Newsgroups: rec.toys.lego,rec.answers,news.answers Path: bloom-beacon.mit.edu!grapevine.lcs.mit.edu!olivea!sgigate.sgi.com!sgiblab!swrinde!ihnp4.ucsd.edu!pacbell.com!well!nigel.msen.com!zib-berlin.de!ceres.fokus.gmd.de!tom From: tom@fokus.gmd.de (Tom Pfeifer) Subject: LEGO frequently asked questions (FAQ) Message-ID: Followup-To: poster Summary: FAQ about the construction toy LEGO, posted monthly Originator: tom@omega Keywords: LEGO, toy, construction, FAQ Lines: 885 Sender: news@fokus.gmd.de (News system) Supersedes: Reply-To: pfeifer@fokus.gmd.de Organization: GMD-FOKUS, Hardenbergplatz 2, 10623 Berlin, Germany Distribution: world Date: Mon, 18 Apr 1994 10:18:19 GMT Approved: news-answers-request@mit.edu Expires: Wed, 1 Jun 1994 10:18:17 GMT Xref: bloom-beacon.mit.edu rec.toys.lego:2567 rec.answers:4941 news.answers:18209 Archive-name: LEGO-faq Last-modified: April 18, 1994 This is the FAQ for the rec.toys.lego newsgroup *********************************************** I compiled it from information in postings, email contributions and catalogues. Providers of larger pieces of information are mentioned. Please feel free to send corrections and contributions. The usual FAQ disclaimers apply. Please include the word LEGO somewhere in the Subject-line of email. Tom Pfeifer pfeifer@fokus.gmd.de phone (Germany) +49-30-25499-288 *** New since Mar 8: minor revisions, DACTA catalog names *** New since Jan 17: official Legoland 1994 prices & hours, DACTA UK phone, Clones, etc. The charter of this group: ========================== To provide a forum for the discussion of all things and experiences relating to the LEGO(tm), DUPLO(tm) and compatible construction toys. Including interesting models that one has built, experiences one has had using LEGO, or questions about how to build particular components. Contents: ========= 1. Addresses, Phone numbers, Mail order, Clubs 2. Books & papers about LEGO 3. Price comparison & profits 4. LegoLand theme parks 5. Large displays / play rooms 6. Computer connections and DACTA 7. Plural of LEGO 8. LEGO advertising 9. How to wash LEGO pieces 10. Storing / sorting / using LEGO 11. Taking pieces apart 12. LEGO history / What does LEGO mean 13. Material, Technology and Measurements 14. Nice quotations 15. FTP and WWW sites 16. Substitutes / compatibles / clones Subject: 1) International addresses, Phone numbers, =================================================== Mail order, Clubs ================= Mail order: USA: see Shop at Home Europe: Ask your local service department for the "LEGO Service catalog of spare parts" AUSTRALIA LEGO Australia P/L. P.O. Box 639 Lane Cove; N.S.W. 2066 AUSTRIA LEGO Handelsgesellschaft mbH. Consumer Service Albert-Schweitzer-Gasse 11 A-1147 Wien BELGIUM & LUXEMBOURG LEGO Consumer Service c/o LEGO BELGIUM n.v. Leuvenseteenweg 323, 1932 Zaventem CANADA LEGO Canada Inc. 331 Amber Street Markham, Ontario Canada L3R 3J7 Tel. (416) 940-6600 Toll-Free 1-800-387-4387 (may be obsolete, please tell me) and 1-800-267-5346 (valid) Fax (416) 940-0745 LEGO Club (newsletter, catalog information, etc.) P.O. Box 3700 Markham Ontario, L3R 6G9 DENMARK LEGO A/S DK-7190 Billund Phone +45 - 75 35 11 88 Fax +45 - 75 35 33 60 LegoLand Phone +45 - 75 33 13 33 FINLAND Oy Suomen LEGO Pb PL 42; 02701 Kauniainen or: Oy Suomen LEGO Ab PL 46; 02631 Espoo Puh.: 90-520 533 FRANCE LEGO France S.A., Service Pie`ces de Rechange B.P. 837, F-28011 CHARTRES Ce'dex. Te'l.: 37 28 53 68 GERMANY LEGO GmbH Service: Regina 24594 Hohenwestedt/Holstein LEGO-hotline (short story played from tape) (069) 19733 GREECE N. Kouvalias S.A. 25, El. Venizelou Ave. GR-17671 Kallithea HUNGARY LEGO Hunga'ria KFT 1027 Budapest To"lgyfa utca 28 ITALY LEGO S.p.A. Servizio Consumatori Via Colombo, 12 20020 Lainate (MI) Tel. 02/93 74 581 NETHERLANDS, The LEGO Nederland B.V. Afd. Konsumenten Service Postbus 18, 9860 AA Grootegast NORWAY A/S LEGO System Norge Postboks 66 N-1301 Sandvika or: Postboks 38 1314 Skui Telefon: 67131600 PORTUGAL LEGO, Lda. Largo Joao Vaz. 9-A/B/C/D 1700 Lisboa Tel.: (01) 847 33 41 SPAIN LEGO, S.A. Apartado 500 28850 Torrejo'n de Ardoz (Madrid) SWEDEN Svenska LEGO AB Fack; S-443 01 Lerum 1 or: