As far as toys are concerned, few are as widely
recognized and loved as the LEGO system. It's one of the most successful
toy brands in history, and has inspired creativity in
children and adults for generations. But what most people don't know
is that the LEGO Group once developed a similar product
that was not meant for children. The product was Modulex, a system of miniature
plastic bricks designed for use in professional settings. While it never gained the same
recognition as its more famous cousin, Modulex would go on to have
a long and fascinating story. But preserving that story
has been a challenge in itself. Only through the efforts of LEGO fans,
over the span of many years, have bits and pieces of the
history managed to surface. Some of the details are speculated,
disputed or simply unknown to this day. But with some careful study, we can gain a pretty
good understanding of what Modulex really was. In 1916, Ole Kirk Kristiansen opened a woodworking
shop in the small community of Billund, Denmark. He became locally known for
his handcrafted furniture, and was often hired to build entire
houses, barns and churches. With the arrival of the Great Depression, local
farmers could no longer afford Ole’s carpentry work, and much of his business dried up. But in the early 1930s, he found new
success in crafting high-quality wooden toys. Within a few years, his business
was focused solely on toy making. In 1936, he renamed the company to LEGO, adapted
from the Danish phrase “leg godt,” or “play well.” As he later recalled: “It wasn't until the day I told
myself, ‘you'll either have to drop your old craft or put toys out of your head.’ that I began
to see the long-term consequences.” “And the decision turned out to be the right one.” With the rise of plastics after World War II, Ole made the pivotal decision to purchase
his first injection molding machine. Shortly after, in 1949, the company
released their first “Automatic Binding Bricks.” While Ole’s company was not the first
to produce bricks of this kind, his demand for quality set his
brand apart from the rest. Two years later, the toy was renamed to LEGO bricks,
helping to boost recognition of the company name. In the 1950s, Ole’s son, Godtfred Kirk Christiansen,
started playing a bigger role in the company. He envisioned LEGO bricks not as a standalone product,
but as an entire series of toy sets with compatible parts. In 1955, the Lego System in Play was
introduced with the very first Town Plan sets. Godtfred’s concept of a LEGO System would become
a hallmark of the brand from that point forward. And he would make another
key change just a few years later. Similar to their competitors, LEGO bricks were hollow
on the underside and didn't stick together very well. Godtfred designed a new system
of tubes on the underside, which would help the bricks clutch together and
allow them to be combined in millions of new ways. This design was patented in 1958, and helped establish
the LEGO Group as a true innovator in the toy industry. Six weeks later, Ole Kirk
Kristiansen passed away, leaving Godtfred to carry on the family
legacy as the head of the company. In 1962, the Lego Group released a handful of new
sets called Architectural Hobby and Model Building. These were similar to the
earlier Town Plan sets, but were aimed at teenagers and adults with a
more serious interest in architectural modeling. This product line was
ultimately short lived, but it was clear that the LEGO Group
had a growing interest in architecture. And they would soon double down on
this idea in a wholly unexpected way. Much like the barns and homes his
father had constructed in years past, Godtfred was now working
on plans to build a house. He used LEGO bricks to visualize
his plans in three dimensions, but their unusual proportions didn't
scale up to any real-life building materials. Being the visionary that he was, Godtfred
realized that with some small tweaks, the bricks could be made suitable
for professional scale modeling. Architectural firms could use these new bricks to
develop realistic scale models of their buildings. Not only would this aid them
throughout the design process, but it would allow them to present a clear
vision to their clients and investors. As he later recalled: “I built a
model out of LEGO elements and soon discovered that there were great
advantages with this type of modeling.” “I could change as much as I needed, and I
could work without scissors, glue or other tools.” “On this basis our engineers started
further developing the LEGO system.” “The result was the Modulex system,
which has the same properties as LEGO, a product with a high level of uniformity
and extremely small tolerances.” The Modulex brand was launched in 1963. Since it would serve a different purpose from the LEGO
toy line, it would soon be spun off as its own company. The exact timing of this is a little unclear though, as some sources say that Modulex split off right away,
while others say this happened a few years later. Either way, the new business venture
was in many ways a risky one. But with the minds and resources of the LEGO Group behind it,
there was little doubt that Modulex could be a success. While Modulex bricks would take clear
design cues from their LEGO counterparts, they were anything but a simple copy. LEGO bricks were designed
around an unusual 5:5:6 ratio. Modulex was given equal width and height
