LEGO Historian

DK Publishing does a good job of imaging, creating some nice picture books. I like that they now are having a LEGO Minifig - Year By Year book. That will give a nice pictorial guide from 1978-2012. For my LEGO DVD/download next update (increasing to 3000 pages), which will be free as a download to current owners... I will be adding a new complementary chapter on the evolution of LEGO figures (not just the minifigs), from the first cyclists/policemen of 1956 thru to modern times. The title page to this new chapter is going to to be this image below.... The 3rd and 5th image in the 2nd column were the first LEGO figures of 1956... and evolved over the years to people made of just bricks in the 1960s, people with big heads (the Homemaker sets type people), thru the first minifig "stiffs" of 1975-77, to the start of the first true minifigs in 1978... and beyond to the Space/Castle/Pirate/Technic/Belville/Friends, etc... figures, and how they evolved from early stickered figs to later embossed ones, the use of non-ABS plastics, and even discuss the production of modern figs in China. The rarest of all LEGO figure sets... is the one used to create the brick figures in the upper left image... the 321 Clown Set of 1965, which had a very limited production only in Denmark and Japan... and in MISB today command well in excess of $1000. I'm having a birthday Eurobrick Bazaar special on my E-Book this week....

And here is the earliest (1957) version of the Swedish 700 "with contents" wooden box set. The writing is in Swedish, and this is made of a different kind of wood... stained and not painted. This set only has a 1 piece (non-Town Plan board) top. The term "System i lek" (System in Play) is the same for both the Swedish and Norwegian language... but the other writing is in Swedish. On the left side of the image are all of the "Town Plan" LEGO accessories available back in 1957, including all the valuable 1:87 LEGO vehicles.

And here is the man.... Axel Thomsen... who introduced LEGO to Sweden in 1955, sold his Swedish dollhouse factory to his son, and moved to Germany to start LEGO Germany in 1956 (and produced the first regular wooden box LEGO sets). Thanks to Jim Hughes of Ohio for doing a lot of research on Axel Thomsen! This TLG image dated Jan. 12, 1956 was a celebration for the introduction of LEGO to Germany in March of 1956. In this image Axel is on the far right... with his wife Grete across from him. Seated to Axel's right are LEGO Junior Managing Director Godtfred Kirk Christiansen and his father (LEGO founder) Senior Director Ole Kirk Christiansen, with LEGO representatives sitting across from them. Axel Thomsen had a long relationship with TLG, and he on occasion would produce some LEGO products that were not known to the folks in Billund. This is one reason why the LEGO Archives have such a tough time with LEGO items in some European countries, and as recently as a month ago the LEGO Archives were still buying Swedish LEGO items on the secondary market, since they were unknown to them. One of the reasons I have such a good working relationship with the LEGO Archives folks is that we share with each other rare LEGO information that is not known to each other. This rare b/w image of the founding of LEGO Germany is in my last LEGO DVD/download chapter... Chapter 73 - LEGO Sales/Offices by Country. The entire chapter has old historic LEGO images from the early days, including rare LEGO models and Christiansen family images.

Until the recent discovery of a 1949 wooden box basic set, the earliest wooden box sets were the 700 "with contents" and "empty" sets. The first year of introduction was 1957 in Germany and Sweden (Denmark came 2 years later). The reason for this odd combination of countries is that the first wooden boxes were produced in Sweden by the Swedish dollhouse making firm of "AB Lundby Leksaksfabrik"... run by Danish expatriot Axel Thomsen, a friend of LEGO chief Godtfred Kirk Christiansen. In 1955 Axel Thomsen started LEGO Sweden, and in 1956 he started (and moved to) LEGO Germany. The first 1957 introducedGerman 700 set... German 700 set "with contents" contains hollow bottom bricks... tube bottom bricks weren't invented until the next year... 1958.... The 1957-62 sets contained a lot of Town Plan accessories. Starting in 1962 LEGO wheels were introduced, and wheel accessories slowly replaced the (more valuable) Town Plan items. By 1966 LEGO wooden box sets contained little more than loose bricks windows/doors and wheel accessories. Here is a 1957-59 CONTENTS LIST for the German 700 set. Note the item numbers before the part names (in German) denoted the spare parts packs in which they coulld be sold in. Also, oddly at the bottom of the page is a subheading for "236"... which was the number for the LEGO Garage Set of 1956-70. The parts to build a garage were oddly listed separately. Also, if you lost this sheet of paper, then you were unlikely to be able to identify your wooden box set (although some of these did have an ink stamp or sticker on the side)... And to make things even more complex... the German 700 set (700 sets were sold in about a 8 continental European countries)... was unique in another way. Instead of a 1 piece sliding top... it had a 2 piece sliding top (of Masonite), the back of which contained the 1950's Town Plan board layout (in 2 pieces). No other country had such a slliding board box top with this arrangement. This was unique to Germany, and makes the German 700 wooden box set the most collectible of all! But it gets even more complex... there were 4 box top versions... the 1957 version as shown above... the 1958 and 1959 versions (1959 version shown below, but they both have the same box top image... one just happens to be in German the later one in international "LEGO System". Here is a Brickshelf image, courtesy of USA collector Eric Strand, shows the 1959 International box top version (but still with German writing on the sides)... And here is the 1960-62 700 "with contents" version showing the 1960s Town Plan board top design... but ironically still having the 2 piece 1950s Town Plan board as the inside box top. (More LEGO Mayhem!) Now to make matters even more complex... the German 700 wooden box set "WITH CONTENTS" box was different from the German 700 wooden box set "EMPTY". The separately sold empty set only had a single piece box top with no Town Plan scene on the back. The German 700 "with contents" sold for 49,50 Deutschmark. The 700 "empty" sold for 19,80 Deutschmarks. Here's how the boxes were different for sliding the top Masonite board(s) into them.... (2 piece board box on the left, 1 piece board top on the right). So between the 4 different box top images, and the 2 types of boxes ("with contents and a 2 piece board top, and "empty" with a 1 piece top).... the German 700 wooden box sets came in 8 different types!!! Just 79 other wooden box sets to go.... lol.... The German and Swedish 700 LEGO wooden box sets of 1957 are the first regular wooden box sets sold... and for some odd reason... the Swedish 700 sets "with contents" did NOT have a 2 piece sliding Town Plan board top... only the German version did, even though both boxes were produced in Sweden by AB Lundby of Lerum Sweden. Anyway, the Billund LEGO Archives are mum about these early wooden box sets, and the first wooden box set they mention are a 1959 "International" version (again 1 piece top)... as seen in a Danish retailer announcement of 1959 shown here... There are thousands of little LEGO facts that I've been able to puzzle together over the last 6 years of research (with the help of LEGO collectors worldwide)... many of which are unknown to the LEGO Archives themselves... and most of which is still unknown to AFOLs.... as found in my 2800 page DVD download (still... as you guessed it, available in the Eurobricks bazaar!). Chapter 14 - LEGO Wooden Box Sets is my favorite for a reason... it drives people mad!!

