LEGO Historian

... and here all this time I thought that was a "green with envy" face... will have to get my smiley faces in order... but "puking" was the last thing from my mind... these 1:87s are the "crown jewels" of old LEGO collectibles....

I was thinking of that as well splatman... but all the images I have seen of sealed polybags... they look like TLG sealed ones. I'm not an expert on packaging, so I haven't a clue as to how easy or difficult it would be to do a TLG type packaging that is identical to that of TLG. Makes for an interesting possibility. But I tend to think that with identical inner packaging on both types (WDR and TV)... it could be a TLG job. There is so much that goes on at TLG that has not been put into the company records, that if this were the case with the 6661 sets, I would not be at all surprised.

Thanks... I got the image sizes down pat now... but I was using a (Right Click) "Open in New Tab" to get a Deep Link image... but now that function is not available... how do you get a Deep Link image... since you cannot post an image in Eurobricks using just the large size image?? Thanks!

Now that Flickr has upgraded to new splashy, but not so friendly pages... I can no longer get to a large image and get the Deep Link to post images here on Eurobricks... Anyone else having this problem?

Actually these are from the collections of 5 different old time LEGO collectors... each of whom has 10s of thousands in LEGO 1:87s and other rare old LEGO items.

Exactly Fugazi!! The march of time has quite an effect on TLG history. Sometimes things were done "behind the scenes". And without going thru official channels... some processes (such as documenting this specific set anomaly) fell to the wayside. And even the German sales folks would have been bypassed, if these sets went directly to West Deutsche Rundfunk (in Cologne Germany)... rather than thru the (then) German Sales Office at Hohenwestedt. It's these little "quirky" LEGO sets that I really love about the LEGO product. If everything they did was by the book... then it would have been a very dull collectible indeed. And TLG Denmark didn't always know what was going on in other markets. The biggest mysteries were what was taking place in neighboring Norway and Sweden in the 1950s, and USA/Canada in the 1960s and 1970s. Giving licensees the freedom to create their own product, often means that TLG didn't know what is going on around the world. Of course since 1993, when the last licensee (Courtauld's of British LEGO Ltd. in Britain, Ireland and Australia) returned their license to TLG... they've kept a close rein on what is done everywhere. TLG has been searching the auctions of Sweden and Norway for LEGO items that they did not previously know the existence of. And this also holds true for USA and Canada. Gary Istok

I've since had to retract my hypothesis about this unique set. I've seen several "sealed" polybags with the "WDR" panels inside. So this must have been an inside TLG job. Perhaps in 1989 an executive from the German company WDR approached a senior executive at TLG Denmark and asked for an order of these sets? The TLG executive may have contacted the production folks, and had a few hundred or thousand of the "WDR" panels produced, and added to the regular production run of these sets... with the specific truck sets put aside for a special distribution to Germany. This could explain why the LEGO Archives and the LEGO Sales folks in Germany both don't have any info on this set.... because it probably bypassed all the normal channels. Just a hypothesis... although it would make sense if no one currently at TLG remembers this or has any records of it.... Also no special boxes or instructions could bear this out. Will be making some changes to my Collectors Guide..... Gary Istok

The macaroni brick... known as the "rounded brick" in local languages of many LEGO catalogs... was the very first of the "specialty" parts... introduced in 1955 with the advent of the Town Plan system of play. These originally were produced in 4 types... two of the 2x2 with and without missing notches of plastic, and two of the 2x4 (half circle) with and without the missing notches of plastic. Alll but the 2x2 with the notch of missing plastic were retired in 1957. The macaroni brick has been used as columns in many LEGO display buildings... the one I remember best was a 1980s Miniland size build of the Jefferson Memorial in Washington. It too staggered the bricks at every other level. Now any attempt to build a Miniland column will have the notches lined up along 4 corners of the column, rather that in a staggered pattern. Besides a few special uses for the brick... I think that a good percentage of the buildable possibilities were lost with the new bricks. Granted the old brick was less sturdy than the new in buildings, but in most cases that was not an isssue.

