Subject:
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The Dark Ages of Lego in the USA
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.general
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Date:
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Mon, 30 May 2005 22:24:19 GMT
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Just like many AFOL's/ALE's, USA Lego went thru the dark ages. Interestingly
enough, it was around the same time I went thru my own dark ages. The years
were the 1970's. In the beginning of the 1970's USA Lego sales were licensed to
the Samsonite Corporation.
As Eric Strand found out from someone highly placed at Samsonite, they were
marketting and selling Lego like they were their suitcases, not a good idea.
TLG didn't like it, and they wanted their license back. There must have been
litigation, because the Samsonite Lego set selection of 1971-72, to put it
succinctly.... SUCKED! There were only 7 sets (5 basic sets, 2 parts pack sets)
in the 1972 Samsonite catalog. By 1972 TLG revoked the license of Samsonite,
and set up shop in Connecticut. In Loveland Colorado, a 50,000 square foot
Samsonite Lego plant (relatively new, since it opened in April 1965) suddenly
went idle. But not before it cranked out the last of the ABS plastic pellets
(in inventory) into some super huge Lego sets (800-1251 pieces), and sold them
to department stores for catalog sales. These catalog sales Samsonite sets were
still in inventory as late as August 1973, a year after the Loveland CO. plant
ceased producing Lego elements.
As I mentioned TLG set up shop in Connecticut in 1972, and produced their first
USA sets in 1973 (that is why they had the Silver Anniversary Bucket in 1998,
commemorating the 1973 set sales anniversary).
Anyway, since they started from scratch, the USA Lego selection in 1973 and 1974
was very meager. Here is a comparison of the 1974 USA and German catalogs:
___________________
USA (1974 Catalog):
15 Lego sets.
1 Lego motor.
3 Duplo items.
0 Train sets/packs.
0 Spare parts pack items.
TOTAL - 19 Lego Items produced by TLG for the USA.
________________________
GERMANY (1974 Catalog):
67 Lego sets.
2 Lego motors.
10 Duplo items.
29 Train sets/packs.
27 Spare parts pack items.
TOTAL - 135 Lego Items produced by TLG for Germany.
_________________________
Every years TLG added more sets to the USA catalog, until 1980, when spare parts
packs and trains were included. But even by 1980, the number of sets was never
the quantity that were sold in Germany, and the rest of Europe.
In the mean time, Canada, where Samsonite of Canada was the licensee for Lego,
things were going a little differently. They seemed to toe the TLG line much
better than their USA division. So Samsonite remained the licensee for Canada
until it expired in 1986. And the 1986 transfer of Lego to TLG was a much
smoother affair than the 1972 transfer in the USA.
Maybe that is why in Canada they celebrate the 1962 (Samsonite) date for
Canadian Lego anniversaries, while in the USA they celebrate 1973 (start of TLG
production) instead of 1961 (first USA Samsonite Lego sets sold).
Gary Istok
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Message has 3 Replies:
 | | Re: The Dark Ages of Lego in the USA
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| In lugnet.general, Gerhard R. Istok wrote: SNIP a lot of interesting info (...) Y'know, I'm really glad your on Lugnet, Gerhard, because you really provide a wealth of historcal background on Lego, which in turn gives the hobby & community a lot of (...) (19 years ago, 31-May-05, to lugnet.general)
| | | Re: The Dark Ages of Lego in the USA
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| <snip> Gary, thank you so very much for posting this. You've answered a couple of Lego questions I've had since the early '70s, namely why certain sets were listed in catalogs but not on actual store shelves. Thanks for doing this. It's quite useful (...) (19 years ago, 31-May-05, to lugnet.general)
| | | Re: The Dark Ages of Lego in the USA
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| (...) There are several old advertisement and catalog scans available for viewing here: (URL) 1972 JCPenney catalog scan by David Shifflett is notable for the 1252 piece "bulk" set which Gary talks about. (URL) of these mail-order sets were not (...) (19 years ago, 1-Jun-05, to lugnet.general)
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