LEGO Historian

This guy.... http://www.flickr.co.../l/in/contacts/ Why it's Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen, owner of LEGO!!! He was at Fanwelt 2012, the Cologne (Köln) Germany LEGO Show this weekend. This picture was taken by my good German LEGO friend and fellow AFOL Sven Köppchen. Sven and a group of European AFOLs put on a group LEGO Museum showing of old 1950s and 1960s LEGO sets. Kjeld went to greet them, and Sven took his picture holding a 1955-57 era Danish 700/5 Basic Set. That is Kjeld on the box top at age 8, along with his older sister Gunhild (on the left), and his late younger sister Hanne (middle). The picture for that box top was taken 57 years ago, and all the basic sets of that era had Ole Kirk Christiansen's 3 grandchildren (from his son Godtfred Kirk Christiansen), on the box top. Today Kjeld and his sister Gunhild Kirk Johansen are the principal owners of Kirkbi/AG, the Swiss holding company that owns TLG and all the LEGO patents. I'm going to ask Sven if I can use this image in my next version of the LEGO DVD/download (Unofficial LEGO Sets/Parts Collectors Guide, 2800 pages, which will be free to all current DVD or download owners). Cheers, Gary Istok P.S. Hanne Christiansen died in 1969 at around age 19, when the car in which she was a passenger, skidded off a rain soaked road near Billund. Kjeld, also in the car, was severely injured, but survived. Supposedly he has never talked about that incidence since. Their father (Gotfred Kirk Christiansen) was so grief stricken at losing his youngest child, that he nearly sold off TLG.

You know who I feel sorry for... the ones who bought what they thought was MISB on Ebay.... only to find out 20 years later that the seal had been tampered with, and the contents were random (semi-worthless) parts from other LEGO sets in sealed bags!

I think the record for a dark ages is a fellow from Portugal named Joao. LEGO came to that country in late 1957, and his parents bought him some sets and parts packs back around then... and he stopped playing by 1960. When his parents passed away in 2006, he found that his mother had saved all his childhood LEGO and stored them lovingly in a drawer. He was so touched, that he started collecting again (only the early stuff)... and has done a lot of research on old LEGO molds. He is still active... but his Dark Ages lasted 46 years!! I learned much of the LEGO information of Portugal from the early years of LEGO (not well documented by the LEGO Archives) that I used in my LEGO DVD/download collectors guide. For some reason Portugal "got little respect" from TLG when it came to Portuguese items. There was, for example, never a 226 Printed Bricks parts pack specific to Portugal... TLG shipped Swiss (German/French) printed bricks parts packs to Portugal. So there are no Portuguese language printed bricks... and even TEATRO (which would be correct for Portugal as "THEATER")... is from the Italian 226 parts pack.

Best bet is Bricklink.... you should become familiar with using their parts and set catalog.... But for 10x10 inch baseplates (32x32 studs, which is how Bricklink items are referenced).... check here..... Go to Bricklink... click on the CATALOG tab.... which takes you here... http://www.bricklink.com/catalog.asp Click on PARTS .... http://www.bricklink.com/catalogTree.asp?itemType=P From there click on BASEPLATE..... http://www.bricklink.com/catalogList.asp?catType=P&catString=2 From there go to the second page... until you come to either 32x32 or 48x48 baseplatts... When you click on 32x32 (10x10 inches) baseplates... http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItem.asp?P=3811 .... you get to a screen that lists individual sellers by color... but the best and fastest way to view the parts is... ... choose the color you want under the PRICE GUIDE INFO heading.... for example if you selected green... you would get this page... http://www.bricklink.com/catalogPG.asp?P=3811&colorID=6 Then click on any of the green boxes next to a New or Used price that you like (red box means they won't ship to your area)... I clicked on the cheapest new one ($4.16), which happens to be a USA seller... http://www.bricklink.com/store.asp?sID=230946&itemID=37689919 For 15x15 inch baseplates (48x48 studs)... repeat the procedure starting here.... http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItem.asp?P=4186 One word of advice... pick your own country (or nearby)... baseplates are not cheap to ship overseas. Good Luck P.S. Be forewarned of baseplate sticker shock in some common colors... TLG has been stingy in their production in the last few years...

LEGO sets were more fun for MISB sets in the early days... 1949-65. All the basic and most of the model sets had a box top that came off to show a shrinkwrapped lower box. This way you saw EXACTLY what was inside... shown here is a 1960 Austrian 700/0 (largest basic set)... (from Chapter 5 of my LEGO DVD).....

