LEGO Historian

Some very nice Log cabins... but would it kill TLG to actually create LOG bricks... instead of "stockade" bricks (vertical instead of horizontal logs)... It's amazing at all the gimmickry and SNOT techniques that folks ingeniously find to get around the fact that TLG never really came out with a log system. And even their stockade system... which is ideal for Art Deco office towers (a terra cotta look), still only has a 1x2 and 1x4 bricks... which does not allow for sturdy construction. I see the new 1x2 "rusticated" brick going the same way. TLG creates one or two bricks, but not enough of a system to create some real masterwork without all the SNOT and gimmickry. The best "systems" that TLG ever created were the classic windows/doors (9 windows and 1 left and right door)... and the 45 degree slopes (13 different elements that you could make and gabled or hip roofed building from). Besides those 2... TLG hasn't had a "system" in years.... Just my usual rant of TLG going away from their "System" concept long ago...

AMEN to that!! I've been harping about the "lack of a complete LEGO window system" for years. Even had someone take the comments to BRICKWORLD a few years ago and mention it in front of the LEGO owner KKK and the LEGO president... It's almost an embarrassment that the worlds leading building toy doesn't have a complete window system... like they did from 1956-80 (before the minifig scale was fully introduced)... Check out this cool LEGO display model (Glued) castle of Germany's SCHLOSS JOHANNISBURG (in Aschaffenburg Bavaria)... windows arranged in many different combinations... back when there were 9 different windows that were compatible and interchangeable with each other... without using those stupid headlight bricks....

Here's a rare set from the 1964-65 USA Worlds Fair.... set #395.... And it even has the Danish "Royal Warrant".... And the Danish 1964-65 Worlds Fair Pavilion itself....

I'm a builder of classically inspired structures... and I'll give everyone a little secret for getting some pretty neat ideas for classical architecture... GOOGLE "Andras Kaldor"... the Hungarian born architectural illustrator... just the images under his name heading alone is mind boggling... and he keeps his images rather simple, so that translating buildings into LEGO is rather easy. (It's getting enough parts that's not so easy....)

Thanks! (Except for the "before I was born part"..... lol ) Here's a "LEGO Museum of Art" building I did in the early 1990s... sigh... also before you were born.... It is made of white LEGO... which doesn't show well with flash photography, so I omitted the flash, which is why it looks yellowish... (and of course those curve railing pieces in the roof cupola's were a recent addition).

You're not giving Bricklink any more information about yourself than they already have about you. Paypal is secure, and your payment sent from there doesn't go to Bricklink... but directly to the sellers Paypal account, and an EMAIL gets sent to the sellers Email ID. So once BL is back up and running, I wouldn't worry about it.

... that just got me to thinking about another issue that hadn't even occurred to me until this very moment... that 1x1 round bricks in trans-clear often have very small fissures (or slight cracks) around the base. I had always assumed that all the round bricks had this problem... but that we couldn't see it due to them being opaque. Well it's the Polycarbonate plastic in the clear colored ones that will not give... even the slightest bit, which in turn causes that cracking we see in the 1x1 round bricks.

Hey Wily.... (if that's you) the first Email I got today was about you... I thought uh-oh... what did my good buddy Wily do to deserve this? Then I saw all the merges into JohnP's account and I knew something was amiss... JohnP, Ash_274 and TracyD just don't mix socially.... Hope it all gets sorted out....

mrklaw... is this the type of tower roof you are trying to build? This is my 20 year old City Hall model that used yellow 2x2x3 double convex slopes from 7 Yellow Castle (375/6075) sets, back before there was Bricklink!

For all the Train buffs.... before there were magnets starting in 1969... there were train coupling parts... and they were kind of complex for kids.... (from Ben Beneke of Germany)... And principal LEGO owner Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen showed up on this postcard as a child back in 1959 (just after the LEGO Photography Department was established that year).... nice diorama!

That part has been in production, pretty much unchanged for 55 years (since 1955)... I doubt that TLG is changing it for the kids. There are a lot of AFOL builders, as well as some LEGO designers not pleased about this change... http://www.flickr.co...in/photostream/ http://www.flickr.co...in/photostream/ http://www.flickrive...@N00/764504130/

??? http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItem.asp?P=3685

All trans colored bricks and plates are made of Polycarbonate, and not ABS plastic. ABS pellets do not come in a trans color, so TLG has to use a different plastic to make trans parts.

