Staying ‘fresh’ in traffic thanks to MD milk and LEGO
Posted by Huw,
Here's another #ThrowbackThursday article by Wouter Adriaensen:
Who of you reading this didn’t pore over those old LEGO catalogues, taking in every detail and dreaming about one day owning enough sets and bricks to rebuild those amazing scenes?
Representing small towns proved a great way to sell the classic city sets. But when diary producer MD came knocking, the LEGO builders finally had the chance to go all out on building an enormous urban layout…
Five years ago, auction website Catawiki listed the ten most expensive LEGO sets. These included the usual suspects such as 10190 Market Street, 3450 Statue of Liberty and several Star Wars ships. The odd set out was 1952 Milk Truck, the only one on the list that was released before 2000.
At only 133 pieces, it wasn’t the number of bricks that made this set so pricey. Although a nice little truck, the design wasn’t that spectacular either. It wasn’t even a unique set, as it was re-released two years later in 1991 as 1581 Delivery Truck. What made it special was the fact that it was only for sale in Denmark, the home country of LEGO.
1952 Milk Truck was used to promote Danish dairy cooperative MD, short for Mejeriselskabet Danmark, literally ‘Danish dairy company’. The company was established on October 1st, 1970 and changed name to MD Foods in 1988. In April 2000, MD Foods merged with Swedish Arla, which began life on April 26th, 1915 and was previously known as Mjölkcentrale, ‘milk centre’, or MC.
Today, Arla Foods is still the fourth largest dairy company in the world with respect to milk turnover. Interestingly, the re-released 1581 Delivery Truck from 1991 used the same design as the MD Foods truck but this time with the branding of one of its then competitors, Arla.
In the upper left corner of the 1952 MD truck’s box art, there is a little ‘frisk i trafik’ logo. This funny little play on words could be translated as ‘fresh in traffic’ or ‘safe in traffic’. It refers to a contest organised by MD Foods in cooperation with LEGO. Local stores handed out a 16-page booklet featuring a huge LEGO scene with a total of twenty dangerous traffic situations. The solution to these had to be cut out of MD milk cartons to complete the scene and win lots of bricks.
These situations include classics such as determining which is the right side of the road for pedestrians when there is no pavement, understanding what different traffic signs mean and finding out where to cross a busy road. “Remember! You can practice these traffic situations in real traffic together with your father and mother”, MD Foods encouraged children to study the leaflet.
For those wanting to exercise their traffic skills, we included the English translation for each situation beneath every scene. But obviously, the real treat here isn’t the traffic lesson but the LEGO layout, stretching across four double spreads. These are littered with classic late eighties LEGO sets and interesting new buildings. Let’s dig in a little deeper.
We open with a rather rural scene, featuring some windmills, brick built grazing cows and a little pond. In the front, 6379 Horse Stable has an extra large grass field added to it. The cars are the pickup from 6677 Motorcross Racing, 6661 Mobile TV Studio and the little one from 1489 Mobile Car Crane. Further to the right, we can spot 6660 Hook & Haul Wrecker, 6481 Light & Sound Construction Crew and of course 1952 Milk Truck among others.
The new buildings include a countryside shed, a large MD factory and a farm. Interestingly, the horse pasture in front of it is demarcated with Duplo fences. I also find the brick built trees particularly inspiring. On the right, three 1472 Vacation Houses form a little holiday village. At the top, there is a white church - LEGO never officially released a minifigure-sized church.
1. Ole is going to his horse. There is no pavement, so he walks on the road. Is he on the right side?
2. Louise heads over to the riding arena. Why is it a bad place for her to cross the roadway?
3. Peter’s father was a little too busy this morning. He forgot the "STOP" sign and drove into another car. What does a “STOP” sign mean?
4. Peter has to pass the parked car. First he has to look back. But what else does he have to watch out for?
5. Niels has left the bus and has to cross the carriageway. What should he do?
The holiday houses and church can be seen on the left of the second spread, proving this is in fact one huge layout. Right beneath the church we find the legendary 6349 Holiday Villa with a back of the box alternate build of the same set next to it. There’s some rather crude houses here but also the awesome 6394 Metro Park & Service Tower folded together and a pretty neat school building with a playground.
New vehicles on these pages include the 6357 Stunt ‘Copter ‘n’ Truck, the barely visible 6480 Light & Sound Hook & Ladder Truck and the 6526 Red Line Racer dragster, making the streets just a little more dangerous for kids practising their traffic skills. The 6507 Mini Dumper, which as one of my childhood sets is rather dear to me, can be seen twice, with 6658 Bulldozer on the left and with 6527 Tipper Truck on the right.
