LEGO Historian

My bad.... the 230, 231 and 232 Homemaker sets have square corners... but the 260, 261, 262, 263, 264, 265, 266, 268, 269, 5233 and 5235 Homemaker sets all have rounded corners.... http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItemPic.asp?S=261-4

If you go back to the previous post about the Town Plan boards... the 3 images of the 2 kids playing with LEGO?? The boy in all 3 images is LEGO principal owner Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen... the girls are just models. The interesting thing about the images is that the middle (Swedish board) image was taken in 1959 (when Kjeld was 12). The first image was taken a year later in 1960 (Kjeld was 13)... what they did was get Kjeld and the girl and bring them to the LEGO Photography department and retake their image (the hands/bricks are not positioned the same) wearing the same outfits. In 2008 Kjeld had his image taken as a 63 year old for the remake of the Town Plan set 10184... again wearing a similar shirt and had his hands positioned similarly. And the bottom picture was taken in 1961 (Kjeld was 14). So we see 3 images of Kjeld having some serious growth spurts.

360/580 Gravel Quarry... 24x40 baseplate.

When I first started working on my 2,800 page collectors guide 6 years ago... I learned a lot about European driving habits. Besides Britain and Ireland, Sweden also drove on the left side of the road. But on the 3rd of September 1967, after years of preparation, everyone in Sweden switched sides of the road to follow the rest of Continental Europe... (makes for some interesting reading)... ----------------------- "On September 3, 1967, at 04.50 in the morning, the traffic everywhere in Sweden was directed over to the right side of the road and stopped. Everything stood absolutely still for 10 minutes, and at 05.00, when it started again, all road users in Sweden from heavy trucks to cyclists were already on the right side of the road, and they have stayed there since." ------------------------ So from 1960-67 (the years that cardboard Town plan boards were sold)... there was a right driving board for the rest of continental Europe, USA and Canada.... (see heavy white lines at intersections)... A left driving board for Sweden and (starting in 1962)... Japan... (heavy white lines on the left at intersections)... And for Britain, Ireland and Australia (starting in 1962)... a different left driving board with roundabouts... Chapter 3 - Town Plan Sets and Boards.... of my LEGO DVD download... have all this information and pictures and way more!

LOL... very perceptive!! The very first LEGO wheels were introduced in March 1962... so this 1960 diorama would only be using bricks! And as for runways.... yes... TLG was always a little short in the runway department.... http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItemPic.asp?S=6392-1

Well back to LEGO reality.... I didn't realize this earlier... but there is a cinema in my 73 chapter 2,800 page Unofficial LEGO Sets/Parts Collectors Guide as DVD/download/E-Book. In the chapter on LEGO Display models there is a cinema picture from 1963 from a UK magazine ad.... and the name of it.... none other than PALACE CINEMA.... My 2,800 page collectors guide is available as a PC or MAC desktop reference (going all the way back to 1949, with help from the Billund Archives), found in the Eurobricks Bazaar...

Nice Atmospheric Theatre Riversarl I live near Detroit... which has the world's largest surviving 1920's movie palace... the 5,174 seat legendary Detroit Fox Theatre, used by everyone from all the Motown stars to Elvis Presley to Madonna, Eminem... This image doesn't even show the main floor... just the mezzanine and balcony levels. This is a Temple style theatre... with a clear span balcony 170 ft. wide, and a floor to ceiling height of 105 ft. same as the interior height of Notre Dame de Paris..

Actually you are correct in your recollection.... British LEGO Ltd. was NOT on the LEGO boxes... only on earlier catalogs. And that's one of the odd things about that... in USA/Canada Samsonite (the licensee for USA 1961-72, for Canada 1962-85) had "Made by Samsonite" on top of the boxes until the 1970s, while British LEGO... did not. Also the cardboard Town Plan boards were produced for British LEGO Ltd., by Waddington's, a British game board maker. From 1966-72 British LEGO Ltd. used this unique nomenclature for their parts pack and model set boxes... "THE BUILDING TOY".... in USA it was "MODEL MAKERS"... in continental Europe it was just the "LEGO Systems". http://www.peeron.com/inv/sets/431-1?showpic=10041

