Subject:
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What is Samsonite Lego?
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.general
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Date:
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Thu, 19 Aug 1999 15:05:43 GMT
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Viewed:
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4508 times
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OK, someone recently asked me what Samsonite Lego is.
LEGO, as we all know was founded in Denmark. By the mid 1950's, it was
sold throughout the Scandanavian countries of Europe. In 1956 it
started selling in West Germany, Europes largest market. By the early
1960's TLG wanted to expand to the USA and Canada. However, this was
such a large market for a small company like TLG to get into, that it
formed a licensing partnership with the Samsonite Corporation of Denver
Colorado. The license (as was just stated by Anders Isaksson of Sweden)
was for 99 years, although TLG purchased back the license in 1972. So
between 1961 and 1972 all US Lego boxes said "LEGO by Samsonite". The
Canadian Samsonite connection, if memory serves me correctly, lasted a
lot longer -- from 1962 to 1986.
For many years, Samsonite made different sets than TLG Europe. Even the
numbers were different. I believe in the later years some of the sets
did match what was produced by TLG Europe.
The service packs were an interesting exception. In the early years the
parts pack numbers were the same, but the Samsonite boxes were larger,
and usually contained more parts. Then in the later years, the service
packs were totally different in number.
In my opinion 2 of the most beautiful and interesting sets ever produced
by Lego were the Junior Constructor (#717) and the Town Plan (#725).
These were both produced from 1961-65 in some very large (and very
heavy) thick cardboard boxes.
Starting in 1973, TLG took over and the USA Lego headquarters were moved
to Enfield Connecticut.
Gary Istok
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Message has 3 Replies:
 | | Re: What is Samsonite Lego?
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| Gary Istok <gistok@umich.edu> wrote in article <37BC1D46.5C36F5E5@u...ch.edu>... (...) For curiousity's sake, I live about a mile and a half from the building where the Canadian Samsonite Lego was distributed back then. (Stratford, ON) My mind (...) (25 years ago, 20-Aug-99, to lugnet.general)
| | | U.S. Lego (Was Re: What is Samsonite Lego?)
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| (...) I'm wondering how accurate that explanation is. Doesn't the U.S. have particularly high import tariffs[1]? So is it possible that Lego would have been deemed shipping through U.S. import duties too expensive compared to making the Lego in the (...) (25 years ago, 20-Aug-99, to lugnet.general)
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