Throwback Thursday - Town Plan vehicles and accessories
Posted by FlagsNZ,
Town Plan is one of the defining LEGO themes. Available in the 1950s and 60s, the Town Plan Sets came with vehicles and accessories that have also been catalogued as HO Scale.
In both completeness and condition, The Blocks Collection's range of Town Plan buildings and assorted accessories takes pride of place in their display.
Read on as I showcase part one of a series of Town Plan reviews - Vehicles and accessories - sourced from The BLOCKS Collection.
HO Scale
HO Scale is one of the most popular railway modelling scales. Its origin is half of Scale O - hence the term HO. The HO scale is 1:87 or 3.5 mm to 1 foot.
Given that the O scale is derived from 0 [zero] gauge or Gauge 0, some people refer to HO as H Zero; however, English speakers usually refer to HO as H oh scale.
LEGO marketed vehicles and accessories at HO Scale from 1955.
Bricklink has these sets and accessories listed under the heading HO 1:87 Vehicles.
The BLOCKS Collection Town Plan display
The following images are taken from The BLOCKS Collection's Town Plan street display.
The street scene is gridlocked with LEGO HO Scale vehicles and a selection of accessories.
Town Plan - System of Play
“Our idea has been to create a toy that has value for life – a toy which appeals to the child's imagination and develops the creative urge and joy of creation that are the driving force in every human being.”
This quote by second-generation LEGO owner Godtfred Kirk Christiansen concerning the LEGO System in Play is from 1955.
Godtfred Kirk Christiansen’s thoughts on developing a System in Play were crystallised in six points, which were distributed to retailers to make sure they grasped the idea from the outset:
- The toy has to be compact in its dimensions without limiting the free expression of imagination.
- It has to be reasonably priced.
- It has to be simple and durable and yet offer unlimited variety.
- It has to be suitable for children of all ages and for both boys and girls.
- It has to be classic in its presentation, i.e. a classic among toys, needing no renewal.
- It has to be easily distributed.
Source: LEGO System in Play | LEGO History | LEGO.com US
The System i Leg (System of Play) was unveiled at the Nürnburg Toy Fair in February 1955, but the reaction was less than positive. One buyer is reported to have said that “the product has nothing at all to offer the German toy market.”
Town Plan - The board
The images below show the front and back of one of The BLOCKS Collection's Town Plan boards.
The boy on the right is Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen, grandson of LEGO's founder, Ole Kirk Christiansen. Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen grew up to be President and CEO of the LEGO Group.
This Town Plan board was designed for the UK / Australian market, so the HO-scale vehicles are displayed on the left-hand side of the roads.
The images below show a similar Town Plan board manufactured under licence by Samsonite.
The HO-scale vehicles are displayed on the right-hand side of the roads as they were designed for the American market.
The Town Plan
When these two boards have been opened up, you can see their respective Town Plans.
The board that was designed for the UK / Australian market is on the left and the board designed for the American market is on the right.
You can see that there is quite a difference in street layouts, with the American version having more crosswalks.
Garage
The Town Plan has a nice garage to service the vehicles.
As a vehicle drives up the ramp, that garage door automatically opens.
This neat play feature is achieved as the garage door has a counterweight hidden inside the building. The ramp includes a small latch that, when pressed down by driving a vehicle onto the ramp, releases the door, allowing it to open smoothly.
The door/ramp/latch arrangement comes in these two colour formats.
Service Packs
An early LEGO innovation was the development of service packs. These small, inexpensive parts packs had a selection of key parts or elements to augment your inventory or replace missing or broken parts.
The BLOCKS Collection has a complete range of these Town Plan service packs.
The three children in the image on the bottom right (Service Pack 212) are Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen and his two sisters.
The image on Service Pack 210 also has Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen and an unknown girl.
This scene has been replicated in 10184 Town Plan released in 2008, which marked 50 Years of The LEGO Group's original patent.
Other street accessories at HO Scale
To enhance your Town Plan display, other accessories are available.
231 - Esso pumps and sign
233 - Street lamps
271 Traffic Police Set
Plants and trees
There could be a future article on the history of plants and trees in the LEGO System.
The BLOCKS Collection includes a full range of original plants and trees from the 1950s.
Pristine boxed HO scale vehicles
Taking pride of place in an already impressive The BLOCKS Collection range of HO scale vehicles are these two boxed vehicles:
Hand-painted models
This image shows the variety in quality of some cycles and motorbikes in the Town Plan HO Scale range.
These parts were moulded in one colour plastic and then all hand-painted.
You can see that there is some variety in the quality of these hand painted models.
The development of
These images show the design changes for a HO Scale VW combi van:
- On the left is a HO Scale VW van with a solid colour top and white base, and
- On the right is a HO Scale, VW Minibus with Red Base.
The BLOCKS Collection on display
The team at The BLOCKS Collection recently exhibited at the Christchurch Brick Show, one of New Zealand's largest Brick Shows.
It’s always fun travelling to LEGO shows with our carry-on bags. This time it was set 100-2. The 4.5 volt motor set from 1966. The screening alarmed it as an item of interest because of the motor, coiled wires and ‘unusual shape’. Explaining why we had thousands of dollars of vintage LEGO in our bags when they opened them is part of the experience. At least they backed off and let me repack. Another LEGO show experience to treasure. Thanks, Christchurch Brick Show.
