Thanks for the offer Gioppa! I do have an image of the Minitalia 24 box in MISB! Grazie!!

I sent you a Private message on how to buy my collectors guide.... also you can click on the "legocollectorsguide" link at the end of this post, which will take you there!

Thanks again!

Thanks to all the folks who have contributed to the early LEGO Train System set info and images (blue track and gray track era).

Found out that the first LEGO trains in South America were sold in Peru in 1967... so Spanish language boxes (stickers) that originate from South America are starting to become a known entity.

Another area is LEGO trains in Asia, especially Japan, where the first trains were introduced in 1967 (4.5V)... and although the 1970 Japanese catalog shows 12V trains in that year's catalog... according to my Japanese acquaintances, 12V trains were not introduced in the blue track era.... likely not at all in Asia.

Besides uniquely identified LEGO Train System sets fround in such places as Canada, South America, and Japan... I'm searching to find a true LEGO rarity.... LEGO sets of Iceland.

Iceland only had about 200,000 people in the 1960s and 1970s, so the LEGO population from there would have been small. And the LEGO sets produced or (more likely) assembled there would have been done so by a contract with a company called REYKJALUNDUR.... a Tuberculosis Sanatarium where quaranteened people lived in a community that produced toys for the Icelanding market.

Here's an early 1960s image of REYKJALUNDUR patients putting together LEGO sets....

And here's a small LEGO spare parts pack box with the REYKJALUNDUR stamp.... which makes a box worth maybe $20 worth over $500....

LEGO sets produced/assembled by REYKJALUNDUR ended in 1977 when TLG took over, due to too many specialized parts coming into production. But finding a blue track era LEGO Train set with the REYKJALUNDUR stamp on it.... would be worth a gold mine.... $$$

So my Unofficial LEGO Sets/Parts Collectors Guide is getting into a geographic genre of LEGO sets not found anywhere.... many worth quite a lot!!

Edited July 4, 20159 yr by LEGO Historian

nice foto, great info

Great photos, great info. And didn't realise they did a Royal Mail printed brick, being a postie would love that.

Great photos, great info. And didn't realise they did a Royal Mail printed brick, being a postie would love that.

Thanks all.....

leg01982..... one of my Unofficial LEGO Sets/Parts Collectors Guide Chapters... Chapter 48 - Printed and Painted LEGO Elements.... shows many POSTAL printed bricks during the many years of LEGO printed bricks..... enjoy!!

http://www.1000stein...ter 48 Vol2.pdf

Based on the country.... you'll find everything from POST, to POSTHUS, to POSTE, to POSTI, to P.T.T. to POSTERIJEN to ROYAL MAIL!!

Edited July 6, 20159 yr by LEGO Historian

I am so amazed by many of the things that were specialized for countries back when LEGO was really getting started

Thanks to all for history and pictures!

-RailCo

Just came across this, and I appreciate that I'm probably somewhat late to the party (and this might have already been covered, but I'm half asleep at this hour)... blue 12v never appeared in UK catalogues, but Hamley's in London had a blue 12v a display running at some point when I visited there during the 1970s. At a recent toy fair I found a blue 12v power supply which had a price label on it from a south-east London toy shop I used to frequent in the 70s - iirc, the Technic 12v units were different, so this blue one seemed out of place to me!

7745 is amazing set.

Lego Historian Dude . . . . I feel bad because I've said nothing, but here goes:

I'm very interested in what you find, I think that when completed your train resource will impact and be used by thousands of people, despite the fact that only a couple dozen people on here will ever comment.

Some people have read my introductions here, but I'm from Canada, and made it my mission to acquire 12V train stuffs. I think that my first attempts to run 12V started with a 7745, and an oval of track, powered by wall adapter, and alligator clips attached to the 9V end, and then to 12V wires that went into the tracks (I never did figure out how to control speed and obviously direction was a matter of switching the polarity of the wires. I had to learn many things the hard way. Since then I've come a long way.

I fancy myself as the biggest 12V lego collector in my country. Some of my blue era stuff includes 721, 727 and 182. I really wish that I could help in some way with the project, as it sounds very interesting & fun, I just haven't really received many boxes over the years with my shipments. I think that I still have a virgin 12V straight rails box, and some 4.5 grey-era switch boxes. Nothing near the vintage that you've shown.

As a child, I demanded the 7715 train and a motor with 3 C-cell battery pack, over the 7722 train. I never comprehended how the 7722 train was so, so much better integrated with the stop signal and the direction switch for the end of track after a switch. I kinda wished that they had explained that better on the boxes.

Back then the 7715 train was $49.95 and the battery pack/motor was $49.95, you could have had the 7722 train for $89.95. What's scary is the pricing today. Today a battery pack is $17.99 CAD and motor is only $19.99. With inflation that's nearly a third and I guess you should be adding in a remote ($17.99) and IR receiver for another $18.99. But still it's much more affordable for something much better these days.

The thing that blows me away still to this date is just how amazing the 12V system was in the grey era with so many options. The other thing that knocks me off my seat is just how amazing things were prior to the grey era. I'm even more shocked at how amazing things were back in 1969 when they started with the 12V tracks. That, to me, was pretty amazing for that timeline as well.