LEGO Historian

Bricklink charges store owners a flat 3% fee for sales (unlike Ebay... it doesn't include shipping)... and at the beginning of the new month an invoice is sent to store owners with the amount owing from the previous month.

Been doing a lot more LEGO research... just found that Norway did like Denmark... they only sold individual LEGO "bricks"... but other parts were sold in spare parts packs. Norway followed the rest of continental Europe in 1958 in selling bricks in spare parts packs... Denmark didn't follow suit until 1966. Also... just discovered that using ASIA as a descriptive for LEGO sales (some sets were only sold in continental Europe... some only in Britain/Ireland/Australia... some only in USA, some only in Canada... and then Japan sold the same sets as continental Europe (but no 12V trains)... and now I just discovered that Israel also followed the continental European sales of sets. So Asia is now added for early LEGO sales as a location. Morocco also sold LEGO as early as the 1960s... but it was the only African nation to do so for decades. I won't be adding Africa to the list just yet however. But Lebanon, Israel, Hong Kong and Japan make the need for Asia as a LEGO sales location going back to the early 1960s a necessity.

Bublible... laugh away! I got a chuckle when I first read about the reason for so little medieval documentation! As for historic info about LEGO items... I've been researching for the last 7 years about old and new LEGO sets and parts... and have compiled all my research into my 2800 page Unofficial LEGO Sets/Parts Collectors Guide as a download (desktop document). It used to be a CD and then as it got larger and more inclusive as a DVD. But with me constantly finding (or being given by other collectors) information about the history of the product... I'm making it an evolving product... that changes every day (with free upgrades every 6 months for the owners of this document). I've long ago found that TLG (like sooooo many other companies) did very little record keeping in the early years up until the 1970s... and even with large gaps since then. Although I don't mention specific designers, I do mention the evolution of all old and newer LEGO sets and older parts... it's amazing at how many different variations there are in the world of LEGO... some sets come in up to 8 different box designs! And because TLG was growing slowly up until the 1960s... some countries had complete autonomy from Billund and the folks in the LEGO Archives are still trying to document all of the LEGO items that were produced without their knowledge. Countries such as Norway, Sweden, the USA and Canada were very much autonomous in what they were producing for many years. I enjoy sending my contacts at TLG Archives/Collecrtions pictures of items that they had never seen before. Althoiugh I have documented the evolution of sets and parts... the designers have not come down to me by name. However there are people whose name I have uncovered that are an important part of LEGO history... One of the most underrated individuals in LEGO history was Axel Thomsen... a Danish businessman who moved to Lerum Sweden to start a dollhouse building company... he became a friend of Godtfred Kirk Christiansen... he was chosen to start LEGO sales in Sweden in 1955 by a subsidiary called A/B Lundby. In 1956 he moved to Hohenwestedt Germany, a small town near the Danish border to found LEGO GmbH... the German subsidiary in March 1956... amd later became the successful Director of LEGO German... the largest market of LEGO for 20 years... until 1976, when the USA took the lead. Axel was the driving force to listen to the complaints of German retailers about the problems with the hollow bottom brick... this got Godtfred's ear... and in 1958 the tube bottom brick was born... to the great credit of Axel Thomsen. Here's the founding of LEGO Germany on 12 January 1956... with a dinner... with Axel Thomsen (far right, with his wife opposite)... with Ole Kirk Christiansen and Godtfred Kirk Christiansen to the left of Axel.... There are many many stories and anecdotes in my 2800 page collectors guide that talk about the history of the sets, parts, instructions, boxes, artwork, the LEGO family (Christiansen's), the LEGO logo and a thousand and one things related to the product. I uncover new information every day... Such as these bricks that look a lot like old LEGO.... These are a LEGO "sanctioned" clone that TLG licensed to a company in Sweden in 1955... by the name of Geas Konstharts... with the bricks known as PRIMA... another relationship that TLG (and Geas) has absolutely no records about... but due to a lot of investigation... we now know why these parts look so familiar to LEGO parts... they used prototype LEGO molds (without the LEGO logo) that TLG had produced, but decided not to use since they produced ones with the LEGO logo... but TLG never threw anything away... so they shipped these to the Swedish company for producing another building toy (out of Polystyrene)... and the rest is history... Also... there's the over 40 LEGO logos that I've helped uncover... here's a few over the last 75 years... Or early obscure (and very rare)... LEGO windows... you could have LEGO windows in blue... as long as it was one of these 5 shades...

