Subject:
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The LEGO history - Interesting book found at the library
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.general
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Date:
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Wed, 18 Aug 1999 15:56:15 GMT
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Viewed:
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1301 times
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Hi all!
Last time I was at the library I found an interesting book about The Lego
Company!
It's called 'LEGO and Godtfred Kirk Christiansen' (but in Swedish, of course).
It is about GKC, LEGO A/S, and The LEGO Company. It's written by a Danish
author - Ole Steen Hansen.
It tells the story from the birth of GKC in 1891 to his death in 1995. There
are pictures of different LEGO sets and, of course, of the Christiansen
family.
I don't know if all of this is 'old news' for you all, but here are some
interesting snips from the book, in time order:
1947 - LEGO Billund A/S buys it's first injection mold machine. Among the
samples are a brick toy from Kiddicraft, UK (Not patent protected in Denmark).
Kjeld Krik Kristiansen is born.
1949 - The very first box 'Automatic Binding Bricks' - Yellow, red, white,
green bricks, white, yellow and blue 'windows' (picture).
1951 - Renamed to 'LEGO Mursten' ('LEGO Bricks') (picture) (at another page it
says 1953 for this???)
1953 - LEGO is produced and sold in Norway too.
1955 - 'LEGO System i leg' (LEGO System) was introduced. Large town board,
cars (8 different), patterned bricks, road signs etc. ('macaroni' bricks can
be seen in the picture). Starts exporting to Sweden.
1956 - Sales office in Germany.
1958 - The 'tubes' are added to the underside of the bricks (and patented).
Ole Kirk Christiansen dies.
1960 - The wood inventory is destroyed in a fire. The production of wooden
toys is ended.
1962 - The wheel is discovered.
1963 - ABS plastic is introduced.
1964 - First sets with instructions. Previous products had only been general
building boxes, add-ons, and bulk!!
1966 - 4.5V Trains.
1968 - Legoland Billund, Denmark opens.
1969 - DUPLO.
1973 - Legoland Sierksdorf, Germany opens, but closes again 1976 (did not pay
the proper respect to The Trademark, The Product and The Kids)
1974 - First brick factory outside Denmark, Baar in Switzerland.
1978 - Minifigs, road baseplates.
1981 - LEGO buys the rights to the Kiddicraft brick.
etc. etc.
There is no information about the introduction of sloped bricks, but they are
not on the pictures before 1960.
There is a definite reference to the inch as a base for the brick size.
There are some nice pages with pictures of 'imitators' of LEGO, some of them
are even using the pictures from the original LEGO boxes! (What do you think
of the name '0937' for a clone?)
(Book ISBN 91-972715-8-6)
Happy building,
--
Anders Isaksson, Sweden
BlockCAD: http://user.tninet.se/~hbh828t/proglego.htm
Gallery: http://user.tninet.se/~hbh828t/gallery.htm
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