Box 304; S-443 27 LERUM Tel: 0302-229 60 SWITZERLAND LEGO Spielwaren AG / LEGO Jouets SA / LEGO Giacattoli SA Neuhofstrasse 21 CH-6340 Baar Tel: 042/33 44 66 UNITED KINGDOM and IRELAND LEGO U.K. Ltd., (including club) Ruthin Road, Wrexham, Clwyd LL13 7TQ Customer Service - 0978 296 247 LEGO Club - 0978 296 290 Service, spare parts - 0978 296 233 Anything else, DACTA UK - 0978 290 900 The LEGO club costs 3.95 pounds (4.50 pounds for Ireland). They need: name, address, post code, sex, date of birth. Cheques made payable to 'LEGO U.K. Ltd' or credit card. UNITED STATES LEGO Systems, Inc. 555 Taylor Road P.O. Box 1600 Enfield, CT, 06083-1600 1-800-243 4870 LEGO Systems, Inc. Consumer Affairs P.O. Box 1138 Enfield, CT 06083 1-800-422-5346 (9am-9pm Mon-Fri) (Eastern time) (203) 749-2291 LEGO Shop at Home Service P.O. Box 1310 Enfield, CT 06083 Tel.(203) 763-4011, -4012, and -6800 (8:00 - 8:00 EST) 1-800-835-4386 1-800-453-4652 (catalog available, no charge for shipping, 3-5 weeks for delivery) LEGO Builders Club PO Box 5000 Unionville, CT 06087-5000 (one year $7.95, two years $14.00; membership kit and free bonus mini set, birthday mailing, magazine (Brick Kicks), ...) LEGO Dacta 555 Taylor Road P.O. Box 1600 Enfield, CT 06083-1600 orders and info: 1-(800)-527-8339 fax: 1-(203)-763-2466 Subject: 2) Books & papers about LEGO ===================================== The World of LEGO Toys Henry Wiencek Harry N. Abrams, Inc., Publishers, New York Times Mirror Books TS2301.T7W474 1987 688.7'2 86-23200 ISBN 0-8109-1790-4 (hardcover) ISBN 0-8109-2362-9 (paperback) Where does it come from? LEGO brick. Text and editing: Kathy Henderson illustrated by Diane Tippell Art Director: Debbie MacKinnon 22 pages, fully illustrated in full color Morristown, NJ: Silver Burdett, 1986. Library of Congress: TS2301.T7T525 1986 Dewey: 688.7'2 ISBN: 0-382-09362-3 The book traces the manufacture of Lego bricks all the way from the sucking of oil out of the earth to the placing of the finished bricks in the hands of children. While this edition is supposedly "adapted" for the United States market, it still has a definite British feel to it. Type is large and writing is simple enough for seven-year-olds. A delightful, if not deep, the book does the job for its intended audience. (Wes Loder (MWL2@psuvm.psu.edu)) The Epistemology and Learning Group at the MIT Media Laboratory, has made some of their papers and publications available via anonymous FTP from cherupakha.media.mit.edu:/pub/el-publications/EL-Memos. Some papers of interest to the LEGO community are: memo13.PS.Z memo13.tar.Z memo13cvr.PS "BRAITENBERG CREATURES" by David W. Hogg, Fred Martin, and Mitchel Resnick This paper describes 12 autonomous ``creatures'' built with Electronic Bricks. Electronic Bricks are specially-modified LEGO bricks with simple electronic circuits inside. Although each Electronic Brick is quite simple, the bricks can be combined to form robotic creatures with interesting and complex behaviors, similar to the fictional machines described in Valentino Braitenberg's book Vehicles (1984). memo10.PS.Z memo10.hqx "CHILDREN AND ARTIFICIAL LIFE" by Mitchel Resnick and Fred Martin Artificial Life is a new field in which researchers study living systems by trying to build artificial versions of them. In this paper, we argue that ideas from Artificial Life research can and should be shared with children. We describe various computational tools (including LEGO/Logo and Electronic Bricks) that students can use to build artificial creatures. By building and programming artificial creatures (and discussing and thinking about how the creatures behave), children can explore some of the central ideas of Artificial Life -- ideas like feedback, levels of organization, and emergence. memo8.PS.Z memo8.hqx "LEGO/LOGO: LEARNING THROUGH AND ABOUT DESIGN" by Mitchel Resnick and Stephen Ocko, September 1990 Most classroom problem-solving activities focus on analytic thinking: decomposing problems into subproblems. Students rarely get the opportunity to design and invent things. In this paper, we describe how LEGO/Logo, a computer-based robotics environment, supports a variety of design