Probably the most complex and least understood of all LEGO sets were the wooden box sets of 1949-1980. TLG had this bad habit with those old sets.... they NEVER put a set number on the box... just in a few rare instances an occasional small sticker. In the late 1949 to 1980s era wooden box LEGO sets were mainly of 3 types.... 1) an institutional set (for schools or other businesses), 2) a luxury gift set, since these were relatively pricey, or 3) as retailer boxes for loose parts or service packs that the retailer kept under the counter, or under the LEGO rack/shelf. Duiring the 30 years that TLG produced wooden box sets... they produced over 80 different ones, mostly sold in continental Europe. What makes these sets so obscure and relatively unknown was that each country pretty much had their own set numbers for use on the boxes... even though some boxes were similar or identical in multiple countries. And the worst part about buying old wooden LEGO boxes at an online auction is that most sellers don't have a clue what set they have. The wooden box set identifiers were "Content Lists"... a single sheet of paper that listed an inventory of the parts found inside. These Content Lists had the set number on the top of the page, and they were often the first thing that got lost in the set over the years. No Content List often meant no set identification. A very frustrating situation. I spent 6 years coming up with a compilation of the 80 or so wooden box sets (no online database has more than 5 or 10, since they're so hard to identify). The images included here pretty much cover about 90% of them, since sometimes the same box would be found with up to 10 different set numbers, depending on which country they were sold in. As I said... very confusing and frustrating. Here are 2 images that show most of the box designs.... What gets mind boggling about many of these sets is that some are sold "with contents" and empty (same box), some are sold with up to 24 partitions (the most common number) or as few as 1 partition, with 2, 8, 1, 16 partition numbers in between). And often if you find an empty box... you're not always sure that it was originally sold that way or not! Some of the wooden box sets come in up to 5 different box design types (the British 700K set holds that record). And then there's packing variations. Many wooden box sets were sold for a number of years, and they may have undergone a content change, since some parts were either discontinued, or new parts were introduced. The before and after variations of when LEGO wheels were introduced in 1962 being just one of the more common wooden box packing variations. And then there's the box itself... many have Masonite tops and bottoms, others are totally of natural wood (of different types). And sometimes the same box design will have either a hinged top, or a sliding top... sometimes with 1 clasp or 2 clasps. And then there are the institutional LEGO wooden boxes with red Masonite lids... known as "Terapi I", "Terapi II", and "Terapi III" in the early 1960s in Denmark, Norway and Finland, as "T/2", "7" or "90" when empty in the 60s/70s... and as "91", "92" and "93" in continental Europe in the 1970s. LEGO Mayhem at its' most confusing!! Chapter 14 - Wooden Boxes, of my LEGO DVD/download has 37 pages of 6 years research of auction data, collecting info, and LEGO Archive data on these very confusing sets. Oh and one last thing... the LEGO Vault in Billund Denmark... they only have a few of the over 80 wooden boxes I have pictured in my Collectors Guide...

The worst thing you can ever ship is a sand sculpture (those thingy's with the layers of sand in different colors).... I actually know someone who was clueless enough to send one in the mail... they thought "THIS SIDE UP"... was enough warning for the postal officials... Needless to say, the recipient got a box with loose colorful sand in it.... I still get a chuckle every time I think about it....

Well got a quick answer from the LEGO Archives folks...to the previous wooden box set. Likely of 1959 Swedish origins... unknown to the LEGO Archives and Collections... but they will keep an eye out in the future. They agreed that this set was intended as an institutional set, probably school use. It may have been a prototype set that somehow got out of the factory.... They also mentioned that that type of LEGO logo was first introduced in 1953, and the LEGO Gnome first was seen in 1954. What is especially unique is the LEGO "plate" on the side of the box... of the 80+ LEGO wooden box sets in my LEGO DVD/download... no other one has that kind of a plate. All exterior designs are either stenciled, painted, or papered.