6. Lise has to cross the road. What is she doing wrong?
7. Nicolai is otherwise quite good at cycling, but hasn’t he forgotten how to turn left?
8. Lotte forgets something very important. What is it?
9. You must always cross the carriageway at the light signal. Does Sofie know the colors and what they mean?
10. Per walks on the bicycle path. Can he do it when there is a pavement?
6395 Victory Lap Raceway, built on two baseplates, can be seen on the second spread on the right and just barely on the third spread on the left. Luckily for the innocent kids, the crew from 6386 Police Command Base is nearby to protect them from speed maniacs. This double page has fewer buildings on it as the majority of the scene is filled in by a canal with a port, boats and a huge bridge across it, marking the transition from the countryside to the city.
A lot of vehicles from the previous pages return, including the tiny 6506 Precinct Cruiser police car, 6526 Red Line Racer and 6527 Tipper Truck. On and near the bridge, two unreleased cars draw the attention: a tall, white camper van with a trailer and a red bus. The magnificent crane from 7823 Container Crane Depot is loading the blue 4030 Cargo Carrier while 4010 Police Rescue Boat is doing exactly what its name implies with the red 4020 Fire Fighter nearby. These three boats were all released in 1987. The top right corner of the second page already gives us a preview of what to expect next.
11. Jacob is about to be hit on the crosswalk. What did he forget?
12. Stine and Maren were so absorbed in their conversation that they overlooked the stopped car…!
13. Jesper is out to try out his new skateboard. Do you think he is allowed to ride on the pavement?
14. Anders’ bike is not in order, and therefore he has been stopped by the police. What must be on a bicycle for it to be legal?
15. The cyclist is about to run into Rune, who is getting off the bus. Who will take care of whom?
Wow. Bam. What a scene! Welcome to the concrete jungle. The 6385 Fire House was one of the biggest sets in those days but it pales next to the huge builds on these two pages. There are no fewer than nine tower blocks, plus a big shopping mall and 6380 Emergency Treatment Centre expanded with one of its back of the box alternate builds.
The architectural details and the repetition in the floors of the tower blocks are simply mesmerising. Also pay extra attention to the trees' foliage, made of green 2x2 plates, and the pedestrian bridge with lighting, in the bottom right corner. The vehicles again are pretty much the same as on the previous pages, mostly the latest officially released sets.
16. Claus has to cross the carriageway. What should he be particularly careful about here?
17. Lise on the bike has a green light, but the fire truck is driving with emergency. Who should hold back?
18. Is this a good place to play ball?
19. Freddy is on his way out into the pedestrian crossing. The cyclist is about to run into him. Who should hold back?
20. Helle doesn’t want to walk the long way up over the pedestrian bridge. But is she allowed to do what she does?
The front and back of the leaflet show some of the buildings found on the second spread, although rearranged a bit to include some MD milk cartons. All in all, this is a great brochure with an amazing LEGO scene. Let us know in the comments what you think about it!
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50 comments on this article
Y'know, not enough diary producers decide to diversify into milk production. But MD took the plunge, and it paid off for them! Inspirational.
This was an amazing read. I love how this leaflet has become an unintentional love letter to the period of lego design language. It reminds me of how we used to get amazing scenes in catalogs all built out of bricks in the 80s and 90s. In the 2000s saw this continue with City for a few years, but it's never reached the heights as it did back then.
Thank you for shining light on this brochure!
Also: Throwback Thursday is best Thursday
I remember this from my childhood. Really brings back memories!
As a side note I wouldn't translate ‘frisk i trafik’ to ‘safe in traffic‘. I think a better translation would be something like 'nimble in traffic' or maybe even 'attentive in traffic' - at least that's the message they're trying to get through with the slogan :)
Wow, this was my early childhood, suddenly I have memories from waaay back. Me and my brother had the legendary holiday house (which looked a bit like our own house), the yellow crane, the recycling truck, the small fire ladder truck. After that we went into knights/robin hood and pirates.
The stuff of dreams!
Also, the "tall, white camper van with a trailer" in the 3rd spread is from 1472 Vacation House, not an unreleased set.
Thanks. Nice article, and brought a smile while reading through.
I absolutely love these catalogue scenes! And really miss them in the recent catalogues.
The link to 1581 in the article is to the wrong set. Currently links to 1581-1 (Silja Line Ferry), but I guess it should be 1581-2 (Arla Milk Delivery Truck).
