LEGO 1957 / System i Leg Sets

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

1957 marked LEGO’s 25th anniversary and a turning point in leadership. Founder Ole Kirk Christiansen’s health had declined, leading to the appointment of his son Godtfred Kirk Christiansen as Managing Director. The company continued to refine the System i Leg range and introduced the 700-series wooden box sets. Multilingual packaging appeared for the first time to support LEGO’s growing international markets. LEGO Schweiz was founded in Switzerland—the company’s first subsidiary outside Denmark—signaling the beginning of true global expansion.