When LEGO® was never just bricks

I had a mild argument with a (non-AFOL) friend earlier this year. He swore blind that when he was a kid in the '70s, he only had about seven different types of LEGO® parts; all basic rectilinear bricks. He liked to build windmills. "How did the windmill turn?" I asked. He conceded that he must have also owned wheel parts.

The release of 21050 Architecture Studio in the UK this month seems to have sparked another glut of ill-researched articles spouting the same old lines that bore every AFOL that reads them to tears... or rather, to online ranting. My turn today!
Some of the most common arguments have already been partially dispelled by articles written by AFOLs who've actually researched the historical data, which is available free online to anyone. Well worth a read, if you've not already, are Andrew Sielen's analysis of the price of LEGO and just published this week, Big Sal's analysis of the proportion of sets without instructions. If you fancy dipping into the gender disparity argument, an old article by David Pickett examining girls' themes and proportions of male/female minifigs is a good place to start.

But what what I want to rant about is that common claim that LEGO has begun producing highly specialised parts and that this limits children's imaginations. One blogger, amongst other vague recollections, claimed that from the late 1970s, "each kit had special bricks that were only good for building this one thing  -  let’s say it was a Starfighter. Now there were special bricks for a Starfighter’s wings, and they were completely useless for building anything else". Seriously? You couldn't think of a single other use for a wedged plate? Far from limiting imagination, you could take the glass-half-full approach and argue that having more specialised parts means children's imaginations are being challenged more greatly. Using a LEGO tap as a robot leg, for example.

©The LEGO Group 2013

I myself have a hatred of single-piece boat hulls. These add a lot of play value for kids because they can build boats that float, but what else am I supposed to build with that huge lump of plastic? A builder called Vince Toulouse certainly opened my mind with this MOC last year using the Olive Green hull from 70006 Cragger's Command Ship.

© Vince Toulouse

[Editor's note: Vince returned to boat hulls again in 2019!]

So I'm not denying that LEGO did begin making specialised parts. But they didn't start recently, nor in the late 1970s... the fact is LEGO began making specialised parts from the very beginning. I've just spent a pleasant hour or so trawling through the wonderful BrickLink catalog of LEGO parts which has been lovingly crafted by AFOLs for many, many years now. There are hundreds of parts that you could argue are highly specialised and perhaps indeed can only be used for one thing. I've selected a few that were released before I got into LEGO in the mid-1970s.

Before System in Play

©BrickLink Ltd, supplied by patpendlego

Let's start prior to when the LEGO brick as we know it was even available. LEGO made "Automatic Binding Bricks" from 1949-53 which were the same size as the later LEGO bricks but were hollow inside. They also had slots on the sides, which were used for inserting window pieces.

©BrickLink Ltd, supplied by TakeAbricK

These window pieces had no studs or means of connection other than to be inserted into the slots, and unless you wanted to imagine they were cage bars or something, the fact is the window pieces were highly specialised parts that could only represent one thing: a window. I'm sure if you dropped one of these windows into a modern set and gave it to a lazy journalist, they'd hold it up as an example of everything that's gone wrong with LEGO.

©BrickLink Ltd, supplied by patpendlego

It's a similar argument for the many doors that LEGO have produced over the decades. This one dates from 1954 and whilst it occupies the area of a 1X2X3 brick, the detailing singles it out as being a door and only a door (unless of course, you're imaginative).

The Town Plan years

1955 was the first year of "System of Play"; a defining moment in the history of LEGO and indeed toymaking in that it envisaged the release of whole ranges of sets all using the same common parts. The first sets/supplementary packs built up a Town Plan with buildings made from bricks and the new phenomenon of plates. However a large number of specialised parts were also produced to make the town more realistic, fun and indeed educational for children. These included road signs, trees, gas pumps, people and of course the massive range of 1:87 scale vehicles which were made of plastic and metal and came fully assembled. Good luck using any of these for anything other than their intended purpose.

©BrickLink Ltd, supplied by patpendlego

©BrickLink Ltd, supplied by patpendlego

©BrickLink Ltd, supplied by TakeAbricK

©BrickLink Ltd, supplied by TakeAbricK

There was also a cantilevered garage door made from five very mysterious parts, and in a way you can also describe the dozens of "named beams" as being specialised parts - whilst they could double as regular bricks if you turned them around, there's no denying that having a brick with the word "Banegård" printed on it is hard to use for anything other than a Danish station sign.