I have a horrible story to tell about a Texas LEGO collector friend... who came across a bunch of old LEGO parts (no boxes)... and among them were about a 1/2 dozen of these little matchbox size cars.... well he didn't think they were LEGO... so he gave them away to some kid and later moved to another state.... Many years later to his horror... these are the 1:87 LEGO cars of 1961-67... and the are EXTREMELY HIGHLY COLLECTIBLE by both LEGO collectors and model car collectors... he gave away over $500 worth of what he thought were useless non-LEGO cars. http://www.bricklink...Pic.asp?S=698-2 And this particular set (1965-66) would today in MISB condition... depending on the colors of the cars (some colors are much rarer than others)... would fetch $2000 - $5000 !!! My LEGO DVD/download has a 61 page chapter devoted to these rarities... some individual cars fetch $3000+ each in rare colors (a black Fiat 1800, with only 1/2 dozen known in that color, went for $3235 on Ebay 2 years ago).

I just posted this the other day on the "UNKNOWN LEGO SETS thread on this forum... but it bears repeating here.... Here's a 1400 Japanese set that I had never seen before, it's in none of the online LEGO databases, and the folk at the TLG Archives in Denmark were scratching their heads over it as well.... Well I found out some very interesting information on this set from the investigations of my Billund Archives contacts after a few days... It seems that in Japan LEGO (sold there since 1962) was always mainly a department store item only found in big cities... not found in small town toy stores. So this really restricted the distribution of LEGO there (story sounds vaguely similar to the complaints of foreign auto companies). What TLG did was to enlist the help of LEGO Dacta, which did have access to school classrooms across Japan... and here is the story behind this relatively obscure and unknown 1400 set.... __________________________________ "1400" was the special product only for Japan with Japanese writing on the box in mid 1980s. It says "Special Set for Kindergarten child - LEGO bricks help stimulate unlimited creativity of the children". In mid 1980s LEGO Brand was not yet well known (like it is today) in Japan, LEGO products were sold only at department stores in big cities. So LEGO Dacta team tried to sell this set "1400" through kindergarten all over Japan. They prepared leaflets about this product and asked the kindergarten to distribute them to the parents. Parents ordered the products and get the delivery through kindergarten. The price was 2500 Japanese Yen at that time and sold very well. ________________________________ So in this instance TLG used the Dacta Educational Division as a sales tool (which it in a sense is anyway)... to sell a LEGO set that was otherwise unavailable to most rural or small town Japanese children, and get the parents interested in obtaining a toy that would further their educational development. So this 1400 set was a LEGO Basic set/Dacta set hybrid that helped (where the distribution channels failed)... to make LEGO more of a household name in Japan... which it is today. So the 1400 set was a marketing tool of sorts that did pay dividends in getting LEGO a larger foothold into the Japanese market. Looks like this is another "special set" to add to my already expanding Special Sets Chapter of my LEGO DVD/download next version (free to current owners/purchasers).... I love finding the history behind some of the obscure and odd LEGO sets... keeps me searching for more.... ___________________________________ So the bottom line is this.... we may be blaming TLG for something that is out of their control... namely the trade policies of some of the Asian countries themselves. Living near Detroit, I know the severe frustration that the big 3 automakers have gone thru over the years with some of these foreign countries in selling our products in their countries... So in some instances, the problem is not TLG but the restrictive trade/distribution policies of the country where the frustrated AFOLs themselves live.... Quote MultiQuote Edit

Well here's another unknown LEGO set (there's still plenty out there!).... It was purchased by a German acquaintance at a German auction, and is unlike any wooden box set I've seen before... very unusual. It has 24 compartments... which is the standard arrangement for 1957-72 large wooden box sets.... a pullout drawer with 8 small compartments, a 4 large shallow compartment area underneath where the pullout drawer goes... and an area of 12 (3 rows x 4 rows) medium sized deep compartments. This set has the "LEGO Gnome" on the box top (he was a popular LEGO box and catalog fixture from 1954-62) building a LEGO structure, which can be seen on the back of 1958-60 spare parts packs. There is a sliding top (also very common to large EU wooden box sets of that era, and an unusual feature... a metal plate on the sides with the 1957-60 LEGO logo on it, held into the wood with 2 metal pins. The box top has a similar image to the back of 1957-60 LEGO spare parts packs... as seen here.... http://www.peeron.co...-1?showpic=4934 This set has 6 10x20 thick baseplates, a LOT of red classic windows and doors, white plates, and just red and white bricks. These parts have all the hallmarks of a 700K institutional wooden box set. These 700K sets had different uses in different countries... in Belgium they were used for schoolroom use with alphabet bricks included... in Switzerland they were used for Kindergartens, with mostly larger bricks, and in Denmark they were sold to commercial businesses such as Beauty Parlors and Barber Shops, so it would allow the parent the opportunity to bring their children along (without being bothered, and no need for a babysitter). This box may be an early (1959) German 700K, which is labeled in 1960 onward LEGO catalogs as "700 Holzsortierkasten K" (700 wooden box K). But due to the very unusual nature of the look of the box... it may be a prototype, since I've never seen a wooden box set even resembling this (and my LEGO DVD/download chapter has 80 wooden boxes pictured... but none look anything like this one). Very strange!!