Hi Wout... yes, I found out (from one of the many Scandinavian posters on this thread)... that the "Dutch ad" is actually Norwegian". I was suspicious when I saw the word "og"... which is not Dutch (I only know English, German and French). It seems that "Anders Duck" is the Danish way of calling Donald, but "Donald Duck" is the Norwegian way. My Flickr site... http://www.flickr.com/photos/istokg/ This is only part of my 6000 image collection... about 2/3 of which are in the LEGO DVD/download... with more coming in future editions (free to current DVD or download owners when I send out periodic updates).

Hi Dr. Dave! First of all any century that starts with a "2" is not an antique... if it were then I'd be a dinosaur.... I can vaguely remember when President Kennedy was assassinated, but fortunately the QE2 coronation was before my time! I had a virus on my computer and it wiped out my passwords... so I can't get back on Brickset where we met... I sent a password reset request to the Admins but never got a reply... I can only get onto the main page... although I can read the forum... but I usually don't because I can't post... so I've been here for a while. I finally found my London Bus items... so I need to get them distributed over there... Cheers, Gary

Hrw-Amen.... that was Fire Station 347 of 1970. Now this gets very complex... (which is where my DVD download comes in handy).... 347 was sold as an individual set....http://www.bricklink...Pic.asp?S=347-1 It was also sold in the 380 Village Set (UK/Ireland/Australia only)... which consists of sets 3... 344, 346 and 347. It was also sold in the Danish Anders and Corn Flakes Danish set seen above (my mistake... that set WAS different from the UK 380 set). It had sets 345 (not 344), 346 and 347. It was also sold in the large 1970 promotional UK Kellogg's Village set... which consists of 326, 344, 345, 346 and 347.... as well as extra car/truck sets 600, 601, 602, 603, 621, 622, 623. This is actually one of the most complex set inter-relations of any LEGO sets... because the 347 set is a subset of the 380 Set, the Danish promotional set and the UK Kellogg's set. The 380 and Danish promotional sets are also a subset of the UK Kellogg's set. And even the building sets 344, 345, 346, 347 have vehicles that are a subset of those individual building sets... such as vehicle sets 600, 601, 602, 603, 621, 622 and 623. And even some of these vehicle sets have different USA set numbers (600 = 360 USA, 601 = 361 USA, 602 = 362 USA, 603 = 363 USA). Also... all of the cars/trucks can be found in the USA/only 348 Samsonite LEGO Mini-Wheel Car/Truck Set. This is easily (yeah right)... explained in my DVD download in Chapters 3 (LEGO Town Plan Sets), Chapter 8 (1955-71 LEGO Town Model Sets) and Chapter 17 (LEGO Promotional Sets).

Thanks for the laugh L@go! I had seen that one before, and find it very funny.... I just saw a very old Danish brick with MEJERI printed on it and was thinking of the :"thousand liters of milk" mentioned in that video! With the close links between Denmark, Norway and Sweden, one would think that these first 3 LEGO selling countries would have a lot of old LEGO in common. But that was not the case.... while LEGO Billund was busy selling LEGO in Denmark... they licensed LEGO sales to Svein Strømberg & Co. of Oslo in Norway, and A. B. Lundby of Lerum Sweden for their first LEGO sales in those 2 countries. The result was that the LEGO Archives have little information of what was produced in Norway and Sweden in the 1950s... and I keep surprising the LEGO Archive folks with items that they have no information on (thanks to the collections of many sharp eyed European collectors)... Here are 2 examples of things that TLG Denmark had no idea was being sold in Norway and Sweden... 1. Norwegian alphabet bricks in blue with gold lettering. These are only known elsewhere in white with blue lettering.... 2. In Sweden Hemmets Journal, a popular Swedish magazine, had a promotion in the late 1950s for small LEGO sets. You had to have an image from Hemmets in order to build what came in the little boxes you sent away for as part of the promotion. These items are discussed in Chapter 48 - Printed and Painted LEGO Elements, and Chapter 15 - LEGO Promotional Items in my 2800 page Unofficial LEGO Sets/Parts Collectors Guide on DVD/download. I'm still trying to locate the Hemmets Journal pages to go with these little sets #1, #2 and #3 that shows the models that could be built!

