What was the first lego set ? A couple of weeks ago, we wrote about the most expensive LEGO sets of all time, and it was a super interesting topic to drill down into. Now, being the absolutely LEGO-pilled grown-up kid I am, I’m pivoting to being Gizmodo Australia’s chief LEGO correspondent (just joking). Today, looking over at my LEGO collection, which includes sets from the Star Wars, Overwatch, and Indiana Jones universes, I wonder – what was the first LEGO set?
What was the first LEGO set?
If you’re after the most direct answer, the first LEGO set named as such was the 1956 Garage With Automatic Door, which preceded several small city-themed sets, including a petrol station, church, fire station, a small store and a house, according to Brick Fact.
However, there’s more to this answer. In 1949, the LEGO Group released ‘Automatic Binding Bricks’. “Giving the toy an English name is a tribute to the Allied forces who liberate Europe and end World War II in 1945. At this point the bricks, as all of the company’s other toys, are sold exclusively in Denmark”, LEGO writes on its website.
The company was experimenting with injection-moulded plastics at the time across its product range for the first time around the release of the Automatic Binding Bricks, and today they’ve listed it as a collector’s item. What sets the Automatic Binding Bricks apart from the earlier mentioned city-themed sets were some subtle design parts, such as stud width and brick hollowness, but make no mistake – this was the first generation version of the toy we love today.
Now, it’s important to remember that LEGO started as a broad toy company that wasn’t simply focused on brick systems. It wasn’t until 1960 that LEGO stopped making wooden toys, and over the following years, non-block toys began to be phased out.
As the company began to restructure its focus around building blocks, the sets began to get more intricate. LEGO introduced its first wheels in 1962, the first LEGO train was introduced in 1965, and the first LEGO minifigures were introduced in 1978. The first licenced set came in 1957, and was a Volkswagen showroom. Arguably LEGO’s most successful licenced range, the first Star Wars sets were released in 1999.
So there you have it. The first LEGO set was the Automatic Binding Bricks set, an early version of the bricks that pioneered the interlocking brick system.
1. Automatic Binding Bricks (1950)
Even though they technically weren’t part of the LEGO System proper, the Automatic Binding Bricks catalogs released between 1950 and 1953 became an important step in LEGO’s history. This model would immediately precede LEGO’s modern structure.
LEGO’s Automatic Binding Bricks weren’t sold with specific builds in mind, but the catalogs included some ideas for what could be built. These included lists of how many of each brick would be needed, but lacked the step-by-step instructions of later sets.
2. Garage With Automatic Door (1955)
The first LEGO sets are all based around replicating buildings seen in a small town. The more fantastical Castle and Space themes wouldn’t come about till the 1970s. The LEGO sets’ initial focus on the mundane can be seen on display in one of the first, a one-car garage. The set featured a plastic door that served as the door to the garage. It could also be opened and closed.
In 1955, the LEGO Company created different toylines alongside the LEGO Brick, including a line of plastic 1:87 scale vehicles. These plastic vehicles were compatible with most LEGO sets, including the garage. A version released in the UK a year later even included one of these cars bundled in.
3. Esso Station (1955)
Prior to introducing LEGO’s own fictional fuel company Octan in 1992, all the first LEGO sets included the logo of real world companies. The 1955 Esso Station set featured with the logos of the real-world fuel company Esso, which would later become a part of Exxon-Mobil.
The Esso Station set itself was rather basic, coming with only the bricks to build the storefront part of the gas station. The pumps themselves were released separately from the Esso Station set. The set was also advertised as an expansion by placing the previously released Gas Station set alongside the Esso station set.
4. Small Store (1955)
The Small Store LEGO set came with the bricks and instructions to make a small store. The store itself had a large window in the front with a door in the back. Like most earlier LEGO sets, the store architecture was very blocky.
The LEGO store itself was a rectangular cube with two bricks on top representing the store’s sign. The sign in the Scandinavian releases identified the store as a bakery. This carried over to the German release, where the sign specifically identifying the store as a Pretzel Bakery.
5. Small House (1955)
The Small House became unique among LEGO sets because it had three different variations. The main variation was a house similar in shape to the Small Store set. The other two variations added a curve to one side of the house on either the left or right side.
Interestingly, the advertising for the Town Set line featured houses with roofs on them, despite there not being a proper house set with a roof until 1964. This suggested that LEGO wanted roofs to be designed by the individual rather than having the set come with a pre-designed roof.
6. Town Plan Accessories (1955)
Besides full sets, LEGO’s first theme included several accessory sets to help builders expand their towns. These included trucks, cars, and trailers, some of which also came bundled with later sets. There was also a set called Painted Trees and Bushes, helping to add some greenery to a town otherwise full of garages and gas stations.
