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Subject: 
Re: Set #271 Policemen
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.general
Date: 
Sat, 27 Nov 2004 06:25:59 GMT
Viewed: 
1436 times
  
In lugnet.general, Ronald Borchert wrote:
   In lugnet.general, Gerhard R. Istok wrote:

   I did forget one additional thing about the #271 sets. There was also a #1271 set. This was the same set. From 1955-58 Denmark, Sweden and Norway had their own numbering system for Lego sets and Lego spare parts packs that had an extra “1” at the beginning of the set number. Germany, Netherlands, Belgium, Switzerland and Austria had the 3 digit set/pack numbers (ditto for Italy and France). That is why you will find #310 Esso Station as well as #1310. Starting in 1958 TLG started to use the central European numbering system (#271, #310, etc) for all countries.

...snip...

Hi Gary,
thanx for the additional infos.
In one point I cannot agree to you by my current knowledge:
The extra “1” was also used for sets in Germany.
In an old German catalog sheet from 1957 (Jan Beyer from TLC got the date from the Billund archive)
there are listed the sets #1307 and #1308.
In 1958 they changed the numbers to without the “1”.
You may have a look here:
http://festum.de/1000steine/myimages/album225/57de2_02
Regards Ronald

Hi Ronald,

I have seen that page. I believe that there is an old Netherlands catalog that shows this as well. I even have some old 50’s parts packs with the extra “1” (written with Danish “System i leg”) that were sent to Germany. The problem with old Lego is that for every rule you try make about it, there will be exceptions.

I am sure you are familiar with the 1960-65 European Basic sets (#700/0 to #700/6) all of them will have pictures with trees from the 1950’s (just like the #238 books will show trees from the 1950’s, when the book was produced from 1960-68), and yet they always had 1960’s trees inside.

Just like the #280 and #282 red sloped bricks spare parts packs that came out in the 1958 and 1959 catalogs. What was not seen in the catalogs was the other sloped bricks parts packs, #281 and #283. They were not shown in those catalogs. But I have #281 and #283 packs in the 1958-59 spare parts pack styles.

Now getting back to the #1307 and #1308 which you saw in the 1000steine 1957 catalog, you will also notice that the entry for the Esso Service Station is #310, and not #1310. I think that what probably happened was TLG produced a lot of these sets #1307 and #1308 sets in 1957, and in planning to change to the numbering system used by central Europe, they wanted to dump these sets in other markets (besides northern Europe - where these numbers were used until 1958) just to get them out the door. That way they could start selling the #306, #307, #308 and #309 that were coming into production along with the #310.

But the sets with the extra “1” as first digit were meant MAINLY for Denmark, Sweden and Norway (from 1955-58).

Interestingly enough I have a 1957 catalog (that is probably a few months older that the 1000steine one). It shows the #310, but not #1307 and #1308. It also doesn’t show the #234 (letter bricks) parts pack.

Lego anomalies are common in 1950’s and 1960’s Lego. I have seen things like the #250 1:87 Esso Service Tanker Truck in a British #810 Town Plan set. But instead of saying “ESSO Extra Motor Oil” in English, the MISB set had a continental European “Benzin ESSO Smoreolie” written on the side of the truck.

Another anomaly was the Esso Service Station #310 shows a red painted line around the sides of the plates on the roof. In the box it shows the paint continuing around the back (on the garage side). But the set never had all 4 sides painted (or even 3 sides painted). Only the 2 front sides were painted.

Another anomaly was this. The Lego Train first came out in mid-1966 (in Europe). If ABS plastic replaced Cellulose Acetate very quickly in Europe in 1963, then why do so many of the #150 and #151 blue non-electric railroad tracks parts packs have white cross beams made of Cellulose Acetate? I don’t know.

No Lego set contains more anomalies than #700, the wooden box set from 1957 to 1964 (although it ended production in Germany in 1962). In the 1960-64 version of this set it has 2 funny anomalies:

1) the box top shows a 1960’s Town Plan board. The inside contains 2 pieces that form a 1950’s Town Plan board. 2) the box top shows 1950’s trees, the inside has 1960’s trees.

Another item that I think is odd is the 1962-65 European catalogs most often show the new 1:87 metal wheel car series #262-68 in clear plastic garages with red doors and white bases (the bases look gray, but they were white). Have you ever seen one of these garages with red doors with white bases? They are so VERY RARE, that I only know of one European that has one (Britain). These catalogs were all wrong, the garages sold were probably 99.9999% with gray doors and gray bases. These same 1:87 cars in plastic garages were sold in the USA in the 60’s. But you will never find a USA catalog that shows them. Eric Strand finally found them displayed in a few 1964-66 Sears Catalogs (a USA department store mail order catalog).

Ronald, I could spend days talking about all the quirks from the 1950’s and 1960’s (as you can tell with the #271 Policemen set).

Does all this “not making sense” make any sense to you? :-)

Gary Istok



Message is in Reply To:
  Re: Set #271 Policemen
 
(...) ...snip... Hi Gary, thanx for the additional infos. In one point I cannot agree to you by my current knowledge: The extra "1" was also used for sets in Germany. In an old German catalog sheet from 1957 (Jan Beyer from TLC got the date from the (...) (20 years ago, 27-Nov-04, to lugnet.general, FTX)

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