Well since no one is answering you, I'll do so... Below are the modern complete LEGO trees (not including palms and bushes). The ones one the right have sharp edges, including the (discontinued in 2002) tall Cypress Tree. The ones on the left have the rounded edges. There were many years of overlap between the trees. The small pine tree only came in the rounded edge version, and the Pine and Spherical trees came in both sharp edge and round edge trees. The large Pine tree was introduced in 1974 and had a darker look to it, with very brittle branches that did not bend. Then by 1978 when the Spherical tree was introduced, both the sharp edged Spherical and Pine tree were made of a very soft bendable plastic. In 1979 the tall Cypress tree was also made of this soft plastic. Then in the mid 1980s the small Pine tree was introduced with a harder plastic and rounded edges. The large Pine and Spherical trees were also introduced with harder plastic and rounded edges... after the old inventory of trees was discontinued. The Cypress continued to have sharp edges and soft plastic until their last appearance in a set in 2001. Some of these later Cypress trees have a bent look to them (they didn't always stand up straight. Now as to any of these trees ever being made of ABS plastic... I'm not sure about that... even the modern pine trees have some bend to them, although not much. So I think they have more give than ABS. Only TLG knows for sure. As for any comparison to those swords... can't help you there.. not familiar with those variations. But to reiterate... the Pine tree came in 3 versions... 1974-77 very hard plastic with sharp edges and dark green... the 1978-1980s sharp edges and very soft plastic (lighter green)... and the 1980s-modern rounded edges with stiffer plastic (also lighter green). Information and image from Chapter 45 LEGO Trees/Bushes & Plants of my 2800 page LEGO DVD/download collectors guide.

One of my favorite magazine ads was a magazine ad proof that was rejected for use. In the triple image below, the image in the middle was the proof. It was part of an estate collection of illustrations by comic book illustrator Joe Certa (1913-1984) who created the "Martian Manhunter" comic book character in the 1950s, and illustrated "Dark Shadows" comic books in the 1960s, among many other comic book works. It was investigating the history of this ad that makes me enjoy playing LEGO Sherlock Holmes.... Mr. Certa was approached by USA Samsonite Corp. in 1963 to try making an ad for one of their LEGO advertisements. Although the artwork is first class, and the realism of the boy in the picture is top notch, Mr. Certa failed in a couple of areas.... 1) he didn't know the proper way to hold a LEGO brick.... 2) his window/door dimensions were not close to the real classic era LEGO parts, and 3) his use of Lime green, and what appears to be Maersk blue were decades ahead of their time. So instead Samsonite LEGO decided to go with the photograph used in the ad in the right image. But that building that Mr. Certa attempted to build looked like I had seen it before... which I did... it was from a 1958 continental European Retailer Glued Display Model Catalog (left). Mr. Certa apparently was given this image to work from, but the end result was not up to the requirements of LEGO images. It was fun to put the historic pieces of this puzzle together and come up with all the parts! This 1961 UK ad shows one of the earliest castle images ever seen in LEGO.... This 1972 USA Samsonite LEGO ad looks like a regular ad. But this image shows secrets that it's hiding from the public... 1) the USA Samsonite LEGO license would be revoked within a few months (by 1973), 2) Samsonite is trying to get rid of all the remaining LEGO parts in its' inventory before the (already determined end of sales) end date arrives, and sold the last of their inventory in huge boxes of 500-900 parts at cheap prices, 3) yellow elements and red windows/doors were already depleted from their inventory, so only red, white and blue parts, with white windows/doors were still in inventory by the end of 1972 (other images of 1972 confirm this). Some 1971-72 Samsonite ads even fib about the impending loss of the LEGO license by saying that due to improved manufacturing processes, the number of parts in LEGO sets has been greatly increased, without increasing the price. This is a 1960 Dutch magazine ad that shows that in the late 1950s and early 1960s red and white were by far the dominant colors in LEGO basic sets. Blue and yellow were only available in spare parts packs, and a few model sets. Only a few clear parts were found in basic sets of that era, and black parts wouldn't be introduced until late 1961. This Belgian (Flemish) 1968 magazine ad mentions some of the new parts of the 1966 introduced LEGO Train System. What was new in 1968 was the train buildings (station, tower, warehouse), and the new magnet couplings. There are dozens of magazine ads in this chapter of my LEGO DVD/download... in the future dozens more will be added (future downloads are free to current owners). There is also an entire chapter on LEGO Department Store Mail Order Catalog LEGO images, another chapter on LEGO Retailer Display items (and models), a chapter on the over 40 LEGO logos used since 1934, a chapter on how LEGO instructions have evolved over the last 60 years, and a chapter on LEGO box artwork, and how it evolved from painted images to photographic images (especially after the introduction of the LEGO Photography Department in 1959). These are all things you won't find in any online database.... Gary Istok

