LEGO Historian

Dave, here's a hint... this retailer LEGO order form is dated August 1965... and it lists all the LEGO items coming out soon thereafter... pictured in my LEGO DVD (in the chapter on retailer catalogs, order forms, display models, display items, and signage).... Also... this previous order form lists what would likely be the most valuable LEGO item EVER.... "MINIATURE CAR ASSORTMENT". This would be a case of 75 1:87 cars (#261-#268)... each in their own small plastic garage with a paper band around each one. These individually would go for at least $150 each MISB... but a box of 75.... YIKES.... at least $11,000.... So far none of those have ever been found....

I'll give some additional info on the Cypress Tree... In 2001 this parts pack had 5 of them... http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItem.asp?S=10113-1 But in 2003 when the re-release of the 6390 Main Street Set (10041) came out... the Cypress Tree was NOT included.... http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItemPic.asp?S=10041-1

With over 6000 images, 2,800 pages, and 10,156 prices in the price guide in Euros and Dollars.... and 1/3 million words in 73 chapters and 4 appendices.

Wow... thanks for all the tips folks.... From 1965 (when they were introduced) until the early 1970s ALL TILES (back then there were only 1x1, 1x2 and 2x2) were like the jumper plates... there was no lip at their base, unlike those since circa 1974... So those were some of the worst pieces to take apart.... It was at some point in the early 1970s that TLG realized that they were not easy to remove... and if we have such problems with tiles and plates today.... image what it was like back then for children to remove them.... ARRGG!! ________________________________ On the flip side of the hardest pieces to take apart... how about the easiest to take apart?? From an "older" perspective... I would definitely say the 1x1 round bricks without the tapered base (1955-65). If you stacked them up... say 10 high.... they would not stay together... unless there was no wind and no one sneezed!! That's one reason why they were remodeled in 1966 to the tapered base 1x1 rounds (solid stud).

I'm now selling my UNOFFICIAL LEGO SETS/PARTS COLLECTORS GUIDE (1949-1990s) as a 2,800 page downloadable file (only takes 6-10 minutes to download the vast 688MB of data to your PC Desktop). Over 6,000 images that include several hundred sets/items not found in any online LEGO database... ... and two 400 page PRICE GUIDE for sets not often found for sale in any auction or on Bricklink (10,156 prices in dollars on the USA price guide, and 10,156 prices in EUROs on the European price guide). The price guides use the 4 standard collectible conditions.... Very Good, Excellent, Mint in Box, and MISB. See here in my EBAY store for details on all the chapters, some images, and free downloadable chapters... http://www.ebay.com/...#ht_11144wt_934 Also available as a download in my Bricklink store here... http://www.bricklink...itemID=32819532 It is also available as a mailed DVD, but I still have a backlog of those to ship... http://www.bricklink...itemID=32384933 If you don't have a Bricklink or EBAY account, you can always order directly from me thru Paypal... my id is: istokg@earthlink.net I have collected LEGO since 1960, and spend years researching the history of LEGO sets, parts and products. I've had help from collectors around the world, as well as the TLG Archives, Vault and Collections in Billund Denmark. When the folks at TLG get questions from others that they cannot answer... sometimes they refer the questions to me! Reason is... the Archives at TLG are somewhat sparse prior to 1970. I also contributed to the Fantasia book on collecting (the one with the 1-6 bricks for set rarity). Gary Istok

Well since this is my 100th post... and get upgraded from being a "VASSAL"... I thought I would post a historic pic from my Collectors Guide.... This image is from December 1956... withhen John Scheidegger (in the middle), the newly appointed Director of LEGO for Switzerland (sales would start there in early 1957), and LEGO founder and Senior LEGO Director Ole Kirk Christiansen (right), and his son Junior LEGO Director Godtfred Kirk Christiansen. This image was taken in Frankfurt Germany. Godtfred Kirk was there to also pick up his father Ole Kirk and return him to Denmark. Ole Kirk had serious health issues, and spent a lot of time in the warmer climate of Germany. 15 months after this image was taken, Ole Kirk passed away in early 1958, at the age of 67, passing control of TLG to his 4 sons... with Godtfred Kirk becoming the Senior Director and mostly in charge of TLG.

I'm not sure about the Legends version of the USS Constellation... but the #398 version back in the late 1970s was not a popular set.... none of the Hobby Sets apparently were. But by the same token... the Pirate ships appeared to be popular in the early 1990s.

Doppelhaus in German is almost the same as "Semidetached" in Britain... and "Duplex" in the USA...

