ThrowbackThursday: 1986 Posted by Huw, 10 Mar 2016 10:00

For this week's look at old LEGO catalogues, I have gone back 30 years to 1986 which I imagine will have been in the childhood of a large majority of Brickset readers.

However I was in my 'dark ages' at the time, so I have no recollection of seeing the sets in the shops and do not have many catalogues from the period. I have however picked up a US one and an EU Technic one subsequently, so I have illustrated this article with pages from them.

What makes the US one in particular interesting is not only the photographs but also the marketing language that's used throughout.

LEGOLAND

Things were simple back in 1986: once you had outgrown Duplo and Basic building sets you progressed to LEGOLAND Town, Castle or Space, or maybe all three.

These two introductory pages to LEGOLAND sets explain what they are all about and place a great deal of emphasis on collecting and combining multiple models while also explaining that you can do so much with just one.

It's written using language that's not childish or dumbed-down, and I think it successfully encourages demand from children while also extolling the virtues of LEGO and spending money on it to parents.

Town

The mid 1980s are considered to be the golden age of Town sets and looking at the selection in the catalogue, it's easy to see why. Yes, the obligatory fire and police stations are present, but there's so much more in the range, which is not dominated by emergency services.

The sets are nearly all 'action based': houses, cafes and other leisure based sets are conspicuous by their absence. According to the database, a few such sets were released in 1986 (e.g. 6379 Riding Stable) but they are not shown here for some reason; perhaps they were released later in the USA, or perhaps the first two LEGOLAND pages shown above help explain why: the three kids shown are all boys.

Space

1986 marked the last year of peace in the LEGOLAND galaxy, before Blacktron was launched the next year along with classic space's peaceful successor Futuron.

Purists might not consider sets of this period to be pure 'classic space' given that the range of colours used has expanded beyond blue, grey and trans yellow. Nevertheless, there's no denying that some of the sets are very cool, while some are somewhat strange (the push-me, pull-me Solar Power Transporter, 6952 comes to mind!).

Castle

It appears that LEGOLAND Castle was a peaceful place in 1986: there are plenty of knights and castles but no adversaries.

Trains

For some reason, trains and boats are not considered part of LEGOLAND from a marketing perspective and each gets just one page at the back of the catalogue. I suspect the USA was a 'poor relation' as far as trains were concerned at the time. Just one set shown, and one that was released in 1985 in Europe. It's also battery operated rather than 12V DC from the track.

It also appears that the train might have been hard to find: '...write to Susan Williams for complete mail order information.' it says. Susan Williams was, I believe, an imaginary figure, someone you could write to when contacting LEGO USA's customer services, and who would write back to you.

Technic

The big news of the year as far as Technic was concerned, was the launch of Arctic sets. Not only were these the first themed Technic sets but also the first to use white Technic pieces extensively, and more importantly, introduced the Technic maxi-figure.

The Technic figure was last seen in 2000. Some 34 different Technic figures were produced, according to BrickLink. I think that's a shame they are no longer being used as they helped bring Technic models to life.

Was the mid-1980s a golden era for LEGO when things were so much better and simpler than today, or do we just view the period through rose-tinted glasses? You tell me; I was in my dark ages.

You will find PDF copies of the catalogues in our repository of catalogue scans, which is growing rapidly. I have had my daughter scanning all that I own and we are now up to 1987 and will have completed the 1980s later today. I have ordered a few more from the period from BrickLink to fill gaps in my collection, so shortly we should have a fairly comprehensive library. There are a few that nobody has for sale there, so once I have sorted out what's what, I will put out a call to help fill the gaps. I hope you enjoy browsing and reminiscing...