Subject:
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The History of LEGO Plates - Part 1.
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.general
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Date:
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Wed, 14 Jul 1999 16:00:40 GMT
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Viewed:
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4948 times
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Since several of you have expressed enjoyment with my blathering about
Lego history, I thought I would give you a 1956-65 history on the
origins of Lego plates.
If anyone has info that contradicts me, please feel free and let me
know.
Enjoy!
Gary Istok
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Lego plates have been around since the very beginning of Lego sets
(circa 1956). Until 1963, they were only produced in white in sizes
2x8, 4x8, 6x8, and 4x8 - right curve, and 4x8 - left curve. These early
plates had those interesting "square holed" bottoms, and were made of
Cellulose Acetate (as were all the other Lego bricks). The 1950's and
1960's Esso Service Station (#310) were an early user of all of these
plates, especially the curved plates. In fact the Esso Service set had
red "hand painted" edges on some of these plates to give that "Art Deco
Moderne" red stripe that this set had. Horst Lehner's excellent website
of early Lego Catalogs shows (in the 1958 catalog) the red striped
plates in the Esso Service set:
http://horst-lehner.mausnet.de/lego/katalog/gk58/GK58-1.JPG
This red stripe (the Esso Service station) was also found in the early
Samsonite Town Plan set (#725), as well as the European Town Plan set
(#810).
The first small Lego plates came out in a big way in 1963. That year
several very interesting thing happened:
1) small plates (1x1, 1x2, 2x2, 2x3, 2x4) came out for the first time in
parts packs.
2) small plates were used for the first time in a set - the unique
continental European Architectural Sets.
4) small plates did not have the "square hole" bottom common to the
larger white plates, but the circular holes like we know them today.
3) Samsonite produced small plates in different colors (white, red,
black, grey, clear, green) than were available in Europe (white, red,
yellow, blue, black, grey, clear). Green was only produced by
Samsonite, and blue & yellow were only produced by TLG Europe.
4) TLG (Europe) produced plates from the very beginning (1963) in ABS
Plastic, while Samsonite (USA/Canada) produced small plates (also
starting in 1963) in Cellulose Acetate! Figure that one out!
The first plates parts pack that came out in 1963 came out in several
very interesting variations. The regular European parts packs of 1963
were colorful boxes slightly larger than USA cigarette boxes, and had
flapped ends for opening the box (as opposed to the earlier sliding open
box, similar to match boxes - which were used for parts packs from
1956-62). The new plate boxes were the same as other Lego brick boxes.
They were #518 (2x4 plates), #519, (2x3 plates), #520 (2x2 plates), and
#521 (1x1 & 1x2 plates).
Here is a 1963 German catalog (thanks to Horst Lehner's website) showing
the small plates for the first time:
http://horst-lehner.mausnet.de/lego/katalog/gk63/GK63-2.JPG
Here is a 1963 USA (Samsonite) catalog (thanks to Bill Katz/Joe Lauher
website) showing the Samsonite small plates for the first time:
http://www.chem.sunysb.edu/msl/LEGO/60s_e3.jpg
An interesting variation to these 4 parts packs was the Architectural
series of parts packs that had the same set number (and the same number
of pieces) as the regular plates parts packs. The major difference for
these Architectural parts packs was that they were encased not in
cardboard, but in a clear plastic box that had a 8x11 grey plate as the
bottom of the box, with a cardboard sleeve (showing "architects" and
young adults building modern houses and buildings). This 8x11 grey
plate was the very first large Lego plate produced in a color other than
white. It is also, I believe, the only time an 8x11 rectangular plate
was ever produced by Lego.
These Architectural parts packs were produced for the short lived (and
not too popular) Architectural Series of sets - #750, #751, #752. This
entire Architectural series (plus their parts packs) were only produced
for the continental European countries (not Britain), and were produced
from 1963-65.
I assume that the release of small plates in 1963 was primarily due to
the release of the Architectural sets. The reason I assume this is
because it would be several years before any other sets would use them.
This is especially true for Samsonite. No other 1963 Samsonite set had
small plates - except for the parts packs. And Samsonite made them in
green, a color not produced by TLG for the European market. A European
collector friend of mine thought perhaps the green plates were a typing
error on the Samsonite Catalog of 1963. But I purchased several sets of
the small green plates for my collection back in 1963 (I was 10 at the
time), and I still have them. So I know it was no typo.
Recently I discovered that all of my early Samsonite small plates were
made of Cellulose Acetate. I have about 20 of the European plates parts
packs from 1963, and all of them have plates made of ABS plastic (as is
the 8x11 grey plate for the Architectural parts packs). This confirms
an earlier suspicion that since my 1963 Junior Constructor set (#717)
and Town Plan set (#725) both contain only Cellulose Acetate bricks,
then Samsonite must have switched to ABS plastic at a later date than
did TLG Europe (which started switching in 1961 - according to "The
World of Lego Toys"). This is unusual since I would think that
Samsonite (famous for their plastic luggage at the time) would have
modernized faster than they did. Perhaps they had a large inventory of
Cellulose Acetate at their warehouse.
Perhaps some of our European collectors would like to obtain examples of
Cellulose Acetate small plates from the Samsonite era, since it is
doubtful they were ever produced for Europe, although I could be wrong.
Plates in other sizes that those listed above would come later, and by
the 1990's plates would come in all shapes and sizes. Stay tuned for
Part 2.
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Message has 6 Replies:
 | | Re: The History of LEGO Plates - Part 1.
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| Opps, I forgot to mention several people that have helped me (unwittingly) fill in some detail for getting this info together. One is a German collector friend of mine named Kurt Richter, the other is a British collector named Phil Traviss, whom I (...) (25 years ago, 14-Jul-99, to lugnet.general)
| | | Re: The History of LEGO Plates - Part 1.
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| I remember Gary showing us some of the catalogs he has when we went to lunch. I was ready to bomb TLG (LG for those who don't like TLG) after seeing these. Do us all a favor, produce parts packs again!!!! Or those 2x3x1 clears, ugh! :) Scott Sanburn (25 years ago, 14-Jul-99, to lugnet.general)
| | | Re: The History of LEGO Plates - Part 1.
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| OK, I went digging thru some of my old Lego plates. I could not find (nor do I ever recall) blue or yellow plates made from Cellulose Acetate. Since Samsonite did not make plates in blue or yellow (in the early Cellulose Acetate years), I'm going to (...) (25 years ago, 15-Jul-99, to lugnet.general)
| | | Re: The History of LEGO Plates - Part 1.
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| (...) I don't know much about the really early days of Lego, so forgive me if this is an ignorant question, but: Are these what they sound like? Architectural sets with ideas for generic continental European architecture? I had independantly come to (...) (25 years ago, 15-Jul-99, to lugnet.general)
| | | Re: The History of LEGO Plates - Part 1.
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| Gary Istok <gistok@umich.edu> wrote in message news:378CB428.51D8C5...ich.edu... (...) The blueprints I have pictures of at: (URL) been dated as 1965 by Phil Trivass. On at least one of them: (URL) are referred to as 'slimbricks', and this (...) (25 years ago, 6-Aug-99, to lugnet.general)
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