LEGO Wheels
April of 1962 saw the introduction of the very first LEGO wheel element to builders everywhere. Take a look at the awesome retro catalog pages from yesteryear that LEGO sent our way, and check out all the stuff you didn’t know about LEGO wheels.
LEGO fans were excited to finally get their hands on a wheel element that could be used to make any kind of vehicle they could imagine. The proof is in the numbers. The very first LEGO wheel was included in set #400, which debuted in 1962 and went on to become the bestselling set in 1967, selling 820,400 boxes. That’s incredible, even by today’s standards.
A little more trivia… Nowadays, LEGO produces 381 million wheels a year; the company likes to brag that they’re “the largest tire manufacturer in the world,” and I suppose they really are! The smallest LEGO wheel ever made was just 14.4 millimeters high; it came in a small, two-seater that was included with sets #345 and #346 back in 1969. The biggest LEGO wheel is 10.7 centimeters high, produced for set #8456, the “Power Puller” set from the year 2000. You can see images of all of these sets in the gallery below.
Special thanks to LEGO for sending over these images for our readers to enjoy.
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- Modern LEGO wheel production looks like this
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- Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen (L) and Godtfred Kirk Christiansen (R), the grandson and son of LEGO founder Ole Kirk Kristiansen, playing with the first LEGO set to include wheels
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- LEGO Wheels
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- Before LEGO made wheels, some sets included pre-molded cars or wheel alternatives, such as round pieces that could spin
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- An example of the pre-molded cars that LEGO made before the LEGO wheel was introduced
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- LEGO set #8457 “Power Puller,” which debuted the biggest wheels LEGO has ever made
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- The first-ever LEGO set to include a wheel, set #400