Here's a very interesting "story" to tell behind a LEGO ad (from my LEGO DVD chapter on Ads)... (I often find unrelated items, and piece together the behind the scenes story of many old LEGO ads and items)... The leftmost image is of a 1957-58 European Glued Retailer Model Catalog, that continental European retailers can order for their window displays. In about 1962-63 an American comic book illustrator by the name of Joe Certa (who did many comic book action heroes in the 1950s, as well as a DARK SHADOWS series in the 1960s), was offered by USA Samsonite LEGO to come up with an ad for a USA magazine. As it would turn out, this illustrator was unfamiliar with LEGO parts, colors and even how to hold the parts... but he created quite a nice image, (center image) based on the much older b/w catalog model. But although his ad image was nice, it was not satisfactory (with what looks like Maersk blue and Lime green colors decades before their introduction)... He also didn't understand macaroni bricks, which were used in a rather peculiar way in the original models' side entrance wings. His ad was rejected in favor of a photograph image that was used in the final ad (right image). One of my favorite parts of putting together the 2,800 page Unofficial Sets/Parts Collectors Guides, is to find clues from my over 8,000 historic images, and put the pieces of the puzzle together to get the real history behind LEGO. Enjoy!

Interestingly enough, I shipped some 1960s ABS blue small plates from the USA to a Dutch collector. They were in a bubble mailer... and the strangest thing happened... each and every one was broken when it arrived. Not for being smashed... since the bubble wrap was still intact. But just somehow they were extremely brittle. Also, I knew they were ABS bricks, based on the color... Cellulose Acetate bricks usually have a different shade, and often have very little clutch power. There may have been a period in the late 1970s and early 1980s where the clutch power was stronger on some plates (and bricks) than earlier and later parts...

I bet that the part design folks caught hell from the model folks over that change. If the macaroni bricks are strong enough for all model shop uses, why did the part design folks need to change it??

Here is a rare 1956 Norwegian Catalog. TLG was not happy with A/S NORSKE LEGO when they saw this. The Norwegian licensee (Svein Stromberg & Co., Oslo) had to change their subsidiary name to A/S NORSKE "LEGIO" that year because TLG didn't want them using their name along with non-LEGO items such as "MECLINE" cars/trucks, and other items. In this catalog it becomes difficult to determine exactly what is LEGO and what is not.... The real LEGO items were the Town Plan era 1:87 scale parts on the right side of the first page.... and all the 1:43 scale Chevrolet trucks on the 2nd page. 1957 was the last year of the 1:43 scale items. Although they are not part of the LEGO System of Play... these Chevrolet trucks command hundreds of Euros on the secondary market!! .... again these are images from my LEGO DVD on the chapter on LEGO Cars/Trucks...

Hey THANKS!!! I now know how to download images onto Eurobricks (trust me this place will never be the same again with my 8000 historic LEGO image database!!! (Of which 6000 are in my new LEGO DVD!!) Here is a 1960 Swedish magazine ad showing the 700/1 LEGO Basic Set, and some of the spare parts packs. Also showing at the bottom of the page is the new (to 1960) #238 Idea Book, sold in many European countries in the local language (also known as Building Ideas Book No. 1 in Britain/Ireland). And here is another 1960 Swedish magazine image... with the boy saying "TITTA"..... or "look!". This is a similar ad showcasing the #238 Idea Book, as well as some of the spare part packs used to build the models that the boy built....

By the looks of it, they're just Diamond chips, not any significant karat weight. The most expensive LEGO item I'm aware of is the 1957-58 Opel Kapitän 1:87 model car. A prototype, with only 8 known 5 yellow, 2 red, 1 orange. One of the yellow ones sold from a Danish seller to a USA collector for about $4000!! Also, did anyone notice the 2 columns on Buckingham Palace made out of the "old style" macaroni bricks? The newly redesigned ones can only be stacked on top of each other, and not staggered into a column like those in that model. I wonder if the model shops are hoarding some of them!

There is an entire series of those Swedish language magazine ads (I think I have images of them somewhere). I have a collection of over 100 old magazine advertisements prior to 1980... many going as far back as the 1950s. I have entire chapters full of images on my LEGO DVD (advertisements, promotions, department store catalog images, TV Commercials, LEGO artwork, LEGO catalogs, etc... Here's a few from my Flickr pages (I would post them here, but you can only post BRICKSHELF images).... http://www.flickr.co.../in/photostream http://www.flickr.co.../in/photostream Or a Danish 1970 ad with a Disney tie-in.... http://www.flickr.co.../in/photostream Or a German 1959 retailer items catalog page... http://www.flickr.co.../in/photostream Or a 1960 German retailer set catalog image... http://www.flickr.co.../in/photostream Or a 1959 Retailer Binder image... http://www.flickr.co.../in/photostream Or a very rare prototype LEGO item worth $4000..... http://www.flickr.co.../in/photostream Or many of the dozens of rare LEGO items I show here in my images from the dozens of chapters of my LEGO DVD or Download.... http://www.ebay.com/...#ht_11144wt_934