First of all the Homemaker baseplates had rounded corners. Modern baseplates have virtually square corner. Now for the architecture. Europeans probably won't relate as well to the design of a cinema as Americans/Canadians are. The glory days of American cinemas... known as Movie Palaces was the 1920s... which were hard times after WWI in Europe. In Europe most major cinemas were built in 1930s in a much tamer style than those built in USA/Canada in the 1920s. The Movie Palace started the 1920s in a plain elegant almost "opera house" style. But after the 1922 discovery of King Tut's tomb... movie palaces started to get more exotic. There were 3 major types... Palace theatres... often called "Silver Screen Versailles" was usually in a lavish French or Italian Renaissance or Baroque... or in a plainer English "Adams" (famous UK Architect) style. The Temple style (of which this LEGO model is one)... was first found in the Grauman's Egyptian Theatre... but later found all over the USA in exotic Oriental, Siamese-Byzantine, Egyptian, Babylonian, Persian, etc styles... from 1925-30. And also in that time frame came the Atmospheric Theatre... where the auditorium ceiling was painted blue and nighttime stars shone on the ceiling... to give the impression of being in an ancient courtyard at dusk. There were over 1000 movie palaces built across the United States in these exotic styles. By 1930 the Great Depression tamed down the movie palaces to simple Art Deco styles... these were the ones also found in Europe and North Africa. So this exotic design for a theatre would likely seem out of place for Europe, but not in the USA... while Main Streets all across the country had a unique architectural design for their movie palaces.

LEGO was licensed to Britain via Courtauld's Corp. , a UK chemical/textile company, in 1960. It started production at their Wrexham Wales plant, which produced LEGO for Britain, Ireland and (starting in 1962) Australia, under the name British LEGO Ltd. This licensing agreement ended in 1992, when TLG bought the license back from Courtauld's. From a Eurobricks Forumer... that plant still exists in Wrexham, but no longer for LEGO production. Here is a (1962-65) 600/1 Basic Set, only sold by British LEGO Ltd. Note: early LEGO sets were sold hand packed in flat boxes with the bricks arranged in an attractive checkerboard arrangement... British LEGO Ltd. also had their own model shop, and here is one of their grander models... the west front of York Minster, largest medieval church in the UK.... These images are from my 73 chapter 2,800 page LEGO DVD download... from chapters on Town Plan, Early LEGO Basic Sets, LEGO Display Models, and LEGO Sales History by Country.

I have a large collection of parts from all decades since the 1950s... and besides the warping of Cellulose Acetate parts from 1949-63... LEGO parts have been quite resilient over the decades. The main problem I have found have been trans clear bricks... which are made of Polycarbonate... a more brittle plastic than ABS (which by the was is a milky color... and therefore can't be made into trans-clear). My personal belief is that since Bayer stopped producing the pre-colored plastic pellets for TLG earlier this century... the quality of some batches of plastic/colors of parts is not always consistent. And those cheese slopes are notorious for problems... have heard that cracking complaint from many sources. Interesting about keeping butter and perfume away from LEGO... I would add to that rubbing alcohol...

6416 Poolside Paradise... a 1990s Paradisa Set.... http://www.peeron.com/inv/sets/6416-1?showpic=7584

Gryphon Ink brought up an interesting comment... that his daughter having LEGO brought him out of his Dark Ages... this is probably close to the top in reasons for people getting back into LEGO. This issue of "Your Kids and Your LEGO"... is much older than many of you realize! Below is an image from the late 1957 (first) Austrian LEGO catalog (also shown in the German catalog that year). It shows a cartoon image of a father at the dining room table building on a 1950s style (plastic mat) Town Plan board. The children are asking their annoyed looking mother... "When is Dad going to bed?" Image from my LEGO DVD/download chapter on early LEGO catalogs (1949-65), with the entire selection of LEGO sets and spare parts packs sold in Austria its' first year.

One of my favorite LEGO sets of all time was the 1956-65 Esso Service Station. This set was produced in Denmark, Norway and Sweden from 1956-58 using the 1310 set number, before switching to the 310 set number in 1958. It started production in Germany in late 1957 using the 310 set number, and unlike the sets of other countries (which had an "ESSO SERVICE" 1x8 printed brick), the 310 set had an "ESSO WAGENFLEGE" printed brick. Shown here are early LEGO Esso Service Station boxes for Denmark, Germany and Sweden. It is interesting to note that the same artwork was used in all 3 boxes... but the color or printed brick were different. The German box may have been sold in Austria starting in late 1957, The only other country that had a different printed Esso brick was Finland... which had a rare "ESSO HUOLTO" printed brick. All other countries either had the German or International printed brick. These are only 3 of 6 box designs for the Esso Service set. There was an earlier and 2 later box designs that were much different. Note: The German language Esso Box top design was a recent find (by German collector Lothar Gastleiter), and will be in the next version of my LEGO DVD download (free downloads to current owners).

