LEGO Historian

And since we're discussing Scandinavia... the flags of Scandinavia all had a cross design... just in different color combinations. The earliest flags were introduced in November 1957. And there were only 4 Scandinavian flags at that time... for the 4 Scandinavian countries that were selling LEGO... Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Iceland. For some strange reason the flag of Finland was not produced right away (even though the USA and Britain flags were produced, but there was yet no LEGO sales in those countries). This 1959 LEGO brochure still shows the Finnish LEGO flag missing... By 1960 however, the Finnish flag became the 15th LEGO country flag, and stayed in production for as long as LEGO country flags were produced. And speaking of Scandinavian countries... there is one very small island chain that lies between Norway, Iceland and Scotland called the Faroe Islands. This small group of islands with a population of about 50,000 is an autonomous part of Denmark. http://en.wikipedia....i/Faroe_Islands So in 1966 TLG started producing Faroe Island flags (that same year they also started producing flags for Australia and Japan). However, it appears that this shortlived flag (which matches the cross flags of the rest of Scandinavia)... may have only been produced in extremely small quantities, with them all being sent to the Faroe Islands in LEGO flag spare parts packs 492/493 (1966-69). These flags are very very rare and would be very expensive on the secondary market! (I only know of 2 in private LEGO collections.) Faroe Islands (upper left), Norway (upper right). Denmark (middle left), Finland (middle right). Iceland (lower left), Sweden (lowere right).

And who knew that LEGO bricks (2x2 and 2x4) were made in so many colors back in the early 1950s, during the slotted brick era... these were mainly made for Denmark, although a few colors were only found in Norway or Sweden....

Here's some new (old) 1955-56 Norwegian windows found within the past year.... in green!!! And here's some from Sweden found only in the last few months.... in ORANGE!!! Here's the 1955 Swedish 700/3 Basic Set (same box used in Denmark and Norway).... that these very rare orange windows/door came in. This set could have had these windows in red, white, blue, yellow (Sweden only), or orange (Sweden only). It's the yellow and orange ones that are so extremely rare (probably worth about 50 Euros per window/door!!!).... from my Belgian friend Rohnny... The different colors that the early classic windows came in has grown quite a bit in the last year (discovering new colors!)... although some of these color variations are just aged/faded windows. Again... these were only sold in Denmark, Norway and Sweden...

Thanks questforcastle... very interesting!! :-) And so very timely too!! Now that Flickr no longer has a 200 picture limit... I can go back in this thread and reload the missing images... AND.... ...add some new items on Norway Sweden and Finland... about the early years. Found out a LOT of very interesting things in the last year... very interesting things...

LT.... here is an American early gas pump and lamps. Ironically these lamps are almost identical to the LEGO Esso Gas Pump lamps of 1955-67.... But the "Red Crown Gasoline" petrol pump very much resembles those of your model... Also, here was the 1950s Town Plan board (Masonite) block for the service station... And this is the 1960s 200/246 Town Plan board (cardboard) service station block.... And... here is an example of a very rare LEGO item... Esso Service Oil Cans. These were only ever sold in Denmark from 1955-58, and command about $100 each today in excellent condition. They are 1x1 round bricks (no lip at base) with an Esso sticker... All these pics from my LEGO service station and garage accessories LEGO DVD/download chapter... Gary

Very nice LT.... You've captured the spirit of the very first LEGO gas station of 1956-66... the 310 Esso Service Station. Here is an early 1956-58 box version showing the old style (no notches) macaroni bricks. This set was one of the main reasons that macaroni bricks were developed in 1955. TLG even put a red hand painted edge to the early waffle plates at the top of the roof line. The red edge to the bricks above that however were an error by the artist... since that was never done. This image is from my 2800 page Unofficial LEGO Sets/Parts Collectors Guide on DVD/download... the chapter on LEGO garages and service stations... Gary Istok