Aanchir... very perceptive! Although that is the 1973-98 version of the modern LEGO logo. In 1998 it was redesigned once again to not include yellow lines between the L and the E... and inside the O.... That red box with the more modern LEGO logo was the #90 Superset... a Britain/Ireland/Australia only set that had 2 layers of trays inside, and included a LEGO motor. This set was produced around 1975-78, and was the very last of the LEGO wooden box sets.

Hey Joe... I agree with your assessment on LEGO being a clone of Kiddicraft. However there is a caveat... only the 2x2 and 2x4 bricks are a clone... none of the other 13K + LEGO parts are a clone. And even then the Kiddicraft took the 2x2 and 2x4 bricks from other construction toys that had those. Eventually TLG bought the Kiddicraft patents from the widow of Kiddicraft founder Hilary Page.

One last tip Naf... that's for road plates. I would not use a toothbrush on the roadway surfaces... especially the roadmarkings. Instead I use a very wet (water) paper towel... and put a generous helping of liquid soap onto that. Then rub it firmly on the road surface... with a more gentle pressure on the road markings... and then rinse... this process may need to be repeated before you dry...

Thanks for starting this thread, and for posting the link to Rufus's thread. As someone who's been a LEGO collector for decades (I came out of my Dark Ages in 1979, when Classic Space got started)... I'm somewhat of an expert on old parts molds, although I'm better versed on LEGO sets... But here's some general tips on old LEGO parts from the 1970s and 1980s... 1) bricks had molding pips on the side of the brick during the 1970s, and up until about 1983. The switch to molding pips on the studs started in the mid to late 1970s, and completed about 1984. So you will find many sets with a combination of parts with molding pips in either place. For example... the 375/6075 Yellow Castle set.... the molding pips were on the side of the brick for the 1x1 and 1x2 bricks, but mostly on the studs for the 1x3 and 1x4 bricks. Also the 2x2, 2x3 and 2x4 bricks had both locations for the bricks. For the arches... the 1x4 had the pip on the studs... the 1x2x6 and 1x2x8 arches had the pips on the sides. So many of the 70s/80s sets had the pips in both locations. 2) the 2x3 and 2x4 bricks had no cross supports underneath back in the 70s/80s... although there were a few exceptions (such as a trial mold with the parts released). 3) Trans-clear bricks were much "foggier" than new trans clear parts back in the 70s/80s. This is especially true for the windshields and windscreen parts... even in mint. 4) those early classic Minifigs with the the satellite image imprinted on the torso... the gold had a tendency to fade...even on unused mint figs. This was also true for the early castle figs where the stickers faded. Not sure if this is an ultraviolet light problem, or other environmental issues. ___________ Also... when cleaning old parts... using a soft tipped old toothbrush works wonders... especially between the studs... I wet the bricks/baseplates... then use liquid hand soap and go in horizontal and vertical directions... as well as diagonally. Then wash them off, and first towel dry... and then fan dry them (so there's no water spots). Some folks have used Brasso for their trans parts. I haven't tried it yet... but understand that it helps eliminate large scratches on the trans bricks and parts... although it leaves very small scratchs (that can only be seen on close inspections)... but it gets rid of the major blemishes. Hope this helps!

Thanks for the interesting anecdote Faefrost... but you do show how we have lost so much of our collective heritage... I actually got a chuckle reading your comments because it reminded me of why we find no medieval correspondence or non-important documents from ages past. And the reason for that is that old letters, correspondence and minor paperwork were "recycled".... used as toilet paper by the people of that era!! All the valuable history and documentation that went down the crapper... .unthinkable.... P.S. The alternative to using medieval parchments and documents as toilet paper was using straw... ouch!!

Unfortunately... early LEGO doesn't even have the LEGO logo anywhere on the bricks... and windows/doors did not until 1956! The previous image shows a LEGO sanctioned producer (Geas Konsthart of Gislaved Sweden)... that didn't have the LEGO logo on it.. and it wasn't even made of Cellulose Acetate... but of Polystyrene... To someone unfamiliar with old Automatic Binding Bricks sets, it becomes difficult to determine if something is really LEGO or not. You almost would need my LEGO DVD/download (a shameless plug)... just to see some of the variations that early LEGO sets can have. Old LEGO collecting is not for novices...