Well I found out some very interesting information on this set from the investigations of my Billund Archives contacts today. It seems that in Japan LEGO was always mainly a department store item only found in big cities... not found in small town toy stores. So this really restricted the distribution of LEGO there (story sounds vaguely similar to the complaints of foreign auto companies). What TLG did was to enlist the help of LEGO Dacta, which did have access to school classrooms across Japan... and here is the story behind this relatively obscure and unknown 1400 set.... __________________________________ "1400" was the special product only for Japan with Japanese writing on the box in mid 1980s. It says "Special Set for Kindergarten child - LEGO bricks help stimulate unlimited creativity of the children". In mid 1980s LEGO Brand was not yet well known (like it is today) in Japan, LEGO products were sold only at department stores in big cities. So LEGO Dacta team tried to sell this set "1400" through kindergarten all over Japan. They prepared leaflets about this product and asked the kindergarten to distribute them to the parents. Parents ordered the products and get the delivery through kindergarten. The price was 2500 Japanese Yen at that time and sold very well. ________________________________ So in this instance TLG used the Dacta Educational Division as a sales tool (which it in a sense is anyway)... to sell a LEGO set that was otherwise unavailable to most rural or small town Japanese children, and get the parents interested in obtaining a toy that would further their educational development. So this 1400 set was a LEGO Basic set/Dacta set hybrid that helped (where the distribution channels failed)... to make LEGO more of a household name in Japan... which it is today. So the 1400 set was a marketing tool of sorts that did pay dividends in getting LEGO a larger foothold into the Japanese market. Looks like this is another "special set" to add to my already expanding Special Sets Chapter of my LEGO DVD/download next version (free to current owners/purchasers).... I love finding the history behind some of the obscure and odd LEGO sets... keeps me searching for more....

I posted this story about USA Samsonite LEGO on Lugnet, and one of the Canadian posters over there asked about more information about Samsonite of Canada LEGO sales... so here is the cut/paste.... Here's the story behind Samsonite of Canada returning the LEGO license to TLG. It was an entirely different story than what happened in the USA, where the license was revoked. In 1973 the Samsonite Corporation (USA and Canada) was acquired by the multinational Beatrice Corporation... a hodgepodge of unrelated products amassed into a large multinational firm. In 1986 the Wall Street brokerage firm of Kolhberg Kravitz & Roberts did a leveraged buyout of Beatrice for $8.7 billion US (largest buyout up until that time). To Wall Street Beatrice was worth more as the sum of its' parts... rather than as a whole corporation. So Samsonite was spun off as a separate company again (as were dozens of other units of Beatrice), but before that happened, TLG got involved, and bought back the Samsonite of Canada LEGO licenese from KK&R... no hostility there, just an opportunistic business decision on the part of TLG. Samsonite became independent, but no longer producing LEGO. Canadian LEGO production moved to Enfield Connecticut, but LEGO Canada had offices in Markham Ontario... possibly elsewhere later. And of course in the last dozen years production has been moved from Enfield to Mexico... with Enfield being another Sales Office and distribution center. ------------------ Now let me go back to the beginning of USA/Canada LEGO by Samsonite.... the production of LEGO in both countries was licensed in 1961 to Samsonite (still called Shwayder Brothers in the USA until 1965, but Samsonite of Canada in Canada). The first LEGO production here was a bi-national event. The first production facilities of LEGO was at the Stratford Ontario Samsonite plant in 1961... with LEGO parts produced there selling in the USA starting in 1961... and in Canada starting in 1962. The LEGO boxes were produced at a suburban Detroit (USA) Samsonite plant, and the LEGO Model Shop was at a Samsonite plant in Detroit. So bricks, boxes and models were going back and forth between Detroit and Ontario from 1961-65. In 1965 the USA subsidiary changed the name from Shwayder Bros. (which is what it had been since its' founding in Colorado by the 4 Shwayder brothers in 1910) to Samsonite Corp.... the name of its' most popular product. Also in 1965 Samsonite USA opened up a Loveland (suburban Denver) Colorado plant for producing LEGO (boxes, parts and model shop) for the USA. So 1965 was the separation point for Samsonite LEGO between the 2 countries. Besides building examples of the Empire State Building, one of the built models in the diagram should be familiar to German AFOLs... the Ulmner Münster (Ulm Cathedral)... which at 529 ft. tall (161 metres) is a model of the world's tallest church tower. During the 1961-65 era... specialty parts, such as road signs, flags, Esso Service parts, and other accessories were still produced in Denmark for both USA and Canada. And the spare parts boxes of those item mentioned "MADE IN DENMARK" on the boxes. One of the specialty items that reverted to North America was the early LEGO trees/bushes. In Europe these were hand painted with brown trunks and green leaves. This practice of importing these trees was soon discontinued in USA/Canada very early on (1962?)... in favor of only having unpainted green trees/bushes made of green plastic. So these trees/bushes even had green trunks and bases. And instead of 5 tree types (Oak, Birch, Fruit, Cypres and Pine)... only unpainted Pine trees and the unpainted Evergreen bushes were sold in USA/Canada by Samsonite. From 1961-72 these came in several different shades of green, in several types of plastic. In 1966, when USA and Canada Samsonite production were split between Stratford and Loveland... the trees/bushes changed as well. The USA Samsonite trees/bushes started having "feet" that would wedge the tree/bush "between" the studs (in Europe the new donut hollow bottom trees/bushes fit "onto" the studs). However, in Canada... they continued to produce flat bottom unpainted Pine Trees and Evergreen bushes as they had since 1961/62. Other changes between USA and Canada Samsonite parts and sets were introduced... such as separately numbered spare parts packs, different parts, and the introduction of USA department store exclusive sets (those in Canada were regular store bought sets until the 1970s, but in the USA exclusive boxes and set numbers were made for department store catalog exclusive sets). Once the USA Samsonite license was revoked in 1973, the USA started having different set numbers than Canada and the rest of the world until circa 1980. For example... the London Bus set was numbered 760 in the USA and 384 in the rest of the world. The reason that this was happening (from 1973-80) has never been explained by TLG... but I believe it had something to do with TLG being worried that Canadian Samsonite LEGO sets may find their way to the USA... and the only way to counter that was to use different set numbers. This has never been confirmed by TLG, but it makes perfect sense. Note also that a select few sets did have the same set number in USA/Canada... such as the 190 Farm Set (not sold elsewhere), and the 575 Coast Guard Set (sold earlier in the rest of the world as 369). In my LEGO DVD/download, there are at least a dozen chapters that highlight the differences between USA and Canada Samsonite and TLG sets, and those sold elsewhere in the world... chapters on USA/Canada Department Store Catalog sales, USA/Canada promotional sets, USA/Canada spare parts packs 1961-65 and 1966-72, USA/Canada basic sets, USA/Canada exclusive LEGO elements (such as waffle bottom plates in other colors besides white), LEGO trees/bushes, USA/Canada LEGO catalogs, idea books, and many other country specific LEGO parts and sets. USA Samsonite LEGO parts pack as found in the 1970 USA Retailer Catalog... Canada Samsonite LEGO parts pack as found in the 1970 Customer Catalog... I hope this long winded reply gives an indication of why the DVD/download ended up as 2,800 pages... there are sooooo many anomalies between LEGO sold in different parts of the world. The UK/Ireland/Australia LEGO sets by licensee Courtauld's chemical/textile giant (as British LEGO Ltd. of Wrexham Wales) is another long winded story about the big puzzle that is LEGO. These are only a very small sample of the historic USA/Canada Samsonite images.... from my DVD download...