The earliest known American LEGO commercial (1961-62) was made within a year of its' introduction... (all the LEGO parts were made of Cellulose Acetate back before 1963)... Ignore the date... they were notified, but somehow failed to correct their error... hmmmm?

Now for some more modern set variations.... LEGO stickers were introduced in circa 1972. Prior to that LEGO sets would have printed bricks... mostly in the 1x6 and 1x8 sizes. However with the advent of stickers, the printed bricks became much less used in LEGO sets, thus saving a lot of money in production costs. One of the first sets to have LEGO stickers was the 1972 introduced 685 TRUCK WITH TRAILER SET (see images below). This set came with 7 stickers. However, this set was first designed in 1971, and production must have started before the introduction of stickers was implemented. So early 1972 685 sets did NOT have a sticker sheet in the set, and also the instructions and box did not include stickers. Then soon after the introduction of this set, a redesign of this set included stickers, and this redesign included an new box and instructions, as well as the sticker sheet. This later version is much more common than the earlier version, which shows that the change was introduced soon after production started. These 2 685 set types make for a very interesting set variation. These variatons and promotional sets are found in chapters of my LEGO DVD download... in chapters on small model sets, and promotional sets (over 100 promotional sets listed since 1955)... along with many other LEGO set variations.

As someone who wrote a 2,800 page Unofficial LEGO Sets/Parts Collectors Guide as a DVD/E-Book... I know what the company actually cares about and what they do not. I had to do my legal homework, and in my 6 years of writing LEGO collectors information it has not wavered from this... 1) Always Capitalize LEGO. 2) LEGO is singular and plural... never Legos or Legoes. 3) Never use just LEGO... but LEGO bricks or LEGO windows or LEGO boxes... or LEGO company (although TLG is acceptable), etc. These 3 rules are pretty much all that TLG asks... which really isn't much... and even then, it's mainly enforceable on media and online sites. Rule #3 is pretty much invisible... folks posting online generally ignore that one, and it's pretty acceptable. And rule #1 isn't all that bothersome to LEGO fans either. For people who post online... you can call it what you like... the websites don't enforce it, and are not required to by TLG. However, they may tell you what TLG would like... which is fine. As for any other LEGO item or nomenclature... colors or parts... we're free to call them what we like without any comment by TLG. Bley is online slang... and most anyone who has been online knows what it is. Ditto for slopes or other parts. TLG doesn't ask us to change that. But rule #2 (pluralization) when people in the online community hear someone say "Legos"... from my personal opinion it tells me that the person using it has not been an AFOL for all that long... or at a minimum not well versed with the product. Now that may not always be the case... but for me it's no different than when people have spelling issues online. So call it what you may... but in the online world... you will be judged by your writing.

As I mentioned earlier... TLG did not make porcelain products... but they did make a LOT of wooden products from 1932 (Ole Kirk Christiansen was indeed a capenter)... until Feb. 4, 1960... when the wooden toy factory/warehouse burned down... and was never rebuilt. 1960 was the year that Ole Kirk's successor... son Godtfred Kirk decided that plastic toys were the way to go. This did not go over too well with his 3 brothers... Johannes, Karl Georg and Gerhardt. Eventually Godtfred bought out his 3 brothers, and went alone in the plastic LEGO production business. 2 of his 3 brothers created a wooden toy company called Bilofix... later Bilotoy... but that went under before the end of the decade. And today only the children of Godtred Kirk Christiansen are billionaires. The next generations of the other 3 brothers... not. Here's a snapshot of the major LEGO logos for the last 80 years..... First column top to bottom... 1934-44 LEGO logo (wooden toys) 1944-55 LEGO logo (wooden toys) 1952-55 LEGO logo (plastic toys) 1955-60 LEGO logo (wooden toys, until 1958 plastic toys) 1958-60 LEGO logo (plastic toys) Second column top to bottom... 1960-72 logo (LEGO sets) 1971-72 logo (USA Samsonite LEGO sets) * 1973-98 logo (LEGO sets) 1998-Present logo (LEGO sets) * - The reason for a 2 year unique LEGO logo for USA Samsonite sets was because TLG started litigation to revoke the Samsonite license in 1970 (due to underperformance by Samsonite), and Samsonite, knowing their days were numbered created their own LEGO logo from 1971-72 without the consent or blessing of TLG (which took over for USA LEGO production in 1973). The history of LEGO products is found in Chapter 73 , and these are the main LEGO logos from among the 40 different LEGO logos in Appendix B... all as found in my Unofficial LEGO Sets/Parts Collectors Guide on DVD/download.

