"Modular liquid flow device". So TLG toyed with using LEGO bricks to play with water.
Patent 5112263
Here are pictures of some interesting LEGO patents. Ideas that never hit the stores.
"Modular liquid flow device". So TLG toyed with using LEGO bricks to play with water.
Patent 5112263
"Electrical machines constructional set". So TLG
planned to let kids built their own electromotor.
Patent 4430063
"Toy building set provided with elements that can sense bar codes".
This design comprised a full system of modular elements and all kinds of uses. E.g. the bar codes could be used to give
commands along the track of a moving vehicle. The bar codes were to be printed on regular bricks, so the message can be
changed by rearranging the bricks.
This idea probably evolved into the (in 1997) actually released Code Pilot bar code controlled system.
Patent 5042972
"Toy actuation system". The patents with the shortest names must be the best ones. Back in 1985 Interlego
patented an entire Technic system that mimics pneumatic control. A motor simply rotates flexible wires that
run inside shafts. The 'cylinders' contain screw linings, so they contract or expand according to rotation of the inner
wire.
The wires interconnect to axles through connector bricks.
Brilliant idea, but fortunately the designers soon came up with a genuine pneumatics system. Maybe the Flex Wire system
was another spin-off of this.
Patent 4998903
"Building sets having plug-in building blocks for building in layers."
An entirely different way of building with LEGO bricks, that is aimed at building telescopic trestle structures.
Patent 4992069
"Toy figure". This is an excerpt from the original 1980 patent of the minifig as we know it, but this picture
shows an alternative. The body resembles the later Fabuland and Duplo figures, but those never had heads like these.
Patent 4205482
This track crossing is part of Interlegos monorail patent. The patent includes system elements that were never to be
released, such as this crossing and a symmetric point. The crossing shows an ingeneous contraption inside, to block
trains trains from running into each other. It must be first come, first serve.
Patent 5087001
It almost seems as if Interlego only files patents for inventions not brought to the
market, to prevent other brands from competing them with Interlegos own disposed ideas.
Recent patents almost exclusively claim figurative forms only (of individual pieces and figures).
Want more?
United States Patents and Trademarks Office (USPTO) Patent Databases
(search for 'Interlego' in the 'Assignee' field).