When TLG started expanding worldwide in the 1960s, the small Danish company that only had as few as 140 employees when LEGO founder Ole Kirk Christiansen Died at 67 in 1958, was at a crossroads.... They were just barely able to keep up in Europe (licensing some production out to individuals and companies in Norway, Sweden, Finland and elsewhere)... but when they wanted to start LEGO sales in Britain/Ireland in 1960, USA/Canada in 1961/62, and Australia in 1962... they were overwhelmed. So what TLG did, was to get large chemical companies to license the product to in the early 1960s. In Britain and Ireland in 1960 (and 1962 in Australia), the British chemical/textile giant Courtauld's Corp. became the licensee for LEGO in those 3 countries. In USA in 1961 and Canada in 1962 the North American suitcase maker Samsonite (still officially known by the name of its' 1910 founding 4 brothers as "Shwayder Bros.") became the LEGO licensee for those 2 countries. How did all this happen? Well it was more of those infamous Scandinavian Ferry Boat Crossing that 2nd generation LEGO head Godtfred Kirk Christiansen kept taking to other countries. In 1954 his ferry trip to England, he got the ear of a department store manager who complained there was no "System" for toys anymore. That was the inspiration behind the "10 Principles of the LEGO System" that were implemented in 1955, and started the small company onto its' multi-billion dollar future. And it was later ferry crossings with Courtauld's and Shwayder high level management on board that got the LEGO licencees started in the larger markets. So Shwayder Bros. changed their name to Samsonite in 1965, and the rest is history.... but not so fast... something odd happened between 1970 and 1973 in the USA. From the 1961 start of LEGO sales in the USA... until 1973... Samsonite was selling LEGO like they were selling suitcases (often in department store catalogs)... according to a 4th generation Shwayder founding family member. TLG's take on it was that USA Samsonite was "underperforming"... and with annual sales of only $5 million... that was the case. So in 1970 (a year with normal LEGO set production and catalog)... something odd happened in the USA. That was the last year where regular LEGO sets and catalogs were produced. It is thought that TLG started litigation that year to get their license back from Samsonite. The 1971, 1972 and early 1973 LEGO sales were in very odd boxes, and very little selection.. and there was only 1 customer LEGO catalog for those 2 1/2 years. Also, the word "SAMSONITE" became larger than "LEGO" on the boxes... a definite no-no for TLG... except that Samsonite already likely knew that their USA sales days were numbered at their Loveland Colorado LEGO production facility. Here is a page of the 1972 Samsonite "RETAILER" catalog... there were only 5 sets... and only 3 spare parts packs (on a different page). The parts packs were a wheel set, a decorator set (extra windows/trees/ fences), and 2 rare 40x40 stud baseplates. But the 5 basic sets they produced their last 2 1/2 years (#101, #102, #103, #104 and #105, USA only sets) were ENORMOUS... and they hid the secret of Samsonite's soon demise in selling LEGO, with the license going back to TLG around August 1973. You will notice how huge the word SAMSONITE is on these 5 very large boxes. They already knew that their LEGO days were numbered, and no longer cared about toe-ing the TLG corporate line about how to make the LEGO logo on the boxes. Also... at the top of this page it mentions "Through advances in production technology we are able to offer the consumer nearly double the parts at a lower price". That was not true... what they were doing was dumping the last of their LEGO plastic pellets and parts inventory before the Aug. 1973 end date for LEGO sales... and they were creating huge boxes of LEGO, some with over 900 parts (in Sear's catalogs, some very large sets had nearly 1300 parts). So they were selling it at bargain prices just to clear out their remaining ABS inventory. Some parts... such as yellow bricks were already nearly depleted by 1972. Here is another set... the #695 Bulk Assortment Set, a set dating to about 1972-73... no 2 sets have the same contents (as can be seen by the 3 shown examples (2 are MISB). Also notice almost no yellow parts... and have you ever seen such a strange plastic compartment or non-colorful outer box sleeve? Samsonite no longer cared about these things... they just wanted to get rid of the last of the parts they had in inventory... and by the look of it... they had a lot of blue parts left over. This 1972-73 #695 Bulk Assortment set is one of those rare instances where a parts inventory can never be gotten... since it seems unlikely that any 2 sets contained the same parts. Well anyway... by August 1973 Samsonite was finished with LEGO sales in the USA. The production of USA LEGO moved to Brookfield Connecticut (soon thereafter to Enfield). In Canada, Samsonite continued to toe the TLG line however... and they continued production until 1985, when TLG bought the license back from Samsonite of Canada. After 1985 Canadian sales and production were transfered to Enfield Connecticut in the USA. And the British/Irish/Australian licensee Courtauld's, also toe-ed the line better... and TLG bought their license back in 1992, thus ending 30 years of LEGO production at Courtauld's Wrexham Wales factory... but that's a story for another day. All this historic LEGO information can be found in 1/2 dozen chapters on LEGO in my DVD/download... especially in the last chapter... "Chapter 73 - LEGO Sales by Country".... ... which can still be found for sale in the Eurobricks Bazaar or elsewhere.

