Plastic LEGO Model Cars

Plastic LEGO Model Cars 1957.

Trees and Bushes

There are different trees from the 50ties/60ties. There are pinetrees, birches, deciduous trees, appletrees and bushes. At the beginning these trees could only be bought in a seperate box, later they appeared in the LEGO boxes together with buildings etc. One of the first models that came with the trees is set 309 (pine with flat bottom). There are different designs of the trees, the first trees had a flat bottom, the newer one had a bottom that could be clickt on a LEGO baseplate.

Painted trees were produced from the 1950's through the early 1970's. They appeared in two base versions and at least 2 paint variations. The first version has a flat base. These flat bases were meant to be used with the flat printed town plan boards. The second version has a hollow base. These were meant to be placed over studs of the new base bricks which replaced the town plan boards.
Original versions of the trees appeared with a light green painting, which changed to dark green later during production. In 1960, a new set of trees appeared with the same flat base and dark green paint. In 1965, an updated version of trees appeared with hollow bases. All versions were painted at the factory, probably by hand. Similar unpainted trees were produced by Samsonite™. Painted trees were replaced by granulated trees.

Later models had a bottom that could be clicket on a basplate. The first models with these bottoms came together with sets 322 (bushes), 341 and 342. Houses with trees came with set 344 and 345

From the 70ties LEGO produced new 3D trees. These were made from granules. Saddly the granules easy came off when children were playing with the trees. The trunk could be easily broken. Later editions of set 344 and 345 came together with a granule tree. Set 347 (and others) always have had a granule tree.

After a short period the granule trees were replaced trough the tree we know till today.

ModelDescription:

Description:

Pictures:

Old version

Modelnumber 1955-1969: 230

Modelnumber 1960-1970: 230

Description/Print:

Modelvariations: see below!

Produced from / to: 1957-1973

Click on a picture to enlarge these!

Middle-old version

Modelnumber 1955-1969:

Modelnumber 1960-1970: 430

Description/Print:

Modelvariations: see below!

Produced from / to: 1960-1963

Click on a picture to enlarge these!

Later version

Modelnumber 1955-1969:

Modelnumber 1960-1970: 430

Description/Print:

Modelvariations: see below!

Produced from / to: 1963-1968

Click on a picture to enlarge these.


70ties version		Modelnumber 1955-1969: Modelnumber 1960-1970: 990 Description/Print: Modelvariations: see below! Produced from / to: 1970-1973 Click on a picture to enlarge these.

Samsonite™ Trees

Samsonite™ was the licensed producer and distributor of Lego™ in the U.S. and Canada during the 1960's and early 1970's. They did not distribute the painted trees. Instead, they made their own trees. They only made two types trees: the bush and the pine. These are unpainted and a different color green than a normal Lego brick. While the painted trees were updated to hollow bottoms, the Samsonite trees just recieved feet. The feet slide inbetween the studs of a baseplate. The footed parts are made of a lighter green plastic than the original flat bottom parts. By the time granulated trees arrived, Samsonite was no longer distributing in the U.S., and Lego included granulated trees in their U.S. market releases.

Samsonite version