I'm producing a 2nd version (1990s-present) of my LEGO DVD/download... coming out in 2014... along with a LEGO book!! ;-)' Stay tuned for details! Gary Istok

For those of you familar with my Unofficial LEGO Sets/Parts Collectors Guide (1949-90s) as DVD/download... I am working on 2 new Encyclopedic projects... a VOLUME II... that incorporates all the LEGO Sets since the 1990s... and also a new LEGO book... My current LEGO DVD/download has sample chapters available... Everything you ever wanted to know about the first LEGO sets... http://www.youblisher.com/p/600446-LEGO-DVD-Download-Chapter-2-Automatic-Binding-Bricks-PRIMA/ Only about a dozen wooden box LEGO sets are known in any online database... here's a chance to see the other 80!!! http://www.youblisher.com/p/611594-LEGO-DVD-Download-Chapter-14-Wooden-Box-LEGO-Sets-1950-80/ Learn how Classic LEGO Space got its' roots back as early as 1964!! http://www.youblisher.com/p/600118-LEGO-DVD-Download-Chapter-29-Early-Classic-Space/ Everything you ever wanted to know (and more) about LEGO printed and painted elements... http://www.youblisher.com/p/603214-LEGO-DVD-Download-Chapter-48-LEGO-Printed-and-Painted-Parts-Stickers/ Learn about the early LEGO plastic... Cellulose Acetate... and the early "heavy metal" version of ABS plastic that followed it... http://www.youblisher.com/p/626870-Chapter-60-The-LEGO-Plastics-Cellulose-Acetate-and-ABS/ How LEGO got started in all the major LEGO countries, both sales and companies that were involved... http://www.youblisher.com/p/599853-LEGO-DVD-Download-Chapter-73-LEGO-Sales-By-Country/ Brand new for the Vol 1 DVD/download... LEGO OLO... the old TLG produced product that was produced for the Japanese market from 1970-77... http://www.youblisher.com/p/601177-LEGO-DVD-Download-Chapter-34-OLO/ Volume II of my Encyclopedic 53 years of collecting... will include another 75 or so chapters... with all the info packed into another 2000 pages of set and part information... available as a download in 2014. AND.... I am also working on a LEGO Book that is a COMPANION... to my 2 DVD/downloads (and may reference them). This book will be a shortened version of the 2 volume downloads, and cover the years 1949-present... The publisher will be a well know LEGO publishing house... and the details are still being worked out... stay tuned!! ;-) Gary Istok P.S. Some info in my first LEGO DVD/download... http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=69200

Anna, Here is an image of one of the pages of 4 different 1950-55 catalogs... LEGO Billund (upper left), Geas Konstharts (upper right and lower left), and Norwegian Prima (lower right) for the Swedish market. Here are some of the very old slotted bricks... the 3rd column from the left are the Geas bricks... I love that "Peacock" blue brick! And yes... these shiny bricks in that column are either styrene or polystyrene. The bricks on the far left are Cellulose Acetate, and the bricks on the far right are modern ABS plastic. Here are the art cards that were used by the Automatic Binding Bricks... of all types....