Another unknown LEGO set... this #1902 Japanese set of 1978-80. What should TLG do with all those early 1980s unusual Minitalia (Italian pseudo-LEGO) window and door moulds and non-ABS plastic that they had leftover once LEGO sales were allowed back into Italy (after a 1970-73 hiatus)??? Add Minitalia windows (1x6x3 Panorama with 13 panes, 1x4x3 with 12 panes) and 1x4x5 doors with 9 LIGHTS!!! ..... all in black to a Japanese 1902 set! Not found in any online database (but in my DVD/download). Well at least this unknown set shows up in a LEGO catalog... the 1980 Japanese catalog.... Basic Sets page.... in my LEGO DVD/download catalog chapter....

That $50 might seem like a lot for a simple 1x6 brick... but a mint set would likely go for over $800.

Over the years TLG made many lighting device sets. The first one was introduced in November 1957 that needed a 4.5V battery. These lighting sets often were shown in LEGO ads being used as part of LEGO built models, but for some reason (liability to the company?) were never included in any LEGO models. Well I was looking thru an old 1956 Norwegian LEGO catalog. Back then LEGO was only sold in Denmark, Norway, Sweden and (new in 1956) Germany. And this old Norwegian catalog had something I had never seen before... a listing of sets planned for future years production. TLG usually just introduced sets in the years they were produced, but back in the 1950s Norway produced their own LEGO sets (via Oslo) because of a toy import restriction, and they did things differently than the folks at the main HQ in Billund Denmark. Anyway... this 1956 Norwegian catalog mentioned that a new VW Service set (#1306), new VW Showroom set (#1307), and Church set (#1309) were going to be introduced the following year. Well since I didn't know Norwegian... I decided to do some translation... and I got a surprise when I did... This 1309 Church set (only time TLG ever came out with a church) came out in late 1957.... (and produced until 1962)... Well TLG also had a new idea for LEGO... and that was the introduction of a lighting set using the power of 4.5V batteries (3 "C" batteries in the USA)... This new lighting device set also came out in November 1957.... under the 1245 number.... This set had a simple 2x4 hollow clear brick with wires and a 1x2 white brick for inserting the cable into a building for. So we had 2 sets introduced in late 1957.... a church set and a lighting device parts pack.... Well being the LEGO Sherlock Holmes that I am... I was studying the part of the old 1956 Norwegian catalog that talked about future sets (above right)... and I did a translate on the part that I have boxed off... I did a Google translate of the 1309 future Church Set... and this is what it said... "Church with inlaid light for battery" What??? I did some further checking... and found that set never came with a battery. And the lighting parts pack (which is mine) never mentioned a church? I contacted the folks at the LEGO Archives in Denmark... and they could find no connection to these 2 sets.... And yet there it was... tentative plans for a LEGO model set (namely the church)... that would have its' own internal light source.... to light up the church windows. It was an idea that never was implemented. In fact no LEGO set back then ever had lighting. Why?? Maybe TLG thought it might be a safety hazard and liability issue, if they did so? But the initial plan was to have a church that would light up inside... and at some point that idea was scrapped, but not the lighting device (or church). There are even prototype lighting bricks in trans colors.... trans-red, trans-blue, trans-yellow and trans-green exist, and are very rare. These may have been produced as prototypes to try out a stained glass effect, but were never released into production. Likely some of these trans colored parts got out of the LEGO factory (as is often the case). I bet there were some prototype models of this back in the 1950s that used this lighting... but those are long since gone.... For more info on LEGO lighting devices over the years (under many different set numbers), see pages 35-38 from my LEGO DVD/download sample chapter.... http://www.geminisys...chapter32v2.pdf The next update (free to current DVD/download owners)... will include the 1309 Church set as a prototype set never implemented for this set. I love digging up old LEGO history..... P.S. The rare part in the church set was the 1x6 LEGO printed brick, and is known in 3 versions... "1762", "ANNO 1762" and "AD 1762". All are rare, and command about $50 each for a good condition brick on the secondary market. Rarer versions have the writing in blue, and very rare has the writing in red.