I’ve never seen catalogue photos where they’ve used baseplates as ramps before! I assume that the overlapping joins are hidden behind the tree and the police station.
I'm so glad these high resolution scans exist, I absolutely love the design of all these buildings. Fantastic scene.
Never seen this layout before. Awesome.
Thanks for sharing.
At a quick look I can also identify the following sets:
6482 Rescue Helicopter (1989)
6361 Mobile Crane (1986)
6688 Ambulance (1985)
6358 Snorkel Squad (1987)
6450 Mobile Police Truck (1986)
6392 Airport (1985)
Fairly sure there's a lot more hidden in plain sight :)
So, according to the link, the truck went for 1750 euros. How about that for ppp!?
It is the first time I see these and even for today's standard I still like them a lot. Road baseplates should have never been phased out - they were not perfect but they were still very good and certainly more affordable than the current setup..
Ah, the famous LEGO black trees. Very cool scenes. Still inspirational today.
1. Ole is going to his horse. There is no pavement, so he walks on the road. Is he on the right side?
Left or right, depends on the direction the person about to squish you is driving
2. Louise heads over to the riding arena. Why is it a bad place for her to cross the roadway?
She could get squished
3. Peter’s father was a little too busy this morning. He forgot the "STOP" sign and drove into another car. What does a “STOP” sign mean?
Stop
4. Peter has to pass the parked car. First he has to look back. But what else does he have to watch out for?
Stray cats
5. Niels has left the bus and has to cross the carriageway. What should he do?
Get back on the bus and tell the bus driver to drop him off on the other side
6. Lise has to cross the road. What is she doing wrong?
Not actually heading in the direction of grass or pavement.
7. Nicolai is otherwise quite good at cycling, but hasn’t he forgotten how to turn left?
No, his mate welded his steering and as he’ll soon find out cut the brakes.
8. Lotte forgets something very important. What is it?
Assuming lotte is the one with the green poncho on then her fashion sense.
9. You must always cross the carriageway at the light signal. Does Sofie know the colors and what they mean?
Clearly not
10. Per walks on the bicycle path. Can he do it when there is a pavement?
Yes, nothing is stopping him
11. Jacob is about to be hit on the crosswalk. What did he forget?
His keys
12. Stine and Maren were so absorbed in their conversation that they overlooked the stopped car…!
Ouch
13. Jesper is out to try out his new skateboard. Do you think he is allowed to ride on the pavement?
Well he’s not on it so it doesn’t really matter.
14. Anders’ bike is not in order, and therefore he has been stopped by the police. What must be on a bicycle for it to be legal?
Brakes
15. The cyclist is about to run into Rune, who is getting off the bus. Who will take care of whom?
This is obviously an intentional hit, rune must have owed money. Hence the cylist is “taking care of it”
16. Claus has to cross the carriageway. What should he be particularly careful about here?
Kidnappers
17. Lise on the bike has a green light, but the fire truck is driving with emergency. Who should hold back?
Clearly Lise, otherwise there’ll be two emergency’s.
18. Is this a good place to play ball?
Trick question, that’s not a ball, it’s a wig.
19. Freddy is on his way out into the pedestrian crossing. The cyclist is about to run into him. Who should hold back?
I’m the resulting altercation? Neither, give it your all.
20. Helle doesn’t want to walk the long way up over the pedestrian bridge. But is she allowed to do what she does?
No, she going to helle.
Awesome town layout but it does use a lot of green bricks for the brick-built landscape. This was the time when Lego had just started using green for other things besides plants, trees and baseplates and I'm fairly certain that it was only or mostly plates at first. So I doubt any kid at that time would have been able to build this because they would not have had any green bricks.
Thank you for an interesting article!
What a fantastic article! Brought back so many memories.
Just so much of interest in this (which I'd never seen before). As mentioned, a church (only other minifig-scale one I remember is in one of the Ideas Books, I think - 6000?). Plating over the studs on road baseplates for grassland. The yellow half-timbered panels from 80s Castle used to good effect in a barn. The crazy-paving between stables and barn (what even is that? printed baseplate?). Splenidly simple bales of hay, almost identical to those in 10193. The magnificence of brick-built hills (look how tiny the tree pieces are in comparison!). The delightful brick-built ducks by the speedboat, the latter also from 1472. A lovely brick-built ornamental fountain. And those tower-blocks! Honestly, these were the aspirational (and unattainable) layouts of my youth. All it lacks is trains.
What a great article. Thank you Huw.
