LEGO history 1970-1999

By questforbricks

LEGO Idea House museum in Billund, Denmark has an intriguing display of LEGO history. I have reported on the early LEGO history 1891-1969 in a previous story, now it is time to take a look at the next time period: 1970-1999.

From maxifigures to minifigures to a galaxy far, far away… By the 1970s, LEGO had gained the colorfulness we now take for granted. Blocky designs and extraneous non-plastic parts from the 1960s gave way to a more elaborate LEGO System, a fully plastic one with new details such as minifigures and LEGO Technic functionality. While it would take until the 1990s for LEGO to become as detailed as it is today, already by late 1970s the same style and scale of building was there.

Next in the series: Series finale – the noughties. A precursor of things to come is hanging from the ceiling in the fifth and sixth photo above: 7140 X-wing Fighter. The year 1999 marks the beginning of licensed LEGO themes. (Note: Click the first small thumbnail and you can browse all the images in a gallery – or you can just click any particular thumbnail to enlarge it. In the gallery view, press View full size to see the largest available version.)

Published on August 13, 2013