How it started
The story of how LEGO crossed the ocean over to Iceland starts as early as 1955. Back then Iceland was under tight import regulations, similar to the regulations Norway followed at the time. These regulations made import of toys and other goods difficult. This was done to help the economy of the country and also keep and create new jobs for the Icelanders.
SIBS Kubbar LEGO sets. Pictures from Reykjalundur museum.
After LEGO sales had begun in Norway (1953) and Sweden (1955), Iceland was the third country to give LEGO a go. A license agreement was made with SIBS (the Association of Tuberculosis and Thoracic patients), which may sound unusual. However, SIBS had established a work center for patients who were on the road to recovery called Reykjalundur. They had started plastic production back in 1953 and made various products including toys. By 1955 they were the biggest producer of toys in Iceland!
Part of the agreement with LEGO was to rent moulds for production of various LEGO toys. Due to the import restrictions the toys were not allowed to be marketed by a foreign brand. So during the 1950's all the packaging for the LEGO toys were rebranded to Reykjalundur. However the toys/moulds themselves were not altered and still had the LEGO name on them. For instance the "LEGO Mursten" sets were renamed to "SIBS Kubbar" (SIBS Bricks) and the packaging changed.
By 1960 a lot of the import restrictions had been lifted and LEGO could now be used as part of the packaging. Reykjalundur continues making and selling LEGO bricks on behalf of LEGO in Denmark all the way until 1977. At that point Reykjalundur was not able to follow the expanding LEGO assortment, and LEGO production in Iceland was stopped. Still Reykjalundur works as the LEGO distributor to this day.
Read more about Reykjalundur on their website www.reykjalundur.is and about the LEGO production on LEGO's website: www.lego.com.
Iceland - Items
Here is an overview of the exclusive LEGO items made for the Icelandic market. (Pictures and more information will follow)
SIBS Kubbar sets in two sizes
SIBS Kubbar leaflet included in the sets:
Ferguson tractor with equipment. Unique design for Iceland on the boxes, but the tractor and equipment itself seem to be in standard colours and design.
The small supplemental sets from 1958-> had Reykjalundur stamped on the sides. The bigger sets from the same period had no special markings.
Iceland - Bricks
As very few Icelandic bricks and sets have been found, it is difficult to have a good overview of what was available and when. So look at this as a rough guide of what we know so far.
Automatic Binding Bricks
It seems very likely that ABB bricks mould was the first to arrive in Iceland. Being in use in 1955 until the arrival of a new mould, maybe in 1956 and most likely it being the blockletter mould. The ABB bricks appear in a nice variety of colours: red, dark green, semi-trans green, medium blue, "egg white", gray and possibly more. For instance yellow is very likely, but I have not found one yet.
The mould appears quite rough after being used since 1949 and shipped between Denmark, Sweden and Norway. Norway being the last to use it in 1953/54. The bricks have varying amounts of "bubbles" on the inside, which are not seen on bricks from other countries. This is a good indicator on bricks being Icelandic. The plastic used seems to be a CA-like material, and a more milky and harder plastic material. It is likely they did the same as Norway starting out using the same plastics and colours they used for other products, until they landed on a more permanent colour scheme. We expect the ABB bricks to have been in production in
Blockletter
I do not own any Icelandic blockletter bricks yet, but will update with pictures when I do.
They have been found in similar colours to the ABB bricks, but not all of them. They are more common in the basic LEGO colours which came a little later in Iceland. The blockletter mould seems to have taken over for the ABB mould, and being in use at the same time and a little before the dogbone mould arrived. The estimate is 1956-57.
Dogbone
Danish top, Iceland bottom
In Denmark this was the main mould used from ca. 1954 to the introduction of the hollow bricks without slots in 1956. So it is likely it was shipped to Iceland sometime in 1956 and used there until 1957-58.
The Icelandic dogbone bricks come in the basic LEGO colours: red, yellow, blue and white. As well as a medium blue colour matching the ABB bricks, and a medium green colour I have only found used for the dogbone bricks.
I only have three colours of the dogbone bricks as can be seen on the picture.
Hollow and tube bricks
Were hollow bricks ever made in Iceland? It seems likely Iceland only made slotted bricks until the tube bricks came in 1958. Looking for more information in relation to this.
Extra pictures
The beautiful semi-trans green colour and all the Icelandic colours I own compared with Danish bricks on top:
