instructables
Wooden LEGO Duck
by BrittLiv
I have been obsessed with LEGO ever since I can
remember. Those small plastic building blocks were
de nitely one of my favorite toys as a kid and I still
buy LEGO sets from time to time, even though I am in
my thirties now (I have also written three
Instructables that have to do with LEGO so far).
As a new mother my son is de nitely still too young
for the small LEGO pieces, but he has a bunch of
LEGO PRIMOS.
I have known for a few years that the LEGO company
has also produced wooden toys and wanted to buy
Wooden LEGO Duck: Page 1
one. Sadly they are rare and most of the time really
expensive. The wooden LEGO duck is by far my
favorite toy of that line, but I was never able to buy it.
So I nally decided to make my own. The bonus of
making one myself is that I can give it to my son and
not worry about its value.
The special thing about it is that when it moves it
opens and closes its beak. I hope that you will have as
much fun with it as I do.
ht t ps://www.yout ube.com/embed/jUwuvM6_ez4
Step 1: A Brief LEGO History

Many probably don't know, but before the founder of
LEGO Ole Kirk Kristiansen produced the small plastic
bricks, he solely produced wooden toys.
In 1934 he came up with the name "LEGO", which
stems from the Danish words "LEg GOdt", meaning
"playing well". Ole Kirk always said that "children
deserve the best" and later adopted the motto "only
the best is good enough".
It took until 1958 until a patent was led for what
became the modern LEGO brick. They were a vast
improvement over LEGO’s earlier Automatic Binding
Bricks.
The wooden lego duck was rst produced in 1935 and
was fabricated up until LEGO stopped making
wooden toys in 1960. It is without a doubt the most
famous wooden toy LEGO ever produced.

After solely producing wooden toys until 1948, Ole If you would like to see more wooden LEGO toys than
Kirk purchased a plastic injection molding machine go ahead and check out this photostream.
that would change LEGO forever and make it the
household name it is today. From that moment on, he
began replacing the wooden toys with plastic ones.

Step 2: Replicating the Original

Wooden LEGO Duck: Page 2

There are many di erent versions of the lego duck, so
I had to decide, which one I would like to replicate. I
decided to go with the most famous version, but use a
wire as the hinge for the head and not a wooden pole
(this version was also produced). Later Ole Kirk
switched over to making the entire mechanism out of
wire. You can of course build and paint the duck
however you would like.
Before starting I had to gure out the mechanism. I
wanted to take a closer look at the original duck in the
LEGO house, but sadly couldn't due to COVID-19. So I
started looking around the web and found this
technical drawing. While it shows a newer version of
the duck (with a wire mechanism and not a wooden
one) it was really helpful, but as you can see in the
picture all the measurements were removed. After
some more research, I found this full building guide
of a copy of the LEGO duck made from plastic bricks.
Luckily on page 4 for there is a small snipped of the

drawing with measurements, so I was able to scale
everything to the correct size.
So my duck should be extremely close to the original
one.
As for the wood I decided to go with larch since I
bought a vintage toy (a broken one I am planning on
xing) and I am very sure that it is made from larch.

Step 3: What You Need

Here is what you need to make your own wooden LEGO duck:

M a t e ria l

Wood (4 mm, 8 mm, and 18 mm thick). As explained in the last step I used larch. Sadly I can't plane 4
mm thin. Therefore I used plywood for these parts.
6 mm round wooden pole (two 63 mm long pieces and one about 108 mm long)
1 mm wire (I tried thicker wire, but couldn't bend it) and thinner wire is too imsy
Paint: red, green, blue, black, white, brown, dark yellow*
Varnish*
Spray Adhesive Glue
Carbon Copy Paper (I used this one (#CommissionsEarned**))
Nails (three 1.5 mm x 20 mm)
Optional: primer

Wooden LEGO Duck: Page 3

To o ls

Scroll saw
Drill press (1.5 mm; 2 mm; 3 mm; 6 mm; 7 mm; 10 mm drill bits)
Disc sander
Pliers
Scissors
Router (rounding cutter: diameter 32.7 mm, radius 10 mm with a bearing)
Paintbrushes
Clamps
Optional: 44 m hole saw

* Please make sure that all the paints and varnishes are safe to use for toys. In Europe, they have to comply with
DIN EN 71/3 "Safety of toys - Part 3: Migration of certain elements". Check the can, it should have a label on it.

** As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

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Step 4: Let's Get Started

Start by downloading the templates from the last
step and print them. Apply spray adhesive to the back
and stick them to the wood that matches the
thickness that is noted on the paper.
Please make sure to align the grain along the length
of the duck. The template also includes the wheels,
should you not want to use a hole saw. To cut the
other 8 mm pieces a circular saw may be better than a
scroll saw. But I recently got my scroll saw and wanted
to practice straight lines.

Wooden LEGO Duck: Page 4

Step 5: Sawing
Now on to cutting the pieces. I used a scroll saw to so.
There are black lines, blue lines, and green lines.
The blue lines are needed so that you can hold the
pieces during the routing and should help you with
getting better corners.
So in the rst go, cut along the lines that are thicker in
the rst image of this step. You should cut precisely
Wooden LEGO Duck: Page 5
around the black lines and somehow close along the
blue lines as shown in the second picture.
As you can see in the picture I didn't cut too close to
the line on the 4 mm pieces since I had some tear out
and gured that I could easily sand them to the
correct size, as shown in the third picture.
Step 6: Routing

Now onto the routing. I got the bit I needed but had
to nd out that it didn't t into my router. So I had to
remove the base plate. I wanted to round the corners,
but just slightly and not all the way. So instead of
using the whole radius of 10 mm I used about 8 mm,
as shown in the image on the left.

In the end, the pieces should look like as shown in the

last picture. Make sure to round both sides.

Wooden LEGO Duck: Page 6

Step 7: Sawing #2

Now back to the scroll saw. Simply cut along all the black lines. As you can see in the third picture, I forgot the
inside of the front of the duck and had to remove it later.

Wooden LEGO Duck: Page 7

Step 8: Drilling
Onto the drilling. Most of it is pretty straightforward.
The sizes of the holes are noted on the template. I
used a hole saw to cut the wheels, as you can see in
the second picture.
The green lines on the front piece of the duck marks a
Step 9: Assembly
Before the assembly, all the pieces need to be sanded.
But make sure not to remove the paper from the
bottom pieces as shown in the rst picture, since you
will need them for alignment later on.
Simply glue the wings to the body pieces as shown in
the second picture.
Wooden LEGO Duck: Page 8
7 mm hole that needs to be drilled. Mark the center of
the hole on top of the duck and drill all the way
through. Make sure that the piece is standing
perfectly upright otherwise the mechanism won't
work.
Then glue the eyes to the top of the head of the duck
as shown in the third picture. I used a piece of wire for
the alignment.
As you can see in the last picture I marked where the
moving part goes and sanded some of it away so that
the head can move smoothly.
Step 10: Assembling the Bottom

Now cut the wooden pole to the correct length. The axles need to be 63 mm long and the wooden pole that moves
the head about 108 mm.

The wheels and the duck aren't centered. Therefore you have to make sure that the arrows are pointing to the front
and the thinner part underneath the holes has to be on the bottom as shown in the second and third picture.

Wooden LEGO Duck: Page 9

Step 11: Adding the Duck to the Bottom

In order to attach the duck to the bottom, I used a the front of the duck. To glue the pieces together, I
vice. I tried using a clamp on my prototypes. but it used weights as shown in the third picture.
didn't work too well.
Once the glue is dried I used nails to add some more
Place the duck in the center and use your 108 mm stability as shown in the last picture.
pole to align it. The pole has to go through the 10 mm
hole in the bottom and 7 mm hole that goes through

Wooden LEGO Duck: Page 10

Step 12: Painting
Onto the painting. The plywood I used had a defect,
so before painting, I lled it with wood ller.
The original LEGO wood toy I own is not primed, but I
decided to prime mine so that the paint stays on it
better.
There are many di erent versions of the duck out
there so you can, of course, paint it however you
would like.
I have uploaded my color scheme to this step, which is
a direct copy of the original one. Feel free to use it.
There are two les, one for each side. I used carbon
copy paper to trace the lines onto the duck, as shown
in the third picture.
I painted one color at a time, but if you have paint
that has better opacity than mine you might want to
think about using base colors and adding the details
ontop (it took me about ve layers for each color).
Wooden LEGO Duck: Page 11
I found a fun little story about varnishing the toys:
Godtfred Kirk (Ole Kirk's son) is laying the nishing
touches on a consignment of wooden LEGO ducks.
This means applying coats of varnish, and nally
bringing the boxes with the nished toy ducks to the
train station for dispatch. Back at the workshop,
Godtfred proudly announces to his father that he has
done something really clever and saved the company
money. – “How did you manage that?” asks Ole Kirk. –
“I gave the ducks just two coats of varnish, not three
as we usually do,” is Godtfred Kirk’s answer. Back
comes his father’s prompt response: – “You will
immediately fetch those ducks back, give them the
last coat of varnish, pack them and return them to the
station! And you will do it on your own – even if it
takes you all night!”
So, of course, we are going to add three coats of
varnish.
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Step 13: The Mechnism

Next, we are going to attach the mechanism to the Place the piece into your toy and drive a nail into it.
axle. I marked the middle of the axle and place the Afterward, I covered the hole with some glue and
small distance piece onto it. I was afraid that it could sanded it smooth.
break if I would directly drive the nail into it and
therefore predrilled a 1.5 mm hole. To sink in the nail
head I drill another short 4 mm hole into it.

Wooden LEGO Duck: Page 12

Step 14: Attaching the Wheels

Now attach the wheels and paint the visible parts of
the axles red.
At this point, we are going to dry- t the mechanism.
Place the wooden pole through the top of the neck
and place the head onto it. Depending on how well
you cut and aligned the pieces the length may be
slightly o . Turn the front wheel and check whether
the length of the poles is right. If so, use a 1 mm wire
and attach the head to the body as shown in the last
picture. Otherwise, shorten it slightly and test again.
Congratulation, you are done. I hope you have fun
with it!

Wooden LEGO Duck: Page 13

This came out amazing and I love it! I had forgotten he made wooden toys before LEGO.

Thank you I had a lot of fun making it and my son loves it. So overall a gret project.

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