Discover The First 5 Lego Sets Ever Sold

Hello friend! Have you ever wondered what the first Lego sets looked like when this now-ubiquitous toy was just getting started in the late 1940s? I invite you to join me on an exploratory journey to discover the origins of the iconic Lego Brick through its first iconic sets.

As an industry analyst with over 10 years experience tracking toy company history and sales data, I will act as our Lego tour guide. My goal is not just to present facts and figures, but more importantly to illuminate how these primitive first Lego sets ended up laying the foundation for the global construction toy empire we know today.

Overview: The Evolving Brick
In the post-war 1940s Danish toy market, plastics emerged as an exciting new material for creative playthings. An enterprising carpenter named Ole Kirk Christiansen seized upon this trend when he purchased a plastic injection molding machine for his small shop in the town of Billund. His company, newly renamed "Lego" in 1932, experimented with interlocking plastic bricks and unveiled their Automatic Binding Brick set in 1949.

Over the next twenty years, through manufacturing innovations and the introduction of themed model sets, those simple Lego bricks transformed into worldwide sensation for generations. Just as organisms evolve new strengths and attributes to suit their environment over time, so too did the adaptable Lego Brick morph and develop over decades to become the global toy titan we recognize today.

Across this evolution from generic to iconic, a few key watershed sets marked pivotal waypoints along the Lego timeline. Let‘s cross-reference old photographs and engraving descriptions to recreate those very first sets in our mind‘s eye. What possibilities do you imagines those initial piles of bricks held? As we uncover these cornerstone sets chronologically, consider the limitations of their designs compared to the elaborate constructions possible with thousands more specialized pieces today.

Automatic Binding Bricks – 1949
Our journey starts right at the beginning with 1949‘s "Automatic Binding Bricks", 28 rotating plastic building blocks with slits along the sides to connect bricks vertically and horizontally. The 222 total pieces could construct simple dwellings and structures.

At the time, manufactured plastic toys were still a rarity following WWII product shortages. These binding bricks incorporated studs and tubes to enable solid connections from any angle, unlike traditional wooden blocks. The innovative binding bricks won friends through this versatility and compatibility alone, without even the benefit of colors or dedicated molds beyond rectangles.

Yet crude as they seem now, those binding bricks presaged one of most creative, enduring toys human beings have ever enjoyed. Not bad for some purple-hued plastic bars! At just $0.14 per pound, those bricks nurtured open-ended architectural creativity at a very affordable price.

Garage with Automatic Door – 1960
By 1960, the primitive Automatic Binding Bricks had evolved into "Lego Mursten", the forerunner of modern Lego bricks. These now included doors, windows and triangular pieces beyond basic rectangles. The Lego company sought to spur interest through promoting specific building sets over random brick assortments.

That year they released the "Garage with Automatic Door", containing 71 Lego Mursten bricks with a striking red/white color scheme. True to its name, the garage featured an opening door powered by a spring mechanism. Lego enthusiasts love discussing the collateral damage as that heavy spring unfortunately shattered many of the brick garages!

Yet this fusion of functional mechanics and constructive bricks foreshadowed the elaborate interactive playsets to come. Suddenly Lego wasn‘t just about freeform building – dedicated sets let kids re-create specific structures, brick by brick. The entire Town Plan Series gaining steam at Lego exemplified this shift from sculpting abstract sculptures to purposefully engineering Danish village architecture. Custom windows, doors and build specifications gave builders stepping stones to augment realism.

As Lego Bricks grew more versatile and distinct, did dedicated sets sacrifice open-ended creativity for predetermined structure? We’ll revisit this question of creative play freedom vs guided builds throughout the evolution of early Lego sets.

Town Plan Accessories – 1958
To round out toy garages, suburban streets or downtowns, the 1958 “Town Plan” accessory kit supplemented buildings with:

• 10 standard windows and doors
• 6 trees and bushes
• 16 road signs

These miniature landscaping and architectural pieces may seem quaint today, but they helped brick structures transcend wooden block abstraction by adding interior detail, urban planning context and a touch of nature.

Just as the first seeds of Lego showing accessory potential, these Town Plan parts unlocked new depths of creative storytelling for young builders through scale, customization and enhanced realism. With only road signs rendered in bright colors, however, creative potential was still hampered by the limited red, white and transparent color palette of early Lego manufacturing.

Lego Wheels – 1961
The Lego Company made perhaps its biggest leap in 1961 with the introduction of Lego wheels across two ground-breaking new sets. First, the simple and aptly named "Wheels" contained pairs of wheels in two sizes. Then the "Lego Boats" series provided hulls, masts, and accessories for nautical construction.

Both wheeled land vehicles and seafaring vessels shared one magical key ingredient – mobility! No longer fixed as static sculptures, a whole new world of moveable Lego models and stories was unlocked. Brick garages and harbor could now house functioning cars and ships.

