ARTICLE: The Evolution of the LEGO Door

[WesternOutlaw]

One of my first LEGO doors was received in the 1975 Brick Yard set containing a red 2×3 door. As a child, eager to open the unwrapped Christmas present, I was pleased as punch. “Hey, look at the little door”, I said to myself as I could not wait to attach it to the green baseplate. Unfortunately, although one could see through the clear plastic, the door had a major design flaw; it was molded shut. A few years later, LEGO would introduce a new 3×4 door contained in many Universal Building sets that allowed small fingers to open an attachable screen. Different color frames allowed mixing and matching to create interesting combinations. Red frame, yellow screen; white frame, yellow screen; red frame, blue screen were just some of the many color combinations. The only problem is that the doors were too small for the armless faceless minifigs introduced later in early LEGO town sets, and the same small hands would have to turn a minifig sideways flicking the fig through the doorway. While some children on the block got quite good at “fig flicking”, how realistic was a door that’s smaller than the average minifig? LEGO complicated the matter even more when they introduced the maxifig that was more than twice the height of the 3×4 door. A new door was certainly needed.

A few years later and throughout the 80s and 90s, LEGO produced one of the best doors ever made, the 4×5 frameless door. Many of you know this door well, and the upper four pain openings that allowed peepers to see inside Classic Town structures. The door required no additional clear plastic or a frame, and it was molded in numerous colors including black, blue, green, light grey, red, brown, white, yellow, and even navy blue and pink. Pink? (note to self: must find a MISB copy of Dolphin Point Lighthouse). The 4×5 dimension for doors was so successful, it became a standard door size and also used for train doors, the 6-pain door, as well as 4×5 clear glass doors. In addition, windows would be made in the same size. 4×5 seemed to be the perfect size for LEGO minifigs.

All things come to an end, and while LEGO city fans soon found themselves spending hours building their new modulars, their minds quickly forgot about the well-loved 4×5 door. Replacing the “perfect door” was the new 4×6 door, one stud higher contained in a frame. Cheaper, thinner plastic would replace the old 4×5, as well as the need to attach a round 1×1 plate for added door-opening ability. Clear plastic, as well as a 4-pain option is now the standard door size.

While I applaud LEGO for recovering from the demise of Classic Town, part of me can’t help to wonder, “Is bigger better”? Has the LEGO door grown bigger to meet the needs of Toy Story Woody and a possible return of Pirates 4+, or do modular City fans have a growing need to see larger creations? From the 1975 small 2×3 door that didn’t open to the new 4×6 door twice the size, what will future LEGO doors offer?

REFERENCES: Peeron, Eurobricks Town Reviews

[Rick]

Interesting thought. The first two doors were just designs leading up to THE Lego scale, minifig scale. And I agree with you that the 4-wide, 5-high door was just perfect for minifigs. The door with glass, door with 4 panes, and door with 6 panes provided an excellent palette of doors. In my view there is a role for a 6-high door that is found in today's set. I think it looks good on shops, together with the 6-high windows. However, the 6-high equivalent of the door with 4 panes just looks silly in my opinion and it shouldn't be used on houses, as it just looks too high compared to a minifig. But I'm afraid we've lost our beloved 5-high doors, where I hoped they would continue to exist next to today's doors. But I guess it's just more economical for TLG to use the same frames for doors and windows.

[SlyOwl]

Thanks for the enjoyable read

In my view, doors need to be tall enough for a minifig to pass through; this isn't always the case with a 5-high door, when steps/tiles/big hair are taken into consideration. It does the job, but not as well as a 6-high door in its stead. As official buildings, especially the modular ones, become more accurate in terms of scale, naturally a bigger door is needed in comparison.

On the side of the 5-high door, however, I tend to build buildings at 6-high per floor - 5-high door, with a lintel or decoration above it. Maybe that's because in olden times they had low roofs

[AwesomeStar]

Indeed, a very interesting article.

My dad actually had the set with the first door in, and I still have the door now. This article brought some fond memories back - so thank you.

