Yesterday, Lego celebrated the 50th anniversary of the day it filed its first patent for the iconic plastic brick. Since the beginning, Lego sets have been themed, and the very first theme was space. Not long afterward, Lego added castle and pirate themes. One of the first major elements of the "System of Play" was the Lego Town Plan. To celebrate the 50th anniversary, the company is releasing a new, updated commemorative Town Plan this year. While updated, it includes '50s-era elements like a gas station, car wash and garage, plus a movie theater and, of course, a town hall.
The original Town Plan box from 1955 featured Lego founder Ole Kirk Christiansen's grandson Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen as a boy. The 2008 Town Plan box once again features him, this time as a grown man.
Over the years, the Lego brick has become one of the most recognised toys in the world, and millions upon millions of people have spent countless hours playing with the bricks and the sets they're part of. But Lego's first supplementary sets came out in 1956, two years prior to the company filing its patent for the now-famous plastic brick. In 1956, the company exported its first products to Germany.
This year, Lego is also celebrating the 30th anniversary of the Minifigure, small figures of people included in many Lego sets today.
Credit: Steve Scott/misbi.com
A 1956 image of a model of an Esso gas station station built from Lego pieces in set No. 1310. Sets like this were part of Lego products for buildings included in its Town Plan. Other sets in this series included the VW showroom (No. 1307), the fire station (No. 1308), and a church (1309).
Credit: James Hughes/Brick Fetish
The Town Plan board (Lego system set No. 246 in Europe and No. 200 in the US) was one of the first elements of Lego Town. This set came out circa 1961, according to James Hughes of BrickFetish.com.
Credit: James Hughes/Brick Fetish
The back of the Town Plan board.
Credit: James Hughes/Brick Fetish
Here are pages eight and nine of a Danish-language Lego-building book. The Lego system was first unveiled in 1955, before the patent for the now-iconic plastic brick was filed.
Credit: James Hughes/Brick Fetish
The top of the box of a set of car wheels. This is from Lego system No. 314, which originated between 1956 and 1959, according to Steve Scott of the Lego site misbi.com.
Credit: Steve Scott/misbi.com
Here is the underside of the box lid of Lego set No. 314 box. The box included a set of wheels that could be used to make cars or trains.
Credit: Steve Scott/misbi.com
The folding lid box for a Kkiklok Lego set. This set hailed from Central Europe between 1963 and 1965, according to Steve Scott.
Credit: Steve Scott/misbi.com
Lego System set No. 520, an 11x8-inch plastic box. According to Steve Scott, the box was comprised of an outer sleeve made of a thin card wrapped around a clear plastic container. It also had a stud plate as a box base for the container.
Credit: Steve Scott/misbi.com
Set No. 217, from 1958, was a supplementary set featuring five corner bricks.
Credit: Steve Scott/misbi.com
This is no ordinary Lego set. It's actually the very first storage system Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin ever used. The two built the system, which included 10 4GB hard drives. The system was taken offline in 1999 and given as a gift to Stanford University.
Credit: Michael Kanellos/CNET News.com
A Lego pirate set from 1989.
Credit: Lego
A 2008 edition of Lego's Town Plan. It is set No. 10184, and it contains 1,981 pieces.
Credit: Lego
This image is from one of several pages of Lego's original 1958 patent application. The patent was filed on 28 January 1958. The company is celebrating Monday as the 50th anniversary of the Lego brick.
Credit: James Hughes/Brick Fetish
Lego brought its Mindstorms NXT programmable robots to Microsoft for a visit in 2006. This model is capable of delivering vitamins to its owner.
Credit: Daniel Terdiman/News.com
This Mindstorms NXT project can be controlled wirelessly by receiving instructions on the Windows Mobile phone attached to it.
Credit: Daniel Terdiman/News.com
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