Anna, you gave your friend very good advice.... The sets are very rare and valuable... especially since the boxes appear to be in great shape. Put together correctly, you could be talking about 1000-1500 Euros (or more)... for these 3 very rare boxes! First of all, I can already tell by the writing on the boxes and the shade of the blue bricks in the box (that we can see) that these are of a very rare 1950-51 series of Automatic Binding Bricks... by a company known as Geas Konstharts of Gislaved Sweden. The LEGO Company in Billund Denmark contracted Geas Konstharts to produce these sets for the southern Swedish market. Ironically neither LEGO Denmark nor Geas have any record of this... but I have catalog images of these very rare Geas sets. Since LEGO Denmark first started selling LEGO bricks also under the Automatic Binding Bricks name in 1949... early sales were very poor... and this was also the case with the Swedish selling Geas Automatic Binding Bricks... within a year production ceased, and large numbers of these sets were unsold, hence their rarity and obscurity. These Geas Automatic Binding Bricks sets come in 3 different sizes. It's hard to tell in the picture above... but you have at least 2 of the 3 different set sizes. Also, the fact that these are not technically a LEGO company product does NOT affect their value. I had a USA friend from Texas sell a midsized Geas Automatic Binding Bricks set (in a beaten up box) for over $500 at an Ebay auction a few years ago (a Fremchman bought it). There should be 5 colors of bricks... red, white, green, yellow and what I call "peacock blue"... a wonderful shade of blue. These bricks will only be in sizes 2x2 and 2x4... and are not made of Cellulose Acetate, the normal material that the Danish bricks are made from. They are made of either styrene or polystyrene. There are also 3 window and 1 door types... windows in 2x2, 3x2 and 4x2... with the door in 2x4 size. The windows/doors will likely be in a mix of red, green and white... with possibly other colors. None of these bricks or parts will have any markings on the studs or underside. It wasn't until 1952 that "LEGO" started showing up on bricks... so these old Geas parts will be unmarked. Also, besides the bricks and windows/doors... there were thin 10x20 baseplates in these sets... and also some "art cards". The art cards were included because these sets had bricks with slots on the sides. And these slotted bricks could build picture frames with the art cards as the pictures. There are 5 known different designs to the art cards... 4 with landscaping, and 1 with a scene inside a Cafe (as seen thru the window). Since you are not familiar with this forum... my name is Gary Istok... and I've been a collector for 53 years. I've written a 2,800 page collectors guide (1949-90s) on DVD/download... and have an entire chapter devoted to Automatic Binding Bricks... both LEGO Denmark, and Geas Sweden. I would be willing to help your friend put the sets together to how they originally looked, if she wishes to sell them at auction. I personally am not interested in these sets, except to get photos of the 3 restored sets before she sells them. I would credit her by name in allowing me to display images of her sets in my next update of my Unofficial LEGO Sets/Parts Collectors Guide. I have helped others put together old LEGO sets... and here's a thread on Eurobricks on this subject from very recently... http://www.eurobrick...showtopic=82227 If she wishes to have me help her (I live in the USA), have her contact me at (I hope I'm not violating any Eurobrick terms here)... istok.gary@gmail.com I speak English and German... Or if she cannot speak those languages... you can be the go between. I also have scanned copies of the 1950-51 Geas Automatic Binding Bricks catalog that she could have... in case she wishes to sell the sets (missing catalogs)... with a copy of the original.... I also have a copy of the original Ideas Brochure that came with these sets... Thanks Anna! Gary Istok Also, in case your friend is interested.... I also have the 2800 page collectors guide available as a download (available within a few hours of ordering)... http://www.eurobrick...showtopic=73780

Here is a link to a 4 page magazine article on the LEGO 1:87 vehicles. A couple of things... the author of the article was not aware of the fact that early 1:87 cars/trucks were made of Cellulose Acetate... and therefore warped... the author thought that they had "impurities" that caused that. And another thing that has still not gotten answered... where were the 1:87 vehicles made. At least the Bedford trucks and early cars were made in Billund... the cars in the garages carry a "MADE IN DENMARK" label on the bottom. But the Mercedes trucks and later cars may have been made in Hohenwestedt Germany. The jury is still out on this one.... Here is the magazine article... very informative.... http://www.flickr.com/photos/istokg/5580883976/sizes/l/in/photostream/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/istokg/5580306705/sizes/l/in/photostream/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/istokg/5580306707/sizes/l/in/photostream/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/istokg/5584087545/sizes/l/in/photostream/ Gary Istok

Spzero, yes CA is very shiny indeed!! Interestingly enough old white CA that has been kept away from sunshine seems to retain its' extreme whiteness.... whereas old ABS still gets discolored... probably due to other factors as well as light. But one CA color that really looks very shiny is black CA. One would think that black would be a difficult color to spot a difference between ABS and CA... but it really is quite easy... especially among new condition bricks. But the easiest color of all to spot in CA is red. Mainly because it has an orange-red hue. One thing about CA that I remember as a child is that when you open a new box of CA bricks... it gives of a very unique... not at all unpleasant... aroma. I fondly have memories of opening CA boxes and remembering the smell... something that is altogether not the same for ABS plastic. Gary Istok

Hi Snipe! The baseplates are all the 10x20 thick baseplates (labeled as bricks on Bricklink). Those Cellulose Acetat columns are made of the old style 1x1 round bricks without the tapered base (1955-65)... and they were small enough to not warp very much, if at all. But those had another problem... one that required the 1966 redesign (with tapered base). They were horrible for clutch power on top of each other. A stack of those would fall over very easily... when not glued. One additional benefit of the 1966 tapered redesign was that they could now also be put between the studs of the bricks.

