Lego Ideas Book
While we are researching ideas for our expansion plans, we came across the first ever Lego Ideas Book. (No. 1).
Lego Ideas Book #1 - cover
Released in 1961 and produced by Lego in Denmark (and written in Danish), it detailed artwork already featured in sets, in addition to general building ideas. Yet to introduce layered instructions, this booklet contained images of completed designs.
This is the centre spread that refers to the Town plan set:
Town Plan spread from the Lego Ideas Book #1 - Idea no. 4
What really caught our eye was the two spreads that featured large (and even larger!) buildings. A wonderful tribute to modernist Lego architecture of the era and quite possibly a precursor to the modern architecture sets.
Double page spread from Lego Ideas Book #1 - Idea no. 13
Referred to as the ‘Modern Church’ this building was given to retail outlets as part of the display - this looks to be in the years just prior to the Town Plan set release in 1962.
The ‘Modern Church’ as featured in the Lego Ideas Book. (No. 1).
Lego shop display c. 1960.
Close up of the ‘Modern Church’ c. 1960.
We might add ‘Modern Church’ to our “to-do” list and give it a go at building it one day…
Double page spread from Lego Ideas Book #1 - Idea no. 14
The adult-size structure on “Idea 14” is just amazing. While too large in scale for our Town Plan display is it is still something to behold. How many Lego pieces are in it? Well, given our Empire State Building is around 2,500 pieces in total and our large-scale building sits at around a 1m tall, we estimate this building is around 7,000 pieces. And the cost? We estimate somewhere between AU$3,000 and AU$4,000 to purchase the bricks second-hand.