Building a History by Sarah Herman

Author:Sarah Herman
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781783408047
Publisher: Pen & Sword Books
Published: 2013-06-19T16:00:00+00:00

In 1986 Godtfred Kirk Christiansen resigned as chairman of LEGO System A/S and LEGO Overseas, and his son Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen, whose smiling face had appeared on many a Town Plan set as a child, took over. By 1990 the LEGO Group was one of the world’s ten largest toy manufacturers with 7,500 employees, five factories, 10,000 moulding machines and a popular theme park to its name. Despite the success of the previous decade, TLG was not resting on its LEGO bricks, far from it, as the company saw this position and success as an opportunity to push its toyline even further, expanding the LEGO System, but also introducing new lines targeting girls, developing programmable bricks and providing stimulating toys for all age groups.

The same year Kjeld took the LEGO reins fans saw the introduction of some of TLG’s most accurate models yet. While Technic sets strived for engineering accuracy, the new Model Team sets were all about aesthetic precision. The first three sets, released in 1986 included a yellow 4 × 4 off-road vehicle (5510), a red Formula 1 racing car (5540) and a lorry (5580). Even the smallest set was made up of 288 pieces and the constructed toys were the most realistic vehicles TLG had produced. After this initial launch one or two Model Team sets were released almost every year throughout the 1990s. They became known for their attention to detail as well as their impressive part counts – at one point Model Team set 5571, also known as Giant Truck, was the largest LEGO set ever with 1,757 pieces. Targeted towards keen builders, rather than children who wanted to play, the sets were fairly expensive but represented good value-for-money because of the pennies to parts ratio. They were also versatile, with instructions included to build more than one model – for example 1995’s 5541 could be built as a Hot Rod or a Roadster. This set was re-released in 2004 as part of the LEGO Legends series.

The 1990s also gave the LEGO Group the chance to reassess the playability of the Technic line where they made some radical changes to keep toys relevant and exciting to the target market of young teenagers. The first half of the decade saw the introduction to Technic of the new 9V electric system – the first new electric development since the 12V Train system in 1969 – the Flex-system that allowed force to be transmitted where bulkier gears and cross axles could not, and 1994’s Super Car (8880) – one of the most complex Technic sets every produced. But things were about to get a bit less technical. 1995 saw the release of a new gear box to simplify gear assembly for younger builders, and complex sets such as the 1995 Pneumatic Crane Truck (8460) and 1996 Space Shuttle (8480), while considered high points of Technic design especially by the older Technic community, were gradually phased out to make way for toys children could build more easily. This was

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.