Wooden Toys

Class 4

Wooden Toys
Years	1932-1960

Wooden Toys is the name of the very first theme of LEGO toys to be created. The first toy was made in 1932, and exclusive to the shop owned by the LEGO Creator. It was created by Ole Kirk Christiansen.

A wooden truck from 1932–1958

History and Sets

Beginnings of The LEGO Group

The LEGO Group began in the workshop of Ole Kirk Christiansen, a carpenter from Billund, Denmark, who began making wooden toys in 1932. In 1934, his company came to be called LEGO, and expanded to producing plastic toys in 1940. In 1949, LEGO began producing the now famous interlocking bricks, calling them Automatic Binding Bricks. These bricks were based largely on the design of Kiddicraft Self-Locking Bricks, which were then released in the United Kingdom in 1947.

A profile of a LEGO duck

Products

A wooden LEGO duck

One of the first and best known products released by LEGO in the 1930's was the Wooden Duck. The duck was later remade in LEGO bricks as 2011 LEGO Duck. Another well known wood toy is Teddy Bill. However, there were many others.

Teddy Bill's truck

Horse and cart

These sets ended production in the 1960s.

End of Wood Toy manufacturing

As the plastic toys started gaining popularity in the mid-1950’s, the production of wooden toys was scaled back. The few wood and plastic toys that remained were marketed under the name Bilofix in 1959 and all non-system toys were finally discontinued in 1960. On 4 February 1960, the LEGO department for wooden toy production was struck by lightning and burned down for the third time. After much consideration, it was decided to discontinue production of wooden toys and to concentrate solely on plastic toys. As a result, two of the brothers, Karl Georg and Gerhardt, decided to leave the LEGO company and start their own separate business, called BILOfix. LEGO had produced at least several hundred different wooden toys and plastic toys designs since 1932. In their 28 years of production, none of the wooden toys were ever sold outside of Denmark.

Legacy

At the time, the distinguishing feature of the wooden toys was their high quality. The need for only the best is still found even in today's LEGO sets. The LEGO Duck, in particular, is a symbol of the LEGO company's early years. The wooden toys are displayed in museums.

List of Wooden Toys

Image	#	Set	Number of pieces	Minifigures	Price	Release
	662/1	Wooden Truck 6				1950
No image	Chicken	(Høne)
No image	Chicken	(ælling)
No image	Dog	(Hund)
	Halvautomatisk	Legetöjspistol	1			1945–1949
No image	BILOfix	BILOfix
	LEGO	"Clumsy Hans"	1			1936
	LEGO	Cat (Large)	1			Mid 1930's - Late 1950's
No image	LEGO	Cat (Medium)
	LEGO	Cat (Small)	1			Mid 1930's - Late 1950's
	LEGO	Covered Truck	1			1940
	LEGO	Duck	1			1935
	LEGO	Metal Buggy	1
	LEGO	Monkey	1			1946
	LEGO	Plank-side Truck	1			1940
No image	LEGO	Pony and Trap
No image	LEGO	Rooster
	LEGO	Tractor	1			1949
	Wooden	Train	3			1935
	Metal	Bike with Rubber Wheels	1
	Teddy	In A Cart	1			1950-1954
No image	Terrier	(Hund)
	Wooden	Abacus	1			1949
	Wooden	Cow	1
	Wooden	Crocodile	1			?
	Wooden	Duck	1
No image	Wooden	Elephant
	Wooden	Horse with milkcart	1
	Wooden	LEGO Cat	1			1930-1940
No image	Wooden	Lamb
	Wooden	Lemming	1
No image	Wooden	Pig
	Wooden	Pluto
	Wooden	Ringfigure
	Wooden	Truck 1	1			1932–1940
	Wooden	Truck 2	1			1930–1940
	Wooden	Truck 3				1930–1940
	Wooden	Truck 4				1930–1940
	Wooden	Truck 5				1930–1940
	Wooden	Truck 7				1930–1940
	Wooden	Truck 8				1930–1940
	Wooden	Truck 9				1930–1940
	Wooden	Truck Bus				1930-1940
	Yellow	Chevrolet "Bel Air"	1			1957
	Yo-Yo	Yo-Yo	1			1932
	500	LEGO Klodser				1948
	Wooden	storage box			$225	1960-1964

Notes

• The wooden toys were handmade by Ole Kirk Christiansen and his workers.

External Links

• List of LEGO Wood Toys at www.miniland.nl