Many people look at the old Cellulose Acetate LEGO (1956-63 in Europe & Australia, 1961-70 in USA/Canada) as garbage, and worthy of a land fill. But I think you might be surprised what it can be used for!! Especially the white bricks (which along with red, are the most common). My Dutch collector friend Henk, who collects old glued display models (and whom we fondly call the "glue sniffer") has been restoring very old LEGO display models, as well as rebuilding a few from scratch. One of his most beautiful models has been a Greco-Roman temple building... Here is another image... This image shows all the warping of Cellulose Acetate white and red parts. This actually makes the old classic building look even more realistic... due to the fact that the deformities of the bricks appear like real aged stone. New or used ABS bricks just cannot get this same effect... the lines are just too clean for a realistic look to classicial buildings. So don't throw your old Cellulose Acetate parts away... save them for a possible building project... Also... this classical model was from a 1958 continental European retailer glued display catalog, as shown here... Also... for more information on old Cellulose Acetate and ABS plastic LEGO bricks... Chapter 60 - The LEGO Plastics Cellulose Acetate and ABS Plastic explains a lot of interesting information about Cellulose Acetate... can be seen here... http://www.youblisher.com/p/626870-Chapter-60-The-LEGO-Plastics-Cellulose-Acetate-and-ABS/ From my Unofficial LEGO Sets/Parts Collectors Guide on DVD/download... http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=73780

Here's an early 1960s LEGO glued display model... a rare survivor from 50 years ago that was recently restored by my Dutch LEGO collector friend Henk. It uses a vast number of the versatile small classic LEGO windows... all in white...

My LEGO friend Jeroen in the Netherlands has a large assortment of 1:87 cars and trucks. Here is a display stand he has of his 1:87 VW Buses, Vans and Pickup Trucks.... in an almost endless assortment of colors. The buses without windows date to 1956-61... the vans date to 1961-67, and the pickups date to 1962-67. Among the valuable LEGO 1:87 items are promotional items... And the LEGO 1:87 VW Buses and Vans seem to be the most common promotionals. There are about a dozen different promotional variations known. Here are 3 of them... an all white "KOLEVOGN", all green "KASTNER & OHLER", and blue and gray PHILIPS van. The Philips is worth about $200-$400, and the other 2 are worth well over $1000 each. These date to about 1962-65. Another very rare promotional item is the 1967 MURYAR BISHARA VW Pickup Truck. This promotional item was for a 1967 Danish Boy Scout Jamboree, where a large number of Nigerian boys were invited (thanks to a Nigerian Christian Missionary TV Station nameed Muryar Bishara). The irony is that each of the Nigerian boys went back to Nigeria with one of these pickups on a plastic rope (similar to a keychain). These are worth about $1000+ each today. It boggles the mind on what valuable toys the boys in Nigeria had that they had no idea of its' value... and likely very few of these survived in Nigeria!!

Electricsteam... I would take the petition around myself, if it would do any good... One of my favorite things about the old classic windows... was that they were so versatile when used in groupings. Such as this large window using 4 types of classic windows... 1x1x1, 1x2x1, 1x1x2 and 1x2x2....

Well parents getting their knickers in a twist is one thing.... but did it really affect the kids?? Now that's not to say that TLG never did anything to cause pain to children... I have vivid memories of it myself nearly 1/2 century later. Back in the 1960s USA and Canada LEGO sets had this catalog that shows the LEGO sets produced... Back then when I was 7 years old I very badly wanted the 717 Junior Constructor set that was shown in the catalog. When Christmas rolled around and I got a 717 set... but it was a completely different model... I cried while opening presents that year.... and still remember it nearly half a century later. Although I was sad as a child... that sadness turned to ANNOYED as 40 years later I learned that NONE of the large sets shown in this catalog was EVER produced. Each one was a different box and model. The irony is that the incorrect model images were shown for 3 years in catalogs!!!

One nice thing about those old 1956-86 classic LEGO windows/doors is that they all matched each other. One of my favorite LEGO display models was this 1960-62 Cotswold Cottage LEGO house... all with white windows/doors...

