Subject:
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Re: The Termination of LEGO production in the USA in 1973...
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.general
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Date:
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Wed, 9 Jan 2013 03:03:40 GMT
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Viewed:
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20818 times
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In lugnet.general, David Koudys wrote:
> In lugnet.general, Gerhard R. Istok wrote:
> > 1973 - the year LEGO Terminated the Samsonite USA LEGO License...
> >
> > For those folks who like looking at old LEGO catalogs... there's a big gap in the the American LEGO catalog lists... more like a 2 year gap. In 1970 TLG started legal action to revoke the Samsonite USA LEGO license... reason? Underperformance of LEGO sales there. So from the early 1970 and late 1973 USA LEGO catalogs... there was a big gap... with a very tiny catalog with only 5 sets and 3 parts packs.
> >
> > Here's the story behind the reason why TLG uses 1973 as the USA LEGO anniversary
> > date... and NOT 1961... when LEGO sales (via Samsonite) first started in the
> > USA....
> > http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=77951
> >
> > Even though Canada also had Samsonite LEGO... they toe-ed the TLG line much
> > better than did the USA... and so 1962 is the start date for LEGO sales in
> > Canada... even though the first USA sales started the year before... with the
> > bricks originating from the same Canadian Samsonite plant (for a few years) in
> > Stratford Ontario... and shipped across the border....
> >
> > Enjoy the story!
> > Gary Istok
>
> I got to tour the Stratford plant in '84 or '85. The VP of sales, Jack e.
> Chessman, got a copy of my LEGO Wars movie and invited me over for a tour of the
> plant. Utterly fantastic! The plant, even though the licence was being
> revoked, was still enthused about the product and had nothing bad to say about
> TLG. (Of course, being Canadian also helps with the 'being polite' about stuff
> ;) )
>
> Anyway, in your history, is there any part about the big LEGO facility in
> Newmarket, Ontario after Samsonite lost it's licence in '85? I vaguely recall
> there was a big building with LEGO on the side--that is, before LEGO Canada was
> massively downgraded to a small office in Buttonville.
>
> Dave K
Thanks for the info Dave! By the way, I was off by 1 year with Samsonite of
Canada... it was 1986 that LEGO reverted back to TLG.
Here's the story behind Samsonite of Canada returning the LEGO license to TLG.
It was an entirely different story than what happened in the USA, where the
license was revoked.
In 1973 the Samsonite Corporation (USA and Canada) was acquired by the
multinational Beatrice Corporation... a hodgepodge of unrelated products amassed
into a large multinational firm. In 1986 the Wall Street brokerage firm of
Kolhberg Kravitz & Roberts did a leveraged buyout of Beatrice for $8.7 billion
US (largest buyout up until that time). To Wall Street Beatrice was worth more
as the sum of its' parts... rather than as a whole corporation.
So Samsonite was spun off as a separate company again (as were dozens of other
units of Beatrice), but before that happened, TLG got involved, and bought back
the Samsonite of Canada LEGO licenese from KK&R... no hostility there, just an
opportunistic business decision on the part of TLG. Samsonite became
independent, but no longer producing LEGO.
Canadian LEGO production moved to Enfield Connecticut, but LEGO Canada had
offices in Markham Ontario... possibly elsewhere later.
And of course in the last dozen years production has been moved from Enfield to
Mexico... with Enfield being another Sales Office and distribution center.
------------------
Now let me go back to the beginning of USA/Canada LEGO by Samsonite.... the
production of LEGO in both countries was licensed in 1961 to Samsonite (still
called Shwayder Brothers in the USA until 1965, but Samsonite of Canada in
Canada).
The first LEGO production here was a bi-national event. The first production
facilities of LEGO was at the Stratford Ontario Samsonite plant in 1961... with
LEGO parts produced there selling in the USA starting in 1961... and in Canada
starting in 1962. The LEGO boxes were produced at a suburban Detroit (USA)
Samsonite plant, and the LEGO Model Shop was at a Samsonite plant in Detroit.
