LEGO Historian

OK... the long dead American showman P. T. Barnum was right when he said "there's a fool born every minute"... And with auction prices like these... it proves it... http://www.ebay.com/...rickenvy&_sop=3 If someone wants to send their MISB box off to a grading service to be sealed in plastic and returned with a listed grade on the box, and a statement that it is "the finest known".... that is just plain stupid in my book. And here's why... 1) the grading is subjective, and may or may not be accurate. 2) listing something as the "finest known"... really means it's the finest known of something that has been sent to these people who sealed it in plastic... it in no way means that it is ACTUALLY the finest known. 3) I've talked to several antique toy collectors, and they said that this was started by an antique toy collector who wanted to make extra money, and so he started this "unofficial" service. Now let me give you a little background. Rare coin collectors and rare baseball collectors have been doing encapsulation for many years. And when you have officially sanctioned groups like the century old American Numismatic Association (for coins) offer this kind of service, that makes more sense... a long respected association. However in coin collecting there are more than 1 service... ANA (as just mentioned)... PNG (Professional Numismatic Guild) and NCGS. And rare coin collecting is more of an exact science... where a flawless mint coint (Mint State - 70) may be worth 100 times that of just a plain uncirculated coin (Mint State - 60). And theres grades MS-61 thru MS-69 in between. Some collectors don't agree with the grade that one service gave their rare coin... so what do they do... they ship it to another service (or even the same service over again) to get a higher grade for selling. So that skewers population figures... and things like "only one graded at MS-65, with none graded higher" can be misleading or meaningless. And with LEGO collectors... 99.99% of all LEGO collectors do NOT have their sets encapsulated... so this "none graded higher" statement by this guy who encapsulates LEGO sets... IS MEANINGLESS.... But there are a few suckers out there who see a set graded like this... and they pay dearly for something that true LEGO collectors would laugh at.... Don't get suckered into this type of "Encapsulation" for LEGO... most true collectors don't use it...

OK... I have about 500 classic windows/doors (1956-86)... that have a very foggy used finish to the glass portion... (out of several thousand in my collection). Can these be helped? The "glass" cannot be removed from the frame without breaking it... so the ABS frame would also get coated with acrylic... would that be a problem? P.S. Good to see you here my good friend Rolf! :)

Unless you were living in Denmark, Norway or Sweden in the short period of 1954-56, you would not have seen these window colors, and even if you were there... some colors such as red, white and blue were common to all 3 countries, while dark blue were only in Denmark, yellow and light orange were only in Sweden, and green was only in Norway. In 1956 LEGO windows/doors started having studs on top (the classic LEGO windows/doors of 1956-86), and each of the windows/door types was one brick shorter... and the smaller windows 1x1, 1x2, 2x1 and 2x2 were introduced. And from 1956-65 only red and white windows were produced, as seen in this continental European LEGO Retailer individual parts box, where children could buy as many of any specific window/door they wanted. It wasn't until 1966 that yellow classic windows/doors were introduced in the 325 Shell Station Set (not sold in USA/Canada). Small blue, black and gray windows were rarely produced, mainly in train sets of the 1970s and 1980s, and command premium prices. This European Windows/Doors Retailer Box image is from Chapter 43 - LEGO Service Packs and Individual Part Sales from my LEGO DVD/download. The hand written prices next to each window/door image was of German origin. These prices are fractions of Deutschmarks... from 35 down to 10 "Pfennig".

This now brings the Danish, Norwegian and Swedish tall classic 1954-56 Panorama Window colors (worth between 20 Euro to 100 Euro each!!)....

Back in the 1950s when LEGO was still using the old archaic slotted bricks (the slots were to hold windows and doors in place instead of via studs)... there were some really interesting items produced... and not all of it known to TLG. For example, the last 3 years that slotted bricks were produced (1954-56), TLG introduced the early types of the classic (1956-86) LEGO windows/doors. But these were 1 stud taller than the old ones we're familiar with. And these old windows/doors didn't have studs on top... but "wings" on the side to be held in place by the slots on the slotted bricks of that era. In Denmark the first early bricks came out in 1949, in Norway in 1953, and in Sweden in 1955. When Germany came online in 1956... all that was produced before was wiped away (no more slotted bricks or windows/doors with wings).... only windows/doors with studs on top and "whole bricks" without slots on the sides were now the standard (in 1956).... although it would be another 2 years (1958) before tubes were found on the bottom of the bricks. Anyway from 1954-56 there were some very rare and unusual windows and door colors produced. And since Denmark, Norway and Sweden had some of their own local production (in Billund, Oslo and Lerum respectively), there were some LEGO items produced that TLG Denmark was not even aware of since Norway had their own LEGO production until 1961, and Sweden was a hodge-podge of gettting LEGO parts from Norway and Denmark... and also apparently producing some items locally in Lerum (the LEGO capital of Sweden back then). Here are a few items in my 2800 page LEGO DVD download (still available in the Bazaar)... One is some very rare dark blue 1954-56 LEGO windows from Denmark... And up in Oslo Norway... they were producing these same windows in green (as well as the standard red or white)... a color that was unknown to the LEGO Archives until I sent them this image earlier this year... And then 2 weeks ago... I got another shock when another new color came to my attention... this one from Sweden... light orange LEGO windows/doors.... This last color will be in the next download of the LEGO DVD (in 6 months). That's the beauty of producing this as an evolving document... I can send out free future downloads to current owners. I already have an additional 5 "unknown" sets that will be in the next version of the 2800 page download... including a very interesting 1400 basic set... only sold in Japan. So many things yet to be discovered about LEGO... old and new... that's why I love to play LEGO Sherlock Holmes...

The way I always look at it, if you've got several bidders bidding up the price... then if the top bidder bows out... you still have some backup bidders that can get a 2nd chance. I remember seeing a 1963-66 #610 Double Wheel Toy set sell for $18 about 4 years ago. a few months later the same set sold for $343. Like they say on THE ANTIQUES ROADSHOW... "...and on good day you can get even more!"

One of the earliest suitcase sets was not an Educational set, but a USA Samsonite carrying case that was known as the "Loveland Carrying Case".... named after Loveland Colorado... (outside of Denver, the Samsonite HQ) where Samsonite's LEGO products for the USA were produced (starting in 1965). This 1965 introduced carrying case was NOT a true LEGO product... but because it was used filled with LEGO parts under several different numbers (including some Kraft Velveeta USA promotional sets in the late 1960s), it is included as a LEGO item (also found in my DVD/download). For some odd reason.... Eurobricks had a hiccup and I was editing the previous post and it deleted the first half... Anyway Fugazi, the 7100 set was also indeed a circa 1977-83 Canadian set.... TLG liked to reuse set numbers back in the 1960s and 1970s... so this 7100 Educational set was a Canada only Samsonite luggage set of 1440 parts. There was also a 7110 refill box for this set....

Also... on that previous order form there is a "MINIATURE CAR ASST" with number "472".... for $54. Having a sealed one of these would likely be the most valuable LEGO item of all time (ignore that gold 2x4 brick on EBAY, it's not worth 5 digits). What this 472 item is, is a cardboard retailer box of 72 1:87 LEGO Vehicles from circa 1962-66 that came in small plastic garages. These boxes are unknown to us... none has so far ever been found... and it's likely something that may never be found. In Europe TLG sold these 1:87 vehicles in plastic garages (with clear sides/top/back, and 99% of the time with gray base and door) with a Banderole around them.... in boxes of 5, as seen here... Depending on the color of the vehicles inside (some are rarer than others), this box of 5 could sell for maybe $700-$1000. Now imagine a box of 72 of these vehicles... as sold to USA/Canada retailers!! You're talking $10,000-$12,000!!! But like I said... none have ever been found... and I doubt one ever will... But you never know!! Chapter 36 of my LEGO DVD/download has over 60 pages of rare and even unique 1:87 cars and trucks... the most valuable of all LEGO items.... (an Opel Kapitän in red, yellow or orange would alone fetch $4000+).