LEGO ads have been around since the early 1950s. The oldest ones were monochromatic, later ones were in full color. Chapter 68 of my DVD./download has dozens of LEGO ads from all around the world... This is the oldest one I've ever seen... 1953 from Norway... advertising "LEGO Mursten" (bricks)... Here's a 1963 magazine ad from Sweden, talking about the new "LEGO Wheels"... with lots of nice glued models in the background.... Here's a French ad from 1977 (the year before LEGO minifigs were introduced)... showing the LEGO people with big heads, and the 1974-77 minfig "stiffs".... Here's an Italian 1960 magazine ad showing a young Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen playing with LEGO with a basic set and a parts pack in the foreground. This image shows many of the very collectible 1:87 cars and trucks, as well as other Town Plan accessories.... Here's a 1979 Toy Trade Publication add telling retailers that there's a lot of money to be made in LEGO sales...

I had always thought the same thing about the 1967 UK promotional Kellogg's Town Plan... the 2,250 sets they had for promotions were likely leftover Town Plan accessories/boxes... but since the Esso parts supply was exhausted, they replaced those with the new Shell items. I bet TLG used promotions in many instances to get rid of leftover sets.

The 1593 Delta Spacecraft Set is an interesting exclusive set... like the 1592 Town Square Set (the previous number in the LEGO numbering sequence)... and it also was sold by 2 companies. In the UK/Ireland the 1593 Set was promoted by UNILEVER Corp. as a Persil Detergent promotional set. In continental Europe the 1593 Set was promoted by HENKEL, a German company... the originators of Persil Detergent... and was sold in Denmark, Germany and France. Interestingly enough HENKEL licensed the production Persil Detergent to UNILEVER Corp. in UK/Ireland. The 1593 Delta Spacecraft Set distribution is discussed in my LEGO DVD/download in Chapter 30 - Classic LEGO Sets... but I think I'm going to add it to Chapter 17 - Promotional Sets as well.

In the first post on this thread I show an image of the 1592 Town Square set of 1983 that was a promotional item for UNILEVER Corp. product UNOX Soup. Well the 1592 set was produced from 1980-83, and has a very complex history... going back to the 1980 UK Weetabix Cereal version, to the later selling of the UK version in Germany from 1981-82, to the switching over to the Dutch version for sales in the Netherlands in 1983 (and yet some UK boxes were still available...). I just posted a detailed explanation of the rather complex history of this set over on LUGNET, which makes for good reading... http://news.lugnet.com/general/?n=55925 Enjoy! Gary Istok

No... interestingly enough Danish, Swedish and Finish (I can't speak any of them)... do have different words... for example... in Danish and Swedish... it's GARAGE... in Norwegian it's GARASJE. The word for "VW SALES" in Danish is VW SALG, as it is in Norwegian... but in Swedish it is VW FORSALJNING, it's HOTEL in Danish, but HOTELL in Swedish and Norwegian. Here is another Disney related LEGO ad... and I was told that it was Dutch 1963... but I don't think "og" (and) is Dutch... (this is from Chapter 68 of my DVD... LEGO Advertisements 1953-86)...

Another very collectible Dutch promotional set was for Chocomel, a popular Dutch chocolate beverage. This set was the 1620 Factory set... another highly sought after set of the 1980s.... And in 1985 in the USA a 1582 small basic set came out as either a PEPSI soft drink or CREST toothpaste promotional set. But compared to European standards... this promotion was lame.... Another 1980s Dutch Unilever Corp. promotional set was this UNOX Soup promotion... the #1966 Repair Shop Set... And then there were Dairy Company sets... This small 1980 French 1591 promotional set for Danone Yogurt.... And finally this 1999 Norwegian Tine #1029 Tine Dairy Truck set... All these promotional sets, and about 100 more can be found in Chapter 17 of my 2800 page Unofficial LEGO Sets/Parts Collectors Guide available on the Eurobricks Bazaar, Lugnet Marketplace, several Bricklink Stores or Ebay.