I hope they rebuild some of the since dismantled display cases that showcased the LEGO product over the years at the former IDEA HOUSE. This was the first one... of 1949-55. They took out the contents, and put them back into the warehouse archives....

Thanks Hey Joe... Yes that Swedish woman has quite a treasure there. Those 1950-51 Geas Automatic Binding Bricks set are probably the only LEGO "clone" that is accepted as LEGO, since TLG authorized that company to make them. Only thing is that the bricks are made of Polystyrene... a plastic never used by TLG for LEGO sets.

This past week has been a bonanza for me in regards to piecing together the history behind LEGO sets and parts. I am never happier than when I find some obscure or previously unknown LEGO item... I just dug up an old magazine article that I forgot I had (duh!!)... with over 10,000 images saved on my computer, I feel like I have LEGO Alzheimers... I see new stuff every day! I just came across an old 1976 article about the tumultuous early 1970s... when aftet litigation (1970-72), TLG took the USA LEGO license back from USA Samsonite (while still permitting Samsonite of Canada to keep their license).... So Samsonite USA LEGO sales were never more than $5 million dollars. A 4th generation Shwayder (founding family of Samsonite) member said that Samsonite's failure was that they were selling LEGO like they did suitcases (with department store catalog sales), and thus never really saturating the USA market. The resut of this move (to take back the LEGO license) can be seen in this article... within 3 years USA sales exceeded those of West Germany... the previous LEGO top seller. One way for Samsonite to get rid of leftover parts was this FUNKY 1972 set... the #695 Bulk Pack... where no 2 boxes were packed with the same parts (this one will drive the Bricklink Catalog Admins crazy! ).... just to dump the remaining inventory of Samsonite LEGO parts before they had to halt USA sales in 1973... I've also been doing a lot of research on old 1950s LEGO... and it seems that 3 companies...TLG of Denmark, Geas Konstharts of Gislaved Sweden and Svein Strømberg of Oslo Norway... they dominated the LEGO market in the 1950s... but ironically... none of these 3 companies acknowledge having any record of dealing with each other... and Geas and Strømberg... don't even have any records saying that they sold LEGO or "LEGO type" parts/sets in Sweden and Norway. Here's a page from 4 different catalogs from 1950-55... all showing the same model... and yet they were produced by different companies... (go figure!)... And yet I can only find one company (TLG) that claims ownership of 1 of these 4 images!! Or I find an image of the collections in Billund... that has the wrong parts in the box!! The (1955-61) VW Buses that are in the B/W 1956 LEGO Retailer catalog image has no actual "glass" ... except on the box image... so the TLG folks are mistakenly putting 1965-67 Samba buses into the decade older box... When TLG Billund had their LEGO Idea House, they had this WONDERFUL display case that told the history of LEGO parts from DAY 1... except that maybe 25% of these were under the wrong year... but I had fun finding out which ones... Another AFOL who saw this image asked "why oh why would TLG destroy this case (they did and put all the parts back into the archive warehouse... Or finding old wooden boxes that TLG doesn't have examples of (or records of) in their Vault... these are from Australia... Or showing TLG Archives/Collections examples of red Norwegian roadsigns that they have no record of... ... or Swedish roadsigns that had brown bases... in 2 shades of brown... Or finding that TLG was unaware of the largest LEGO set of the 20th Century... this 1963-66 USA/Canada Samsonite LEGO Educational Set.... with 3,250 parts..... Of course... helping TLG Archives/Collections with filling in the many gaps of LEGO history is a 2 way street... they have given me MANY pieces of information that is unknown to the general public... Such as this 1965 very rare 800 set... only sold for a short time in France, Denmark and Norway... the set was constructed of leftover Town Plan board paper images... and actually "taped" to the box top (you can see the tape marks on the top perimeter) and inside top... Or the 1952 700/4 and 700/5 sets that were introduced to Danish retailers in these boxes.... except that there are no known examples of these sets in private hands... (must have driven the retailers crazy!! ).... Anyway... it's great fun playing LEGO Sherlock Holmes... thanks to the dozens of LEGO friends I have around the world that love to contribute images... they always love to surprise me... and often do! So anyway... I'm now working on my 2nd Unofficial LEGO Sets/Parts Collectors Guide... for the 1990s to the Present... ... and at the same time adding hundreds of additional images of old rare parts and sets to my first collectors guide (new updates are free to current owners!)... many sets and parts that have not been seen before! Also... folks who own my current DVD/download... will get the new one free next year... P.S. I was very disappointed with the lady (in the "Very First LEGO Set" thread) from Sweden who wanted info about the 3 very old Swedish sets... but never posted a second time... she missed out on this image... how old sets were packed back in the early days....