A bigger problem in the 1960s was bricks made of Cellulose Acetate... they warped, especially if left in a hot attic. If you ever find very old LEGO at a garage or boot sale.... you've probably noticed that they "wobble" on a flat surface... that would be Cellulose Acetate.... TLG switched over to ABS plastic in 1963 in Europe, but the switch over took longer in USA/Canada, where some Cellulose Acetate parts were found in sets as late as 1970.

In my day (60s-70s) manuals were nothing more than an image of the front of a model in various stages of constructions. you often had no clue as to how the back sides should look. The 1961-65 #717 Junior Constructor Set was a notorious example of this. First of all... the instructions were in the inside of the box top.... and although they showed a lot of alternate models (in this instance)... you only got 4 images (with yellow background) of the main model....

That first image reminds me a lot of one of the very first LEGO sets... the 1300 and 1301 "Mosaik" sets of 1955. They were only sold in Denmark, Norway and Sweden, and were so unpopular that TLG discontinued them by 1956.

Lugnet also does this... but in a different way... you click on a set number... and it tells you the names of the people who own it, had comments about it, and if you want to buy or sell it. Great for individual sets... but not good for all the sets in your collection....

I've got MOCs so old... that even the dust is collecting dust....

One problem in having thousands of parts in so many colors is that TLG has lost their focus on "Systems"... you find that some windows are only available in some colors, other slopes are not available in all the different versions you need to put together a structure... etc... What used to be simple building of bricks on top of each other, has now developed into using SNOT techniques, jumper plates and other "gimmicks" just in order to complete a satisfactory looking structure. So more parts and more colors are not always a good thing when they don't complement each other!

Funny thing is... after 1/3 of a century of playing with LEGO... I'm more interested now in the history and research behind the product. So I sold off a chunk of my collection... rather than have the boxes collect dust (or worse... mildew!).

Glad I could pull at your "heartstrings"... it takes me back too... back to 1962, when my Grandfather was visiting from Germany (LEGO came out in 1961 in the USA).... and he brought me about 12 of those boxes... different color parts, different specialty parts... it was like each one was a little treasure box. Fast forward 40 years... and I found a batch of 20 of them on EBAY at an absurdly low price... and that too brought me back to my youth!

Very nice indeed!!

Ole Kirk Christiansen (1890-1958) first started making wooden toys in 1932. 1934 was when the first LEGO logo was introduced. Ole got into the yo-yo craze back then... and when the bottom dropped out of the yo-yo market... he improvised... and used each half of a yo-yo as a wheel to wooden duck, or other wooden pull toys. Wooden toys ended in 1960, when the wooden toy factory burned down, and they concentrated on plastic toys.

NASA probably started playing with LEGO in 1964... when the first ever LEGO space set was introduced in the USA only by Samsonite LEGO. It was the 801 Space Rocket Set.

Arguably the 2 worst colors for getting good MOC images of are white and black. White, because of the brightness of the image (especially when taking flash photography), and black... due to the general problems of showing anything black.

No those roadsigns were not stud compatible... that didn't happen until 1969 when the tall road signs with ridged poles came out. Prior to that all road signs, these Britain/Ireland/Australia with the white base, as well as those sold in the rest of the world with gray (light, medium, dark gray) bases also could not attach to baseplates. I have an image somewhere with the non-UK type road signs with bases in 9 colors.

Yes... most regular LEGO bricks made up to that point were made at that Wrexham plant. It was the same situation for Canada... where Samsonite was the licensee for LEGO, and from 1962-85, and most Canadian (non-specialty) LEGO elements were made at a plant in Stratford Ontario. In 1985 the Beatrice Corp. (owner of the Samsonite Corp. since 1973) was hostile taken over (by Wall Street investment firm Kohlberg Kravitz & Roberts), and the Samsonite Corp. was again spun off as a separate entity... but not before KK&R sold the LEGO license back to TLG. In the USA... from 1961-65 most non-specialty parts were made in the Canadian Samsonite LEGO plant, until the Loveland Colorado (outside Denver) plant opened up in April 1965. From 1965-72 all USA (non-specialty parts) were made at the Loveland Colorado plant. Then in 1973 the LEGO license reverted to TLG (and the plant was relocated to Connecticut) after litigation, because USA Samsonite LEGO sales were "underperforming". All this info is in Chapter 73 (LEGO Sales Offices & History by Country)... of my Unofficial LEGO Sets/Parts Collectors Guide (1949-1990s).

I too love the sunflowers... wow. But your tower's going to need something to spare it from heavy winds....

Love the "Dutch Gables" and rusticated look on some of those buildings... very classic!

That is one helluva "understated" LEGO logo....