These sets are so rare, that they are likely unknown to all USA/Canada LEGO collectors. They were likely produced from circa 1963-65, and are among the earliest institutional LEGO sets. The sets are the 750 and 7100 Educational Sets of the mid 1960s. These were Samsonite LEGO sets, and likely produced at the Stratford Ontario and Loveland Colorado Samsonite plants. The 7100 set is the largest volume LEGO box of all time (including any of the mega-sets of today). It is an enormous 3,250 piece wooden box set, that sold for $100 in the USA (less if you were an institution), likely about $110 in Canada. I know of only 1 example of this very rare set. There are none of these in the Vault in Billund Denmark. Infact TLG has no records of this set, which is not really that unusual, since what Samsonite did in their USA and Canada subsidiaries was often unknown to Billund. Here is the very very rare 3,250 piece 7100 set.... And until recently, the 750 set was totally unknown, except being mentioned as a $50 set in mid 1960s Samsonite LEGO retailer reorder catalogs. I finally found an image from a Canadian 1960s LEGO Junior Designers Club brochure. And wouldn't you know... it had the same look as the 7100 set, just smaller.... This 750 set is unknown in any collection, and would command a steep price (as would another 7100 set). The 750 set likely contains about 1500-1600 parts, and cost $50 in the USA, and likely $55 in Canada back in the mid 1960s. Here is a copy of the fall 1965 Samsonite USA Retailer Order form (with the set numbers as the black numbers within the "Stock Number" area: These same sets were sold in Canada (at a little higher price), and for both countries, this sheet shows the transition between the early 1960s Town Plan sets and the later 1960s Samsonite LEGO sets where the set number equals the parts count (as seen below the heavy black line in the left part of the order form). I enjoy finding images of old order forms or retailer catalogs... they provide a snapshot of LEGO at an exact moment in time. And until I came across that Canadian brochure with that 750 set as a contest prize... I had never even seen an image of one... Enjoy! Gary Istok P.S. These very rare wooden box sets can be found (with 80+ other LEGO wooden box sets) in Chapter 15 of my 2,800 page 73 chapter LEGO DVD download (found in the Bazaar here). Only about 10 wooden box sets are found in any online database).

I wouldn't worry too much about counterfeit CMFs.... yet! Counterfeiters usually go for the valuable stuff. And if it's not worth their while... they won't bother with it. However counterfeiting is getting to be a serious problem on the secondary market, especially old rare sets made up of more common parts. Some boxes from 1950s, 1960s and 1970s sets are worth many hundreds of dollars or Euros... and they are being counterfeited quite a bit lately. Probably the most serious counterfeit issue relating to minifigs in recent years has now been rendered moot. That was the Maersk blue construction helmets, which were only ever found in 1 Maersk promotional set... the 1651 Maersk Line Container Truck of 1980... and those helmets were selling in Bricklink for up to $500. So someone from the far east came out with this counterfeit..... But luckily they got the color wrong... and it was more of a Teal Blue color. And the 10219 Maersk Container Train of 2011 (with 3 Maersk blue helmets) dropped the bottom out of these in value. But still in the future, when LEGO parts start breaking the $100 (80 Euro) barrier... watch out!!! This image (from a California collector friend) is from my 2,800 page Unofficial LEGO Sets/Parts Collectors Guide (DVD download) - Appendix C - LEGO Counterfeits & Reproduced Boxes/Parts. The entire chapter is devoted to counterfeit parts and boxes/inlays that are starting to show up on the secondary market. They usually show up first on EBAY with "Not Original" for the box, although I haven't yet seen fake parts show up there yet... just parts produced without the LEGO logo (such as the foliage for making custom trees). Also a lot of sticker sheets have been showing up as "reproduced". The problem with reproduced stickers is that they can get resold... and there is the problem... fake stuff that the first buyer knew was fake... and then resells it... and it enters the secondary market. My chapter on Counterfeits/Reproductions shows 38 images of items to be aware of. Luckily minifigs have not yet had a lot of problems yet. But I can see the rare and valuable white minfig hair with pigtails as being a problem now that the #1 item... the Maersk blue construction helmets are on the "el cheapo" list again... dropping from hundreds of dollars down to just a couple of dollars.

