Subject:
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Samsonite (USA) vs. TLG (Europe)
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.general
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Date:
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Tue, 2 Mar 1999 14:52:57 GMT
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Viewed:
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1298 times
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Simon Robinson wrote:
> Wow! Thanks, Gary (and Steve for your other reply).
>
> That was an impressive explanation - answered several questions. And I
> know have another word in my vocabulary (gable) :) I haven't heard
> the term 'dormer' before so I assume that's a US one.
>
> I'll have to have a look in the UK Service Pack brochures to see if we
> have any black roof packs. If we do I'll be snapping some of them up.
> Not sure I've got any brochures yet. I've so far only bought one 1999 set
> - and that was very small and I can't remember if it had a service pack
> thingy in it.
>
> So were the bricks made by Samsonite exactly the same as the Lego ones?
> Same type of plastic etc? Were the boxes any different?
>
> Simon
> http://www.SimonRobinson.com
Simon,
Here are 2 examples of what was available in the USA (Samsonite) in 1961 (first
year LEGO available there), and what was available in the UK in 1961. (The USA
brochure is from Bill Katz/Joe Lauher, the UK brochure is from Ray Gal.)
This sort of gives you an indication of what some of the differences were between
Samsonite (USA), and LEGO (UK). I believe that the continental European sets had
different box tops from the UK sets from that time, even though they were both
produced from the LEGO Group in Denmark.
1961 US Samsonite Sets:
http://www.chem.sunysb.edu/msl/LEGO/60s_d2.jpg
1961 UK TLG Sets:
http://astro.caltech.edu/~rrg/lego/smuk1961v1f1.jpg
This is another reason why Classic LEGO collecting is so much fun. There is such a
wide variety. Today there may be more sets available each year, but it's pretty
much the same sets (with exceptions) in each country. The LEGO plastic used by
Samsonite and TLG is basically the same plastic (either Cellulose Acetate or ABS
plastic). Only it appears that TLG migrated from Cellulose Acetate (starting in
1961) to ABS a few years earlier than Samsonite did.
Gary Istok
> > No problem Simon, a gable (in the context I am using it) is a peak roof • piece. A
> > gable connector is one of those 2x2 (regular sloped) peak pieces that looks • like
> > someone took a bite out of it. In a roof construction, it is used when you • use
> > those inside (concave) corner bricks that you describe below as having 1 • missing
> > stud. These inside corner bricks are common in red and black (service • packs). The
> > opposite of this piece is the outside (convex) corner bricks, which would • have 3
> > missing studs.
> >
> > Here is a breakdown of regular sloped LEGO piece names:
> >
> > 1x2, 2x2, 2x3, 2x4, 2x8 regular sloped bricks.
> > 1x2, 2x2, 2x3, 2x4 peak (apex) bricks.
> > 2x2 inside (concave) corner regular sloped bricks.
> > 2x2 outside (convex) corner regular sloped bricks.
> > 1x2 peak (apex) half pyramid bricks.
> > 2x2 peak (apex) gable connector bricks.
> >
> > There may be other names for some of these pieces, but this is pretty much • all of
> > them. The only time you would use the corner bricks, the half pyramid or • gable
> > connector bricks is when the roof line is "T" shaped, or "X" shaped, or if you
> > include dormers in your roof.
> >
> > And those inside corner bricks that you describe below, have always been • common in
> > red, used to be common (in the 1960's) in blue, and now are once again going • to be
> > common (thanks to the new 1999 black slopes service packs) in black. They • are very
> > rare in white (only one helicopter set in the 1970's had 2 of them), and might
> > exist in grey in some of the recent sets. They do not however exist in • yellow or
> > green.
> >
> > Gary Istok
> >
> > > Another roof brick I'd be interested in is the one for inside corners -
> > > I remember they used to exist in the 70s but haven't seen them since.
> > > They're like 2x2 basic bricks, except one of the studs on top is missing,
> > > because one corner of the brick has two interlocked roof slopes. The kind
> > > of brick you'd put in X in the diagram. (When is Lego going to release
> > > a database of official brick names? :) )
> > >
> > > ROOF HERE |
> > > |
> > > X------N (N= normal corner)
> > > |
> > > Is this related to what a gable is?