I know very few care, but some of the danish translations are not correct:
”MD, short for Mejeriselskabet Danmark, literally ‘Danish dairy company’. ” No, litterally would be ”dairy company Denmark”
”there is a little ‘frisk i trafik’ logo. This funny little play on words could be translated as ‘fresh in traffic’ or ‘safe in traffic’.” There is no way that could mean ’safe in traffic’ – it could mean ”new in traffic” which would make sense since it looks like kids crossing a street close to school.
It’s wonderful! Must have taken a long time to assemble.
The MD truck is quite a lot different from the Arla truck, articulated instead of rigid for a start, but I would have absolutely bought both of them had I been living in the right country back then.
Was the MD truck then a prize for participating in the contest? It must be about the first vehicle featuring green parts, being as it predates Octan by a few years.
I just spent 20min with this article. Great post. Brought back so many memories. And I sure wish I had enough bricks back then to build something like this. Also, wish they would bring back the cargo ship. I need somewhere new for my freight train to go
Concerning no. 3, I think the bumper is on the ground. But, first glance looked like a pool of blood!! :O
@mediAFOL said:
"The crazy-paving between stables and barn (what even is that? printed baseplate?)."
https://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem.page?P=4478px2T=C&C=6
Holy smokes that's a lot of cypress trees.
As I recall it was the entire layout you could win.
The old four-wide vehicles are just so charming. Thanks for the article!
1. Ole is going to his horse. There is no pavement, so he walks on the road. Is he on the right side
In New Zealand he is because we drive on the opposite side to the danish.
Where can I get a copy of this booklet?
Wonderful historic article.
Late 2010s Minecraft sets also had large, brick-built spreads behind them that evoke this kind of imagery. Always love to see it.
I miss road plates so much! I'm currently making extensive use of dozens of them in our basement city...but know that if we expand much more, we'll run out of road.
I'm absolutely LOVING these throwback thursday articles so far, thank you!
Hmm. Is it fair to describe 1581-2 as a rerelease of 1952? 1952 is articulated, where 1581-2 has a fixed wheelbase, so it's not just a simple recolour.
What a legen-DAIRY layout! Great article. It is getting all my 1989 classic Town vibes going.
Oh man, this was from my Lego golden period! I had/still have so many of these sets. My dark ages were just a few years away, but so many great memories of this time period. Loved this article, thanks!
@PolarMammoth said:
"...
20. Helle doesn’t want to walk the long way up over the pedestrian bridge. But is she allowed to do what she does?
No, she going to helle."
Oi, cheeky!
@raven_za said:
"At a quick look I can also identify the following sets:
6482 Rescue Helicopter (1989)
6361 Mobile Crane (1986)
6688 Ambulance (1985)
6358 Snorkel Squad (1987)
6450 Mobile Police Truck (1986)
6392 Airport (1985)
Fairly sure there's a lot more hidden in plain sight :)"
i can see a 6377 too, in the third image, just behind the Container Crane Depot.
And the barrier of the parking in the same image come from 7835
An amazing diorama. Couple of minor continuity differences between panels; particularly panels 1&2 and 3&4. I'm sure there are others I haven't noticed.
Panels 1&2: 6581 is in a slightly different angle in each panel.
Panels 3&4: 4020 is at a different angle; while 6482 appears in panel 4 but not 3.
@cm5878 said:
"Was the MD truck then a prize for participating in the contest? It must be about the first vehicle featuring green parts, being as it predates Octan by a few years. "
No, you could buy the truck for the price of DKK 64.85. In the catalogue there was a coupon you chad to send to MD Foods together with a check. The amount included postage for sending the set to you. In the catalogue it is stated the price is far below what a comparative model would have cost in the shops.
According to two different inflation calculators, the amount of DKK 65 approximately equates DKK 125-145 in 2023 prices. This equates around EUR 17-19.
If I remember right, the exchange rate between DEM (D-Mark) and DKK was quite stable around 3.8 back then. It that case, the DKK 64.85 was around DEM 17.
@Soarsoar said:
"As I recall it was the entire layout you could win. "
The competition was in three parts.
In the first two parts, you could win either the 6379 Riding Stable or 6381 Motor Speedway by you own choice. If you were lucky. There were a total of 100 set for each of the two competions.
In the third - and main - competion, there were three prizes:
1st prize: Bricks for the entire layout
2nd prize: Bricks for half the layout
3rd prize: Brick for a quarter of the layout.
It is not stated which parts of the layout you could win, if you got the 2nd or 3rd prize.