LEGO bricks were actually introduced in 1949 (only 2x2, 2x4, 3 window types and 1 door)... but 1955 was the introduction of the LEGO System of Play.... (the Town Plan)... and 1958 was the introduction of the patented tube bottom bricks. Earlier LEGO bricks had a completely hollow bottom. German retailers complained about that when LEGO came online there starting in 1956... and so in 1958 TLG answered their complaints with what we still have today... the tube bottom bricks... which also made for the introduction of the first sloped bricks in late 1958. Here's a 1960 LEGO Town Scene at the Billund Denmark LEGO HQ... Here's a scene of the 810 Town Plan set (at 7 Pounds 9s 6d)... introduced in 1961. This was the ultimate LEGO set back in the early years...

You know, when there were only 5-10 colors of pellets, as was the case up until the late 1990s, that was probably not a big problem. But now that the TLG color palette exceeds 40 colors, it very well likely would be.

For more information on issues with the plastic that LEGO uses... see posts 11 and 12 of "The 65th year of LEGO thread".... It will give you some insight into why some of the issues with minifigs may arise.... more than 1 source of the plastic may mean some sources are not of the same quality....

Bayer is one of the largest chemical companies in the world with 112,000 employees in over 50 countries (1/3 in Germany). I doubt that they produce polymers and plastics at just any single plant. Bayer has been producing LEGO Cellulose Acetate and later (1963) ABS pellets for over 50 years, and I've never encountered a LEGO brick that has had color issues until TLG discontinued the relationship. That's when the problems began. Granted they are not as serious today as they are with the Knight's Bus set... but they still have color issues that plague production. Also, it's not just about color... Bayer also tested LEGO bricks for such things as clutching power and determining the strength of parts. In recent years there have been some issues with the clutch power of some parts, and the issue of 1 x 1 x 2/3 wedge slopes having cracks show up in large numbers, also adds to the problem of farming out the purchase of plastics they buy. I do believe that the real reason for TLG going out into the market to buy their non-colored ABS (and polycarbonate) pellets has to do with cost cutting. When you bid on the open market, you can always negotiate a better price than being beholden to a single source. And I would assume that the cost of the plastic would be a significant part of TLGs cost cutting measures, since they had a few years of losses (red ink) in the early part of the millenium.

LEGO is an ARCHITECTURAL toy... so why are there only about 1/2 dozen windows available (most don't match with each other in style or available color).. TLG should come out with more window styles... even some historic styles (pointed arch top Gothic, round top Romanesque, etc...). The use of the back side of headlight bricks as windows (even on the rare Ole Kirk Christiansen House model)... is an embarrassment when you consider the vast quantity of different LEGO elements TLG produces. In 1963, about 15% of all the limited number of different LEGO parts were windows!

Thanks Legogal! We both have superb taste in blue!! Back until after the new millenium, all LEGO colored ABS plastic pellets were produced by Germany's chemical giant.... Bayer Corp. They produced LEGO "test bricks" in 2x4 size in about 100 colors, and many variations/tolerances of the ABS/Polycarbonate plastic (and of Cellulose Acetate before 1963). A Dutch collector friend Michel collects these Bayer test bricks, and has amassed a collection of over 100 different. These rare and colorful bricks go back as early as the 1960s. Instead of "LEGO" on the studs, some have the letters A-F... to designate the level of clutch power and other brick variables. These bricks, highly sought after by collectors today, are found and discussed in my LEGO DVD/download chapter... Chapter 49 - LEGO Bricks... the subchapter on Test Bricks (which also includes BASF test bricks). Unfortunately around 2004 TLG switched to buying the uncolored ABS plastic from outside sources, and do the coloration process themselves. This has lead to some significant color quality control issues in many colors... one of which was the violet color used in the first Harry Potter Knight's Bus set. The modern bricks just don't have the same consistency that the colorized Bayer produced ABS plastic pellets did. Also, love the marblized bricks... in the 1950s TLG produced "factory seconds" marblized bricks for sale as individual 2x4 bricks. These were from plastic pellets "spillage" from the factory floor that was swept together and washed. Since plastic was very expensive back in the 1950s, and since TLG never threw anything away, they were reused as slotted 2x4 bricks of marbleized colors... and sold for 8 øre each in Denmark... whereas a normal 2x4 brick would sell for 11 øre each. Today however.... these marblized bricks command high prices at auction. Also the first LEGO baseplates were 10x20 baseplates, but almost 1/2 brick in height (they could not be stacked on each other)... These plates also were often marblized in very exotic designs... this one I call "watermelon splat"! These thin 10x20 baseplates were only produced (in about a dozen solid colors, as well as an endless number of marblized colors... from 1950-53. In 1953 they were replaced by the normal sized 10x20 thick baseplates that COULD be stacked on each other. Many of the different colors of both the early thin and later thick baseplates can be found in my LEGO DVD/download chapter on baseplates... some exotic colors such as dark blue, beige and powder blue. With over 10,000 LEGO set/part images in my own archive, I often find that some are not found in the TLG Archives, so I am in constant contact with them, and we often exchange rare images with each other. And collectors from around the world are often sending me more unknown rarities!