Yes those tiles are nice... I just wish that you could buy tile packs of letters/numbers without the extras... of the 149 pieces only 93 are black printed tiles... less than 2/3 of the 149 total part count. The rarest of all small printed LEGO elements were these Norwegian (1955-57) #1234 bricks. I supplied this image (from my 2,800 page Unofficial LEGO Sets/Parts Collectors Guide)... so far there is only 1 known of these Norwegian very rare blue bricks with gold lettering (even in Norway white bricks with blue printing were the norm)... These were unknown even to the LEGO Collections in Billund Denmark. http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItemPic.asp?O=1234-2

From 1957-72 LEGO made 1x1 alphabet bricks with 1 letter printed on the side of each brick. Unfortunately the sides of those bricks also had the molding pips. so that meant that randomly each 4th brick would have a letter printed on the side... and also the molding pip nearby. Used to drive me crazy!!! Here's an example of an old brick with the letter "B"... and the unsightly molding pip is in the lower left corner... As a young kid growing up in the 60s, when I was trying to make a sign... I hated these!!! http://www.bricklink....asp?P=3005ptBs

Geeze... and I thought I was bad in the 1980s when I wanted to make sure the molding pips were never showing on the outside of any LEGO construction. (they were on the short side of the bricks until the stud top molding pips were gradually introduced in the late 1970s). I'd like to see some of you OCD people build an original Yellow Castle Set (375 or 6075)... it would drive you mad trying to hide those pips AND align your stud printing in the same direction!! But wait a minute... isn't it IMPOSSIBLE to align them all in the same direction? Wouldn't only 2 sides of a building have that same alighment... and the other 2 sides have an alignment 90 degrees different? This scenario reminds me of the classic order of column capitals... Doric and Corinthian aren't a problem... but then there's the Ionic... either you have to switch direction at 90 degrees somewhere... or the sides of the temple (or classic building) looks odd....

It could depend on which commercial.... maybe "nausea" wasn't far from the truth.... Back when I was a kid...back when you had to walk to school barefoot in the snow.... uphill... both ways..... ...you had very few specialty parts... and REALLY had to use your imagination to build LEGO creations.... such as this mislabeled 1961-62 commercial... Today you youngsters have it so easy....

I just got some comment from a Dutch DVD download buyer..... "Yesterday I had another evening ''ploughing'' through your dvd. GOSH! what an enormous amount of work did you do! I wont have another dull evening for at least 6 months - THANKS. HenK"

Thanks Chri5kng.... unfortunately one of the side effects of switching from the classic LEGO scale (door = 3 bricks tall) to the Minifig scale (door = 5 or 6 bricks tall)... is that the price of equal types of sets has not doubled (2x2) but since we're dealing in 3 dimensions... it would have increased "exponentially".... (2x2x2). So costs (and number of parts) for a similar type set would likely be about 7 or 8 times as much. And that's why the new 2008 Town Plan set only came with 3 buildings (and no roadway or roadboard).

No not making up history, but not exactly answering the original question either.... Bayer Corp. used to test the colors and "grip" of LEGO bricks... my Dutch collector friend MAXX has a large collection of Bayer bricks, and some have letters A, B, C, D on the studs (instead of "LEGO").... IIRC, "A" denotes the least clutch power brick, while "D" bricks have the most clutch power". Later Bayer changed this process by just keeping "LEGO" on the studs (although I don't know exactly how they determined the various clutch powers that way?). Here's MAXX's site and some info....' http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=373938 Note: Chapter 49 of my LEGO DVD/download has an online link to Bayer bricks (thanks to MAXX and Arnoud Van Den Bos (another Dutch LEGO collector), but I've been so busy with other LEGO items, that I've yet to fully research that site...

Many of you are basing your theme starting with Minifigs... umm... LEGO is mainly an architectural system... so minifigs should be an afterthought... (although I know many of you looooove those minifigs, can't fault you there...). A Roman series for example is NOT just the same Roman soldiers... there the differnt ranks Centurians, etc.... and lest we forget the Vandals, Visigoths, Ostrogoths, Franks, Huns, Lombards, Celts, Dacians, Pythians, Carthaginians, Judeans, etc (and don't forget the Ptolemies)... there's plenty of Roman possibilities. Ditto for the Grecian/Macedonian... you have the Persians, the Myceians, Trojans, Minoans, Tuscans, and miscellaneous Pelepenisians. And as for parts... all they really need are a few good column capitals.... Doric, Ionic, Corinthian, Composite, Egyptian, Persian, etc. And the columns themselves... the 2x2 round bricks look rather nice, but I'm somewhat disappointed with the new 2x2 "fluted" columns (it would be nice if the studs on top had the fluting, but they don't and it looks awkward). Either that, or maybe some 1 piece 2x2x10 column pieces in either fluted, or unfluted styles. Other than that the LEGO brick and slope palette is already in place for ancient style buildings. Almost forgot... here are some very nice ideas (one just coincidentally happens to be mine ) from the 14 year old Acropolis contest.... http://www.ancient-theme.com/1998/ancient.html And one nice thing about ancient building styles and parts... these can be reused in Renaissance, Neo-Classic, Beaux Arts and even modern public buildings for the Town system or other systems. So Roman soldiers and gladiators are nice... but classic/neo-classic building parts that can be used for other LEGO systems are even nicer....

