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Subject: 
Re: Old Lego colors
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.general
Date: 
Fri, 14 May 1999 16:56:53 GMT
Viewed: 
706 times
  
Selçuk wrote:

Kevin Wilson <70641.507@compuserve.com> wrote in message
<373A3D5F.B68B7A79@compuserve.com>...
Gary's question about the red stripe reminded me of something. Take a
look at those pics of the old sets: note the preponderance of red and
white, and then yellow. My memories of my childhood lego in the
60's/early 70's are that the blue bricks we had were *special*, rare,
and newer than the rest and even more so the black ones. Did Lego
originally start with just red and white, or red/white/yellow, and add
blue and black later?

Kevin

My first set was a 1968 Universal set (033 - not in lugnet database yet)
given to me in 1975 or 1976. Since it was my only set till 1979, I'm
strongly remembering that it has mainly consisting of red and white, a small
number of yellows (only a few 2x4's, 2x2's and 1x2's, in the order of 4-6
pieces each), and very few numbers of black (2-4 of 1x2's and 4-6 of 2x2's)
and blue (6 of 2x4's). It's clear piece count is even more than back/blue
bricks. Only brick that is not having the 5 basic colors (+clear) is the
gray 10x20 basebrick. Maybe specific to this sets, but plates were a rare
thing, too. This set has only a 4x8 and two 2x8 plates at all.

Selçuk

One thing that we need to remember was that in the late 50's and thru much of
the 60's  LEGO consisted mainly of  TOWN sets .  And in both Europe and
USA/Canada (Samsonite) TOWN consisted of the Town Plan system.

The (Samsonite) Town Plan set #725 consists exclusively of white, red and clear
bricks, with windows & doors in red and white. The dominating feature was white
bricks with red windows.  All the other smaller sets of the time had this same
makeup as well (although some blue and yellow bricks were present).  The first
Samsonite set that didn't have these colors was the Junior Constructor #717.

The Junior Constructor was the first set LEGO made that was a model kit NOT
related to the Town Plan.  It was a model of a large house, and contained 500
pieces.   This was also the first major set that deviated from the white brick
domination.  This set consisted of blue, yellow and red bricks, with white
windows (up until now, usually red windows predominated).   The earlier
(1961-62) house model was a large European gable roofed bungalow.  The later
(1962-64) house was a modern flat roofed "international style" house.  This
Junior Constructor was (along with the complete Town Plan) not available in
Europe.

In Europe at the same time, the 700 series of sets was being produced (700/0,
700/1, 700/3, 700/3a, etc..).  These sets also had predominately white and red
bricks.  I have a very rare set 712 (German wooden box gift set), that has only
blue and yellow bricks (including macaroni and the early 1x1 rounds) with white
windows.  This early 1960's set was rare in that it deviated from the white/red
rule of LEGO from that period.

When black bricks first came out in 1962, I remember very few were available in
basic sets of the time.  The only way I remember being able to get large
quantities of them as a child, was in parts packs.

Hope this kind of helps understand why certain colors were not that common in
the early years.

Gary Istok



Message has 2 Replies:
  Re: Old Lego colors
 
(...) in (...) I only have one piece which I would consider "very old": it's a 1x1 round without a bottom circumference notch. I think it managed to come home with me "accidentally on purpose" when I was much younger. It is red, or close to it now, (...) (26 years ago, 14-May-99, to lugnet.general)
  Re: Old Lego colors
 
(...) This may explain why my black bricks with the old font generally grips better ans are less misshaped than my red and white ones. Maybe... :/ /Tore (25 years ago, 6-Jun-99, to lugnet.general)

Message is in Reply To:
  Re: Old Lego colors
 
Kevin Wilson <70641.507@compuserve.com> wrote in message <373A3D5F.B68B7A79@c...ve.com>... (...) My first set was a 1968 Universal set (033 - not in lugnet database yet) given to me in 1975 or 1976. Since it was my only set till 1979, I'm strongly (...) (26 years ago, 14-May-99, to lugnet.general)

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