Wednesday 4 February 2015

The Original 1974 Lego Figure Family set 200

LEGO are now well-known for their minifigures, but it's taken a while to get to this point and they've tried out several different shapes, sizes and designs of figure during the last 40 years. Back in 1974 LEGO released their first ever LEGO Family, and at 3 years old I had one. I remember it arriving, and opening that box of treasure.




The original 1970's LEGO Family in the box complete

LEGO set no.200 had 49 pieces (although if you count each individual element it's actually 78), to create a family of 5 maxi sized figures. They had poseable arms and heads that turned. The hair was a really clever design in that both the male and female hair could be removed and turned around to change it from a child's hairstyle to an adults - and you could slide it forwards and backwards for long fringes!

The original 1970's LEGO Family with Grandma, Mum, Dad and two children

The legs were made from standard bricks, so sitting, and growing up, was achieved by moving the bricks. 

Original 1974 LEGO Family with collector stickers

This isn't my original set (I think some of the bits we find occasionally are though). The stickers on the chests of my figures were for a collector card to receive free LEGO, but someone decided they were better as t-shirts. It's nice to know children don't change.

How the original LEGO Family arms bent and posed

The LEGO Family could come entirely to pieces, and I used to make super long arms, tall people, and  I could also play with 4 children - Grandma made an excellent schoolteacher.
One of my favourite features as a child was the fact that they could hold hands - something that no LEGO figures have been able to do since.

LEGO Family maxi figure and Technic man

Exactly the same height as the Technic man, the LEGO Family Dad is more like him than any of the other figures LEGO have made. The advances in poseability with the new arms and tilting head are great, but tiny compared to the new bending knees, hips and ankles. I'm not convinced the hands were an improvement though. More snappable and fragile than the LEGO Family hands, but in a stronger wrist, they aren't better at holding items and they can't hold hands!

LEGO Family Instruction booklet set 200

The instruction leaflet shows that really the main style hasn't altered in 40 years, and the ideas are now what we would consider to be extremely basic, but as a child I followed them very carefully and was delighted with my recognisable car at the end of it......The big change now I think would be that the man would not always be the driver...

And just look at this fabulous 70's furniture!

LEGO 1974 leaflet new kitchen bricks

The LEGO Family went on sale in 1974 and it cost the grand sum of £1.25.

LEGO Maximodels figures people holding hands


All LEGO shown is my own. No LEGO was harmed during the making of this post.
All 'parts' were already in with our general LEGO.

12 comments:

  1. Aw, I've got these people, well they are in the box of Lego at my mum's that she saved from our childhood. Mister B loves playing with them and adding all the arms together!!

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    1. Bet you didn't realise that in about 10 years they'll officially be antiques! :D

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    2. OoOo I'm from the future
      Found this set at an antique store lol

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  2. That set is fantastic! Such a great addition to a collection. You really have always loved Lego! x

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    1. Apparently so! It just hits the right buttons for me :)

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  3. Love looking back at the first Lego family and seeing how the figures have changed over the years and still remained the same in a lot of ways too :-)

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    1. Yes, I love that. They're still recognisably LEGO, even though they've changed so much :)

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  4. I have still got bits of mine, I do remember the collectors cards, and at some point am hoping to put together some of my retro sets which of course include Lego dragons!

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    1. Oh wow! The dragons are gorgeous, my 6 year old has a real thing for them and has collected 3 over the past 2 years birthdays :)

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  5. It has definitely come a long way hasn't it! Ross had a lot of his 80's LEGO which the Little A's love playing with as well as the new sets. (Loving your disclaimer!)

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    1. Hahaha....I didn't want people thinking I'd been recklessly pulling her apart :D

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