Wooden Toys
Wooden Toys is the official name of the first theme of LEGO toys to be created. The first toy was created in 1932, and was exclusive to the shop owned by LEGO Creator, Ole Kirk Christiansen, whose grandson, Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen, was the CEO of LEGO until 2004.
Contents
History and sets
Beginnings of The LEGO Group
The LEGO Group began in the workshop of Ole Kirk Christiansen, a carpenter from Billund, Denmark, who began making wooden toys in 1932. In 1934, his company came to be called LEGO, and expanded to producing plastic toys in 1940. In 1949, LEGO began producing the now famous interlocking bricks, calling them automatic binding bricks. These bricks were based largely on the design of Kiddicraft Self-Locking Bricks, which were then released in the United Kingdom in 1947.
Products
One of the first and best known products released by LEGO in the 1930's was the wooden duck. The duck was later remade in LEGO bricks as 2011 LEGO Duck. Another well known wood toy is Teddy Bill. However, there were many others.
End of Wood Toy manufacturing
As the plastic toys started gaining popularity in the mid-1950’s, the production of wooden toys was scaled back. The few wood and plastic toys that remained were marketed under the name Bilofix in 1959 and all non-system toys were finally discontinued in 1960. On 4 February 1960, the LEGO department for wooden toy production was struck by lightning and burned down for the third time. After much consideration, it was decided to discontinue production of wooden toys and to concentrate solely on plastic toys. As a result, two of the brothers, Karl Georg and Gerhardt, decided to leave the LEGO company and start their own separate business, called BILOfix. LEGO had produced at least several hundred different wooden toys and plastic toys designs since 1932. In their 28 years of production none of the wooden toys were ever sold outside of Denmark.
Legacy
It is still known today, and mentioned many times in LEGO magazines, and on web sites that all of LEGO began with wooden toys. The toys were very high quality for their time. The Wood Toys theme is what started the toy making of Christiansen, and later led him to creating the type of LEGO sets that are very well known and loved today.
List of Wooden Toys
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- Yo-Yo (1932)
- Wooden Duck (1935)
- Train (1935)
- "Clumsy Hans" (1936)
- Pony and Trap (1937)
- Covered Truck (1940)
- Plank-side Truck (1940)
- Monkey (1946)
- Rooster (1947)
- Tractor (1949)
- Chicken (Unknown year)
- Chicken (Unknown year)
- Terrier (Unknown year)
- Lamb (Unknown year)
- Wooden Ringfigure (Unknown year)
- Cat (Small) (Unknown year)
- Cat (Medium) (Unknown year)
- Cat (Large) (Unknown year)
- Cow (Unknown year)
- LEGO Wooden Abacus (1949)
- Teddy In A Cart (Unknown year)
- Wooden Truck 1 (Unknown year)
- Wooden Truck 2 (Unknown year)
- Wooden Truck 3 (Unknown year)
- Wooden Truck 4 (Unknown year)
- Wooden Truck 5 (Unknown year)
- Wooden Truck 6 (Unknown year)
- Wooden Truck 7 (Unknown year)
- Wooden Truck 8 (Unknown year)
- Wooden Truck 9 (Unknown year)
- Wooden Truck Bus (Unknown year)
- Wooden Truck Kul Koks (Unknown year)
- Wooden Truck with Milk Bottles (Unknown year)
- Yellow Chevrolet "Bel Air" (1957)
- claping monkey