Later LEGO sets included road signs, but a package of eight of these was released in 1955 as a stand-alone set. Finally, individual bricks could be purchased to customize parts of the down, including additional doors, windows, and the so-called “Name Beams” that identified a building as an Esso station or bakery.
7. Esso Filling Station (1956)
The Esso Filling Station is an improved version of the previous year’s Esso Station set. While it kept the same design, the station now came with a built-in garage and plastic gas pumps, both missing from its predecessor.
The Esso Filling Station set likewise comes with a plastic Esso branded Bedford tanker that was released the previous year by itself. This set became the first LEGO set advertised as a standalone, rather than a component of a larger town people could assemble from various sets. As LEGO continued to revise its models, it only expanded the possibilities for future LEGO sets.
8. Fire Station (1957)
Fire stations have been a recurring design in LEGO’s various Town and City themes. 1957 saw the release of the first, simply called Fire Station. The design here kept the basic red and white brick coloration seen in the rest of the sets from the Town Plan theme.
The fire station also came with two garages for storing vehicles from LEGO’s plastic vehicle line. Similarly, the set came with a plastic Bedford fire engine that was exclusive to the LEGO set itself, rather than a repackaging of a previously released vehicle. The fire truck also came with a ladder that could extend longer than the truck itself.
9. Church (1957)
The 1957 Church set would be LEGO’s only set to be based on a Christian church. This is likely a result of the company preferring to stay apolitical by avoiding most depictions of religious buildings. Even in their themes inspired by medieval Europe or by real-world architectural wonders, LEGO has yet to make another church, or religious building of any kind.
The Church set itself is a simple church with a single bell-tower and a congregation room. It’s made mostly out of white bricks, with the roof tiles being composed of red brick. Some later releases of the set also featured a brick with a sticker stating “Anno 1762,” indicating the supposed year of the church’s construction.
10. VW Auto Showroom (1957)
One of LEGO’s first licensed sets was based on the cars of the Volkswagen automobile company. This license came out of LEGO’s plastic car line being based on Volkswagen’s car design. The first LEGO set of this licensed theme was based on a showroom for VW cars.
The set came with two plastic VW Beetles that could be placed on display within the Auto Showroom. Due to the set’s design, however, the Beetles would have to be placed in the set by removing the roof rather than driving them in. The set also came with two plastic lamp posts to be placed in front of the showroom.
11. VW Garage (1957)
The other set from the Volkswagen license was the VW Garage. The garage itself stood out from previous sets for several major reasons. First, the set was white and blue in coloration rather than red and white, like the rest of the Town Plan theme.
Second, unlike previous garage sets, the Volkswagen Garage didn’t come with garage doors. The VW Garage also came with a green and blue VW Beetle, a stop sign, and a parking sign — allowing builders to start populating their towns with detail.
12. Boats (1961)
After 1957, most new LEGO sets were re-releases of the previous 9 sets with minor variations. This was mostly due to 1958 seeing an improved version of the LEGO brick that is still used by LEGO today. The improved brick allowed for more versatility and durability.
1961 would see the first set to take full advantage of the new brick design: Boats. In some ways, Boats pioneered the Creator theme, in that its pieces were meant to construct a variety of different ships and port buildings. Unlike later LEGO boats, these sets couldn’t float on water.
13. Wheels (1962)
While not a full set, the advent of LEGO wheels in 1962 was a major milestone in the company’s journey to its current status as the largest tire manufacturer in the world. The first wheels were sold in sets of either Large or Small Wheels and were intended to be used in the construction of homemade vehicles.
These brick-built LEGO vehicles would eventually phase out the old 1:87 scale plastic vehicles used in the first LEGO sets, since they allowed for more creativity. One of the first sets to use these wheels was the Farm Tractor, released in 1963. Featuring designs closer to modern LEGO sets, its size would pave the way for sets that would one day include LEGO minifigures who could drive such vehicles.
14. Train (1964)
LEGO has been making trains since the 1930s, but those were wooden toys completely different from the LEGO bricks fans have come to know and love. The first LEGO set to feature a proper train made from bricks was released in 1964. This set made use of the recently introduced wheels to create a functional train, but it lacked the tracks common to later train sets.
The first LEGO train showed a marked improvement in design from the early Town Plan theme, but it still used the classic red and white color scheme and would fit well in terms of scale. The first motorized LEGO train came along just two years later, this time with tire-less wheels meant to roll along a track.
15. Gears (1965)
The first LEGO set to utilize gears and power was released in 1965. This set included a small battery case with terminals built into its studs, allowing it to provide rotational force to a power unit in several configurations.
When combined with a full suite of colorful gears in varying sizes, builders could create many technical contraptions and introduce dynamic movement into their builds. The LEGO Gears instruction manual, just six pages long, mostly concerned how to connect the battery, though it did feature a Ferris wheel to help inspire aspiring engineers.
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