1957 / System i Leg

In 1957 LEGO released 20 System i Leg sets across 3 subthemes. The largest System i Leg set from 1957 was 1309 Church with a piece count of 150 and a retail price of $4.50.

System i Leg, which translates to System of Play, was the natural progress of LEGO Mursten and is the foundation of L:EGO sets today. Designed by Godtfred Kirk Christiansen who organized the existing Lego Mursten sets and modeled new designs around a single, common theme - a townscape or street scene. After nearly a year of development the result was the Lego Mursten System i Leg (System of Play). The System i Leg was unveiled at the Nürnburg Toy Fair in February 1955. The original Automatic Binding Bricks sets and then LEGO Mursten sets were continued to be manufactured under the System i Leg theme.

1957 LEGO Sets

In 1957, LEGO celebrated its Silver Jubilee Year of 25 years since its founding. This was yet another important year in the history of LEGO in that the founder, Ole Kirk Christiansen, health began a steady decline and by 1957 it had deteriorated to the point where he could no longer participate in the business. The company was restructured and his son Godtfred Kirk Christiansen was appointed Managing Director. In addition, the 700-series System i Leg wood box sets were introduced and Language translations first appeared on the sides of boxes to cope with the variety of markets LEGO was sold in. Also, in 1957, LEGO Schweiz was established and was LEGO Group's first official company outside of Denmark located in Switzerland.