activities. We examine how students using LEGO/Logo can learn important mathematical and scientific ideas through their design activities, while also learning about the design process itself. Israel Shenker in: Smithsonian magazine, June 1988 (if you know it, please tell me title and publisher) Subject: 3) Price comparison & profits ====================================== thorinn@diku.dk (Lars Henrik Mathiesen): In April 1993 LEGO published their results for 1992. The mother firm reported a net profit (before Danish taxes, probably) of US$100,000,000, while the net sales in the North American market were given as US$4,000,000,000. Somebody calculated the price per piece in the 'old days' as $0.10. Today it may be between $0.10 and $0.30. Count, calculate and mail me (Tom) your comments. LegoLand, Billund, Denmark is reported to sell at list prices, no factory discounts. Subject: 4) LegoLand theme park =============================== Billund, Denmark, Europe: +++++++++++++++++++++++++ Billund is in Jylland (Jutland), roughly equidistant (35 km) from Esbjerg and Vejle, a town of only just over 4500 people. Tel. +45 - 7533 1333, Fax +45 - 7535 3179 Legoland Park, Nordmarksvej 9, DK-7190 Billund (Legoland official:) Entrance fees for 1994: 1 day 2 days Season Groups (>=20) Little Kids (3-13) DKK 80 DKK 130 DKK 195 DKK 60 Big Kids (14-59) DKK 95 DKK 160 DKK 240 DKK 75 Senior Kids (60-) DKK 60 DKK 100 DKK 150 DKK 50 (increase since 1993: little kids +5, big kids +0) When admission has been paid, all rides and exhibitions are free. The Traffic School has a separate booking and payment system. Guides and coach drivers are free and get free meal coupons. The whole park (both indoor and outdoor) will be open: from April 29, 1994 until Sept. 18, 1994, 10am - 20pm, activities -6pm peak season (June 25 - Aug. 14) 10am - 21pm, activities -7pm (end of Legoland official) probably obsolate, not mentioned for 1994: In the previous years the indoor exhibits (8000 m^2) were open longer, from Easter till 3rd Sunday in December 10 am - 17 pm (1993!). Examples of the replications in the park and their piece counts, found by Mike Weldy (bullwnkl@mentor.cc.purdue.edu) in a magazine: o Mt. Rushmore (American monument to Presidents Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, and T. Roosevelt) (1.5 million regular bricks and 40K Duplo) o Billund Airport (complete with airplanes) (687,860 bricks) o Port of Copenhagen (3 million bricks) o The Statue of Liberty (1.4 million bricks) o Big Chief Sitting Bull (1.2 million bricks) o a buffalo hunt (2.5 million) fin@unet.umn.edu (Craig A. Finseth) and kokdg@diku.dk (Bo Kjellerup) have details how to get there: AIR: ---- From Europe: Fly to Billund. (Yes, there are flights directly to Billund from most major European cities.) The airport, which was at first build by the LEGO company, is the second busiest (behind Copenhagen) in Denmark. The first model of the airport was made out of LEGO bricks. From the US or anywhere else: Fly to Kobnhavn (Copenhagen), then to Billund. Once in Billund, walk. It's just across the parking lot, about five minutes away. The Legoland Hotelis half a mile from the airport. TRAIN: ------ You can't directly. Billund is about as far as you can get from any railway lines and still be on land in Europe. Since the town was essentially "put on the map" by LEGO Systems and that company didn't really get going until well after World War II, I would guess that they missed out on the railway building era. In any event, you can take a train to Vejle (nice town) and a bus to Billund (about half an hour). If you arrive with a ferry from England (Harwich - Esbjerg), take the train from the ferry to Esbjerg rail station, and go by bus to Billund (about one hour). BUS / AUTO: ----------- The bus goes there. A main road goes there. As I recall, the airport and LegoLand parking lots are one and the same. Store: ------ There is a large store and it carries the entire current line. It does _not_ carry old, non-standard, or discontinued kits. All sales are at list price. If you're from the US, the only reason to buy anything is that the current line is somewhat different in Europe