Your feedback
The team at The BLOCKS Collection appreciate and enjoy reading all your comments on the previous articles I have written and would welcome your comments on this topic today.
If you are in Auckland, come and visit The BLOCKS Collection
The BLOCKS Collection is located in central Auckland, New Zealand.
Visiting The BLOCKS Collection is by appointment only. You can contact The BLOCKS Collection through Facebook and Instagram.
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15 comments on this article
Once again this shows what an amazing collection they've got. Thank you very much for the article, especially since it is unfortunately highly unlikely that I will ever be able to see it in person.
I have one or two of the sets and vehicles from that era thanks to the childhood collection of my uncle, including that Esso Service garage.
Pity that most of the bricks have warped over time and are now pretty much unusable. But it's still a fascinating look into LEGO's past.
The LEGO Company of today should read up on some of those "six points" though, especially points 1, 2 and 5.
By the way, in German H0 is pronounced "Ha Null" which translates a "H Zero" .
Always fascinating to have a deep look into LEGO products of the past.
Thanks for another fascinating insight into some truly classic LEGO!
It's sad to see that more than half the area on those boards is given over to road, rather than building space. I guess it was the fifties and so the automobile was the future, people be damned. It's good that things have changed these days and TLG have moved away from promoting car usage.
Oh wait…
I'm personally very bored of seeing so many LEGO youtubers with road-centric layouts, not unlike these Town Plan boards. Those roads are often filled nose-to-tail with LEGO cars, probably because LEGO sells so many near-identical cars. Children (and adults) will see these ‘aspirational’ layouts and think nothing of emulating them by filling their own little cities with cars.
“What's the problem?” you might ask, “Isn't this just showing what the real world is like?”
That's indeed the first problem: the real world is indeed dominated by roads and those roads by cars.
The more insidious problem is normalisation.
If people, especially younger people, see their favourite toy & hobby dominated by cars, they'll be more willing to accept a world dominated by cars. If the spaces in the LEGO cities they see and build are filled with car-filled roads, they won't see that as a problem in the real world. When they see the pavements (sidewalks) of LEGO cities are tiny strips compared to the space given over to cars, that will be what they expect to see outside.
I'm aware that this is some board-covered-in-red-string conspiracy stuff, but I don't think I'm wrong.
@AustinPowers said:
"Once again this shows what an amazing collection they've got. Thank you very much for the article, especially since it is unfortunately highly unlikely that I will ever be able to see it in person.
I have one or two of the sets and vehicles from that era thanks to the childhood collection of my uncle, including that Esso Service garage.
Pity that most of the bricks have warped over time and are now pretty much unusable. But it's still a fascinating look into LEGO's past.
The LEGO Company of today should read up on some of those "six points" though, especially points 1, 2 and 5.
By the way, in German H0 is pronounced "Ha Null" which translates a "H Zero" . "
Agree, Lego sets have gotten out of hand for my tastes. I tend to only buy City, Creator, and a select few other sets. City and Creator have remained true to the "six points" for the most part. It does feel like Lego is pursuing profits and growth (market share) over the principles these days.
I love these LEGO history articles!
Back in the day when kids where playing formally Lego in suit and tie.
Great article. I loved the Town Plan sets and the later incarnations like the 355-1 'Town Centre Set with Roadways'.
Great article - love these looks back at the Lego of yesterday!
I have quite a few of these Town Plan sets, generously gifted to me by a former colleague - the wonderful thing about them is that he and his brother built them and played with them, but kept them in the boxes, so they're complete, and some have not been apart since the 1960s. They're a nice mix of the early sets with the die-cast vehicles (with their lovely little garages) and some brick-built vehicles. I added one of the play boards more recently when I saw it for sale at a local toy fair. I hope to be able to display them all together soon.
Thanks for the interesting article!
I remember having one of these garage doors but unfortunately it didn’t survive. And nowadays people complain about too many special parts…
@Eichinger said:
"Back in the day when kids where playing formally Lego in suit and tie. "
Yes, I remember when my mum dressed me up on Sunday. And I didn’t like it because I had to be careful not to get dirty.
As an American, I’m sad to say I may never get me hands on these, and as a Lego history fanatic, I’m shocked to say there are three openings in here I’ve never seen! The policemen, the bikers, and street lamps. Great history article @FlagNZ! The collection at the bottom is crazy! Thanks for showing that.
Really interesting read, thanls!
The images seem to imply the cars actually do fit the stud grid with their wheels being 3 studs apart. Is that true?
Amazing information! I've never seen anything like this before, coming from LEGO. I really wonder if my father had any of these growing up.
And yes here in the states, we always say HO as H Oh (definitely NOT zero).
@UProbeck said:
"Thanks for the interesting article!
I remember having one of these garage doors but unfortunately it didn’t survive. And nowadays people complain about too many special parts…"
Ah yes, the old "Lego didn't make specialized parts back in my day!" argument. Since I love posting this link: https://www.newelementary.com/2014/08/when-lego-was-never-just-bricks.html
I have one of those auto garage doors somewhere. Came in a bulk lot, always wondered where it came from!