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Subject: 
Re: Appreciating what TLG and Lego Direct have done for AFOL's
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.color
Date: 
Wed, 24 Nov 2004 05:59:03 GMT
Viewed: 
1165 times
  
In lugnet.color, David Eaton wrote:
In lugnet.color, Gerhard R. Istok wrote:
In lugnet.color, David Eaton wrote:
Gray - 1961? -> 2003 (CA/ABS switch in 1963)
Brown - 1974? -> 2003 (ABS in 1977?, 1974 in different, flexible plastic)
Dk Gray - 1977? -> 2003

So, at least 41 years for Gray ABS, and 27 years of Brown and Dark Gray (31
years for brown if you count the different plastic for the maxifig hair).

Huh, it looks from Peeron like Gray was the 7th color ever produced, after
white, red, green, yellow, blue, and black?

Gray actually goes back to the 1950's.  I have a 10x20 thick baseplate in
gray without "Lego" on the studs (pre 1957). The 10x20 baseplates first came
out in 1953, but I cannot confirm that they started in gray that year.

Huh! Earliest I found on peeron was 1961, but that's pretty cool that it was out
even before...

The
next appearance of gray came with the advent of the Architectural Sets
(1963-65), when gray plates came out in 1x1, 1x2, 2x2, 2x3, 2x4 and the
strange 8x11 plate that was the top (actually bottom) of the plastic boxes
that held these pieces. The earliest of these were CA, then switched to ABS.
Then in 1966 the #325 Shell Station came out with more different size of
large plates.  But regular bricks didn't come out until after 1978.  One of
the first was the 1x1 round bricks, found in the USS Constellation of 1978.

I know grey *bricks* were certainly rare trinkets until about 1984 when the
castle line started using them. Before then I seem to remember there was a bevy
of grey plate, but very little in the way of brick.

This would make gray even older than black, which never came out in a 10x20
baseplate.  Black first showed up in late 1961/early 1962 in most of the
sizes that red, white, blue and yellow came in (except the 2x8, 2x10 and 4x4
corner brick sizes).

Wow, that's pretty cool! So, is 1961/62 the correct year for the little
accessory kits that are in the Lugnet DB? (that's where I got my guess from, but
admittedly it says 1957+, which I think means "1957 or later")

http://guide.lugnet.com/set/218_4
http://guide.lugnet.com/set/219_6
http://guide.lugnet.com/set/220_6

Actually, from the looks of things, it looks like blue also underwent a similar
color change in 1958? I guess it could be due to fading, but in various pictures
in the ULB, World of Lego Toys, and 50 Years of Play, it looks that
Automatic-Binding-Brick-Blue was more of a light pastel blue than the darker
blue that seems to show up everywhere after 1958. If so, I guess technically
some might say that grey would be older than both black or blue!

Red, white, blue, yellow and green actually go back to 1949 with the
Automatic Binding Bricks.  They even made the old style windows (for slotted
bricks) in all these colors.  There was a gray-blue color and a purple color
back then as well.  I'll have to check the Peeron color dates.

Huh-- maybe it was that gray-blue I was seeing in the books-- interesting that
they would even have a purple... I wonder how many years purple was a dormant
color before re-appearing...

DaveE

Dave,

Those spare parts packs (#214-#271) have a long and complicated history.  They
first came out in 1955 (for non-brick items such as road signs, Esso
pumps/signs, trees/bushes) and 1957 (for bricks -- prior to that bricks were
only sold individually from retailers).  So there are many variations to these
parts packs.

The #218, #219 and #220 all kept their same box numbers from 1957-65, but the
boxes changed.  For these 3 spare parts packs, there are 1957, 1958-59, 1960-62
and 1963-65 box versions.  So even though a #218 started in 1957 (for red,
white, blue, yellow and clear), the image in LUGNET DB is from a 1962-65
catalog, when black bricks were already in production.  That would explain the
error in listing black as going back to 1957.  When I get the CD finished, there
will be enough extra old Lego info to keep folks in Lugnet, Brickshelf, Peeron,
Ldraw and Bricklink busy for a while. :-)

Gary Istok

P.S. My first Lego set ever was Chrismas 1960 (#700/1 from Germany), and it had
a gray 10x20 baseplate, so I am 100% sure GRAY CAME BEFORE BLACK!



Message has 1 Reply:
  Re: Appreciating what TLG and Lego Direct have done for AFOL's
 
(...) Duh! I forgot there was an easy way to tell the years for black vs. gray. Here is a 1961 Austrian Catalog that shows bricks in red, white, blue, yellow and clear, but no black. It also shows the 10x20 baseplate comes in gray (yes that is gray, (...) (20 years ago, 24-Nov-04, to lugnet.color)

Message is in Reply To:
  Re: Appreciating what TLG and Lego Direct have done for AFOL's
 
(...) Huh! Earliest I found on peeron was 1961, but that's pretty cool that it was out even before... (...) I know grey *bricks* were certainly rare trinkets until about 1984 when the castle line started using them. Before then I seem to remember (...) (20 years ago, 24-Nov-04, to lugnet.color)

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