later by sets 705 Basic Set, 605 Wheel Toy Set, and 905 Doll Set...

Well, if TILG switches to a new plastic... don't expect the end result to be colors that are identical to the older plastics (ABS and Polycarbonate). Here's an upgrade to my LEGO Collectors Guide that shows just the trans-clear variations over the decades from the 1960s until the present. Showing both Cellulose Acetate and Polycarbonate.... basically (right to left)... 1950s/early 1960s, late 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, 1990s/2000s... A comparison of the CA red and yellow to the early ABS (with Cadmium) red and yellow, to the modern red and yellow... will show better what I mean....

Sigh.... the USA had such a boring selection of old LEGO windows and doors... The CA versions in the early 1960s, and then the dark red ones (with Cadmium to make a darker red plastic until Cadmium was removed in 1973)... the folks in Denmark, Norway and Sweden had a much better selection of old LEGO windows/doors in odd colors. Why just blue alone comes in 5 shades during the slotted brick era of 1954-56 (no studs on top of windows/doors). Why TLG ever stopped production in so many colors is a sad tale... Even today they have a long way to go in coming anywhere near the number of colors that bricks are now found in... Image from my collector friend Richard (used in my collectors guide).. on the 5 shades of blue available in 1950s Scandinavia... I especially like the dark blue ones on the far left.... P.S. Thanks 62Bricks on the complement to my collectors guide! I the next upgrade (free to current owners) will be a real stunner, with an addional 500 images!

Hehehe... I saw that too... and that the guy had 95 offers!! (I'm sure they were lowball, but some had to have been well over the $400). But this brings out the "Greater Fool Theory"... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greater_fool_theory