$209.99Buy It Now watching | View DetailsCondition:NewTime left:2d 14h 35mItem location:DenmarkWe associate LEGOs with brightly colored, interlocking plastic bricks that have caused many a barefoot parent to howl in pain, but when a Danish carpenter named Ole Kirk Kristiansen founded the company that would become LEGO in 1932, he produced only wooden toys, from pull-along animals such as ducks and cats to building blocks and yo-yos. In 1934, the firm was officially named LEGO, which is short for “leg godt,” or “play well,” in Danish. At first yo-yos were big sellers for Kristiansen, but when their popularity waned toward the end of the decade, the carpenter made the most of the downturn but re-purposing his unsold yo-yo inventory as wheels for his pull-toys and vehicles. One of the earliest vehicles Kristiansen made was a wooden train, with an engine, passenger car, and caboose. Roughly 30 years later, in 1965, LEGO would release its first plastic model trains, but throughout World War II, when Denmark was occupied by Germany, wood was a good material to be working with, since metal and rubber were reserved for the war effort.
If parents perceived an educational and even moral aspect to LEGO products, it was because Kristiansen and his sons and grandsons who followed in his footsteps imbued their products with core values. This was especially true for the LEGO interlocking bricks, or “Automatic Binding Bricks” as they were called upon their introduction in 1949. The goal was not just a toy but a toy system, whose generic components permitted unlimited, imagination-based play for both boys and girls. The first molded, plastic LEGO bricks lacked the characteristic LEGO branding seen on the tops of each brick’s studs. The bottoms of the bricks were hollow (they did not yet have corresponding tubes to line up with the studs), while the sides had vertical slits, designed to secure windows and doors. By 1953, branding would be added to the mold, but the bottoms of the bricks remained hollow until 1957, when the interlocking system we know today was introduced. LEGOs arrived in the United States in 1961, and larger DUPLO bricks, aimed at toddlers, were introduced worldwide in 1969.
That same year, the 4.5-volt motor that had been powering LEGO trains was upgraded to a more robust 12-volt model. And in 1974, the first LEGO figures were released, although their popularity was eclipsed in 1978 when the first LEGO minifigure (a policeman) was included in LEGO set #600. Each minifigure was as tall as four bricks, except for those minifigures with shorter legs, the first of which was Yoda from the “Star Wars” series in 2002. Brick FetishJim Hughes' history-of-LEGO reference site is organized around a comprehensive LEGO timeline, from 1891 to 1968, wi… [read review or visit site] Museum of ChildhoodEmbrace your inner child on this website from the Victoria and Albert Museum, filled with high-quality images and i… The WheelmenThis elegant tribute to turn-of-the-century bicycling includes memorabilia, photographs, and an index of 3140 bicyc… [read review or visit site] (10611 )435Sign up for newsletterin titles & descriptionWelcome to my eBay Shop.
Please add me to your list of favourite sellers and come again. Thank you for your business.Is YOUR old Lego worth a fortune? Old models could be more valuable than GOLD LEGO is now a better investment than gold after its value shot up. GETTYThe popular children’s toy has soared in worth by 12 per cent each year since 2000.Now homeowners are being urged to hunt through their lofts and cash in on the bonanza.Some sets are so in-demand that they are now selling for almost £3,000 on sites like eBay.The Ultimate Collector’s Millennium Falcon set, which contains more than 5,000 bricks, was sold for £342.49 when it was released in 2007.Now the Star Wars toy sells for nearly eight times as much, with winning bids of up to £2,712 on auction sites.Another popular Lego set, Cafe Corner, has seen its price soar by a whopping 2,230 per cent from £89.99 in 2007 to £2,096 now.And the 2008 Taj Mahal - which has almost 6,000 pieces - has gone from £199.99 to £1,848.Prices also rocket for second-hand Lego as soon as it goes out of production, with modern sets released in the last year already selling for 36 per cent more than its original value.
With the soar in popularity of Lego with both adults and children, the effect on the values of both rare, hard to find sets and new releases has been incredible The huge hikes mean Lego provides a better return than traditional investments like the stock market with the value of the FTSE 100 no higher than it was in 2000.People who have invested in gold have also only received a 9.6 per cent gain over the past 15 years.Parents have now been urged to search through their children’s forgotten toys to see if a fortune could be hidden away in their loft.Bev Channell, event director for Lego show BRICK 2015, said: “With the soar in popularity of Lego with both adults and children, the effect on the values of both rare, hard to find sets and new releases has been incredible.“It’s well worth searching through your old sets to see what treasures are hiding there.”Last week Lego warned it may run out of bricks before Christmas due to the soaring demand.GETTYThe Danish company admitted some children may not get their presents as factories are unable to make enough plastic bricks to keep up with requests from toy stores.
The rising price of Lego means keen collectors have even managed to turn their hobbies into a profitable business.David Kirkham, who runs the world’s smallest Lego shop, Minifigs & Bricks, in York, said: “We look for sets and mini figures that are a little bit different such as a battery-operated light up Star Wars Darth Vadar.“It was part of a set of three, with a standard figure and a small vehicle, that retailed when new for £15.“Now we sell the light-up Darth Vadar on its own for £70.“Lego has produced between 7,000 and 8,000 licenced and rare minifigures to date and I own around 3,000 of them so my own collection continues to grow as well.”BRICK 2015, a celebration of all things Lego, is running at Birmingham’s National Exhibition Centre (NEC) from today until Sunday.MOST EXPENSIVE LEGO SETS:Set - release date - pieces - retail price - current value1 - Ultimate Collector’s Millennium Falcon - 2007 - 5,195 - £342.49 - £2,7122 - Cafe Corner - 2007 - 2,056 - £89.99 - £2,0963 - Taj Mahal - 2008 - 5,922 - £199.99 - £1,8484 - Death Star II - 2005 - 3,441 - £249.99 - £1,5245 - Imperial Star Destroyer - 2002 - 3,096 - £249.99 - £1,467LEGO SETS WITH BIGGEST INCREASES IN VALUE