> >
> >
> > If you looked at a roofline from the side, that "A" shaped side is known as a
> > gable. Any dormer with this "A" is also a gable (hence the "HOUSE OF SEVEN • GABLES"
> > is a house with a lot of dormers and wings).
> >
> > > And while I'm on the subject of asking lots of questions - something not • from
> > > your message, but I've seen it a few times. Samsonite era???
> >
> >
> > Yes, when LEGO first came to North America in 1961, the US/Canadian market • was so
> > huge, that a tiny Danish company didn't have the capital or workforce to • handle
> > such a large addition to its market. So LEGO licensed its product to the • Samsonite
> > corporation, which was a leading manufacturer of plastic products (suitcases).
> > This relationship lasted until 1973 in the USA, and until the mid '80s in • Canada.
> > Now all LEGO worldwide is made by TLG. So when we refer to Samsonite LEGO • we're
> > talking about 1961-72 in the USA. This product pretty much mirrored what was
> > available in Europe (parts packs, smaller & medium sized sets, etc), with 2 • notable
> > exceptions. The 2 largest Samsonite sets - Junior Constructor (#717) and • Town
> > Plan (#725) were Samsonite only products, and never available in Europe (or
> > elsewhere). This is one reason that they are special.
> >
> > Gary Istok
> >
> > > Simon
> > > http://www.SimonRobinson.com
> > >
> > >
> > > > Take for example the new black sloped bricks service packs. They contain • all
> > > > regular sloped bricks except 2 types, the 1x2 half pyramid peaks, and the • 2x2
> > > > peak gable connectors. These just happen to be 2 pieces that were used a • lot
> > > in
> > > > recent sets (RoboForce set 2152 has 10 of the black gable connectors). • Makes
> > > > you wonder if surplus inventory is an added criteria for service packs? • Maybe
> > > > TLG has too many green bricks in inventory? So make a service pack out of • them.
> > > >
> > > > Very interesting,
> > > > Gary Istok
> > > >
> > > > Mark Koesel wrote:
> > > >
> > > > > --
> > > > > Mark Koesel
> > > > > koesel@umich.edu
> > > > >
> > > > > Gary Istok <gistok@umich.edu> wrote in message
> > > > > 36DAC4A2.3A677305@umich.edu...
> > > > > > I was browsing thru some of may old fence pieces, and came across an old
> > > > > > parts pack from 1982, small set #1209 (in clear plastic bag) which I
> > > > > > purchased in Germany. It was sold with the train accessories, and • contains
> > > > > > 6 red (2x4) pieces and 1 red (2x4) gate piece.
> > > > > >
> > > > > > There are 2 other parts packs (one from 1970 (Samsonite), the other • circa
> > > > > > 1975), that also contained red fence pieces. I don't really ever • remember
> > > > > > seeing fence pieces in any other color as ever being in a parts pack.
> > > > >
> > > > > Hey Gary, check this out:
> > > > >
> > > > > http://www.kl.net/scans/catalogs/1991/s91uk/s91uk-02.jpg
> > > > >
> > > > > Would you believe that they put red 2x4's in the same pack as black
> > > > > 2x3 gates? I fail to see the logic in that. But anyway, there is (or
> > > > > rather, was) a source for the repotedly rare 2x3 gates in black.
> > > > >
> > > > > BTW, I find it intriguing to look through all the old european
> > > > > service brochures -- there were lots of cool things available. Has
> > > > > anyone ever inquired through busy bee (et. al.) as to the
> > > > > availability of these. I remember someone syaing a few months
> > > > > back that busy bee still had the Lego storage containers (also from
> > > > > this era), for example.
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Message is in Reply To:
 | | Re: Fence colours
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| Wow! Thanks, Gary (and Steve for your other reply). That was an impressive explanation - answered several questions. And I know have another word in my vocabulary (gable) :) I haven't heard the term 'dormer' before so I assume that's a US one. I'll (...) (25 years ago, 2-Mar-99, to lugnet.general)
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