measurements, resulting in a clean 1:1:1 ratio. Better yet, Modulex had a base
measurement of five millimeters, which perfectly fit the 1:20 modeling scale
used by many architectural firms. As an early product manual explained: “The scale
1:20 is of particular interest within building, as the Modulex unit in the scale
represents 10 cm, i.e. the basic module for the coordination of the dimensions in
metric countries, and it approximately equals the 4-inch [...] module used in the USA, Canada,
and — to a large extent — in Great Britain.” Of course, Modulex could represent any scale
that was needed for a given project, but since it was largely designed for use at 1:20 scale,
the product line was marketed under the name “M20.” Even the Modulex name itself refers to the scale. Each module represented 10 centimeters, with
10 being X in Roman numerals: “Module-X” The bricks themselves were held to the strict
standards of quality the LEGO Group was known for. These were injection molded with the
same ABS plastic used in LEGO bricks. though the company experimented
with PPO plastic as well. The bricks came in a variety of sizes, with most
of these mimicking their larger counterparts. The notable exceptions to this
were the 1x5 and 2x5 bricks. To this day we've never gotten
LEGO bricks in these dimensions, so it's quite a surprise that Modulex
had them as early as the 1960s. In LEGO vernacular, plates are
a third of the height of bricks. Tiles are the same as plates,
but with a smooth surface on top. In Modulex, tiles were the height of full bricks,
and they were available in a range of sizes. Plates were a very different story.
Only 1x12 and 1x16 plates were ever produced. The reasoning for this actually ties back
to an interesting aspect of the system. Modulex parts were meant to be cut apart and glued,
giving architects even more versatility in their modeling. Modulex also offered a range of sloped bricks, which
could be used for roofing or other angular detailing. To this day, none of these part designs have
crossed over into the LEGO product line. The closest analog is the 1x1 slope, which
was added to the LEGO system in 2004, though the Modulex version
is proportionally taller. Also part of the Modulex lineup were special ridge
bricks to help architects build at various angles. Nothing like this has ever been
produced for the LEGO system. For detailing, Modulex offered a few different
horizontal and vertical bricks with different textures, as well as a wide range
of windows and doors. None of these exact designs crossed
over to the LEGO system either, but similar parts have been
produced over the years. A few stylized figurines were sold as well. These could either be glued together from existing
parts, or they could be purchased pre-assembled. This was a full 15 years before the introduction
of Lego Minifigures in 1978. They of course served
completely different purposes, and this is clear through their
very different design styles. Another unique part of the Modulex
toolset were the perforated foils, which were adhesive overlays that
could be applied to studded surfaces. This allowed architects to add a thin layer of color
coding to their models, which could either be used for details like grass or roads, or to highlight certain
parts of the model for demonstration purposes. These foils came in a variety of colors, with
specialized tools to cut and apply them to models. In the early 1960s, LEGO bricks
were only offered in basic colors: White, Black, Gray, Red, Yellow, Blue,
Green, and occasionally Transparent. These bright colors worked great for toys,
but Modulex would need some changes. The neutral colors of White, Black, Gray and Transparent
were carried straight over from the LEGO system. Where it really gets interesting
are the other six colors: Ochre Yellow, Terracotta, Teal Blue,
Buff, Olive Green and Brown. Since Modulex was intended
for professional model-making, it needed colors that were more
muted and natural in appearance. In an interesting case of reversed influence, Buff
was later carried over to the LEGO palette in 1981. Today, it's more commonly known as Tan, and has
been a staple of the LEGO color range for decades. Modulex Brown doesn't
have a perfect match, but it’s somewhat similar to LEGO Dark Tan,
which was introduced in 1998. Terracotta doesn't have
a perfect match either, but it's similar to LEGO Medium Nougat,
which was introduced in 2010. Olive Green wouldn't see an
equivalent in LEGO form until 2012. The shades are very similar, but the
Modulex version has a slightly cooler hue. Teal Blue and Ochre Yellow have never really
seen any close counterparts in the LEGO palette. This is pretty incredible, considering how many
dozens of colors have come and gone over the years. All of this is to say, Modulex was truly designed
from the ground up with clear intention. From its measurements to its colors, it stayed true to the philosophy that a product
should be made of the highest quality. For an architect to construct
a model in Modulex, The first step was to take the existing floor plans
and convert them to a sketch on grid paper. This would plan out how the
design would translate into bricks. Based on these sketches, the builder would then craft
a custom building surface with studded baseplates. These would be cut to size and glued
onto a more sturdy platform like wood. Alternatively, Modulex offered
