1967 Lego Idea Book Yellow Castle

[Frank_Lloyd_Knight]

http://www.peeron.com/scans/240-1/9

I was just browsing Peeron, and came across this image of a yellow castle with red details in their 1967 idea book. I find it curious that this color scheme is nearly the same as the yellow castle introduced a decade later with minifigures.

[architect]

It is interesting but likely a coincidence. The 375 Castle was originally designed in light grey and not yellow. Godtfred did not like the fact that children (or LEGO product designers) could build army tanks out of so many basic grey bricks. This is why the color was changed to yellow.

Ben

[Ye Olde Republic]

*GASP* There are camels in that image too; they must have known they'd do a Prince of Persia product line too! Nah, I'm just messing FLW. I'd tend to agree with Architect in that it's just a happy coincidence. Back in those days they didn't exactly have the same colour palette to pull from either. For example, check out the palm trees with yellow trunks and blue fronds.

[Frank_Lloyd_Knight]

The 375 Castle was originally designed in light grey and not yellow. Godtfred did not like the fact that children (or LEGO product designers) could build army tanks out of so many basic grey bricks.

That's interesting -- I never knew that. Where did you ever manage to find that historical tidbit? Regardless of the color, I just thought it was cool to find a castle item from such a relatively early date.

[Papy.G]

I know these days there were much more basic bricks, but where the Megablocks could somebody get this many yellow macaronies, or, red 2x1 45deg rooftops, for example?
Or was it more like a designer demonstration. Children could see it and just think they would never have enough parts to achieve this.

[architect]

That's interesting -- I never knew that. Where did you ever manage to find that historical tidbit? Regardless of the color, I just thought it was cool to find a castle item from such a relatively early date.

Originally I heard it from LEGO designers in Billund in 2006. But recently this information was published in an article about the development of the LEGO Castle line in BrickJournal.

I agree that early castle models are interesting. There are more which can be found in other vintage LEGO catalogs.

Ben

[Jojo]

Hello!

I know these days there were much more basic bricks, but where the Megablocks could somebody get this many yellow macaronies, or, red 2x1 45deg rooftops, for example?

Even without BrickLink it was (kind of) possible to get all the parts you needed – if you were rich enough. Toy stores had little boxes with elements in different shapes and colours, such as this: http://guide.lugnet.com/set/224_6

Or was it more like a designer demonstration. Children could see it and just think they would never have enough parts to achieve this.

Hehe, you are right. Those Idea Books were ever so cruel! I guess nobody ever had enough bricks to make all the buildings pictured in the book. Not even remotely as many bricks. Even now, after several years of collecting, I wouldn't be able to build every model. Certainly not that yellow castle, due to lack of yellow maccaroni bricks.


Bye
Jojo

[veevers24]

Wow, never seen that before

those idea books lego used to do are ace - they should do more

[Webrain]

I never saw these before thanks for sharing

[Tower of Iron Will]

Those pictures are classic. Although I wasn't alive in 1967, I did have sets in the early seventies that were all bricks, no minifigs. The block figures are interesting to look at, being now so used to minifigs and how they impacted set design. I love looking at older catalogs and idea books, it brings me back to being a kid.
-Tower