than the US, so you might find a new kit (and wince when you have to pay for it). Price is a smaller consideration for other countries. Features: --------- Family Hotel LEGOLAND, open all year round, Tel. +45 - 75 33 12 44 Banking: Den Danske Bank has a branch in the Information Office. Handicapped: Walking-impaired and wheelchair users can go all over the park. More: ----- To keep the FAQ in limits, I'll email you the heartwarming descriptions by some visitors, if you send a Subject line 'LEGOland Billund request' to pfeifer@fokus.gmd.de New international theme parks +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ ** USA ** flournoy@cs.stanford.edu (Ray Flournoy): LEGO has now decided on its US site for Legoland, and it is: Carlsbad, California, a city near San Diego. It will open in 1999, probably. ** UK ** Tom Gardner knows: Legoland UK will be on the site of the old Windsor Safari Park in, surprise, Windsor. It will probably be finished in 1996. Subject: 5) Large displays / play rooms: ======================================== The Seattle Science Museum has (or had 2 years ago, anyway) a large room filled with LEGO to a depth of several inches. leech@cs.unc.edu (Jon Leech) The Mall of America, in Bloomington, Minnesota (USA), has a Legoland store near the center of the mall. It has a large area for play, with tables and chairs. The tops of the tables are LEGO, and there are basins set in the center where loose LEGO bricks are stored. There are also huge models there: some hang from the ceiling by cables, others stand tall on the ground, with moving parts and blinking lights. And best of all: ALL AGES ARE WELCOME. nudnik@camelot.bradley.edu (Steven Parks) ... The sculptures range from dinosaurs, circus performers, and animals, to scientific models of such things as the space shuttle. ... there are two *MEGA LARGE SIZE* lego blocks located in one part of the surrounding parking lot that you might want to take a picture of. foo@drycas.club.cc.cmu.edu (FOO) Subject: 6) Computer connections and DACTA ========================================== See address of DACTA in the address section. Fred Martin from the MIT provides: LEGO Dacta is the educational branch of the LEGO company (which has its U.S. headquarters in Enfield, CT). Dacta sells the LEGO Technic product line -- the geared and motorized version of the LEGO system. Call Dacta and get their catalog, which has many LEGO Technic kits. Recommended kits are the 1038 Technic Universal Buggy (a specialized kit for building a small LEGO vehicle with a dual motor drive; about US$60), the 1032 Technic II with Motorized Transmission (a small general-purpose kit including one motor and one battery pack; about US$76), and the 9605 Technic Resource Set (a large general-purpose kit including two motors and two battery packs; about US$200). Catalog names: o "Making Connections" (new 1994) o "Small Hands: Big Imaginations" o "Gear Up for Learning" (probably obsolete) Dacta charges 5% shipping cost (while Shop at Home shippes free). vaughn@pluto.cis.udel.edu (Chris Vaughn) found in the Dacta catalog: MS-DOS or Apple II Slot Card Pack - US$161.50 includes slot card, cable, LEGO TC logo software and reference guides. (card is for most MS-DOS machines, except IBM PS/2 Models 50 and above or any other microchannel computer) Interface Box and Transformer - US$188.00 This box is what you connect all your motors, lights, and sensors to. It has 2 inputs, and 6 outputs (3 if you want to use three motors and have them all be reversible). carol@edfua0.ctis.af.mil (Andy Carol): The Lego Control Lab for Macintosh and/or PC is available for about US$600. It connects to any computer via serial cable (RS-232), has 8 different output ports which can control motors, lights, and sounds. It has 8 different inputs for buttons, angles, thermal, etc. This is _NOT_ a plug in card, but rather an external device hooked up via serial cable. It is programmed with LOGO, and has a really nice graphical system under Mac and Windows. It's also possible to use a C and C++ API for all control functions. jkoch@ee.ryerson.ca (jim koch) provides: The price for Apple or IBM starter pack US$798.00 (Jan 92). vaughn@pluto.cis.udel.edu (Chris Vaughn) writes: The Mini Board is a "miniature microprocessor-based controller board designed for control of small robotic devices". It was designed at the MIT Media Laboratory. This board is perfect for controlling LEGO devices (and in fact looks to be much better than the interface designed by LEGO). All of the information about the Mini Board is available at an FTP site (the address is "cherupakha.media.mit.edu (18.85.0.47)")). This includes diagrams and a parts list. The tech reference is a 47-page Postscript document. There is a mailing list at listserv@oberon.com. Send the body "SUBSCRIBE ROBOT-BOARD your_name" to this email address, the body HELP for help. The purpose of this mailing list is to discuss robot controller boards, and robot control in general. In particular, this list will be used to support the Miniboard 2.0 and 6.270 board design by Fred Martin and Randy Sargent of MIT. However, any and all traffic related to robot controllers is welcome. slh@toklas.HQ.Ileaf.COM (Stephen L. Hain) contributes: May I suggest adding Paradigm Software's Pearl Controller and Object Logo to this section. The Pearl Controller connects between a Macintosh serial port and a LEGO Robotics controller, and it is daisy chainable. Object Logo has an extension consisting of a set of object-oriented robotics programming features, allowing event-driven robot control. Contact Paradigm at 617 576-7675. (Stephen works for them.) Subject: 7) Plural of LEGO ========================== While most people point out that they yust say LEGOs, lunatic@netcom.com (Lunatic Johnathan Bruce E'Sex) dug out: One catalogue, dated 1980, has the following on its back page: Dear Parents and Children The word LEGO(R) is a brand name and is very special to all of us in the LEGO Group Companies. We would sincerely like your help in keeping it special. Please always refer to our bricks as 'LEGO Bricks or Toys' and not 'LEGOS.' By doing so, you will be helping to protect and preserve a brand of which we are very proud and that stands for quality the world over. Thank you! Susan Williams Consumer Services Subject 8) LEGO advertising =========================== LEGO is new toy every day. LEGO c'est un nouveau jouet chaque jour. LEGO es un juguete nuevo cada dia. LEGO ist jeden Tag ein neues Spielzeug. LEGO e' un gioco nuovo ogni giorno. LEGO - eine Sprache der Kinder (LEGO - a language of the children). LEGO zeigt, was Kinder koennen (LEGO shows what children can). European LEGO advertising is quite good - they just show an animated film of lots of LEGO being assembled, disassembled, reassembled etc. a few times over in 15 seconds. Some of them are quite impressive. Subject: 9) How to wash LEGO pieces =================================== From a LEGO catalog... DUPLO and LEGO SYSTEM toys can be washed by hand, using warm water -- max. 104 degrees Fahrenheit (40 Celsius) -- and a mild liquid dish detergent. Storage temperature max. 104 degrees Fahrenheit = 40 Celsius. Electric parts are not washable. jc@gmd.de (Juergen Christoffel) and gilmer@gandalf.ca (Jack Gilmer) say: Put your LEGO bricks into a pillow case or a mesh bag (the kind for washing small articles of clothes) and wash in your washing machine at a low temperature. Tested in kindergarten once a year. alekz@library.welch.jhu.edu (Alekz Vermont) says: stick them in the tub w/warm sudsy water and swish about... let soak. swish more. drain tub. spray with shower (to rinse) and let air-dry... Do not wash your LEGO people -- their faces come off! ... but mengsoo@bnr.ca (Meng Soo) notes: There's nothing wrong with that. I'd pretend that their faces melted, and became faceless mutant LEGO people. The fun really started when I discovered permanent markers... Subject: 10) Storing / sorting / using LEGO =========================================== One of the greatest ideas was: Keep them on a bed sheet: spread the sheet for playing - fold it together to tide up in seconds, and put it in whatever container you like. Most netters strongly object sorting their pieces and enjoy sitting on the floor having their pieces all around them. The variety and size of