About a year ago I came across a very strange LEGO set... the 800 set of 1966 (not the gear set of 1970).

I first found it in a 1966 French LEGO catalog. I saw a set sitting underneath the 810 Town Plan set (1961-67), (labeled "Large Universal Set") and wondered what the odd looking box was. It had white sides, with the number "800" in the corner surrounded by black thick lines. No other LEGO set of that era had this type of coloration... they all had either the large LEGO logo with rainbow colors, or large strips of blue, black and red along the sides. But never a white set with black thick lines and black markings. How odd I thought?? And I had never actually known of one in any collection...

So I contacted my friends at the LEGO Archives/Collections and asked them about this set. Sure enough it was produced in 1966 only.

Here's an image of the set sitting in the Vault in Billund (again sittung underneath a 810 Town Plan Set, ironically...

The folks at the Billund Archives sent me these 2 images of this very strange set.... one is an archival photograph of the outside and inside of the box top.... Note how it looks as though the outside and inside top images appear to be "taped" to the box....

And the other an archival photograph of the contents.

The LEGO Archive folks told me that this set was only sold in 1966 in France, Denmark and Norway. I confirmed this with images of those catalog pages.

Since this was a set that no one had ever seen, my thoughts were that this set was perhaps never actually released (not too uncommon for TLG).

However, a fellow by the name of Gabrielle from Barcelona Spain had one of these sets that he said his father had purchased many decades ago. Since Barcelona was not far from the French border, this may have been purchased by Gabrielle's father on a trip to France.

Here is a close-up of the corner of the box (that Gabrielle owns), and as I mentioned earlier... it is VERY uncharacteristic of a LEGO box to look this way...

It looks as though TLG took a blank white box, covered it with a LEGO image on the outside and inside box top, perhaps taping it onto the box... and also gluing a paper label with the "800" and black lines onto 2 of the 4 outside corners.

Originally I had wondered why TLG made this very unusual set, and had a limited production for only 3 countries??? But I think I now know why this set was produced... TLG, as we all know... never threw anything away!!!

By 1966 as the LEGO Town Plan board #200 (or #200B) was being discontinued (along with the entire Town Plan series of sets and accessories)... they must have had a lot of leftover printed sheets of laminated paper with the front and back of the Town Plan board scene... left in their inventory.

So what better way to get rid of these than to create a limited edition set, paper the inside and outside top with the leftover Town Plan paper, and fill the set with rather random parts, and maybe some leftover Town Plan accessories.

Here's a (1960-67) #200/#200B Town Plan board front and back cover... which is identical to the 800 set...

Gabrielle also mentioned that the inside box top of his 800 set has no image (upper left) on the inside box top.... it is just blank. This leads me to believe that TLG ran out of the back side of the Town Plan board image before they did the front side image (which was also used on the continental 810 Town Plan sets). So there may have been many more front side images remaining in inventory than there wereback side images!

Also, the strange gray single formed plastic inserts used for the bottom of the box... were also used in 2 other large LEGO sets of this era... the #750 Architectural Set, and the #700/K wooden box set.

So far only 1 of these very rare sets has ever been found on the secondary market... but it would make for a very nice addition to any LEGO collections, as a way to show how frugal TLG was with their LEGO items.

Cheers,

Gary Istok

P.S. This set is mentioned in Chapter 4 of my 73 Chapter Unofficial LEGO Sets/Parts Collectors Guide on DVD/download (as found in the LEGO Bazaar!). Chapter 4 contains many very odd sets that really don't belong in any other category.

Edited August 10, 201311 yr by LEGO Historian

Wow, you've done it again! Honestly, I am amazed with how you track down all of this information.

Thanks jluckhaupt!! When you've been dealing with LEGO for over 40 years like I have.... you start to see things that other folks take for granted. That's why I always look for things that don't make sense, and I get to have fun and play Sherlock Holmes with it... especially things that the folks at the TLG Archives/Collections have no records about....

So have you ever known stuff that the lego archives didn't?

JF8.... where do I start...... with an emphatic YES!!!

One of the reasons I have such easy access with the folks at the Billund Archives/Collections/Vauilt is that I show them LEGO items they have never seen before, and have no records of, nor examples in the Vault... I think I have over 100 items in my Unofficial LEGO Sets/Parts Collectors Guide... that they don't have in their archives/collections/vault...

