Anna Miranda and Mark Build a House

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Anna Miranda and Mark Build a House: A Lego Legend
The front cover of the book, featuring the text "Anna Miranda and Mark build a House", "A Lego Legend", and "One Shilling". The cover art shows two children carrying LEGO bricks in front of a forest.
Front cover featuring Anna-Miranda and Mark
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish
GenreChildren's book
PublisherBritish Lego Limited
Publication date
1965
Media typePrint (booklet)
Pages24

Anna Miranda and Mark Build a House: A Lego Legend is a 1965 children's picture booklet released by British Lego Limited. Its author and illustrator are currently unknown. It tells the story of two children who meet a wizard who can turn acorns into LEGO bricks. The booklet was sold in the United Kingdom through 1967, and was packaged with instructions for building two of the LEGO models in it. It is the earliest known LEGO story book and one of the earliest LEGO publications.

Summary

The story follows Anna-Miranda and Mark, the twin children of a wood-cutter and his wife who live in a hut. One day, the two children find a "Most Unusual Boat" that starts sailing on its own when they board it. The magic boat takes them to a Lego palace where they meet O'gel the Wise of Ballydooley, an elderly wizard with a "Most Unusual Hat". O'gel is sad because he has no children to share his home with, but cheers up when he gets a chance to play with Anna-Miranda and Mark. When the two children need to go home, O'gel teaches them a magic spell that will turn acorns into Lego bricks they can use to build a new house. The two perform the spell in the night, and the next day the family wakes up to find many Lego bricks. Anna-Miranda, Mark, and their father spend the day building a Lego house for them all to live in.

Release

Front page of the included blueprints booklet

Anna Miranda and Mark Build a House was released in 1965 and was priced at one shilling (£0.05 GBP).[1] The booklet was sold with an eight-page set of blueprints detailing how to build two LEGO models from the story: the Most Unusual Boat and the house that the children built. These were done in a similar style to a series of four "Lego blueprint" released earlier that year; these blueprints sold for one penny (1⁄12 of one shilling) each and were, in order, "Windmill", "Boatbouse", "London Bus", and "Astronaut and Cosmic Ray Regenerator".[2][1]

Anna Miranda and Mark Build a House was advertised in LEGO catalogues in the United Kingdom starting in April 1966,[3] where it was listed as "Lego Story Book", alongside an eighty-page Ideas Book.[4] The story book continued to be available through 1967,[5] but by 1968 it had been discontinued, though the ideas book remained available.[6]

Select illustrations

  • The Most Unusual Boat

    The Most Unusual Boat

  • The Lego palace

    The Lego palace

  • O'gel the Wise

    O'gel the Wise

  • O'gel playing

    O'gel playing

  • The Lego house

    The Lego house

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Phil Traviss (16 January 2002). "Re: Lego Blueprints Query & Weetabix Promo House Instructions". LUGNET. Newsgroup: lugnet.loc.uk. Archived from the original on 13 July 2024.
  2. ↑ Hughes, Jim (2009). "Blueprint instruction sheets". Brick Fetish. Archived from the original on 2024-07-13.
  3. ↑ Phil Traviss (3 August 2000). "Re: Help wanted with old UK catalogue [long and contains most text/in fo from it.]". LUGNET. Newsgroup: lugnet.loc.au. Archived from the original on 13 July 2024.
  4. ↑ 1966 Large UK (Catalogue). British Lego Limited. April 1966. p. 13. 3151-Eng.
  5. ↑ 1967 Large UK (Catalogue). British Lego Limited. 1967. p. 13. 3151-En.
  6. ↑ Assortment '68 (Catalogue). British Lego Limited. 1968. p. 8. 3310-England.

External links

External video
video icon "Vintage LEGO Blueprints from 1965" on YouTube, showing all six 1965 blueprint models
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