Thank you so much UrbanErwin! Your country (The Netherlands) also had some very interesting an unique LEGO items over the years... that were found nowhere else. Here's a few items.... the 271 Policemen accessories parts pack was only sold in 3 countries... Denmark, Norway and the Netherlands.... http://www.bricklink...Pic.asp?O=271-2 Also those spare parts pack boxes from the early 1960s were produced in 10 outer sleeve designs... with an 11 design only ever found in the Netherlands. Here is an image of all 11 designs (left image). Of the 2 in the bottom row, the one on the right is the one that was only found in the Netherlands (oddly not found elsewhere). These box sleeves (outer sleeve with inner box as seen in the upper right image of the 2x4 brick packs 218)... are worth about 3 Euros each. But that rare Dutch version is worth about 25-50 Euro's. All these images are from the over 6000 images and 1/3 million words of text, in my 2800 page Unofficial LEGO Sets/Parts Collectors Guide as DVD/download... found in the Eurobricks Bazaar!

The Minix cars as shown in the previous post are the only time that I can recall where TLG used another "labeled" specific brand non-LEGO item in LEGO sets. These Minix cars for the 1971 157 set (above right) were 1:76 scale, and have not appreciated to anywhere near the level that LEGO 1:87 vehicles (above left) have. The Minix cars used for later 157 Four Car Auto Transport sets, as well as later 536 Designer Sets (another USA only Samsonite LEGO Sears exclusive)... were always Triumph 2000 cars, which were produced by Minix in the 1960s and 1970s. These cars are worth about $12-$15 in mint, maybe $20 MIB. Similar 1:87 LEGO vehicles would sell for about $75-$200 (depending on rarity of the color of the model), and a MISB 1:87 car sealed in the clear plastic LEGO garage (with a banderole around it to keep it sealed)... would sell for $200-$400, again depending on color. Here hare images of the Minix Triumph 2000 used in these rare USA Samsonite (only) sets of 1971... http://www.home.railscene.com/garyscars/minix/rc4.htm

One of the most bizarre and yet interesting of all LEGO sets was a USA exclusive... the 157 Four Car Auto Transport set... which was a USA Sears Department Store exclusive set of 1970-71. This set came out in 1970 in a nice box... and contained 4 LEGO 1:87 vehicles (from among the 261, 262, 264, 265, 266, 267 or 268 autos)... with their own plastic garages (4 in the set). Then about 1971 Sears wanted the production of this set to continue, but in a plain cardboard shipping box, as a catalog mail-order item. Only 1 problem with this... USA Samsonite LEGO ran out of the 261-268 1:87 vehicles, which were discontinued in Europe back in 1966 (the USA must have gotten the leftovers). So for the first time that I can recall... a LEGO set had identifiable NON-LEGO product... namely they used British based Minix cars to replace the depleted supply of the 1:87 scale LEGO vehicles. Here's what the Minix cars looked like of that era... http://www.home.railscene.com/garyscars/minix/history.htm Here's some images of the very rare and highly collectible 157 set from my LEGO DVD/download chapter on USA/Canada LEGO Department Store Exclusives & Mail Order Sets.... The 1970 version came in the nice colorful box with instruction, parts and 4 LEGO 1:87 cars in their garages. The 1971 cardboard box version only came with the instructions and parts plus the 4 Minix cars....

I'm a big fan of the Maersk sets (who isn't?)... and the 10152 that came in 3 versions... the 2004 and 2005 Maersk Sealand Ship variations... and the 2006 Maersk Ship are among the more recent. But I love it when due to design changes, or in some rare cases a logo change caused some changes to LEGO sets. I've often told people that my 2,800 page collectors guide (on DVD/download) would only be about 600 pages long if TLG only did 1 little teeny weeny thing... STOPPED Lego set variations!! One of my favorite LEGO sets of all time is the 325 Shell Station of 1966-70. This is in the classic Town Plan scale (door= 3 bricks tall), with the first classic yellow windows/door. This set also had unique garage doors of the early 1955-70 flip-up variety. Because this set was produced for 5 years (66-70), there were quite a few changes and variations to this set, which ironicaly was never sold in USA or Canada. This set was sold in continental Europe with trans-clear garage doors outlined i yellow panels. In Britain, Ireland and Australia, this set had solid colored yellow doors, although the box top shows the continental trans-clear versions. Also since in 1969 the Shell corporation changed their logo from upper case "SHELL" to upper/lower case "Shell"... the set came with a unique 2x4 "SHELL" brick from 1966-69 (either embossed or printed on), and a 1x6 "Shell" brick from 1969-70 (this same brick was used in later sets such as the 149 Shell Refinery Train Set, and other sets). Not only did the logo change, but also the decals on the 1:87 Shell Tanker truck. Early versions had "SHELL", and later versions had "Shell"... with several variation to the Shell emblem as well (sometimes as a square emblem, other times as an oval, other times missing altogether). There were also variations in the Shell gas pumps.... ARRRGGG.... so many changes... it makes online LEGO inventory Admins CRAZY!!! But I love all these variations... it's what makes the 8,000+ LEGO set database more like 20,000+ if you include all the little changes that I have spent 6 years pulling my hair out over... but since I love playing LEGO Sherlock Holmes... it keeps some sanity in me.... Here's some of the variations of which I speak... and this is just 1 set!!!!

Very interesting thread!! Thanks for all the information asielen! Here some tidbits of information you might find useful... from my LEGO DVD download.... from the chapters on Retailer and Customer LEGO Catalogs. This is historical information from Denmark only, and cover the years 1949-65... the years that Denmark sold bricks as individual parts. During that era (until 1965) Denmark only sold regular bricks as individual parts (other countries sold them only in spare parts packs). Here are parts of 4 catalog images that give the price of individual LEGO bricks during the 1953-65 era. These are priced in "øre" or 1/100ths of a Danish Kroner. The prices do show increases... there are 3 price ranges due to inflation of the Kroner... 1953-56... 1957-63... and 1964-65. (I only show images of parts of both the 1957 and 1963 catalogs to show that the prices did not increase in that time frame.) Also shown are the classic LEGO windows/doors (introduced in Nov. 1957 in Denmark, and the price of them did not change from 1958-63). These were sold as individual parts in all of continental Europe as well as Denmark. Also, from 1949-52... the 2x2 and 2x4 bricks were the only brick sizes that LEGO produced, and sold as individual parts. Their prices (from the TLG Archives) were 0,06 øre and 0,11 øre respectively during that 1949-52 era. The prices in the 1964-65 era are hard to read so here they are: 1/2 - 0,06, 2x2 - 0,10, 2x3 - 0,12, 2x4 - 0,16, 4x4 corner - 0,25, 2x8 - 0,30, 2x10 - 035.

Another type of wooden box was the 1950s retailer wooden box. From 1950 to circa 1958 in Denmark and (starting in 1953) Norway) LEGO sold Pick-A-Brick parts from these wooden retailer boxes. The gray box was used in Norway for a short time, and all the other boxes were used in Denmark, starting with the tall boxes (1950-53). The 1953 onward longer boxes were found in LEGO Retailer catalogs under the numbers 700 K/4 and 700 K/5 (with "K" being the Danish abbreviation for partition)... so these were either 4 partition smaller boxes, or 5 partition larger boxes. These retailer boxes contained only bricks, baseplates and windows/doors. From 1950-52 LEGO Denmark sold the parts by weight, and reordered 250 gr. bags of parts from TLG. Of course at that time there were only 2x2/2x4 bricks, and 3 window/1 door type. But by 1953 the 1x2, 2x3, 2x8 and 2x10 bricks were introduced, along with new (classic) window/door types... so Danish retailers switched from selling parts by weight... to by part. A 2x4 brick would cost Danish 0,11 øre. If the brick was marbled (a factory second)... it would only cost Danish 0,08 øre. There are a few marbled bricks in the boxes shown here. Ironically even though they were factory seconds back then... today marbled bricks are highly sought after and collected. Whether LEGO loose parts were sold by weight or individual pieces in the 1950s... they were put into thin paper bags with the LEGO logo on it. Interestingly enough even though LEGO Denmark provided scales for the LEGO retailers to sell loose parts in the early 1950s, I have never seen a surviving one. These images are from my LEGO DVD/download - Chapter 43 - Individual LEGO Parts Sales.

The first LEGO Educational sets sold in USA/Canada were introduced about 1963... and cost $100 (or $75 if you were an institution)... and contained over 3,000 parts.... Also in 1976 Samsonite LEGO of Canada introduced an Educational Suitcase Set with 1,440 pieces.... There is an entire LEGO DVD/download chapter devoted to the educational sets.... "Chapter 39 - EDUCATIONAL/INSTITUTIONAL LEGO SETS".