©BrickLink Ltd, supplied by patpendlego

©BrickLink Ltd, supplied by TakeAbricK

Brick and plate variety was limited in these first few years of System, but not as absurdly limited as my friend imagined LEGO still to be in the 1970s. Indeed there were even curved bricks and plates available in 1955. By contrast, the number of specialised parts was vast: of the 110 parts that BrickLink lists as being newly released in 1955, only eight are bricks and four are plates.

So OK... Town Plan was the early years of LEGO; they were finding their feet... perhaps once Town Plan was phased out, it was all basic bricks?

Town System and LEGOLAND theme

©BrickLink Ltd,
supplied by Lucajuventino

©BrickLink Ltd, supplied by patpendlego

In the second half of the 1960s, the Town Plan was being replaced by the Town System which included its own brick-built vehicles with LEGO wheels, as we are used to building today. Rapidly, specialised parts were included such as this winch from 1967 and ladder from 1968.

©BrickLink Ltd, supplied by patpendlego

In 1966 the first Train System was released: chock-full of specialised parts such as train rails, magnetic couplings and electric motors. To be fair, most of these parts can be imaginatively re-purposed but there were certainly extremely specific items such as these level crossing gates from 1968.

From 1970, sets were branded under a theme called LEGOLAND which included vehicles, buildings and boats. The inclusion of specialised elements increased.

©BrickLink Ltd, supplied by Lucajuventino

Check out this extraordinary conveyor belt assembly from 1971! See how it crushes children's imaginations with its seven elements of uniqueness. (For the record, these conveyors were great fun!! An elder sister of mine owned a yellow one, but like so many specialist parts, it couldn't stand the test of time. Most of its shattered elements still float around our family collection at our parents' place.) It's worth noting that any modern set requiring a conveyor would provide one made from lovely multi-purpose Technic parts that have a gazillion other uses.

The conveyor is not an isolated incident; these next four parts are just some of the specialised parts released in 1972 alone.

©BrickLink Ltd, supplied by phillwright

©BrickLink Ltd, supplied by Admin

©BrickLink Ltd, supplied by Poohman50

©BrickLink Ltd, supplied by jarni

1971 also saw the release of the first 'Homemaker' sets, a dollhouse-like theme of furniture noted for being LEGO's first attempt to create sets that specifically appeal to girls. (Yup, 40 years before the "LEGO for girls?" scandal.) So how did LEGO approach this challenge? Why, custom parts of course. Many of these are potentially useful for other purposes but there were things like the oven and this sink that are very specific elements.

©BrickLink Ltd, supplied by Admin

Into this world walked the maxifigs in 1974 with their specialised hair, head and arm elements. To their credit, the maxifigs are perhaps the most "in System" figures LEGO have ever released... (and those heads sure are some crazy SNOT parts!)

I'm stopping now. But specialised parts obviously didn't stop at any stage. So it's clear that everyone who has played with LEGO has done so at a time when specialised single-purpose parts were produced as part of the System... one could therefore conclude it's a core part of the LEGO experience. So why do people conveniently forget this?

I think it's simply down to the degree of utter brilliance of one of LEGO's core concepts: a standardised range of bricks that are easy to arrange in billions of ways. It's such a brilliant idea, so simple and so pure and so full of latent potential, that if I am getting quasi-psychological about it: it is a metaphor for childhood itself. Every one of us feels a degree of nostalgia for our lost youth, so I can totally understand why adults look at modern LEGO and feel sad that it has changed.

Well... of course it has changed. I mean what hasn't? Rocks, I guess. But the point I'm making today is that LEGO was never just that single pure concept on its own. The range always contained specialised parts to make it more fun. Yes, there's more of them now, but that doesn't necessarily directly lead to the conclusion that LEGO is less imaginative. Since Town Plan, there have always been defined sets, with instructions telling you exactly what to make and how to use the pieces. They've been targeting by gender for 43 years and pink LEGO has been around for 23 years. Really, LEGO has changed a lot less than people think. And whether it's a 2x4 brick or a stonking great boat hull... the only limit is your imagination.

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If you're interested in learning more about these early decades of LEGO, I recommend purchasing Gary Istok's fascinating collation of facts, The Unofficial LEGO Sets/Parts Collectors Guide (1949-90s) as a download. It was useful with constructing this article, as were the catalogues of BrickLink and Brickset. You can buy vintage LEGO parts for your crazy creations on BrickLink and other reseller sites like Brick Owl.