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I inquired into making the LEGO CD as a book. All I can say is YIKES!!
I checked with www.lulu.com ... a company that specialized in produced books for
authors who don't want to go thru a publishing house.... and the price of making
the LEGO CD would be quite a bit higher than I even imagined.
First of all they won't make a book larger than 740 pages (the LEGO CD has
1,260). So that would have meant that I would have to abridge or crop the book
down to 740 pages.
The price I would have to sell a shorter 740 page book in color would have been
about $120.
The price I would have to sell a shorter 740 page book in black/white would be
about $40.
Granted a CD is not the ideal way for many of you folks to view reference
material, but you will be able to print it yourself (in USA/Canada as well as
European page formats). And you will be able to print it a chapter at a time
(each chapter is a separate PDF file).
Also as I have already mentioned, each chapter will have a PDF bookmark for
those of you who use PDF frequently and like that added feature.
Of the over 1,700 pictures, over 98% are in color (although some are color
images of items that are not very colorful such as the sides of 1950's parts
pack boxes).
There are 4 chapters of which I am especially proud....
1) Chapter 10 - Wooden Box sets. These are among the least understood and least
known LEGO items of all. They were produced from 1957-78, and the ALL suffer
from one very serious flaw... TLG rarely put a box number on the box. Only the
"content list" that came with the box had the set number on it (although a few
boxes have been found with a small removable sticker on the side of the box with
the set number). Well about 98% of all wooden box sets that show up on EBAY no
longer have that content list. So what set number and what country a particular
wooden box came from is a mystery. The box has therefore completely lost its'
origins. Only 1957-58 Danish, German, Swedish/Norwegian #700 sets are known,
solely due to the local language on the box top (and with Sweden and Norway the
2 are indistinguishable since SYSTEM I LEK and LEGO MURSTEN are shared by both
languages). There are 82 different wooden box sets. I have images of 62 of
them in the CD. LUGNET/PEERON/BRICKLINK currently each have about less than 10
wooden box sets in their databases.
2) Chapter 9 USA/Canada - Department Store Catalog sets. These mysterious sets
never showed up in any USA/Canada Samsonite catalogs. And the reason was
because they were Sears or FAO Schwarz exclusive sets. They have such
interesting names on the box as THE DISCOVERY SET (#005), THE GOVERNOR SET
(#066), THE AMBASSADOR SET (#080), THE ADVENTURE SET (#223), EXPLORER SET
(#244), THE DISCOVERY SET (#704), THE SUBURBAN SET (#326), THE DESIGNER SET
(#536), THE DIPLOMAT SET (#630), THE MASTER DISCOVERY SET (#704) and THE
ADVANCED BUILDER SET (#835). You won't find any of these sets in Europe, except
the #066 and #080 (but without a name). And then there is the obscure #842 Town
Plan Set of 1969-70, a USA Sears exclusive using a "tri-fold" town plan board.
This set had 3 of the 1:87 garages with Lego metal wheeled 1:87 cars, and a
Shell Gas Station (Shell Stations & Accessories were NEVER a USA item, except
for this interesting set).
3) Chapter 13 LEGO Sets/Parts Not Put Into Production. This chapter is
especially interesting because many LEGO catalogs, idea books and even box tops
were produced with sets and parts that never made it to production. This one
will be a favorite for many folks.
4) Chapter 26 LEGO Spare Parts Packs - 1953-66. This is the largest chapter in
the CD at 58 pages. It gives an unending amount of statistics to a rather mind
boggling amount of packs that were available during that era, as well as the
part counts, box designs and content variations. The only common denominator
for all these sets is that they had (after 1958) the same set numbers.
Anyway... back to mailing out the CDs....
Cheers,
Gary Istok
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