Subject:
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Announcement About Historic LEGO
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.general
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Date:
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Thu, 30 Oct 2008 02:36:40 GMT
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Viewed:
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7619 times
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I always wondered why I had never seen a box for the #258, #259, #260 or #275
LEGO 1:87 VW vehicles. I know of a dozen collectors who collectively have
hundreds of boxed rare 1:87 cars and trucks, but none have any of these 4
vehicle numbers BOXED.
http://guide.lugnet.com/set/258_2
http://guide.lugnet.com/set/259
http://guide.lugnet.com/set/260_2
http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItem.asp?S=275-2
Even Richard Haussmann’s book on 1:87 vehicles doesn’t show boxes for these 4
vehicles.
And the new 800 page Official LEGO Collectors Guides shows only catalog artwork
images (as seen above), and not boxed sets.
My LEGO History CD also doesn’t have any examples of these 4 vehicles in a box.
So what gives??
Well Texas LEGO collector Eric Strand sent me some photos that finally shed some
light on why these 4 vehicles NEVER came in a box...
They were only sold in VW 1:87 Retailer Boxes as individual parts that a LEGO
buyer (usually a child) would pick out of the retailer box. Because the number
of “2 color” color combinations on the VW van and pickup number about 18, TLG
must have decided to let the customer pick and choose which color(s) they wanted
to purchase.
These VW 1:87 retailer boxes were likely produced from 1957-64 (when the #600
series of vehicles replaced the #200 series).
Why has it taken this long to even find one of these very rare VW retailer
boxes? Perhaps they were flimsy, and didn’t hold up well to wear. The Danish
(1957-60) example shown below looks like it is falling apart.
Also, as part of retailer boxes, TLG had to provide for refills. The refill
shown below (#259) is a 5 vehicle assortment that were removed from these plain
cardboard boxes and inserted into the retailer box. This similar scenario
happens with 1957-65 #214 1-10 windows/doors retailer boxes.
But unlike the rare windows/door retailer boxes, these 1:87 VW retailer boxes
must be extremely rare (only ever seen this one.. and I don’t think they have
one in the Billund LEGO Collections). The likely survival rate of these
interesting VW retailer boxes (there’s a Masonite wooden partition between each
row of vehicles) must have been extremely low, since this is the only known
example I have ever seen.
These very rare VW retailer boxes were likely only sold in continental Europe
(1957-64), and possibly from 1960-62 in Britain.
Another mystery solved! :-D
Gary Istok
P.S. The VW Beetle WAS found boxed in the 1958 Showcase boxed #261 and 1962
garage boxed @261 sets, but those boxes were plastic. Starting in late 1964, the
new #600 series of vehicles were introduced, and these VW vehicles are all found
in small cardboard boxes:
http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItemPic.asp?S=472-1
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