technic elements may still demand some sorting. Hardware stores sell storage units with 18-60 drawers, intended for sorting nuts and bolts and the like. The transparent plastic drawers (which can include transparent dividers) allow one to see the contents of a drawer without opening it. Subject: 11) Taking pieces apart ================================ People use teeth, fingernails, screwdrivers, penknives, ... LEGO now sells a small handle-like gizmo called a "brick separator". It works GREAT! It's under US$2 and also found in some basic buckets. [part number 821] dholmes@netcom.com (Dennis Holmes) means: What you need is TWO separator tools. Stick one on top and one underneath, with the handles facing the same direction, and then squeeze the handles together. Works like magic! 1x1x1s are easy - twist one of them through 45 degrees, and then prise them apart with fingers. To separate 2x1 flats crj10@phx.cam.ac.uk (Clive Jones) writes: Let: - ...be the 1-wide cross-section of the 2x1 block, so: - - represents the two blocks stuck together. Now find two 12x2 plates. Apply them like this: ------------ <- wiggle - - ------------ wiggle -> ...and wiggle them backwards and forwards *hard*. Within a second or so, you'll find that all but the most stubborn plates separate, and getting the 2x1s off the 12x2s is then easy. Joe Garlicki (jg6a+@andrew.cmu.edu) has another way to separate 2x1 flats. First, take two 2x1 blocks (the regular size). Put one on top of the 2x1 flats, and put the other one on the bottom. Then, snap the two 2x1 flats apart. After that, it's easy to get the 2x1 flats off of the 2x1 blocks. Note: This method can be applied to other small plate sizes as well. malakai@potomac.engin.umich.edu (Jeff Jahr) uses ... the small black mechanics wrench from some of the old space sets. The jaw of wrench is designed so it can grab onto a LEGO bump - absolutely useless for prying - but the other end is flattened like a screwdriver. They seem to be made from a slightly softer plastic than the blocks to avoid scratches. Subject: 12) LEGO history / What does LEGO mean =============================================== While LEGO comes from Danish "leg godt", "lego" means 'I assemble" in Latin. The recent "20th anniversary" refers to the LEGO company in the US (1973), not to LEGO itself. It was available before because Samsonite had a license to produce it. Andreas Henning (d2henan@dtek.chalmers.se) and Timo (tho@tik.vtt.fi) say: The LEGO patent has expired some years ago. nad@cl.cam.ac.uk Neil Dodgson found: My "The Art of LEGO" book says that the company name, LEGO, came from the Danish "Leg godt", roughly translated as "Play well". The company originally made wooden toys during the depression. They also made yo-yos for a while, during the yo-yo craze. Unfortunately this left them with warehouses full of yo-yos when the craze suddenly stopped; so the boss just cut all the yo-yos in half, and used them as wheels for toy trucks, etc. The same guy invented the LEGO bricks, initially without the tubes inside; the addition of these tubes meant that the blocks held together really well, and sales took off. I think it was in the mid to late '50s that LEGO decided to drop all its other products and just make the bricks (risky...). (Somebody found in a book that LEGO dropped their other product lines when a fire burned down the building housing them. Thus, it was not as risky to sell the bricks exclusively. It would probably have been riskier to re-capitalize the wooden toy line than to drop it.) Bo Kjellerup (kokdg@diku.dk): The fire was caused by the son of the boss, Kirk Kristiansen, who was playing in their garage/hobby room aside the factory and set it all on fire. BTW, the son's name was misspelled in the church's annuals, so he is spelled with 'K' now. "The Art of LEGO" says that one reason LEGO survives is that it constantly adapts itself to the modern world; e.g. the original LEGO trains, and now the remodeled one that will run off the mains. Perhaps all these new special blocks are a reflection of a society that wants instant gratification, rather than spending a few hours building a model? found by r1b6116@zeus.tamu.edu / Ken Blair: Taken without permission from _Brick Kicks_ #1 ("The official magazine of the LEGO builders club", USA) (circa 1987 or 88?) "Bricks & Pieces: The LEGO Story" Did you know that 300 million children have owned LEGO sets since they were first made? And that you are one of the 68 million kids from around the world who like to play with LEGO building bricks today! Here's the story of how we grew... Although the international LEGO Group is now very large, it is still a family-run company that started out quite small. More than 50 years ago, a carpenter named Ole Kirk Christiansen and his 12-year old son, Godtfred, started making toys in the little town of Billund, Denmark. Plastic had not been invented yet, so they made toy cars, trucks, yo-yos, animals, and other toys out of wood. They decided that a good name for their company would be LEGO, which means "play well" in Danish, and also, they discovered, happens to mean "put together" in Latin! Ole and Godtfred were very proud of their workmanship, and adopted the LEGO motto that "only the best is good enough." When plastic became available after World War II, LEGO began to make both wooden and plastic toys. It was about this time that the idea of plastic LEGO bricks was introduced. Godtfred loved to build with these colorful new pieces, and was continually putting them together and taking them apart to build new designs. In fact, it was Godtfred who perfected the special design that makes every single LEGO brick fit together in any combination, over and over again. The first LEGO building set was made more than 30 years ago- and the bricks from that set can still be used with even the newest LEGO building set of today! LEGO bricks first appeared in the United States in 1961 and quickly became as popular here as in Europe. The international LEGO group is now worldwide, and is run by Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen, Old Kirk Christiansen's grandson. As the company keeps growing, so do the kids of exciting LEGO kits that are now sold in 129 different countries ... from DUPLO preschool to FABULAND, LEGO BASIC, to LEGOLAND, LEGO boats and trains to LEGO TECHNIC SETS. In fact, this year alone, we will make more than six billion bricks and building pieces for all the LEGO lovers 'round the world- like you! Subject: 13) Material, Technology and ===================================== Measurements ============ The LEGO motto: Det bedste er ikke for godt. (Only the best is good enough.) from Wiencek's The World of LEGO Toys, paraphrased by saint@cats.ucsc.edu (Dan): LEGO brick are made out of ABS (acrylonitrile butadiene styrene), it is heated to 450 degrees Fahrenheit (232 C), then injected into a mold which is kept at 85 degrees. The pressure used to mold the bricks varies from 24 to 150 tons. The molds are kept within one degree of the 85 degree specification. ABS absorbs moisture, so the entire molding hall is kept at 50% humidity. The allowable tolerance for a brick is two-hundredths of a millimeter, or about eight ten-thousands of an inch. My xwebster says: ABS: a tough rigid plastic used esp. for automobile parts and building materials. bullwnkl@mentor.cc.purdue.edu (Bullwinkle J. Moose) found in Israel Shenker's article: The ABS granules is dyed to LEGO's secret specifications in factories in Holland and Germany. Molds for the pieces are made in a factory in Germany and two factories in Switzerland. The margin of error in the molds can only be 5 one-thousands of a millimeter -- less than the thickness of a human hair! For security reasons, LEGO inters worn-out molds in the concrete of its new buildings. There are LEGO factories in Billund(3), Switzerland, Brazil, South Korea, and the United States (in Enfield, Connecticut). Two 2X4 bricks can be joined 24 different ways. Six can be joined 102,981,500 different ways. Geometry, provided by Jef Poskanzer (jef@netcom.com): Thanks to various pointers, especially the MIT course notes, here is the metric version. **All measurements in mm.