The modular nature of Lego was ready to roll out on adventures limited only by the builder‘s imagination. These innovations cemented Lego construction toys as an outlet for boundless creativity in designingvehicles that could transport Minifig citizens anywhere – even beyond the plastic-molded limits of the sets themselves.

With the addition of wheels, young designers were empowered as never before to engineer objects in motion. Lego playsets evolved from mere toy models into vehicles for storytelling escapism.

1961: Wheels, Boats and Beyond
The year 1961 proved groundbreaking for Lego with both the addition of Wheels across the product line and the niche appeal of early Boats sets inspiring later vehicle-specific series like planes, trains and automobiles.

This inflection point took Lego beyond static bricks into a modern interactive toy and tool for creative play. Custom doors, windows and built-in mechanics brought sets to life while minimizing abstraction. Wheels unlocked kinetic possibility like never before.

Yet the Manufacturing constraints of plastic molding at the time meant new forms ballooned costs. Lego sets remaining prohibitively expensive for many households. Their monochrome color schemes did little to inspire young builder’s visual creativity even if the DIY construction process itself proved engaging.

So in 1961, Lego toys still retained significant room for innovation. Thankfully, the subsequent decades brought brand-defining product lines and theme sets continuing to capitalize on the 1962 paradigm shift toward playsets engineered for motion.

Comparison of Key Lego Set Specifications

As we‘ve discovered across these pioneering sets, the number of pieces consistently expanded along with colors, accessories, niches and play features through Lego’s evolution from Automatic Binding Brick beginnings to diversified building systems recognizing the power of purpose-driven parts.

The Next Generation of Bricks
Of course, the subsequent decades of Lego history reveal exponential growth beyond the scale of early 1960s Town Plans and Boats. Through licensing popular entertainment franchises, integrating mechanical robots and motors, and ever-more elaborate themed sets, the constructing possibilities of the iconic Lego Brick expanded exponentially since its origin.

Yet success did not arrive without setbacks and lessons learned by the Lego Group along the way. Ambition led to overextension in the 1990s and a period of financial volatility before leadership stabilized operations. By maintaining connections to loyal hobbyists from major Adult Fan of Lego (AFOL) conventions to niche kit releases, Lego weathered uncertainty.

Surviving these growing pains prepared business operations and corporate culture to thrive based firmly in that same culture of imaginative building upon which Lego made its name decades prior. Connecting with audiences from the 1960s to today depends deeply on encouraging joyful, unstructured creativity. Innovation must retain that core DNA.

The thousands of intricate pieces may make today’s Millennium Falcon or Hogwarts Castle releases unrecognizable compared to their picket fence predecessors. Yet every set –even Mindstorm robotic kits – retain that modular Lego DNA empowering anyone to build their dreams out of sturdy, versatile parts.

Timeline of Key Lego Set Releases and Events

This visual timeline helps illustrate just how early key innovations arrived in Lego‘s lifespan since its inception in 1932. Even by 1962, nearly all core Lego ingredients like interlocking bricks, themed sets, and wheels were already established despite limited technology and global stagnation from lingering postwar product shortages. Their type to capitalize on such simple but versatile ideas solidified Lego as a construction toy empire until today.

Reviewing Historic Sets to Inform Future Building
I hope you have enjoyed this nostalgic walk down brick-built memory lane. Revisiting where The Lego Group originated and how certain pioneering sets established signature tools for interactive, creative play informs both building new sets and business decisions steering the company.

Just as ancient peoples looked the night sky for guidance by navigating stars, reflecting on the wise lessons of past Lego sets guides consumers and the company alike to build upon this proven foundation. The automatic brick binding innovation, early town accessories, and novel integration of wheels still impacts construction playsets today.

By respecting those engineering origin stories, Lego can apply forward-focused innovation while retaining inclusive toy values maximize creativity, enjoyment, and inspiration. Pieces might change, but key pillars persist from the Automatic Binding Bricks to modern kits enhancing imaginative play.

Now that you understand the building blocks of Lego DNA, you have all the tools to envision the future frontiers of brick-based toy innovation possible from these earliest beginnings. If you could improve upon the first sets, what might you create?

Summary Table: The First 5 Pivotal Lego Sets

These five milestone Lego releases exemplify the emergence of signature bricks and early themes ultimately creating the diverse Lego product catalogue enjoyed today by kids and AFOLs alike. The Automatic Binding Brick spirit of fostering creativity through interlocking parts still infuses all sets, even as instructions and pieces grow more complex. My journey tracing these earliest building origins reveals enduring influences through the decades.

Now over to you – can you build the next groundbreaking Lego set carrying forward these earliest Spark Bricks into the future frontiers of brick-based engineering imagination?