Subject:
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LEGO History - 40 years ago today.....
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.general
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Date:
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Fri, 4 Feb 2000 16:10:40 GMT
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Viewed:
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1685 times
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Folks, today is an important day in the history of LEGO.
My German LEGO collector buddy Kurt Richter, whose birthday it is today
(Happy Birthday Kurt!) told me recently that on his birthday - February
4, 1960 - 40 years ago today, a very important event happened in the
history of LEGO. It was the great wooden toy factory/warehouse fire
that destroyed the wooden line of LEGO toys. I have to admit that I
don't know the details of this catastrophic event, but the result of it
had a great impact on the future of the LEGO company.
One has to remember that LEGO, the toy business came into existence in
1932 with wooden childrens toys (animals on wheels, cars, etc). Ole
Kirk Cristiansen (current LEGO president Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen's
grandfather) founded the small business back then. However plastic
bricks did not arrive on the scene until after World War II, namely in
1949. These were known as Automatic Binding Bricks. These were the
precursor to LEGO as we know it today. In 1953 LEGO bricks (LEGO
Mürsten in Danish) came on the scene. These early bricks, like the
earlier 1949 versions were easily differentiated from today's LEGO.
That was because the tubes underneath the bricks (that hold the bricks
firmly together) didn't come into being until 1958. In 1955 the LEGO
System of Play was developed (LEGO bricks). The first of the LEGO
systems was the Town Plan which also came into production in 1955. The
Town Plan consisted of a board street map with about 10 different
separate LEGO sets for buildings in a town (a Church, a VW Dealership, a
Garage, an Esso Service Station, a Fire Station, etc). The Town Plan
was also available as a large set.
The LEGO company in the 1950's was a growing enterprise. It had
expanded to the rest of Scandinavia in the mid 50's, Germany by 1955,
the UK by 1960, USA in 1961 (Samsonite), and Canada in 1962
(Samsonite). The LEGO company in the 1950's was focused in many
different areas. The wooden toys were still produced. Another item
that was still produced were the large plastic cars/trucks (scale 1:40
or 1:43 - I've seen both measurements). The company was focused in many
different areas, the most popular of which was LEGO bricks.
Well the fire in 1960 changed all that. All the wooden toy lines were
discontinued, as were most of the non-LEGO brick related plastic toy
lines. So starting in 1960, the full emphasis of the company was on the
LEGO brick. This focusing on the LEGO brick line spawned new LEGO
systems. The LEGO Architectural line (1963-65) was a flop, but it left
us with some very interesting sets that consisted of nothing but plates
(750/751/752). The LEGO Train line was started in the mid 1960's, and
later came the other lines. Duplo, Technic, and eventually Castle.
But in 1960, the decision was made to focus on the Brick. And the rest
is history.
Gary Istok
A fan of LEGO since 1960. (No I was nowhere near that warehouse! I was
6, living in Detroit, recently having emigrated with my family from
Germany.)
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Message has 2 Replies:
 | | Re: LEGO History - 40 years ago today.....
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| Gary Istok skrev i meddelandet <389AFA00.1491EA53@u...ch.edu>... (...) It's also *my* birthday (although I was born 1954) :-)) A little nitpick: (...) No way! 'LEGO Mursten' - no dots on the U, that would be a German letter, not in the Danish (...) (25 years ago, 4-Feb-00, to lugnet.general)
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