Blocked

The astute reader will already have established that I am a tremendous nerd, but for the slower and duller among you, here is all the proof you need. I have dug my old Lego catalogues out of the cupboard and scanned some choice pages.





This is from 1978, before the highly specialised bricks, smirky faces and movie tie ins of today. The fact that they'd gone beyond the original palette of black, white, red, blue and yellow bricks to produce a green and a grey was something of a daring move. Sigh... it was a simpler time.


Of course in 1978 real people were wearing orange paisley and purple corduroy, so perhaps Lego's reticence is to be all the more admired in hindsight.





"1. Build a one-storey house."
"2. Open it up."
"3. And play at being a housewife."

Not included:

4. Read Helen Gurley Brown, burn your bra and become an astronaut. Hey, if Barbie can do it then so can you, sister!


Obviously it took a while for 70s feminism to reach Denmark.





"Now even the tiny LEGO mini figures have movable arms and legs and can carry things in their hands."


It's mundane now, but let me tell you, this was pretty revolutionary in 1978, especially if you were 10 years old, and used to Lego figures that looked like this:





Shudder. Featureless, unmoving, blank-faced nightmare fuel. Banished by the now-classic smiley faced minifig that dominated Lego through the 80s, 90s and into the current century.