transparent baseplates, which could be placed on top of
the original drawings as a guide. Special considerations had to
be made for complex details, like varying wall thicknesses
and joints between floors. For windows and doors, builders could
either use the prefabricated pieces or custom-craft them to meet
the needs of the model. Using the slopes and ridge bricks,
builders could create the roof and other angled sections
of the building as needed. But Module X wasn't only used to model
the final version of the building. It could be used at any stage
in the design process, allowing architects to experiment
with their ideas in three dimensions. The concept was solid,
but there was a problem. The 1960s were a landmark
time for the LEGO Group, with their products being sold
internationally for the first time. LEGO was quickly becoming
a household name, and the signature bricks are proving to
be a hit with children all over the world. As a result, many architectural
firms were skeptical of a product that so closely resembled
a children's toy. Even if they could get their
own employees on board, what would their clients
and investors think? In an industry with so much focus on visual presentation,
a LEGO-like product would be distracting at best, and at worst it could
come across as unprofessional. Something to note here is that Modulex bricks were
originally molded with the LEGO logo on the studs. To create some distance from the toy brand, the company
started producing the bricks with M logos instead. There’s some conflicting theories
about when exactly this change was made, but it seems to have taken place
over the span of a few years. But even if Modulex could get
past the comparisons to LEGO, the timing was unfortunate
for another reason, too. A brick-based system was really only
useful for specific architectural styles, and those styles were growing stale. Modulex worked great for older trends
like modernism and brutalism, but a new wave of postmodern
architecture was quickly emerging. This was purposely moving away from
the boring, rigid styles of the past, and making use of unconventional
shapes, angles and colors. As LEGO enthusiast Barney Main writes: “Modulex was built on the shaky
foundation that were the conflicting and ever-changing architectural
styles of the 1960s and 1970s.” “It was Modulex's adherence
to a single architectural style, not so much through choice, but through
the very nature of the construction system, that meant a shift in attitudes
would undermine it.” Another, less abstract problem
for Modulex was its price tag. Compared to other modeling
materials like cardstock or wood, the plastic bricks were
quite a bit more expensive. The LEGO Group had built its
reputation on not cutting corners, but their higher manufacturing costs
meant that Modulex cost more than the products it
was trying to replace. In the end, Modulex did see moderate
success with a handful of architects, but it failed to revolutionize
the industry as a whole. Despite this, the company still
saw potential in the little bricks, so they went back to the drawing board
to come up with some new ideas. After getting a lukewarm
response from architects, Modulex was soon marketed
for a slightly different purpose. Rather than being used for
scale modeling, it could be used as more of a planning tool
for laying out interior spaces. For example, the owners of a factory might need
to figure out where to place all of their machinery. Drawings and diagrams could certainly help, but a physical model could give a
much clearer vision of the space. This is where Modulex really started to show
its value as a three-dimensional planning tool. The idea was to craft miniature
objects within the building, which could be anything from
machinery to office furniture. Then planners could easily move
these pieces around in the space, experimenting with ideas until
they found the best location. It was a flexible solution that was easy
for anyone to use and understand. The same principles could be applied
to larger-scale layouts as well. For instance, you could lay out
your company's property to help decide where to
construct future buildings. Larger still, you could model the property in
relation to the surrounding neighborhood. Modulex could achieve any level
of detail that was needed, and unlike its first impressions,
this time it was much better received. As the Sydney Morning Herald wrote: “The rapid
acceptance of Modulex since its introduction can be illustrated by the fact that it is now used
in the very large number of Danish factories, research institutes and drawing offices
as a visual aid to all kinds of planning.” “The system has now been launched abroad,
because the basic idea behind Modulex has been to make a tool that could help to find
the shortest way to increased productivity.” Meanwhile, Modulex was gaining
traction in classrooms as well. In 1967, educational leaders in the United States
developed Modulex into a geography teaching tool. Schools in the US and Canada were provided with a
box of Modulex bricks and geographic base plates, and students were encouraged to
experiment with concepts in city planning. As the Kenosha News wrote:
“The students work in small groups, putting their knowledge to practical use
by designing the typical city of Portsville.” “They go about constructing the city by