Well sooner or later you'll need to update your Palace Cinema Poster collection with what may be the ultimate movie.... Living in metro Detroit, I will have a front row seat watching the filming of this movie in 2014... Most people don't think of Detroit as Gotham City or Metropolis... but when it comes to great architecture of the Roaring 20's... we're blessed to have some of the best on the planet..... http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=Guardian%20Building%20Detroit http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=Fisher+Building+lobby+Detroit http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=Fox%20Theatre%20Detroit%20Auditorium

Many of you have noticed that trans-clear LEGO elements have changed colors over the years. This is partly due to the fact that modern trans-clear (and other trans) elements are not made of ABS plastic. Reason for that is that ABS in its' natural state is a milky white color, and therefore you cannot make trans-clear (or trans any color) from them. But back in the 1950s and early 1960s, the trans-clear parts were made from Cellulose Acetate... a plastic which did come in a clear natural state. When TLG switched over from Cellulose Acetate to ABS plastic in the early 1960s, another plastic had to be found for the trans-clear parts. This plastic turned out to be Polycarbonate. However, even Polycarbonate seemed to have some color additives during at least some of the last 50 years... or maybe some other additives. The reason is that the trans-clear parts of the late 1960s and early 1970s does not match that of the late 1970s and 1980s, nor the transclear parts since then. Anyone who has a modern new macaroni brick will notice how almost invisible they are compared to older mint macaroni bricks. It's difficult to date when different tints (or lack thereof) were used for trans-clear parts, mostly because of the TLG tendency to use old inventory until its' depleted. So trying to date different tones of trans clear parts can be very problematic. My good Japanese LEGO friend Yoshihiro (without whom my new LEGO DVD/download chapter on Japanese OLO LEGO would not exist)... has done a beautiful job of photographing many of the nuanced differences between different trans-clear LEGO elements. Here is one of his images (that he is letting me use in my next iteration of my LEGO DVD/download)... that is pure LEGO poetry.... I love this picture... and it does say a thousand words... The image on the far right is of Cellulose Acetate LEGO... produced from 1958-circa 1964. These pieces are often warped, and have a nice Champagne color, with the molding pip at the base of one of the shorts sides of the brick. The 2nd from right is the circa 1965-78 type brick color, made of Polycarbonate, and has a more clear look to it. The molding pip can be either at the base of the short side of the brick, or in the middle of the short side of the brick. The 3rd from right is the circa 1978-1985 type brick color. It has a bit of a cloudy look to it, and trans-clear windscreens and other parts are noticeably cloudy in their looks. These are also polycarbonate parts, and have the molding pip either on the side of the short end of the brick, or on one of the studs. The left brick is a more modern brick, but I've also seen this brick color in older early 1970s parts. For older parts the pip is on the side of the bricks... for more modern parts, it is on one of the studs. Again, dating these parts is very difficult, since there were many parts made in trans-clear... and each part had a different switchover date to the new brick style. And then there is the modern trans-clear brick... that is so clear, it's amost invisible were it not for its' shape. here is a unique (to Japan) 4x10 brick in the brilliant modern trans-clear.... The jury is still out dates for many of these trans-clear parts!! Gary Istok