Such as.... (a sample)...

the 1989 6661 Mobile TV Station set with WDR (West Deutsche Rundfunk German TV Station)... promotion, which they have no records of in their archives or from the German marketing people... hence a high level TLG directors had these done under the radar, and shipped directly to the German TV station....

The very first LEGO set of 1949 (TLG didn't know they made this set in a wooden box, and don't have an example of it in their collections).... (and also the first parts packs that came with it)....

That early classic LEGO windows/doors were made in Norway in green (1954-56)...

Or that they were made in Orange in Sweden (1954-56)...

TLG also didn't know that Norway made alphabet bricks in blue with gold lettering (1957-58)....

Or that the largest LEGO set of the 20th Century was this obscure Samsonite LEGO set made in the mid 1960s in USA/Canada... with 3,250 pieces and a huge wooden box...

Or that Norway made LEGO roadsigns with red bases (1956-57)....

Or that Sweden made roadsigns (1955-56) with golden brown bases....

Or that the 717 Junior Constructor Set model (USA/Canada 1961-65) looked nothing like the mock up box shown in early USA/Canada catalogs.... (no info on this mock up box, or its' existence or survivial)...

Nor does TLG have any records or examples of these 1955 prototype rarities (must have "escaped" from the factory/company).... 1x1 round and square bricks without studs on top....

In my collectors guide I have over a hundred other items that TLG has no records of (until I told them).

But in response... they send me images of items that I had never seen before.... such as this 1954-55 rare beauty... a Danish Windows/Doors Retailer Box... (non known in private hands)...

Or this very rare 1955 Mosaik set #1300... (only 1 known outside the company)... of Danish origins...

Like I said, there's over 100 more not liste here or in any online database... I just happen to be fortunate to have collected LEGO for over 40 years, and know a lot of rare LEGO collectors... and started writing a complete LEGO set history 7 years ago... now available as a DVD download, with annual free updates (download only takes 6-15 minutes to get to your desktop)... as found in the Eurobricks bazaar....

Gary Istok

Edited August 12, 201311 yr by LEGO Historian

Wow haven't seen those studless bricks before, Gary. And to think it then took close to 60 years to release the 1x1 round tile!

Snip 8<

Nor does TLG have any records or examples of these 1955 prototype rarities (must have "escaped" from the factory/company).... 1x1 round and square bricks without studs on top....

Snip 8<

Did you say a few years ago, something along the lines that those studless bricks were an experiment, the results of which were put in those sets under their "Throw nothing away" policy? IIRC, you theorized that these were "too advanced", and so were officially not produced. That would sure explain this oddity. Today, those studless bricks would probably look right at home among cheese slopes and tiles. How ironic.

Thanks for the recollection Splatman... yes the parts are original LEGO parts... it's just whether or not they originated in these particular boxes that has not been verified.

Just like those orange classic windows (1954-56) seen above....

They belong to my Belgian friend Rohnny, who won them at auction from Sweden.

They were found in a Swedish 700/3 set of circa 1955-56)....

And this basic set was also sold in Denmark and Norway in the 1954-56 era... but not with orange windows.

Had these windows/door come from a spare parts pack (but in a different color).... if they had originated in either Denmark or Norway they would have been from a long box 700C spare parts pack.... like these blue windows/door of the same type...

However... since we know they were of Swedish origins (and this gets very complex)... the only possibility of these windows coming from a spare parts pack would be a shorter Swedish 1214 Spare Parts Pack box, much different from the 700C pack of Denmark/Norway....

The reason for different set numbers was because the 700C windows/doors box was introduced in 1954... when only Denmark and Norway sold these windows/doors in spare parts packs. By 1955, when Sweden came back online to selling LEGO... a new 1214 spare parts pack was introduced (along with other parts packs of this same size and dimension). However the old long box 700C was retained in Denmark and Norway, rather than replaced by a new windows/doors parts pack.

And getting back to finding these windows/doors in basic sets... there is more than one basic set that has this type of windows/door. They could have come from a large 700/1 set, medium 700/2 set or medium 700/3 set... as seen in this 1954 Retailer catalog image (from the Billund Archives)... the smaller sets had the older (700B) Automatic Binding Bricks windows/doors....

Early LEGO is very difficult to fully understand... and I've spent years figuring out the riddles of its' complexity....

Edited August 15, 201311 yr by LEGO Historian