appropriately placing colored LEGO pieces representing manufacturing areas,
school districts, railroads, and other such assets to a community
on a Modulex map board.” Whether in the classroom
or in the industrial sector, Modulex was an intuitive solution
for a variety of layout planning needs. And this success was only the start of its multiple
business uses over the next several years. While it was seeing new
success as a layout tool, Modulex was also starting to be sold as
a business planning tool in general. By putting a large studded surface on
a wall, companies could use the bricks to build customizable charts, timelines
and workflows to manage their projects. This idea was marketed as
the Modulex Planning System. Perhaps you needed to track
numerous aspects of a project, with different people
responsible for various tasks. Maybe you needed to track
sales figures month-to-month, or inventory levels in the warehouse,
or customers' orders in shipment. Modulex could visualize these concepts in a way
that was easy to understand and modify over time. The Colorado Springs Gazette-Telegraph wrote: “Modulex represents a breakthrough in
charting because the charts can reflect not only horizontal and vertical progress,
but also the third dimension, since the components can be easily stacked
on top of each other in color and size variations.” To help serve this purpose, a new
range of colors was introduced. The original colors were still offered, but these brighter options would give
the charts more visual contrast. The new additions were Orange, Red, Pink,
Pastel Blue, Pastel Green and Lemon. Except for Red, none of these colors were
offered by the LEGO system at the time, though similar shades would be
introduced in the coming decades. As a side note, even though Red
was a well-established LEGO color, the Modulex version was slightly more muted with
a warmer hue, so they weren't an exact match. It's also worth pointing out that even bricks in these later
colors were produced with both the LEGO and M logos. This could suggest that these colors
were already introduced by the late 1960s, but there's not really a
clear consensus on this. After years of mixed reception, Modulex really
seemed to find its footing with the Planning System. As the 1960s gave way to the 70s, the brand gained widespread success in
more than 25 countries around the world. Among their impressive list of customers were auto
manufacturers like Daimler-Benz, Volkswagen and Ford, airlines like Lufthansa, TWA and Eastern, as well as NASA, Eastman Kodak, the
Bank of England and dozens of others. In the mid-1970s, the Modulex Planning System
spun off another product line called Plancopy. This was a similar concept to the wall charts, but was designed in smaller sections
that matched standard paper sizes. These segments could be removed
from the wall and used in a photocopier. In this way, Modulex charts could be
copied for use in meetings and reports, or faxed to people in a
different location entirely. A new series of printed tiles
were introduced for this use. These were mostly produced in white or bright colors
so that the data would show up clearly in photocopies. Between Plancopy and the Planning System, Modulex
was an especially useful business tool for its time. Computers were not yet capable
of visualizing data on this scale, and certainly not in a way that everyone in
the office could see and interact with together. It would still be many years before software could
offer anything close to the versatility of Modulex. And even with this widespread success, the
bricks still hadn't reached their full potential. With Modulex proving itself
as an effective visual tool, perhaps it's not surprising that it expanded into
another business need: architectural signage. Practically every business
needed some kind of signage, whether it was a building directory,
directional signs or staff information. As the president of the
US subsidiary described it: “This means creating a communication system
inside and outside a professional building — an office building, hospital, an airport, libraries,
universities. We have many different markets.” In the mid 1970s, the company launched
a new product line called Interior 10. This offered sets of printed tiles
with letters, numbers and symbols, which could be built into professional signage. The company offered more traditional
permanent signage as well, to help fill a wider range
of needs for customers. The brick-built signage featured
white Helvetica text on black tiles, which were produced in multiple sizes. By the 1980s, the company was offering
a whole range of signage products. The Interior 20 and Interior 30 product lines
offered more styles of modular signage, though these didn't use the brick system. The EDS 700 line included brick-built
signage with integrated LCD displays. This was useful for rapidly changing information
like stock prices and currency exchange rates. The company also offered the Exterior 500
line for traditional outdoor signage. Modulex became so successful as a signage
company that their products won awards from design organizations around the world, and
their impressive customer base only continued to grow. The Racine Journal Times wrote: “Modulex signs
have found their way into hundreds of buildings, including First National Bank of Chicago,
hotels operated by Marriott Corp., and buildings at O'Hare International
