Subject:
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Rare LEGO Promotional Sets
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.general
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Date:
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Sun, 18 Nov 2012 05:12:28 GMT
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Viewed:
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15449 times
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TLG has been making LEGO Promotional Sets for other coumpanies ever since 1955,
when the first Danish Esso Service Stations were giving out LEGO Esso vehicles.
One of the most famous and interesting promotional LEGO sets was the 1592 Town
Square set of 1980-83. It came in 2 variations... British and Dutch... however
its' history is much more complex than 2 versions of the same set (only
difference being box top image and sticker sheet print).
The first version of the 1592 Town Square set was produced for British/Irish
cereal maker WEETABIX (similar to USA "Cream Of Wheat") in 1980. It had a box
top showing a UK flag, and stickers applied with English text....
http://www.flickr.com/photos/82930629@N08/8195509792/sizes/z/in/photostream/
Then in 1983 this same set was sold in the Netherlands for soap and food product
maker UNILEVER Corp. (long known as LEVER BROS. in the USA)... but with a
different box top showing a Dutch flag, and stickers applied with Dutch text...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/82930629@N08/8194418673/sizes/z/in/photostream/
Ordinarily this just appears as the same sets sold in 2 countries with a
different sticker sheet, and a box top to reflect that. HOWEVER... the true
story is MUCH more complex...
When TLG produced the first UK (Weetabix) 1592 sets... they were sold via mail
order... with the information for ordering the set found on the back of Weetabix
boxes. By 1981 the promotion had ended in the UK... but TLG still had quite a
few UK sets in their Billund inventory. What did they do with them?
Well by 1981-82 TLG decided to have the "SPIELZEUGRING"... a German association
of independent toy stores, sell the remaining UK inventory of this set. So they
advertised them in Germany for sale. So the UK boxed 1592 (with UK flag
stickers and English text) were sold in Germany circa 1981-82. Here's a German
magazine advertisement showing this....
http://www.flickr.com/photos/82930629@N08/8194419621/in/photostream
OK, now we fast forward 1 year to 1983... Dutch UNILEVER corporation decides to
sell the same 1592 set, but with a sticker sheet with Dutch flag and Dutch
language on the stickers and box top. This Dutch version of the 1592 set was
sold to promote UNOX Soups (many flavors), a product of UNILEVER Corp. These
1983 introduced sets were sold if you sent in several UNOX soup labels and money
to buy the set and pay for the shipping.
One good Dutch acquaintance of mine (Jeroen) had 2 brothers around his age and
all 3 were kids in the 1980s. His parents often had to buy things in groups of
3... to keep all the kids happy. Well his parents bought enough UNOX Soup to be
able to order 3 of the Dutch 1592 sets back in 1983. Well something funny
happened when the 3 sets arrived at Jeroen's house... something very strange...
2 of the sets were the Dutch (1983) 1592 sets... and 1 of the sets was the
British (1980) version of the set!!
So it seems that TLG sold the 1980 UK version in Britain in 1980-81... then sold
most of the remainder in Germany in 1981-82... but a few of the UK sets were
leftovers... that were shipped out with the new 1983 Dutch sets!!
So as we all know... TLG NEVER threw anything away... and they kept selling sets
until the supply was exhausted.
For further reading about a dozen other rare promotional set, see my EUROBRICKS
article that ties into this LUGNET article... with lots of advertisements for
other promotional LEGO sets....
http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=76126
Online databases give you just basic information... but my LEGO DVD download
gives you the reasons and history about some of the odder things that TLG did...
and why they were done that way! :)
Cheers,
Gary Istok
P.S. Current 73 chapter LEGO DVD download includes all future updates for
free...
http://news.lugnet.com/market/buy-sell-trade/?n=17836
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Message has 1 Reply:
 | | Re: Rare LEGO Promotional Sets
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| (...) I'm allowed to be off-topic, right? :-) WEETABIX is nothing like "Cream of Wheat". I don't know about the US, but for a while WEETABIX was sold in Canada as well. Think of small bran flakes moulded into an oval form, about 3/4 inch thick and 4 (...) (11 years ago, 18-Nov-12, to lugnet.general)
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