Hi Herky... you can post it right here... no problem! I get so many private messages, which I don't mind... but about 1/3 of them are like Anna above... they ask a question... I spin my wheels and time on answering a lot of questions.... and then.... nothing... no followups to other questions I have for them... just silence. And that can get quite frustrating... But Esso Service Station is one of my all time favorites... so feel free to ask away... (note the Esso Service Station (#310 and #1310) were never sold standalone in the USA/Canada. They were only found in the #725 Town Plan Set. And since we're on the subject of Esso Service Stations... here's some of the earliest ones.... The Denmark version was sold in much of continental Europe from 1956-58. The German version produced at the same time with the German language printed brick. And the Swedish version was also produced at the same, although it too had the international style "ESSO SERVICE" sign. The German and Swedish versions are very rare, and may have been superceded by the Danish version box in their countries. The #250/#1250 Esso Tanker Truck is known in 5 language variations. The first 2... Danish and English account for 99% of all the known tanker trucks. These can be found throughout the world interchangeably... not country specific. The last 3 are the Norwegian (ESSO) and the 2 (BENSIN) Swedish variations. These 3 are all considered very rare, and were likely only produced from 1955-58, later being replaced by the Danish and Englsih versions. And here are 6 different Esso Pumps variations. Since I last posted this, another 6 different versions have appeared, and will be in my next version of my LEGO DVD/download (free to current owners).... The upper left one is Swedish, the upper right one is Danish, both from 1955-58, the lower right unusual one is from UK/Ireland/Australia from 1962-67. The other 3 are the common ones produced from 1956-66. Here are the 4 versions of the Esso sign, and the variations on the oil drums.... The freestanding sign with the curved top is the UK/Ireland/Australia version of 1962-67. The other is the standard version that comes in either black or blue edging, and with "ESSO" in various shades of red. The Esso oil drums were only ever sold in Denmark from 1955-58, and are just 1x1 round bricks with an Esso Motor Oil Sticker. These are highly collectible and are worth about $100 each in excellent condition.

Haven't heard back yet from the folks at TLG... but they are eagerly waiting for my next DVD download version to have some additions to their Archives!

If anyone buys the next LEGO DVD download before 10:30 PM EST USA time TODAY.... 8/28... Here's the freebies that come with it.... 1) a 1969 USA Samsonite Catalog (not folded in superb condition) with an order... compare with price of heavily used one: http://www.bricklink.com/search.asp?itemID=87268 2) a 1976 New Sticker Sheet for USA/Canada 455 Lear Jet set... compare: http://www.bricklink.com/search.asp?itemID=62083&colorID=0 3) two RARE full New Sticker Sheets for 626/6626 Rescue Helicopter (2 sheets for 1 order.... none available in Bricklink... http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItem.asp?P=6626.1stk01 That's over $60 in freebies for a $29.95 purchase... Here's the DVD download ordering location... http://legocollectorsguide.weebly.com/ Thanks, Gary Istok

Hi Shirley, thanks for sending me the pictures... I'm just posting the major ones... Here's the first one... the large blue Samsonite case.... This is known as the Loveland Carrying Case, and is LEGO item #501... There is no way to identify this as a prototype or a regular item, that I'm aware of. Although this shows up from time to time, as a LEGO item, there are no examples for sale at the moment on Bricklink. I would guess the value of this item at about $80-$100. And here is the main image of the parts that you have put away.... Here are many of the more valuable items... the 1:87 trucks and LEGO Town Plan accessories... which were ironically all made in Denmark... If the tree is unpainted green plastic... then it is probably among the most valuable items... being a recognizeable prototype... And here are the bricks... This image shows some of the rarer parts... the 1:87 Bedford vehicles (#250, #251, #252, #253). Only the Esso Tanker truck was ever sold in the USA... the others never were. These trucks were all made in Denmark. Here are the LEGO Samsonite gears and LEGO wheel accessories. These items are all relatively common, except the small red gears. These 14 tooth gears should always be white... so these are test strikes... and rare... More about these items tomorrow....