A lovely article, well done!

~A.S.

[Ricecracker]

Great article TheBrickster!

I think that there is no "perfect" height, which means that each door has it's uses; the 3x4 door looks great in Bill Ward's camper, and the 4x5 door is good for smaller, more derelict buildings. Building on that, each door has it's own distinct look or style. The 4x5 would fit in perfectly on a farmhouse or on another more rural type building, whereas the new 4x6 door has a more contemporary look. The change in door styles may be just to keep up the times. After all, the 4x5 was first produced in 1978.

Another idea that I'd like to point to is building your own doors. On my fire station, that's exactly what I'm doing. There are three doors, two of which have a second behind it. By building my own, I'm able to get the perfect look and size. These doors are 5 bricks one plate tall.

I was going to start a thread comparing the prefab doors to brick-built ones, but I'm not sure of the need anymore.

There also was a second 4x5 door, the framed glass ones.

[Zorbas]

Excellent article TheBrickster, great thoughts and references.

After exiting dark ages I was also very sceptical on this issue and it was something that kept bugging me every time I was purchasing new sets. I have a plethora of 4x5 doors in all versions (glass, four-six pains, variety of colours etc) and I just love them. Perhaps the nostalgia factor plays a significant role in here, as well as what the eye is used to when it comes to LEGO doors.

One of the most positive aspects that you also correctly state is that old doors could work on their own, without having the need of a support piece. Then again, everything back then was mostly based on studs, something that today is not a standard practice. I cannot mention realism as a deciding factor for me since I don't MOC in a "proffesional" way and extreme accuracy and realism is something that's not my target when it comes to LEGO.

However, the 6-high equivalent of the door with 4 panes just looks silly in my opinion and it shouldn't be used on houses, as it just looks too high compared to a minifig.

Couldn't agree more. The first time I saw the 6754 Family Home it looked odd having that door. It somehow made the entrance look "stretched".

Btw Rick, check your second BL link.

Thanks again for this TheBrickster.

P.S

Don't forget this door, just for nostalgia sake. This was my first LEGO door!

[lightningtiger]

Great article 'The Brickster' !

In my opinion the current door with frame is for me, although with great fondness I remember the classic 4x5 door in my Shell servo, yellow fire station, snack bar and little garage - ah simple times as a child !

This latest door - mainly the frame makes it more useful, not only can we have standard opening doors but large plane windows or even sliding doors (COOL) !

I'm a conformist! everyone !

[Fugazi]

I quite like the modern look of the new door system, and the sturdiness provided by having a door frame. And it's good to have different models of doors, for the sake of variety.

I agree however that the new 4-pane door looks too tall for a minifig, they could have made the window panes start a bit lower on the door. And I wish they would have designed the door knob like on the old doors, to be able to open them with a flick of the nail. Another minor issue I have with the new door is that the doorknob stud is too close to the edge of the door, so that it's impossible to add any kind of doorknob on the inside of the door without it jamming in the door frame.

[Rufus]

Another interesting and informative article, Brickster.

I still have a fondness for the doors from the early minifig era, and remember squeezing figs through these doors:

But, on the whole, I like the modern 6-high doors - they are versatile, and good for both play and display.

Like Ricecracker, I think there is a place for making your own doors, though my attempts have led to heavy yet flimsy structures - good for historical buildings but unwieldy round town.

[Darth Legolas]

The last two work depending on the MOC. The latest one is more advanced, and a really modern looking, but for the classic, old-fashioned homey look, the third is the better choice.

[Captain Blackmoor]

I really like the 3rd door. It has the correct scale, it opens and it is a perfect LEGO door IMO.

The new one is just a bit too big, now I can use it though, lots of things have a large door.

A great topic TheBrickster!

[phoinix]

i like the new bigger door as you can make a lot of combinations with the frames and the panels lot of colors and possibilities.

the new plastic is not the best as the frames sometimes bend to the inside and the panels dont fit in all that well.

i miss the old classic door but i have a few of them lying around..