In order to take part in the competions, you should send in coupons answering three questions regarding safety in traffic (of course :) ). Besides that you should also make some other things:
- 1st competion: Make a slogan for MD milk and being "Fresh in Traffic"
- 2nd competion: Make a drawing of yourself in the traffic
- 3rd competion: Make a suggetion on what one of the sides of the MD milk cartons could be used for. Inspiration should be drawn from the campaign "Fresh in Traffic".
Man, oh man... Do I remember this catalogue... I have looked in it so many times it's a wonder it is not completely falling apart. I still like to take a look now and then.
Way before Internet and famous AFOLs' big layouts, this was what dreams were made of.
The layout also went on display around Denmark. I remember my mother taking me to the neighbouring town to see the display at the shopping centre. I remember it was not a 100% as in the catalogue - but really impressive for a little KFOL.
Unfortunately I never took part in any of the competions...
Besides the MD Foods campaign, the was also another campaign by Falck (a Danish emergency/health company) and LEGOLAND that also included a small catalogue. The paper size was half the size of the one from the MD Foods campaign and only included a few pages. - The layout is quite small, but includes a few of the buildings from the MD Foods layout as well as two other "MOCs".
@LAKAbricks said:
" @Soarsoar said:
"As I recall it was the entire layout you could win. "
The competition was in three parts.
In the first two parts, you could win either the 6379 Riding Stable or 6381 Motor Speedway by you own choice. If you were lucky. There were a total of 100 set for each of the two competions.
In the third - and main - competion, there were three prizes:
1st prize: Bricks for the entire layout
2nd prize: Bricks for half the layout
3rd prize: Brick for a quarter of the layout.
It is not stated which parts of the layout you could win, if you got the 2nd or 3rd prize.
In order to take part in the competions, you should send in coupons answering three questions regarding safety in traffic (of course :) ). Besides that you should also make some other things:
- 1st competion: Make a slogan for MD milk and being "Fresh in Traffic"
- 2nd competion: Make a drawing of yourself in the traffic
- 3rd competion: Make a suggetion on what one of the sides of the MD milk cartons could be used for. Inspiration should be drawn from the campaign "Fresh in Traffic"."
The price was to win the bricks, not the built layout? Wow! I wonder what winning this thing does with a kid.
Option 1: You actually received the whole layout mostly built. You are one happy kid and your collection ranks in Brickset's top 1%, today.
Option 2: The bricks come with instructions for everything - probably still not the size of yours today typical 100 € Starwars set instructions. You spent one summer building it. Then, you are the star of the neighbourhood.
Option 3: It comes only with instructions for the official sets. You spend all year figuring out how to set up the basic layout and building cardboard supports for the hills and ramps, never succeding, trashing the whole thing and never touching Lego again - which is probably why the winner hasn't commented this article yet.
Either way, I would like to know what happened to the winner and the layout.
Nice article with all the promo stuff and information shown!
However, I don't see the resemblance between 1581 (I mean the correct set, the milk truck, not the ferry line set^^) asides the subject matter. Is there a 1581-3 that matches the definiton of re-release more closely?
I remember seeing Miniland models in Legoland Danmark built from green bricks back in the 1980s so presumably the factory could do a special run for such purposes. Or store displays, dioramas such as those above, etc.
@choo_choo said:
"Panels 3&4: 4020 is at a different angle; while 6482 appears in panel 4 but not 3."
In fairness 6482 is a rescue helicopter, you can’t expect it to hover in 1 spot waiting for the photographer to get the perfect shot…
@desser1 said:
"The price was to win the bricks, not the built layout? Wow! I wonder what winning this thing does with a kid.
...
Either way, I would like to know what happened to the winner and the layout."
According to the catalogue, one could win "LEGO models and bricks equalling what has been used to build the LEGO town". - I assume - and hope - they also gave instructions.
I have no memory of reading about the winners back then. It could indeed be very interesting to know. Even for today's standard with AFOLs in basements and barns, this layout is quite big. If I had won it back then, I probably would have thrown out my furniture in order to get space for all the bricks. And been sleeping on the sofa... ;)
To this day I still envy the kid who was lucky to win the competition. I was not the winner, but oh boy how I wished.
Great review only you keep referencing 1582 which is NOT Delivery Truck its a boat. I would love see the differences of the correct model.
I have rebricked this little gem, collecting pieces from all over Europe, however the later Arla truck looks a bit more different. I also have that one. Thanks to a sticker shop, I can look at these two trucks in my little 80s Lego town, whenever I want. Original sets are so incredibly expensive that I never tried to buy them.