Sounds like you need my Unofficial LEGO Sets/Parts Collectors Guide on DVD (also available as a Download), with 2,800 pages and over 6,000 images.... my (37 page) Chapter 14 - "Wooden Box LEGO Sets 1950-80" has over 80 DIFFERENT wooden boxes listed or pictured. No online database lists more than 5... and even then the info is sketchy at best. Here's an image of 17 of the wooden boxes from my EBAY store item of the DVD/Download... http://cgi.ebay.com/...#ht_11144wt_934 Here's a sample chapter on old printed bricks.... http://www.1000stein...2048%20Vol2.pdf The LEGO DVD chapter on Bedford and Mercedes trucks/cars has 60 pages and over a hundred images.... including 5 of the different (1955-64) Bedford Esso Tanker Trucks with these decals.... BENZIN ESSO SMOREOLIE (Danish) BENSIN ESSO EXTRAMOTOR OIL (Swedish, variety 1) MOTOR OIL BENSIN ESSO EXTRA (Swedish, variety 2) ESSO (Norwegian) ESSO EXTRA MOTOR OIL (English) The LEGO DVD/Download is also available in my Bricklink store... with pictures of some items not even in the Billund Vault or Archives. I've worked on this for 6 years... (collecting since 1960). Gary Istok ... and speaking of wooden boxes... here's the largest wooden box set TLG ever sold... a 3,250 piece Educational set of the mid 1960s.... this was the very first 4 digit LEGO set number... 7100. http://www.flickr.co.../in/photostream I have copies of all the instructions, paperwork and contents of this set listed in my LEGO wooden box chapter.... http://www.flickr.com/photos/istokg/5316586559/in/photostream

Good lord... some of you youngsters worried about how old you are... Only 2 items predate me... the 2x2 and 2x4 brick... nothing else.... Nice 1959-65 ESSO HUOLTO brick there... if it had full printing that Finnish brick would be worth $50+ FYI.... The first LEGO figures were the 270/271 Cyclists/Traffic Police in the tiny 1:87 scale... they were introduced in 1956. The first LEGO movable figures were the "LEGO Sets With People" maxifigs introduced in 1973. The first minifig sized figures were the minifig "stiffs" of 1975-83. When the regular minfigs were introduced in 1978, these stiffs were only used afterwards in the 1592 Town Square Set (UK version 1980-82, Dutch version 1983-84) as the black statue in the square.

LEGO started out as wooden toys in 1932. In 1949 they got the first injection molding machine, and plastic toys were added to the list. Then on February 4, 1960 the wooden toy factory/warehouse burned down, and wooden toys ceased production. Of the 4 Christiansen family members (men) who inherited the company from their father Ole Kirk Christiansen, the son Godtfred Kirk Christiansen who became managing director of the company in 1952, the decision to end toy production did not sit well with the other brothers. By the mid 1960s the other 3 brothers left the company with Godtfred Kirk buying them out. Big mistake on their part... now his branch of the family are billionaires, while the other 3 branches are not even millionaires. But with old LEGO... if it's not made of wood or plastic, then generally it's not LEGO. However TLG did make some unusual items in the 1950s, such as 1:43 scale cars/trucks made of metal, wood and plastic, there was a LEGO cross made of a fluorescent plastic, a small LEGO gun that fires plastic bullets (hard to believe!). Although over the last 80 years there have been over 35 LEGO logos (shown in Chapter 72 of my LEGO Collectors Guide DVD), the most common one used in the 1953-60 era was this one...

When I think of people throwing away old stuff (such as old American baseball cards that were thrown away by the millions of dollars worth, by American mothers in the 1950s and 1960s.... gulp.... especially when a 1952 Mickey Mantle card fetches upwards of $10,000 in mint.... With LEGO, luckily it was not so bad... but still mom's everywhere threw away many old boxes that are today worth a mint!!! But there is one story that breaks my heart.... in 1967 the Danish version of "Boy Scouts" had a Jamboree where many Nigerian boys were invited to Denmark to participate. TLG provided each of the Nigerian boys a souvenir of their summer 1967 visit... a 1:87 Scale (1964-67) #659 VW Pickup Truck with the name of a sponsoring Nigerian Christian radio station on one side... "Muryar Bishara".... http://www.flickr.co.../in/photostream And on the other side it said "JULES ORE JREN 67" (the name of the Jamboree).... (note: all promotional LEGO 1:87 vehicles (1955-70) are worth a bundle!!) http://www.flickr.co.../in/photostream These came with a small rope-like keychain connected to the front (not found in this pictured example)... and most of these ended up going back to Nigeria. This example belongs to one of my Dutch LEGO acquaintances who provided me with over 50 rare images of old LEGO items. And in the comments I mention..... "Sigh... to think of all those Nigerian boys back in the late 1960s that went home with these, not knowing what their worth would be 45 years later! The boys probably played with these in the mud outside their village.... where we can only guess at their fate! (Although they likely didn't end up in the attic with uncle Oskar's stamp collection! ) .... unthinkable.... especially knowing that these will fetch over $1,000 on Ebay! (Speaking of Ebay, I just put my DVD "on sale" there this week.)

Sometimes parts are produced exclusively for Model Shops... example the Maersk blue 1x1 hollow stud round bricks were only produced for the Windsor England Model Shop.