So bricks, boxes and models were going back and forth between Detroit and
Ontario from 1961-65. In 1965 the USA subsidiary changed the name from Shwayder
Bros. (which is what it had been since its' founding in Colorado by the 4
Shwayder brothers in 1910) to Samsonite Corp.... the name of its' most popular
product. Also in 1965 Samsonite USA opened up a Loveland (suburban Denver)
Colorado plant for producing LEGO (boxes, parts and model shop) for the USA. So
1965 was the separation point for Samsonite LEGO between the 2 countries.
During the 1961-65 era... specialty parts, such as road signs, flags, Esso
Service parts, and other accessories were still produced in Denmark for both USA
and Canada. And the spare parts boxes of those item mentioned "MADE IN DENMARK"
on the boxes.
One of the specialty items that reverted to North America was the early LEGO
trees/bushes. In Europe these were hand painted with brown trunks and green
leaves. This practice of importing these trees was soon discontinued in
USA/Canada very early on (1962?)... in favor of only having unpainted green
trees/bushes made of green plastic. So these trees/bushes even had green trunks
and bases. And instead of 5 tree types (Oak, Birch, Fruit, Cypres and Pine)...
only unpainted Pine trees and the unpainted Evergreen bushes were sold in
USA/Canada by Samsonite. From 1961-72 these came in several different shades of
green, in several types of plastic.
In 1966, when USA and Canada Samsonite production were split between Stratford
and Loveland... the trees/bushes changed as well. The USA Samsonite
trees/bushes started having "feet" that would wedge the tree/bush "between" the
studs (in Europe the new donut hollow bottom trees/bushes fit "onto" the studs).
However, in Canada... they continued to produce flat bottom unpainted Pine Trees
and Evergreen bushes as they had since 1961/62.
Other changes between USA and Canada Samsonite parts and sets were introduced...
such as separately numbered spare parts packs, different parts, and the
introduction of USA department store exclusive sets (those in Canada were
regular store bought sets until the 1970s, but in the USA exclusive boxes and
set numbers were made for department store catalog exclusive sets).
Once the USA Samsonite license was revoked in 1973, the USA started having
different set numbers than Canada and the rest of the world until circa 1980.
For example... the London Bus set was numbered 760 in the USA and 384 in the
rest of the world. The reason that this was happening (from 1973-80) has never
been explained by TLG... but I believe it had something to do with TLG being
worried that Canadian Samsonite LEGO sets may find their way to the USA... and
the only way to counter that was to use different set numbers. This has never
been confirmed by TLG, but it makes perfect sense. Note also that a select few
sets did have the same set number in USA/Canada... such as the 190 Farm Set (not
sold elsewhere), and the 575 Coast Guard Set (sold earlier in the rest of the
world as 369).
In my LEGO DVD/download, there are at least a dozen chapters that highlight the
differences between USA and Canada Samsonite and TLG sets, and those sold
elsewhere in the world... chapters on USA/Canada Department Store Catalog sales,
USA/Canada promotional sets, USA/Canada spare parts packs 1961-65 and 1966-72,
USA/Canada basic sets, USA/Canada exclusive LEGO elements (such as waffle bottom
plates in other colors besides white), LEGO trees/bushes, USA/Canada LEGO
catalogs, idea books, and many other country specific LEGO parts and sets.
I hope this long winded reply gives an indication of why the DVD/download ended
up as 2,800 pages... there are sooooo many anomalies between LEGO sold in
different parts of the world. The UK/Ireland/Australia LEGO sets by licensee
Courtauld's chemical/textile giant (as British LEGO Ltd. of Wrexham Wales) is
another long winded story about the big puzzle that is LEGO.
Some historic USA/Canada Samsonite images.... from the DVD download...
1) USA/Canada Samsonite LEGO Model Shop... Detroit, in 1962.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/82930629@N08/8363550224/sizes/l/in/photostream/
2) 1967-71 USA Samsonite LEGO spare parts packs....
http://www.flickr.com/photos/82930629@N08/8363573306/sizes/l/in/photostream/
3) 1969-73 Canadian Samsonite LEGO spare parts packs...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/82930629@N08/8363575430/sizes/l/in/photostream/
Cheers,
Gary Istok
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