TLG used to have Germany's Chemical giant Bayer testing the LEGO colors and the clutch power of the ABS plastic (and their Cellulose Acetate before that). We all know how well TLG has gotten along with quality issues with mixing their own colors... makes you wonder about issues with clutch power?

Wow, I just talked to the folks at the Fanwelt 2012.... and when they asked the TLG owner who the other 2 girls are in the image, he identified his older sister, and mentioned that he couldn't remember the other girl anymore... but that she was nice and sweet. I think that out of respect for the family, I will leave it at that.... But here is an image of the simple family plot... with Ole Kirk Christianset in the cross monument (d. 1958), Godtfred Kirk Christiansen in front of him with white flower vase (d. 1995), and in front of him Hanne (d. 1969).One would think that by now the family would have a large family mausoleum, well within the budget of a billionaire family. But this rural part of Jutland (the Danish mainland), is populated with conservative Lutheran Danes who don't like a lot of pomp and show in their religion, and that included funerary monuments.

Probably the most playable sets are the City/Town sets... as not everyone is into space sets. The most interesting of the Town sets was the 810 Town Plan set of 1961-66:

Thanks! That NO SMOKING sign is actually unique.... it has the same logo on both sides. I don't know of any other tall road signs that have a 2 sided image... although the "30" round sign is actually a sticker (used only in the Weetabix 1589 Town Square set) that has a sticker for the reverse of a vertical black bar (end speed limit).... http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItemPic.asp?P=1589.1stk01

Well at least since 1969 anyway... As I keep mentioning (ad nauseum)... my LEGO DVD/download has a bazillion things packed into its' 2800 pages... To anyone who has purchased it... you'll get a free upgrade in 2013.... with even more chapters and more "unknown" items bringing it ever closer to over 3000 pages. One of my best contributors is my friend from Germany named Lothar (he's mentioned many times in many chapters)... and he keeps WOW'ing me with rare items that he finds in Norway, Sweden, Iceland, Denmark, and practically all of Europe... Here's his latest addition to my DVD/download.... some of these items you have NEVER seen (never officially released from TLG), and other items may have only made it to 2 or 3 countries. Does anyone remember that 1979 USA catalog with the "medical center" Town Set that was never produced? Well, here's the roadsign that "never" came with it... The top row of signs had the round "pin" underneath (1980s-2000).... the other rows had the rectangular "pin" underneath (1969-1980s). And that "no smoking" sign? It appears that this may have been made for Billund employees that didn't want others to smoke in their work location.... put out the sign...

I hope to live long enough to see the day!!!

They appear to be LEGOLAND model shop inventory that probably made its' way to Pick-A-Brick walls in their respective countries. Most of those available are from USA, Germany and UK... all countries with LEGOLANDs. I remember a few years ago I needed a large number of 1x1 hollow stud round bricks in Maersk blue. These were never sold in any set, but the few hundred available were all found in the UK... thus coming from the LEGOLAND Windsor model shop. Another AFOL and I pretty much bought up the entire NEW supply of them from UK sellers. Parts not found in sets are usually model shop parts. Also some parts that have not been produced for a long time (such as 2x2 trans-clear tiles, not sold in a set since 1988)... are also often model shop inventory, especially when some sellers have them in large quantities. What I'm waiting for is one of the model shops to need 45 degree sloped bricks... 2x2 convex corner in trans-clear. I've got a bazillion 2x2 regular 45 degree trans-clear slopes... and would love to build a glass pyramid (like in front of the Louvre Museum in Paris)... but I've been waiting over 25 years for those parts and they're still not available...