I had to laugh when I came across this statement.... because even the folks at TLG have some serious trouble trying to figure out how to interpret the difference between LEGO Sales and LEGO Sales Office... For example... here's the actual years LEGO sales began... ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1949 - Denmark 1950 - Sweden (licensed to Geas Konstharts of Sweden) 1951 - Sweden - licensed sales stopped due to poor sales. 1953 - (November) First LEGO sold in Norway, but due to toy import restrictions... molds sent to Oslo, where a Norway company produced their own sets for sale there. 1955 - Sales in Sweden began (combination of LEGO parts from Denmark/Norway were shipped there for Swedish sets). 1955 - Sales in Iceland started when an Icelandic Tuberculosis Clinic produces LEGO sets (as therapy for patients) under the name SIBS (switched to "LEGO in 1961). 1956 - Sales in Germany Started in March. 1957 - Sales in Switzerland/Netherlands started early 1957. Sales to Belgium, Austria and Portugal started late 1957. 1958 - Sales in Italy started. 1959 - Sales in France and Finland started. 1960 - Sales in Britain and Ireland started (via a licensee... Courtauld's Textile maker started British LEGO Ltd.) 1961 - Sales in USA started (via a licensee... Samsonite for USA/Canada)... first sets were produced in Stratford Ont. and sent to USA. 1962 - Sales in Canada started from the Stratford Ontario plant. 1962 - Sales in Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Morocco started (as TLG subsidiaries). 1962 - Sales in Australia started (from sets shipped by British LEGO Ltd. licensee)... new plant in Wrexham Wales opened that year. 1965 - USA production moved from Stratford Ont. to Loveland Colorado. 1973 - USA Samsonite license revoked after litigation (poor sales), LEGO production/sales (by TLG) moved to Connecticut. 1985 - Canada Samsonite license bought back by TLG. 1992 - British LEGO Ltd. (UK/Ireland/Australia) license bought back by TLG. 1993 - First year all LEGO worldwide was produced by TLG. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The above dates are "sometimes" followed by TLG as official dates.. but the USA anniversary date that TLG uses is 1973, not 1961... but Canada's anniversary date is 1962. Now if you look at the official LEGO website timeline dates... it will be a mixture of "sales started" and "LEGO <country name> started".... mixed together as a very confusing "apples and oranges" comparison. All of the year information is found in the last chapter of my LEGO DVD/download - Chapter 73 - LEGO Sales by Country, with dozens of old black/white historic images related to early set production and product display for each country.

ShaydDeGrai, I believe that all the early (pre introduction of 1963 ABS) trans-clear bricks were indeed Cellulose Acetate. I have mint (tube bottom) early 1960s 2x2, 2x3 and 2x4 trans clear bricks that are quite warped. Put them on a flat surface and they "wobble" quite a bit. Of course, since you are familiar with old LEGO, TLG switched to polycarbonate for the trans colored LEGO bricks (because ABS in its' natural state is not clear, but a milky color), Well since you mentioned the plastics used... the checkerboard image of LEGO I just posted was Automatic Binding Bricks alright... but these particular ones were not produced by TLG Denmark. They were produced by a Swedish plastics company called Geas Konstharts of Gisvaled Sweden... and sold under the Automatic Binding Bricks name (likely licensed from TLG Denmark) in southern Sweden for a very short period in circa 1950-51, before being discontinued due to poor sales there. Neither Geas (company still exists), nor TLG Denmark have any archival records on this production... but below is the same page of 4 nearly identical catalogs... the upper left being the official TLG Denmark catalog in Danish... the upper right and lower left image being the Swedish produced Geas ABB bricks images of the same 700/1 set from Geas versions of the catalog. And the lower right image is from a Norwegian produced product (from A/S Norske LEGO) called PRIMA, also sold in Sweden (circa 1954-56)... and this catalog is also in Swedish. The Geas and PRIMA bricks appear to have been made of Polystyrene... with their very polished looking shine to the bricks. Apparently, unlike the TLG produce Cellulose Acetate, the Polystyrene may not have warped. This is a very complex issue (between TLG Denmark, Geas Sweden and A/S Norske LEGO (the subsidiary of a Norwegian plastics maker called Svein Strømberg & Co.)... that I didn't want to get into here... but you coaxed it out of me... This is all discussed in rather complex detail (along with the first Norwegian LEGO sets starting in November 1953, by A/S Norske LEGO)... in my LEGO DVD/download - Chapter 2 - Automatic Binding Bricks & PRIMA. Because these first LEGO sets (under the Automatic Binding Bricks and other names)... were nearly identical clones of UK produced Kiddicraft... all recordkeeping at all these companies may have been deliberately suppressed (even though Kiddicraft was NOT copyrighted in Scandinavia) due to the fear of litigation. Also... the 3rd player in this complex drama of early LEGO... Svein Strømberg & Co. (of Oslo Norway) still exists... and can only say that they did produce LEGO sets... but have little info on what was produced!

The inside of a smaller 700/3 set, but in a cardboard box... this dates to circa 1950. Early LEGO sets had the parts hand packed 1 level deep in checkerboard layouts (which was shrink wrapped in place) so that when the box top was removed it showed a very colorful and impressive array of bricks. This 700/3 set has 60 2x2 and 60 2x4 bricks, the medium sized 700/2 set has 72 2x2 and 72 2x4, while the large sized 700/1 set has 84 2x2 and 84 2x4. This 700/3 has 6 windows each in small, medium and large size, and 4 doors, as well as 2 art cards. My favorite of all the slotted brick colors is shown here... what I call Peacock Blue....