From 1955 to the present TLG has made many dozens of promotional sets (not to confused with Set Exclusives)... Here are a dozen sets, mostly the promotional advertisements, that I selected from Chapter 17 of my LEGO DVD/download.... Here is how I've cataloged them.... 17.0 LEGO PROMOTIONAL SETS (1955-99). 17.1 USA Promotional LEGO Sets (1963-86). 17.2 Canadian Promotional LEGO Sets (1984-87). 17.3 British Promotional LEGO Sets (1967-99). 17.4 Continental European Promotional LEGO Sets (1972-99). 17.5 Other Parts of the World Promotional LEGO Sets (1985-96). 17.6 World’s Fair LEGO Sets (1964-65). 17.7 LEGO Company Promotional Sets (1958-95). 17.8 Other Company Promotional Sets (1963-75). 17.9 LEGO 1:87 Promotional Cars/Trucks (1955-67). And here they are... First the oldest... the 1955 Danish Esso Service Station giveaways.... 1:87 vehicles during the first year these (very collectible) vehicles were produced as part of the LEGO Town Plan System... In 1967 British Kellogg's Cereal decided to have a promotion for all the leftover UK Town Plan parts leftover. They took a UK Town Plan... but since the Esso Service parts were mostly out of inventory... they replaced those with the new Shell Service Station parts... Also in the 1960s SAS (Scandinavian Airlines) promoted a small LEGO set for child travelers on their European routes... it was just a small sample of bricks, but it kept the children busy while they were flying... In 1970 a new LEGO set called the 380 LEGO VILLAGE was sold in Britain/Ireland and Austalia. This was a rare and highly collectible set Apparently TLG Billund must have made too many of these, since the last 10,000 of them were used in a Danish promotional ad called Anders and Corn Flakesl.... with a Walt Disney's Donald Duck... In 1978 UK/Ireland/Australia warm cereal producer Weetabix (which already had a few LEGO set promotions from 1970-76)... came out with a 1589 Town Square Set... a very highly collectible set today... When it came to promotional sets... few countries could out do the Dutch... here is a 1983 Dutch version of the 1592 Town Square set (already done by Weetabix in 1980 in the UK, and later sold in Germany as well). The Dutch version was from Unilever Corporation for their UNOX Soups....

Very nice backdrops... and very creative!! For my 2800 page Unofficial LEGO Sets/Parts Collectors Guide (as DVD download)... my Table of Contents has as its' top image, a 1960s LEGO built building (made of original and often warped Cellulose Acetate plastic of that era) model of a hotel, with a plain blue background. I chose this image mainly because I liked how the background complemented the image. This was designed by Dutch collector Jeroen Van Dorst... and sometimes pure simplicity works very well.... All of these LEGO parts (some worth 200 Euro) date to 1960-65. My collectors guide can be found available in the Eurobricks Bazaar...

I came out of my Dark Ages in 1979 while visiting relatives in Germany and discovering all the rich plunder of very old LEGO sets found in small toy stores there (clearance sales were unknown to small European toy stores) so I went on a 13 year buying spree visiting Germany every summer until 1993, and found hundreds of rare sets and especially spare parts packs. Back then I was the only LEGO collector I knew about (no internet)... and there were no secondary market sources for parts... so I ended up buying strange quantities of certain sets to get parts I needed... such as 34 London Bus sets (USA 760 version)... 50 of the 455 Lear Jet sets, 25 of the 6626 Ambulance Helicopter Sets, 10 6075 Yellow Castle Sets, 15 of the 6390 Main Street Sets, and dozens of the USA Homemaker sets (261, 268, 269, 5233, 5235) since tiles were relatively unknown in USA sets. It was a lonely time back then... no other AFOLs known to me... it wasn't until I did a toy store display that got into the local newspaper (that TLG found out about, and sent a representative to my house in 1985). Later that year I got a call from Henry Wiencek, author of THE WORLD OF LEGO TOYS, and am the only AFOL (page 30) mentioned in that book. I was also on a Canadian special "25 Years of LEGO in Canada" on the Canadian TV Show "The Journal" (I only lived 7 miles from the Canadian border in Detroit). But it wasn't until 1998 that I got involved in RTL.Rec.Toys and then LUGNET... and the rest is history. I think that Dark Ages today are going to either be of short duration or permanent for LEGO enthusiasts. There is a LEGO Universe that most of today's collectors know about, that was unknown to me 30+ years ago. Being an AFOL is no longer something that you would want to hide or be ashamed of (not the case 30 years ago)... and there's all the secondary marketplaces for building your dreams that were just not around decades ago. Leg Godt....