LEGO corporate history is very sparce... TLG was not a great company to do immaculate record keeping. So when the old timers retired... much of the TLG corporate history died with it. I have a LOT of correspondence with the TLG Archives and Collections folks (for my Unofficial LEGO Sets/Parts Collectors Guides on DVD/download and the upcoming book)... and the amount of information available from the company is almost embarrassingly little. The recent 6661 TV Mobile Station set of 1989 was a case in point... neither the Archive folks, nor the folks at the German marketing office had any incling about the rare German WDR promotional set version of the 6661 set. And yet it WAS produced by TLG. The folks who created the Fantasia books on LEGO also had the same problem with the company... not a lot of information gets saved for posterity. So when I hear individual stories about a designer or developer... I think that it's great that some part of the LEGO puzzle gets saved....

Gee.... I had always wondered why British LEGO Ltd. produced the 1970 Weetabix promotional castle with so many colors..... ... maybe now I know!!

Kivi.... you must be psychic!! The dozen or so model sets they made back then could build what was on the box top. But NOT the basic sets! You could not build any of the models on the basic set box tops back then.... they were just to entice you.... most of the basic sets had only red and white bricks, and a few red windows/doors plus a baseplate. But in order to build what was on the box top... you had to buy from TLGs extensive spare parts pack network. Here's a 1962-65 UK/Australia (only) basic set 600/1. This strayed from the normal red/white bricks with red windows... and gave you blue/yellow bricks with white windows.... but you could not build what was on the box top.... (and notice that the parts available in spare parts packs was prominently displayed on the inside box top)... Here's a new image I received from the LEGO Archives (for my LEGO DVD/download updates)... and this is an extremely rare 1955 Mosaik set from Denmark. There are only 2 sets known... this one in the LEGO Collections, and a MISB one owned by a Dutch LEGO collector. I've often wondered why this set was never more plentiful... and I think I got my answer when I saw the contents of this set for the first time. There were hardly any parts inside!! I have an image of the instructions... and between the instructions and the box top... there were not enough parts to build any of the Mosaik images!! TLG put this out with very few parts (but with a cardboard partition that could be turned upside down and used to hold additionally purchased spare parts pack parts) and a baseplate. However... when people got this 1300 set home for their kids.... and then found that they couldn't build anything on the instructions with the contents... they were returned to the retailer... and (unlike today)... the retailers were able to return these unpopular sets to TLG. So this very unpopular practice of putting too few parts into the LEGO set backfired on TLG!! They thought that they could persuade customers to buy additional spare parts packs for their children... but instead they just returned the sets.... and that explains why so very few of these were sold! So when we hear that LEGO sets were not very popular in the early days.... we have to take into consideration that TLG was not doing a good job of keeping their customers satisfied. NOTE: this very rare set image is just one out of over 200 new (old) images that I got from TLG Archves/Collections, and collectors from around the world... for my new download version (free to all current owners) of my 2800 page collectors guide. People just love to send me images!

I love this set image... some 2x5 sloped bricks (never produced!)... 610 Super Wheel Toy Locomotive...

Here are some very rare early Norwegian Automatic Binding Bricks LEGO windows from 1953-54. These colors are amazing! With Norwegian/Swedish classic windows/doors coming in unique colors such as green, orange, dark blue, yellow and blue... it could be that the classic LEGO windows may have been produced in some of these colors as well (maybe sky blue, light green and pink!)....

No... not a single one... the first space set was the USA only 801 Space Rocket set of 1964.... and that just consisted of regular parts... such as bricks, macaroni bricks, and 1x1 round bricks.