** |side: __ __ __ __ top: +----------------+ | +----------------+ | () () () () | | | | | | | | | | () () () () | | +----------------+ +----------------+ |spacing of knob centers: 8 |diameter of knobs: 5 |height of block: 9.6 | |end: __ __ bottom: +================+ | +--------+ # -- -- -- # | | | # ( )( )( ) # | | | # -- -- -- # | +--------+ +================+ |height of knobs: 1.7 |thickness of block walls: 1.5 |outer diameter of cylinders: 6.31 |thickness of cylinder walls: 0.657 (height of block) = (spacing of knob centers) * 6 / 5 (thickness of block walls) = ((spacing of knob centers) - (diameter of knobs)) / 2 (height of knobs) = (height of block) / 3 - (thickness of block walls) (outer diameter of cylinders) = sqrt(2) * (spacing of knob centers) - (diameter of knobs) (thickness of cylinder walls) = ((outer diameter of cylinders) - (diameter of knobs)) / 2 Subject: 14) Nice quotations ============================ I'm surprised that no one has ever mentioned the glorious sound of LEGO. LEGO bricks are about the only present you can tell what is by shaking it. chelius@studsys.mscs.mu.edu (The Shaggy T.A.) I can hear that restful sound of LEGO pieces in my mind even now. It's kind of like the peaceful sound of a waterfall, but more tinkly. kurisuto@chopin.udel.edu (Sean J. Crist) LEGO is not a toy. - It's a way of life. mikes@bioch.ox.ac.uk (Mike Smith) Subject: 15) FTP and WWW sites ============================== Paul Gyugyi (gyugyi@earthsea.stanford.edu) maintains an FTP archive of LEGO information. It is located at earthsea.stanford.edu in ~ftp/pub/lego, there is a README there that describes what the site contains, for example CAD, faq, games, images, sets, uploads. The latter is an upload area for contributions. A World Wide Web (WWW) server is also available, the URL for it is http://legowww.itek.norut.no. It contains a lot of information that has been collected from the newsgroup and the FTP site, maintained by David Koblas (koblas@netcom.com). Subject: 16) Substitutes / compatibles / clones =============================================== Finally some information about similar products. Most people state that the quality is much lower then original LEGO pieces. TYCO are reported to sell compatible basic bricks in 1000-piece buckets for approx. $0.03 per piece. They also made that LEGO-looking telephone. Erik Wilson (erwg0233@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu) says that Tyco's clone-LEGO line (superblocks) is discontinued. They were of fair quality (for a clone) in different colors (orange, green, hot pink, pastels), including 1/2 height plates (not LEGO 1/3). Mini-Micro Blocks are found in 1000-piece buckets about $0.02 per piece. There are large quantities of the basic 2x4, 2x2, and 1x2 bricks, more tight but reported to be fully LEGO-compatible. Made by a company called Ritvik, which also makes Mega-Micro blocks. The latter may be larger? Ritvik Toys Inc., P.O. Box 1408, Champlain, NY 12919 HQ in Quebec, Canada. Offices in U.K., Australia, and New Zealand. Ken Koleda (KOLEDA_K@msb.flint.umich.edu): Tandem Bricks, made in Taiwan Tandem Toys, Rolling Hills, CA 90724 Notes: Largest brick is the 2x4 full height. A large portion of these bricks are 1x flats. The flats are the same height as LEGO (1/3). Colors are similar to lego, except with a good number of gray flats and greens bricks. Quality is similar to other clones, generally somewhat below LEGO (loose, but workable). PEDLO is reported to be similar, but not compatible with LEGO. Their plates are only 1/2 height of full bricks, not 1/3 like LEGO. mckinney@adonis.ee.queensu.ca (Alexander (Sandy) McKinney): Qubo ville Basic Building Bricks, look identical except for the LEGO missing from each of the studs. Assortment of 23 standard pieces, 2x4, 2x2, 1x4, 1x2, 1x1, about CAN$ 2.95 Made in Italy by GOMPLA S.n.c. di Bisello D.&C., Via Emila Romagna 13/15, 35020 Saonara (PD) - Italy Imported by Wallace Companies Inc., USA, 175 Citation Court, Birmingham, Al 35209 CANADA, WSP Marketing Int., 49 Valleybrook Dr., Con Mills, Ontario, M3B 2S6 elgaard@diku.dk (Niels Elgaard Larsen) says: Some years ago LEGO did have a lot of trouble with a far east company that made LEGO clones called "0937". I wonder if they placed them upside-down in the stores. ** end of rec.toys.lego faq **