WOW!! Lasse... the 1950s continental, the 1960s continental and 1960s British Town Plan boards! Very nice!!! Love all the 1:87 vehicles... the 271 Traffic Police items (only sold in Denmark, Norway and Netherlands), the 1950s trees/bushes, the British Esso Pumps/Sign, street lights... the 306/307/310/318/324/326 sets, as well as the regular Town Plan items. I can tell that your Esso Station is a 310 version... since it has the painted edge to the roof plates (the 810 Town Plan version does not). Also see the 1960s trees/bushes and white base road signs in the UK version of the board. All very very nice!! I'm not sure if you have my LEGO DVD/download... but here's a few reasons why you should! Very very rare Swedish and Norwegian items, along with some UK items.... -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Norwegian, Swedish, British, and continental European Esso pumps.... .... Danish, International, Norwegian and 2 versions of Swedish Esso Tankers... 3 cross type and one curve top (UK) Esso sign.... as well as 4 versions of the Denmark only Esso Oil barrels... Several variations of the Shell (1966-70) gas pumps... 1955-56 Norwegian road signs with rare red bases.... Rare variations of the 271/1271 Policemen Accessories crossing light and traffic island.... 1966-69 wavy continental wavy flags... including the very rare Faroe Island flag (cross w/ white background) and rare Japanese flag... Very rare 1955-56 Swedish road signs with light and dark brown bases... more very rare 1955-56 Swedish road signs with light and dark brown bases.... This is just a small sample of the over 6000 images of rare LEGO items that I have in my DVD/download... also I got many many images from the TLG Archives. I mention on LUGNET about a special right now.... http://news.lugnet.com/market/buy-sell-trade/?n=17847

Odonaman!..... here's one the'd give an "arm and a leg" for ..... This #605 Fiat (1964-65).... in black there are only about 6 known... this one sold for 3235 Euros 2 years ago on Ebay.... And then there is the #657 Mercedes truck... in all 17 known variations... most of these can be had for 100-200 Euros in decent condition. The red Beef-Poultry-Fish truck is the rarest of the group with only about a dozen known... and recently sold for 1000 Euros... There are dozens of even rarer trucks that TLG produced as prototypes. And recently the sold some of these "extras" to the public at auction for up to 10000 Euros. I have captured images of ALL the rare trucks for my LEGO DVD/download chapters on 1:87 Cars/Trucks, the chapter on LEGO promotional items, and the chapter on LEGO prototypes. Those 3 chapters have about 50,000 Euros worth of rare LEGO parts pictured.

Time to go attic searching...... Those 1:87 vehicles are some of the most valuable of early LEGO parts... especially when they are in great condition or of a rare variety. These are 2 large multi-pack vehicle sets (very rare) from 1965-67 (from my LEGO chapter on 1:87 Die Cast Vehicles). Each of these rare boxes is worth over 1000 Euros... but some individual vehicles can be worth up to 3000 Euros each, such as a black Fiat 1800 (only 6 known), or a red "Poultry-Fish-Meat" truck at 1000 Euros (only about 12 known).

That's because you're looking at it as a standalone set. It was part of the 1955-67 Town Plan series of sets and set boards. The Town Plan was based on the 1:87 HO scale, which was the standard for LEGO building until the mid 1970s. There were few sets that had more hours of "playability" than the Town Plan... I once built what I call a Super Town Plan... with more of a downtown feel.....

Thanks, For those people who throw away LEGO boxes... here's a lesson..... If the different box types for this set was not complicated enough... it gets more so..... This is the later version of the first flat box top (with instructions on the inside box top) worth probably 200-300 Euros without any LEGO parts included! TLG likes to drive collectors of old LEGO crazy.... so the earliest of these garage (flat box sets) had the instructions crudely on the bottom of the box (below)... Then circa late 1958 TLG decided to put the instructions on the inside box top (first image above with inserts). And then then circa 1959 TLG decided to change the box and put color instructions on the inside of the box.... Then in 1960 TLG decided to change the box design again... but put the instructions back on the bottom of the box.... Then there's the rectangular box versions of this set... at first TLG decided to add separate instructions, such as these from 1955-56... Then later TLG decided to just put the instructions on the box...... ARRGGGH.... so if you need instructions for a 236 set.... you're going to have to be VERY SPECIFIC about what you are looking for!! LEGO MAYHEM.... it's the whole reason I wrote my collectors guide... TLG is messing with our brains!!!!