Thanks so much DPrime.... the nice thing about having my nearly 3000 page (and over 6500 images) DVD as a download versus a physical DVD is that as I am learning ever more new and old secrets about LEGO, I'll be sending out updates every year for free to current and future owner. And there's a reason I say secrets.... I just learned a new and (to me) very exciting secret about these old Geas LEGO sets.... this is not even known to the folks at TLG Denmark... As I mention in earlier posts on this thread... after some online research the last few days using a "Swedish language" advanced search.... I found some VERY interesting revelations... in Post #9 I mention that the Geas Automatic Binding Bricks were made of either Styrene or Polystyrene. Well that appears to be incorrect.... and I am very happy about that. Here is what I uncovered.... (I love playing LEGO Sherlock Holmes!! This 3 part picture does say 1000 words.... The left side of this image shows Geas 2x4 bricks as they would appear arranged in a flat box when the set was new. Notice how shiny the plastic is. The upper right image is of a 1930s era napkin ring... part of a set found on Ebay. The lower right image is from my advanced Swedish Google search... and is a small blurb from a 1947 Swedish Business Directory. It mentions the Geas Konstharts (Industry) company of Gislaved Sweden (a small town in south central Sweden, and the known home of the elusive Geas company that TLG Archives have no information on). It also mentions that the Geas company made a lot of different electrical components that had plastic parts... and the plastic used was "bakelit".... otherwise known as BAKELITE. Bakelite is an early plastic invented in 1909, and used very frequently from the 1920s-1950s for modern jewelry, streamlined radio housings, and many Art Deco and modern items. And Bakelite was also heavily used in many electrical components, such as light switches, and electrical components, due to its' high resistence to electricity. Bakelite is probably unknown to AFOLs.... but it is very well known to 20th Century collectors of different collectibles. So the napkin ring in this image is made of Bakelite... and when you compare the shine and milky look of the plastic bricks to the napkin holder... the resemblence is uncanny!! So these Geas Automatic Binding Bricks are likely made of Bakelite... as opposed to the Danish Automatic Binding Bricks, which were made of Cellulose Acetate... which warps (while brittle Bakelite does not). Here's some very nice images of old Bakelite radios (very highly collectible)... https://www.google.c...iw=1024&bih=679 And here is the history of Bakelite... which today is little used, because of its' expense to produce. Bakelite is still used for Backgammon pieces, as well as gameboard plastic pieces. But the interesting thing about this article is that Bakelite was replaced in many instances by (drumroll).... ABS plastic!!! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bakelite And here's the brick comparison pic once again.... 1st column (left) of 2x4 bricks is old TLG Automatic Binding Bricks of Cellulose Acetate. 2nd column is of a non-LEGO brick of unknown plastic. 3rd column is of Geas Automatic Binding Bricks of Bakelite. 4th column is of modern LEGO ABS bricks. Next week I'll be notifying the folks at the TLG Archives and Collections of this... and boy will they be surprised!!

I'm really disappointed that that Swedish lady named Anna never responded to my comments earlier in this thread. Those 3 sets are indeed very valuable... but moreso than she knows. There's a Museum in a Swedish town that has this in its' collections... one of the sets shown above.... I guess she'll never know!!

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.

Well I was the person who originally reported this... and the site no longer gives me problems... I didn't want to cause a panic... but getting that message was a bit jarring. All appears fine now....

I think that one thing that frustrates old time collectors is that there is no differentiation between older and newer bricks. Granted one reason is confusion... but if you wanted to reconstruct a set from the 1960s or 1970s, it becomes difficult to find older parts, because they are not uniquely identified as "Pat. Pend." (1960s bricks parts have this on the underside)... and "Pat. Pend. erased" (many 1970s parts have the words Pat. Pend. erased on the LEGO mold, thus leaving a lump or gouge where that writing used to be on the underside). Bricklink does have the (beginning circa 1983) "bricks with cross supports"... but not some of the older identifiers. Ditto for the old Cellulose Acetate parts. You can find some sellers if you know how to do correct searches for sellers of these parts... but it's not an obvious search.

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.

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

Shirley, These were the 1:87 cars in garages. Ironically I've only ever found them in 1 USA/Canada Samsonite catalog. They were sold from 1962-67. These came in small garages, and on the underside of the garage they had "Made in Denmark". These came as #261 thru #268 (8 different cars). And here are the Bedford trucks from a 1961 Portuguese catalog. Ironically the trucks were ONLY found in the USA/Canada Samsonite 725 Town Plan set... and then only the 250 Bedford Esso Tanker Truck, the 255 Bedford Fire Engine, and the 256 Bedford Tow Truck. The others (251, 252, 253, 254, 257) were NEVER found in any USA sets, nor were they sold alone. So if you have some USA samples of these Shirley... they were likely just Samsonite company examples shipped over from Denmark. Like the cars... the Bedford trucks (sold 1955-65 in Europe) were all made in Denmark. And here is the Samsonite LEGO spare parts pack list of 1963-65. The 231 (Esso accessories), 232 (road signs), 233 (lamp posts), 235 (garage kit), 242 (flags), 245 (lighting pack)... were all made in Denmark, and the Samsonite LEGO parts pack boxes mention that. Early 230 (trees/bushes) were hand painted and made in Europe (5 tree types, 1 bush type), while later 230 packs had 1 type of tree (Pine) and 1 bush type... these were made by Samsonite of unpainted green plastic. All of the other parts were made by Samsonite in USA/Canada.

