Tag Archives: Christmas card

History

25 Days of Holiday “Trainvertising” #24: A Window of Wooden Toys

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Since we are one day away from the big day, I wanted to share a very special piece from 1984. This one is from another Christmas card that the UK LEGO Club sent its members. It really captures the spirit of this time of year and is a wonderful scene…There are so many details to soak in.

The main reason I chose this one for day 24 is that the toys in the window display celebrate the early history of LEGO. That’s right; a number of toys in the window display are representations of LEGO’s wooden toys! And yes, one of them is a train. Read on to find out more, and have fun comparing the illustrations of the wooden toys with their brick-built counterparts in the window display!

Wooden Sailing Ship – Image from Miniland.nl
A Red Cadillac-esque Convertible from the 1946 or 1947
Soldier Stacking Toy – From the collection of Richard Bintanja

Wooden Train with “Pop-Up” Figure – Image from Miniland.nl

Images come from my collection, the website miniland.nl and the collection of Richard Bintanja.

History

25 Days of Holiday “Trainvertising” #23: A Greeting Card within an Ad

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Here’s a unique piece of advertising from 1979. This Christmas card appeared in a 5 page LEGO advertistment, printed in the November 1979 issue of the UK magazine, Radio Times. I would have shown the ad in its entirety, but my scanner can’t accommodate it. It features LEGO Christmas cards sitting on a brick-built mantle. This card features 4.5V set 182, which was originally released in 1975. Look at all the cypress trees!

Here is a larger part of the page the image comes from, just for frame of reference.

History

25 Days of Holiday “Trainvertising” #14: The Snowy Sixties

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Flickr user Niels Thomsen (aka bricklick) has a wonderful vintage LEGO collection, filled with many unique and unusual items. Thanks to him, we are able to enjoy this circa 1966 LEGO Christmas card.

The card features the train from set 114, which was first released in 1966. It has a very special non-LEGO passenger. Santa Clause appears to be typical of the figures that were produced in Japan back then. To see more cool vintage LEGO items, be sure to visit Niels’ flickr page.

History

25 Days of Holiday “Trainvertising” #12: Steamin’ Santa

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This image comes to us courtesy of Emil from the UK. Back in the 1980s, the UK LEGO Club sent its members a Christmas card each year. This is one of them! It’s a pretty colorful and well-built scene, probably built by esteemed Master Builder, David Lyall.

I’m uncertain as to what year the card was produced, though it was most likely printed sometime in the 1980s.

History

25 Days of Holiday “Trainvertising” #3: Walking in a Wooden Wonderland

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LEGO makes a Christmas card for its employees each year, and this was the example made to celebrate the company’s 50th anniversary in 1982. It is filled with vintage LEGO goodness, including loads of wooden toys, 1:43 scale Chevrolet trucks, early LEGO building toys and some 1980s LEGO sets under the Christmas tree.

If you look closely, the box of wooden toys contains a special steam engine. Those Chevrolet trucks would also look mighty nice on an O scale layout. LEGO produced wooden toys from 1932 through 1960, following a fire that destroyed the wooden toy warehouse. The plastic Chevrolet trucks were made between 1952 and 1957.

These images originally appeared in the 50 Years of Play book, a LEGO history book given to LEGO employees in 1982. The book is hard to find, but you can read the digital version online via Brickset.com.