Subject:
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LEGO Finland.... from a cow barn to a LEGO model after 50 years!
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.general
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Date:
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Sat, 25 Jan 2014 00:22:43 GMT
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Viewed:
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21385 times
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For those of you with my LEGO DVD/download, you may have gotten to the very end
of the document, to Chapter 73, the chapter on LEGO Sales By Country...
One of the more interesting stories thre was about how LEGO was established in
Finland in 1959. There were toy import restrictions in Finland (as there were
in Norway), so TLG had to find a local businessman to produce LEGO there.
The Finnish toy restriction was not as harsh as that in Norway, but 70% of a
toys contents had to be produced there when Finland started LEGO sales in 1959.
They got a businessman by the name of Boris Strømsholm to set up shop in a town
not too far from Helsinki. This small hamlet was called Bemböle, and it was on
the outskirts of Finland's 2nd largest city... Espoo.
Boris Strømsholm's little LEGO factory was in what they call a "cow house"...
but we would label a barn. So from 1959 until about 1962 70% of LEGO made for
the Finnish market were produced in this little barn in the hamlet of Bemböle
(which translates to "Idiotsville" :) ). The other 30% of LEGO parts... the
specialty parts, were imported from Denmark.
Here is a photo of Boris and the barn from a Finnish magazine article from a few
years ago...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/istokg/9705470580/sizes/l/
Now ordinarily, that would be the end of the story, since 55 years have passed,
and Boris is most certainly no longer alive. However, when it comes to LEGO...
it is indeed a small world! ;) Back in 2008 a toy museum in Helsinki was doing
a 50 years anniversary of the famous bottom tube patent of 1958, and a Finnish
AFOL was asked to make a model of the infamous "Finnish LEGO Cow House"!
So here is a link to his story and his model, and the story about that cow
house, and winter/summer photographs of how this first Finnish LEGO facility
looks after 55 years!
http://l-rides.com/kuvat/creations/cow-house.htm
It's funny how history comes full circle!
Just another new anecdote from my 3000 page 2012 DVD/download.... :)
Cheers,
Gary Istok
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