I could feel the psychic pull of this thread.... lol... OK... I think this is going to be a very interesting thread.... I will need to see some images, but I can give you some background and maybe help you upload to either flickr, or you can EMAIL them to me and I can post them from my flickr account. Posting images here is a little bit tricky with the changes flickr went thru... Some background... The 4 Shwayder brothers founded the company originally known as "Shwayder Bros." in 1910 (originally by Jesse Shwayder). The USA LEGO boxes say... "LEGO by Samsonite" but the Denver based company was still known as "Shwayder Bros.". In 1965 the company changed its' name to Samsonite". I had always wondered about where the early Samsonite LEGO was produced. The first Samsonite LEGO for USA and Canada was produced by the Stratford Ontario Canada Samsonite plant. The first mention of a USA plant was not until April 1965, when a plant in Loveland Colorado opened up. But was all USA Samsonite LEGO for the USA made in Canada until 1965? That's still a puzzle to me. Also... all of those specialty parts... the Esso Pumps/Sign, the small 1:87 cars in garages and the 1:87 Bedford trucks were all made in Denmark and shipped to the USA. Mostly just the bricks and windows/doors were produced in North America. I had a 231 USA Samsonite Esso Service parts pack that had "Contents made in Denmark" on the box, as did the small garages with the 1:87 scale cars (red and gold foil sticker on the bottom of the garages confirm this). Shirley, if you email me pictures of some of the Samsonite items, I will post them here for you... my Email address is istok.gary@gmail.com Thanks, Gary Istok P.S. Will post more later about Samsonite and Shwayder Bros.

It is odd how that one set had stickers on 1x2 bricks, and other sets had them as actually embossed onto the bricks. Look at the dates for the embossed bricks with that emblem... the years are all over the map... (1973-88)... http://www.bricklink...&colorID=1&in=A And yet that one set of 1978 had them as stickers.... http://www.bricklink...&colorID=0&in=A .... and yes... having slightly different stickers coming from the same set number is not unusual... I once owned 10 of the 6083 Knight's Tournaments... and there were 2 different noticeable sticker sheets (the sheet sizes were different and the gold color was different as well). The 6626 Ambulance Helicopter set (I once owned 20 of those) had at least 3 different sticker sheets... with some slight size differences among the stickers on the sheets.

As strange as it sounds, back when TLG was making wooden LEGO boxes, these were promoted to Beauty Parlors and Barber Shops. Why? So you could bring your kid(s) along when you were having your hair done or cut, without having to worry about babysitters, or a hyperactive kid in a salon with nothing to do. Back in the golden era of LEGO wooden box sets... this was a way to market LEGO to commercial businesses... AND help market it to the parents of children that didn't have LEGO at home. Here's a short 5 page history... one of the new LEGO DVD chapters on "100 things you never knew about LEGO".... enjoy! http://www.youblishe...s-Barber-Shops/ Here are some of the nearly 100 different wooden boxes that TLG sold. Apparently every country had their own boxes... So many different LEGO boxes... and so rarely understood... Gary Istok

Of this entire topic the one sentence that made me laugh the most was this one... " Once kids have handled their first brick, the parents are screwed." As a followup to this sentiment I would add... "Once the parents of these kids handle the bricks and become AFOLs... then the kids are screwed"....

Older than ABS... ... never thought of it like that... Mercifully Ole Kirk was born even before my grandparents...