While thinking about Lego since childhood, certain pieces in particular come to mind. This blog is about favorite pieces over the years mostly in the 70s and 80s. Images came from ebay, Google images and lego idea books

1) The classic wheels

The pins of wheels went into the magic black box 2x4 which sounded like a rattle when shaken. Despite a clear bottom of the 2x4, you couldn't see what was in there.

Example of use

I forgot to include the wheels/rims with red spokes as noted on the red and blue trucks above.

I liked the wheels rims above but they break easily. They look good on the race car below

Wheels initially came with smooth treads but almost all improved to having tread with ridges on them as above...just having ridges in the treads added decorative features from the smooth counterpart wheels pictured in the first pic of this blog entry. Most wheels were black and red rimsntil grey came along for classic space.

The large wheel with spokes (below) appeared to be unusable in this day and age of better sets but in an idea book from lego they are used as as a pulley for an engine. I have seen trains, specifically locomoives using the wheels also

Above: treads are connected via rubber long belt

2) headlight and grill pieces

That front grill and headlight piece were present on vintage cars before the headlight bricks were used on cars as above! Even if the printed grill and headlight weren't present, stickers in the 6000 idea book had decals that could be used.

Geez, even 2 grills on this truck above

3) The 4×8 black flat piece

Black/red and blue plates as above were the base for so many roofs and observation decks of sets that had no open backs like the seaport, police station and fire stations in the "old days" before the models came with open backs as below

4) The clear windshields were such an improvement from the frosted brick and slope pieces.

New

Compare the above windshield to the ones below

Old transparent bricksa

It drove me nuts that the minifigs didn't fit in the cars and even if they did how could you see through the frosted windows

5) tiles

Tiles were great for allowing studs to not show and reduce the drive over continuous speed bumps

6)green cylinders

The above picture shows the green translucent pieces that always make the barrel of space guns...probably the first light sabers

7) The 2x2 round piece

The 2x2 round piece below was so neat to me because it added a change to square blocks. It was a great support pillar when stacked as showcased below in the 6000 idea book

8) Antennas and whips

These were included in almost every set in the 70's and 80's

9) tools

Who can forget wrenches, walkie talkies. Also shown is metal detectors as well as portable telescopes

10) printed 2x2s and 45degree slopes

These elements above were present in so many sets. I don't remember having any red bricks with the computer and the 3rd piece over from the left in the bottom row with just white buttons and a row of red buttons-they came later on. (Above)

11) doors and windows

These windows above were the first type of windows I had ever seen. They were really the only decorative parts for houses that were made with simple bricks that were bulky and without any detail. Most of the early sets I remember had the small cold appearance of the door. It drove me nuts because no minifigure would actually fit through there.

12) tanks for storage

I always thought the oxygen tanks were neat for the spacemen minifigs-it added detail that few minifigures had, it could also function as a gas tank!

13) toothed 1x4s

The tooth piece above was used for steering in multiple 80s sets

As well as a way to elevated loads on forklifts

14) Universal joints below

The universal joints and ridged 1x4 pieces above symbolized being intelligent because the made such complex rack and pinion steering systems that to make cars that fancy was incredible to my small cars I made without any type of steering mechanism, I was so happy when the set below came out because it was the first time I felt smart enough to create this car that I could steer. A differential mechanism for the back wheels never came in any creation I made!

15) Radar dishes and cones

The radar dish series was a big deal as I started to collect legos in the early 80s and 70's. The radar dish that I saw was in a universal building set with mostly yellow/black bricks and just a few grey ones. The big dishes were a step up from the small disks and the open grid style radar dishes were a further step up. They were used in a space station set where they served as bottoms for little space vehicles which I hated-they looked completely out of place and definitely not aerodynamic for spaceship speeds! The color ones could be used as umbrella tops as in the belville series

The cones and oval engine type piece were also great pieces-you could use both the cones and jet engine pieces as either bases to place on the bottom of models or on the sides depending on where you wanted to place them

Examples include the mobile rocket launcher

This model above features so many classic space pieces in action...steering wheels, tiles, cones, mini fig tools, Antennas and rockets

16) headlight bricks

Headlight bricks were so common on the car sets in the 70's and 80's without further detail. They just stood alone without further details on the car they were on

17) translucent yellow pieces

Translucent yellow seemed to be the color for classic space vehicles compared to the green windshield of the mobile space lab. The yellow windshield on the left was present on the mobile rocket launcher and the 924, 918 and 928 sets.

18) Steering wheels..present in almost all sets!!!