LEGO 1958 Sets

1958 was yet another historical year for the LEGO Group with its founder, Ole Kirk Christiansen, passing away and his son Godtfred Kirk Christiansen taking full leadership of the LEGO Company. LEGO continued to expand their operations and by 1958 there were 140 employees in Billund. This was also the year that the LEGO brick was completely redesigned into the modern brick we see today. While The System of Play was selling well in several European markets, but it was still limited by the basic design of the original brick.

The LEGO Group completely redesigned the brick and filed for patents in Denmark for the stud-and-tube coupling system. This new system made models much more stable. In this design the studs on top of one brick could fit between the hollow center tube and side walls underneath another brick and stay connected by friction. The tight tolerances in molding allowed the stud and tube coupling to stay attached in virtually any arrangement but still easily disassemble; a property LEGO has named clutch power. This new stud and tube coupling would prove to be the most critical innovation in the history of the company. The old hollow-bottom 2x2, 2x3, 2x4, 2x8, 2x10 and 4x4 corner brick molds were immediately discontinued and were replaced by new versions with the tubes. Other parts from the Automatic Binding Brick system were left in production until the molds wore out several years later.

Another major event for LEGO in 1958 was the elimination of using local languages on the boxes of LEGO sets and spare part packs. Starting that year only “LEGO System” was used with no other words on the outside of the box, except the set numbers. LEGO System was used starting in 1958, and continued to be used throughout the 1960’s. Internally local languages were still used in instructions, but only when the instructions were on separate pieces of paper.