And speaking of rare colors.... This black 605 Fiat 1800 (1965-67)... is a very rare color... with fewer than a dozen known. LEGO 1:87 collectors usually have very deep pockets... as this one would attest to when it sold on EBAY for $3235 back in 2009!!! But the real prize among the 1:87 Autos is the very rare 1957-58 prototype of a Opel Kapitän. There are only about 8 or 9 known of this very rare and collectible car. It is known in yellow (most common), red and orange. Here is a rare Norwegian example of this car, which doesn't have "glass"... although since it is a prototype... that really doesn't affect its' value... worth over $5000!! The Opel Kapitän's existence was confirmed long ago with the box top of all 1958-60 LEGO basic sets (all had the same box top design)... Kids in Europe back in the late 1950s didn't realize that TLG was toying with them (no pun intended)... when they showed the box top with a LEGO car they could never own!! It is parked in front of the twin tower hotel building...

Thanks Blondie-Wan! Those garages are relatively inexpensive... in gray. The problem is as you say... in determining what you would use them for in this age of the Minifig! Bricklink always has an assortment of these available at relatively decent prices... (for 50 year old items!)... http://www.bricklink.com/catalogList.asp?catType=P&catString=79 Now getting to the topic of colors... this is an open book... There are so many colors available on some of these items... that it becomes mind numbing... Just the VW Beetle... which probably comes in more colors than any other 1:87 auto... comes in a vast number of variable colors. Looris, the son of a deep pockets Swiss collector just recently posted this wonderful assortment of colors of the 1:87 LEGO VW Beetles on Flickr... This is just 26 variations of colors (some metallic) of the LEGO 1:87 VW Beetle... there are at least another dozen more colors available. This collection shown here is valued at least at $5000!!

Thanks Joe! I forgot to Show those garages in an image.... here is a copy of a 1963 German LEGO catalog showing the 261-268 1:87 Autos in their garages... (and also the 8 Bedford trucks that were sold loose by retailers)... One interesting thing about the 1962-65 continental European catalogs... they always show the garages with a red door. It seems that early examples produced by TLG came with either red doors, black doors, dark gray doors... or the common gray doors... with gray being about 98% of all known examples. Also the garage base came in either white, dark gray or gray... again with gray being about 98% of the time. The red and black garage doors often came with a white base. And the dark gray doors often came with a dark gray base. But this was not always the case. In some instances you might find a gray or dark gray base to a red or black door. And to make matters even more complicated... rare early examples with red doors sometimes came with a tinted trans-pink garage. and also rare dark gray or black door examples may have come with a trans-black garage. As I said... this was a very complex issue... with many variables. But the rarest colors are red or black door with white base... and either trans-pink or trans-black garage. Here is a red door/white base/trans-pink garage.... And here is a garage with red door/dark gray base/trans-black garage tint.... Here is a box of 5 garages with 1:87 vehicles. This is how LEGO Retailers bought them from TLG in Europe, in a plain brown cardboard box... (these are the common gray door/gray base/trans-clear garage tint... So the irony is that 1962-65 continental European LEGO catalogs ALWAYS showed the garages with red doors... even though only early 1962 examples of these actually had the garages with anything other than gray doors/bases.... Just another LEGO anomaly that is so common among early LEGO catalogs. This is not unusual for early LEGO catalogs to show things that were NOT generally available to the public. There are many many examples of this. Like I tell folks about my 2800 page collectors guide.... if TLG actually produced items as they were described or shown in catalogs... then my DVD/download would only be about 500 pages long. It's all these little anomalies that make early LEGO so very complex. I often tell people that do NOT let the fact that early LEGO catalogs were only 2 sides of 1 page... fool you that early LEGO was somehow not complex... that couldn't be farther from the truth!! And in the case of these 1:87 garages... I've not even touched on the "colors available" yet for these vehicles. Some of these came in colors where fewer than a dozen examples are known!! $$$ Gary Istok

Wow Gryphon Ink and Flying Ace... you guys were in your Dark Ages for almost as long as I've been back out... 1979-present... (my Dark Ages were 1970-79). Which is why I think of myself as AFOL #1....