As a millennial, I can confidently say that I was perhaps the last ever generation to really see the rotary phone before it completely went out of common circulation. Kids these days probably wouldn’t even be familiar with landline phones in general, but the rotary phone was a mainstay of houses back in the 70s, phasing out in the 80s and 90s, when I was born.
“We were always meant to express ourselves, from cave paintings to hieroglyphics, from poetry to songs and letters. But imagine being able to communicate without borders, without boundaries,” says HisBrickMaterials, who put together this gorgeous MOC of an old-timey rotary phone using just LEGO bricks. The detail is flawless, the phone actually lifts off the receiver, and the dial rotates too, although the designer’s looking for ways to incorporate a spring into it so the dial returns to its old position after rotating.
Designer: HisBrickMaterials
Although there’s no official model or make on this MOC, HisBrickMaterials’ creation is roughly “based on a 1930s telephone from Denmark,” as an ode to the rotary phone he saw in his grandparents’ house. There’s no official brick count, but just the phone’s bakelite-inspired body looks like it’s got hundreds of tiny pieces coming together to create the design.
Bakelite was a ‘thermoset resin’ often used back in the day as a form of plastic before the common plastics ended up replacing it. It had great insulating capabilities, making it perfect for appliances or anything with electrical components. The telephone, as well as plug sockets/switches were some of the most common places where this particular resin could be found.
The square-ish receiver comes with a dial that is actually alphanumeric rather than just having numbers. This is because a lot of people preferred giving out ‘words’ rather than numbers back in the day. For example, companies like the Holiday Inn would make it easier to remember numbers by telling you to dial “1-800-HOLIDAY”, rather than having you remember “1-800-4654329.” The system obviously differed from country to country (this particular model has a few distinct differences, with the palpable absence of the letter W). These ‘Phonewords’ were a popular mnemonic device to help remember numbers.
Other details like the ergonomic handset, the ornate hand-rest, and that swirly cord make this MOC (My Own Creation) absolutely iconic in my book. The LEGO Ideas Telephone is currently a submission on LEGO’s community website, where fans share their own unique builds and vote for their favorites. MOCs that hit the 10k vote mark are then sent to LEGO’s internal team, which helps develop the concept into a retail box set (we recently got word that just got green-lit for a box set last week!)
You can cast your vote for HisBrickMaterials’ MOC on the !
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