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Subject: 
Wonderful old Minitalia Lego Windows from 1970's
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.general, lugnet.lego
Date: 
Tue, 5 Oct 2004 04:23:57 GMT
Viewed: 
2502 times
  
I just purchased some old Minitalia Lego windows from an Italian Bricklink
seller.

Note: it appears that Italy put some construction toy import restrictions in
place in the early 1970's, and when TLG could no longer export Lego to Italy, so
they created a local Lego product called Minitalia.  The parts are nearly
identical to, and compatible with, regular Lego.

Anyway, here are the 2 styles of the Minitalia windows that I purchased (in
white and black):

http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItemPic.asp?P=604mi

http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItemPic.asp?P=3853mi

The first is nearly identical to the old classic Panorama window (1x6x3), and
the second is nearly identical to the 1x4x3 window with shutter clips.  I
purchased these because I plan on building two 18th century style New England
houses that have many small windows (mullions).

It is a shame that TLG no longer has a decent window "SYSTEM" like they did when
the 9 classic window styles were produced from 1957-87 (although some were
already discontinued in the mid 70's).

The larger Panorama style window is one very similar to my own Living Room
window in my ranch style house in Michigan USA.  With this window, and several
other classic windows (like 1x1x2 and 1x2x2), I can actually build a model of my
own house so that it actually looks like my house (although I would have to make
the roof with Lego plates instead of 33 degree low sloped bricks, since there is
no inside corner low slope).  Not many AFOLs can build an accurate model (in
Minifig or classic scale) of their own house.

TLG now has over 10,000 different parts (they just went over the 10,000 part
count -- 10,083 to be exact, this past weekend in Bricklink), and yet they
basically have only (for building structures) the 1x2x2 classic window, the
1x4x3 window with shutters and panes or glass, the 1x4x5 window, and the 1x4x6
(3 pane) windows (all with different colors of tinted glass).  And these 4
window types are not all that compatible with each other.  Getting them to match
up in glass tint, frame color, and style is very difficult. Some folks have
reverted to using train windows or airplane windows for their buildings, or
clear bricks.

Sad, but true.

(Getting off my soapbox)

Gary Istok

A Lego addict since 1960.



Message has 1 Reply:
  Re: Wonderful old Minitalia Lego Windows from 1970's
 
(...) Having only played with LEGO since about 1983, I have never seen either of those windows before. Pretty neat! On the second one - is the window one piece, or is it a seperate mullion piece inserted into the 4x3 frame? This is one way TLC could (...) (20 years ago, 5-Oct-04, to lugnet.general, lugnet.lego, FTX)

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