[Svelte]

Great topic! The tendency to go bigger, bigger, bigger seems everywhere in LEGO, whether it's door parts or Star Wars helmets This isn't always a good thing.

I can see that LEGO wanted to make a useful system for doors and window parts - ie the 2x2 glass fits in airplane windows as well as ordinary windows, and the 1x4x6 pane fits glass, trans clear doors and the new door piece all in one - but I have a few issues with the new piece

1) It feels cheap compared to the older door pieces, and tends to flop around loosely in the frame - it doesn't 'stay closed' like the older piece

2) The use of a 1x1 round plate as a doorknob in order to open the door - when previously a dextrously applied fingernail would do - rarely looks aesthetically appropriate.

3) You also get a problem where a set of double doors which should open cleanly end up bounded by ugly frames in the middle where there should be empty space:

Comparing different versions of the Krusty Krab displays these problems:

To me, the original version is better - the doors are a better height for the scale of the set overall and they open properly. The minifigs can go through the centre rather than through some airport-security looking device

I also don't like the proportions of the 6754 Family Home, but I don't have issues with the door - more with the stupidly large window shutters which means that the windows in this set, when open, are 4 studs high and over 8 studs wide when extended A really, really design. Thankfully with 7594 Woody's Round-Up they used this piece properly - as a bar door - but I really dislike that this hideous part is the new standard window shutter. It seems intrinsically wrong that the standard window shutter is now only 1 stud lower than the previous 1x4x5 door size.

As we have seen in the 2010 lineup, it looks like the old classic castle door is going in the same direction - small click connection points replaced by 1x1 click hinges - so it looks as if the small and subtlte connections are a thing of the past

[prateek]

I think doors are better bigger, but as Svelte said, some things should be kept small.

[wooootles]

Both the 5 door and the 6 door have their advantages.

5 door makes better double doors, 6 door can easily make revolving doors.

EDIT ---> meh I just realized that you don't use 'doors' to make revolving doors!!!! *stupid,stupid*

So yeah, I think 5 doors have the advantage here. Too bad there aren't enough of them nowadays

Edited February 28, 2010 by wooootles

[Ferdik]

Interesting! I was thinking about this yesterday.

I like the new standard doors with frame. It's easy to change them from left to right opening, making double doors and change colours. They are also more realistic because of the frame.

Best thing is that you now can put flat bricks in front of doors and they will still be able to open.

Edited March 1, 2010 by Ferdik

[brickzone]

I'm perfectly happy with the option of the 4x6 doors, but I hope the old 4x5 doors (and the glass-paned ones) are not ditched permanently. Having both options is fine but the new one doesn't suit all situations (more suited for shops etc. as stated already).

[Tom Bricks]

I like the 4x5 the most but I would love to see more variety in that size. Some sort of solid door with panels would work because it's odd to have doors in the inside of houses that are glass or have windows.

[retrotecchie]

I have a lot of modern LEGO, including the newer 4x6 doors, but my collection goes right back to the late 1960's so I have lots of the old 2x3 doors and every size in between.

What does work, is building 1/2 scale versions of newer style buildings, using the 2x3 door and the older 2x2 windows (instead of the newer 4x4 ones)and then putting them in the 'background'. Use intermediate sized doors and windows in between background and foreground buildings to infill the 'mid-ground'. Use older road plates like the 9 stud plates in the background and the road scales blend into the distance too. Trains are a bit of a problem. The 4 studs between rails hasn't changed since 1965! Vehicles though work with the scaling to give the impression of distance. The 1970's LEGOLand vehicles had proper minifigs, but the vehicle scales were way too small, but they work in the background.

Of course, what I really want is a lot of wallpaper printed up like the backgrounds shown on some set boxes so I can put a 'false horizon' on the room walls.

I'd love to wallpaper my play-room with something like the backdrop from the 4511 train set box

Edited July 16, 2011 by retrotecchie