Yes... the 1589 Town Square Weetabix promotion... the later (1980-83) 1592 Town Square Weetabix/Unilever/Spielzeugring (UK/Netherlands/Germany) promotion and the 6390 Main Street (USA only) were all very nice town sets that gave you an assortment of buildings in a town setting. One of the nicest group of sets ever....

Those spare parts packs date from 1960-65. Here are earlier spare parts packs... from 1955-56... (and of course there were fewer of them)... And here are ones from 1957-60..... These last 2 images are from my German collector friend Lothar. He's a big collectors on 1950s LEGO... and has a mind boggling assortment... FYI... the 1210 packs with a B, K and S within a circle... that stands for the printed 1x8 brick and which store name comes in that box... B stand for "Bager" (baker), K stands for Købmand" (grocer) and S stands for "Slagter" (butcher). All of these images are going into my next version of my LEGO DVD/download chapter on LEGO spare parts packs (1950-65).

Good eye Antp... I didn't notice that... And here's another promotional set that was given out by TLG to visitors to Billund. This was in the late 1960s and early 1970s.... Haven't seen the contents... so I don't know what's inside...

Note I added "packs".... because one would have to agree that today is the Golden Era of LEGO spare parts... but not of spare parts packs... that would be the years 1960-65... with 144 different parts packs giving folks an AMAZING assortment of parts. This is especially true when one looks at the very dull availability of LEGO basic sets... they all had only red and white bricks (mainly) with gray baseplates and red windows/doors. But the spare parts packs were the crown jewel of the early 1960s... these little boxes were like little treasure chests available for DM 1,- in Germany... 3/6 in old British measurements.... and 50 cents in USA/Canada. Here's a mind boggling image (from my friend Rohnny of Belgium) of the mindboggling assortment of small parts packs available in the 1960s... This image, from my LEGO collector friend Rohnny from Belgium... is one of the latest images included in my 65 page 1950-1965 Spare Parts Pack chapter... in my Unofficial LEGO Sets/Parts Collectors Guide on DVD/download. I go into (as one acquaintance described it)... "mind boggling detail of all the variations of parts, parts counts, parts box designs... sort of a LEGO Genome of detail... that puts nearly 11,000 possible set variations all in one chapter. What makes this mind boggling collection of 144 different packs even more variable... is that they came in 11 different sliding sleeve outer box designs!! More images to follow...

The best promotional sets are obviously those where the product is tied into the promotion... such as the 1591 Danone Truck set... sold in France as a Danone yogurt promotional truck set. This advertisement shows that a maximum of 100,000 sets could be available... although the number actually produced is unknown (if it's less than the total number)... One early promotion was a Scandinavian SAS Airline promotional set (un-numbered)... of circa 1964.... This little set was given out to children on SAS flights in the mid 1960s... and it consists of little more than just 2x4 LEGO bricks in several smaller colorful boxes within this larger box. This particular set was also used by TLG as a corporate promotional set in the mid 1960s for visitors to the factory... and also as a Christmas 1964 promotional set with Christmas greetings written in Danish on the box top. All 3 of these, as well as all the other special promotional sets are in my LEGO DVD/download chapter on LEGO Promotional set... which also includes all the Maersk sets, the Kraft/Velveeta promotional sets, the Scandinavian Ferry Line sets and a hundred others....

Thanks Paul!! Most of the LEGO sets in the 1xxx number range are some sort of promotional set. The problem is that in most cases the "connectivity" to the original sponsor has been lost, or may not be well documented. I'll add the 6381, 1612 and 1898 sets to my list of "special sets"... ones which although they were promotional... they were not exclusives. One set that certainly doesn't hide the promotion source is the 1562 small set of 1985... it comes with several promotional stickers attached. Shown here is PEPSI... but it is also known with CREST...

From my LEGO DVD/download chapter on promotional sets (I have over 100 listed)... Here's a 1978 UK Weetabix advertisement for the 1589 Town Square Set... Here's a 1967 British Kellogg's Corn Flakes advertisement for a sweepstakes (as opposed to just a "send in your money" promotional)... that gives the winners an 810 Town Plan set, a LEGO motor, and some LEGO wheels.... Here's a 1970 Danish Anders Cornflakes advertisment that gave away a rare 380 LEGO Village Set, as well as additional mini-wheels cars....