Airport, Chicago, to name a scant few.” But even as the company's focus
shifted more heavily toward signage, Plancopy and the Planning System
remained incredibly popular. And in fact, a third wave of colors was
introduced for these product lines. The exact timing is unclear, but most sources
agree that this happened sometime in the 1990s. Medium Gray and Charcoal Gray were
slight alterations to Gray and Black. The other new colors were Reddish Pink,
Light Orange, Medium Blue, Light Yellow, Aqua Green and Violet. Sometime around this same era, new colors
were introduced for the letter tiles as well. These have been dubbed Tile Gray,
Tile Brown and Tile Blue. These colors were unique to the tile sets
and were not carried over to the bricks. In the early 1990s, the Modulex company
merged with ASI Sign Systems, a global signage company
based in North America. They continue to offer the brick
system for several more years, but by the early 2000s,
it was finally on its last legs. The new millennium brought a rapidly evolving
tech market to all aspects of business. Computer software was more effective than ever at
project management, data charting and word processing. Modulex had adapted numerous
times over the years, but the digital age was something
it simply couldn't overcome. By 2004, the Modulex brick
system was finally retired. With the company now fully focused on signage,
their namesake product quickly faded into obscurity. It was the humble end
for the little plastic bricks, which against all odds had remained a
successful commercial product for over 40 years. In the years after Modulex was discontinued, the obscure bricks gained something
of a cult following among LEGO fans. Few people knew of the product's
existence, and even fewer knew its story, but it was a curious novelty for collectors. Then, a full decade after its retirement, Modulex
actually had the opportunity to make a big comeback. In the summer of 2014, the Modulex
company sold the production rights to a new startup company
called Modulex Bricks. This group was headed
by Anders Kirk Johansen, a great-grandson of Ole Kirk Kristiansen
and grandson of Godtfred. His new company was formed to
resume production of Modulex bricks and make them widely available
to the public for the first time. Fans of the system were
thrilled by the news. As later reported by Brickset: “Production
for Modulex Bricks A/S was getting ready.” “Molds were being readied, test parts were being
produced and given out to interested buyers.” “Then things went quiet in December.” In January of 2015, it was announced
that the LEGO Group had stepped in and bought out the Modulex
Bricks company outright. As stated in the public announcement: “It has been important for the LEGO Group owner family
to ensure historic rights stay within the owner family.” “The potential to produce Modulex
bricks has also been addressed and there are no plans to manufacture
Modulex bricks in the near future.” The situation was confusing, since a member of
the family had already been leading the project. So what was the problem? Well, it's a little complicated. Ownership of the LEGO Group itself had
transferred from Ole to his son Godtfred, then from Godtfred to his son Kjeld. Other members of the family who had sold off
their shares in the company over the years. Anders, who was planning to revive Modulex,
was from this part of the family tree: the part that had no direct
ties to the LEGO fortune. Whether this was a case of protecting the intellectual
property, or perhaps a simple family rivalry, the news of the cancellation was
disappointing to fans to say the least. It's ironic too, since other companies have found
success with miniature plastic bricks of their own. Brands like Nanoblock and Daiso Petit Block
weren't necessarily inspired by Modulex, but they've shown that there's a niche
customer market for this type of product. While Modulex is still pretty obscure today, dedicated fans continue to use the bricks
to build new and visually inspiring models. And while Modulex and LEGO bricks
are incompatible with each other, that hasn't stopped some people from
finding creative ways to use them together, and achieve things that wouldn't be
possible with either system alone. Likewise, many LEGO conventions have a
Modulex enthusiast somewhere in the mix. You may even see Karyn Murphy, who for
many years has been leading the charge to preserve the Modulex story and educate
others about this fascinating piece of history. Karyn was actually a huge help to me
during the production of this video, so if you catch her at a convention, be sure to
check out her amazing collection of Modulex artifacts. I'd also recommend checking out her blog, MiniBricks
Madness, if you're interested in some further reading. The original Modulex company
itself is still very much alive today. It continues to be a global provider of architectural
signage, branding, and project management services. Even though their focus has
changed drastically since the 1960s, it's nice to see that they still
take pride in their unique roots. And at the end of the day, those roots
are what make the story so captivating. Modulex was always destined to live
in the shadow of the LEGO brick. But over the years, it proved its worth in more
ways than even its creators probably imagined. And if nothing else, it almost certainly
made work a little more fun.
Quality stuff