LEGO Historian Posted February 20, 2014 (edited) Several of you have suggested that I talk on the history of more recent LEGO... sooooo here ya go! When I was first putting together my LEGO Collectors Guide 6 years ago, I came across some very unusual Minifig sets that were unique to Canada. Actually, the truth be told... there seem to have been a lot of sets that were unique to Canada. When USA Samsonite lost the LEGO license in 1972 (due to poor sales), TLG took back the license, and moved the USA LEGO HQ from Loveland Colorado to first Brookfield Connecticut, and within a year or two, moved it to Enfield. But Samsonite of Canada somehow avoided this fate, and managed to hold onto their license to produce LEGO until 1985. During this time, Samsonite of Canada produced a few unique sets, especially LEGO minifig sets in the early 1980s. Why these were produced only in Canada (at the Stratford Ontario Samsonite plant) is a mystery with few answers... but it made for interesting and desireable early minifig sets. The first of these was a group of 6 sets... the 0011 thru 0016 packs. When you look at the online databases, they are all over the map on these. Lugnet mentions they are 1978 sets, Brickset mentions that they are 1979 sets, and Bricklink mentions that they are 1982 sets. The 0011 Town Set... The 0012 Space Set... The 0013 Space Set... The 0014 Space Set... The 0015 Space Set... The 0016 Castle Set... Interestingly enough, these packs mention a 1978 copyright date. However, that may have been the copyright date for minifigs in general. Several things point against a 1978 release date... one is that except for a few space sets released at Christmas 1978, the Space System was mainly released in 1979. Also the red and white space minifigs were introduced in 1979, but the yellow minifigs were not released until 1982. So this would lend credence to a 1982 release date. These interesting Canadian minfig sets were not the first minifig sets. Other sets were sold at that time, such as the 677 (1979) Knights Procession set (sold in 1981 as 6077 in USA)... and the 6302 (1982) and 6308 (1982) Town sets (with others to follow later). Only the Space System minifig sets (6701 and 6711, 1983) came out later. Since the Canadian market for LEGO was not all that large during the Samsonite years, these very interesting Samsonite sets make for a very desireable collection of early minifigs, that are highly sought by early minifig collectors. But why did Canada have such a nice assortment of minifigs, while other markets did not? Especially the many different Space minifigs? We may never know! One other footnote about Samsonite of Canada... in 1973 the Beatrice Corp., a multinational conglomerate of companies, purchased Samsonite Corporation, and Samsonite of Canada was under the Beatrice label... although the LEGO sets in Canada were still produced in the Stratford Samsonite plant in Ontario. However, in 1985 the USA Wall Street brokerage firm of Kohlberg, Kravitz & Roberts (KK&R) did a hostile takeover of Beatrice Corp. (apparently the separate parts were worth more than the sum of the corporation)... and it became the largest hostile takeover until that time in business history. When KK&R sold off the the remains of Beatrice into separate companies, Samsonite once again became an independent company. But before that happened, TLG saw an opportunity, and purchased the LEGO license back from KK&R. So Samsonite became independent... minus the LEGO production... which move to Enfield, along with the managing of LEGO in Canada. Thus ended the Samsonite logo from LEGO sales forever.... It's these little quirks and anomalies, that made writing a collectors guide such a passion for me to undertake!! (More on Samsonite LEGO in Canada coming...) Edited February 20, 2014 by LEGO Historian Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
LEGO Historian Posted February 20, 2014 (edited) Since I'm on a Samsonite of Canada tangent... they did some other quirky things that was very interesting in Canada. One of them was producing some value packs without numbers on them. In 1985 Samsonite of Canada released this unnumbered value pack (listed as set 00 in Bricklink).... Also produced in 1985 was another (unknown?) unnumbered value pack... Edited February 20, 2014 by LEGO Historian Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
62Bricks Posted February 20, 2014 (edited) Interesting that the Samsonite minifig sets were sold with assembled figures. Was this done anywhere else? Added: I do recall some recent blister-pack minifig and accessory sets with assembled figs, now. Edited February 20, 2014 by 62Bricks Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
LEGO Historian Posted February 20, 2014 (edited) Interesting that the Samsonite minifig sets were sold with assembled figures. Was this done anywhere else? Added: I do recall some recent blister-pack minifig and accessory sets with assembled figs, now. OH NO!!! They sold "used" minifigs!! Hehehe... I find that using provenance as a criteria for conditon an absurdity... in any other collectible its' only based on one thing... "condition... condition... condition". Whether you assemble it, or whether it's assembled by the company... the end result is that there is no difference in the actual condition... Sorry 62Bricks... I digress.... I was just commenting on how some people use a determination other than actual condition as a criteria for condition... ... and yes... there are other blisterpacks with assembled minifigs out there... Edited February 20, 2014 by LEGO Historian Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
LEGO Historian Posted February 20, 2014 (edited) A year after Samsonite of Canada released the 0011 thru 0016 minifig packs, they released another set of packs that were "Canada only". These two new minifig packs were listed in the 1983 Canadian LEGO catalog as 6001 Castle Minifig Pack and 6002 Town Minifig Pack. But apparently there may have been some problems at the Stratford Ontario Samsonite plant, the same plant that had been producing LEGO sets since 1961, when USA and Canada Samsonite LEGO sets were first produced there. The problem was that both packs were labeled 6002!! Edited February 20, 2014 by LEGO Historian Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
SheepEater Posted February 23, 2014 Very interesting. Thanks for those tidbits of history from the mid 70s to mid 80s period - keep em coming! (the period from 1975 to 1985 is the most interesting to me because that's when the Lego we have today was really defined: themed Town/Space/Castles sets with lots of minifigs) Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
DPrime Posted February 24, 2014 Interesting! I had no idea the sets I had as a kid were from Samsonite. I remember minifigs packs, though it's a bit hazy... I think I had bought a four-pack of Classic Town firemen at one point. I believe they were carded and assembled like the ones above... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
tedbeard Posted February 25, 2014 Ahhh, I remember those sets in stores. If only I had a clue about what the future would hold I would have grabbed a few when I saw them on clearance racks. Instead I was graduating High School, entering my "dark age" and had no clue that someday in the future I could resell them. ;) Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
LEGO Historian Posted February 25, 2014 (edited) If only we had hindsight with so much about old LEGO.... Anyway, here's another Samsonite of Canada LEGO exclusive... the 1979 large #001 Classic LEGO Space Poster.... (size in inches).... Edited February 25, 2014 by LEGO Historian Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
DPrime Posted February 25, 2014 Any idea what that poster goes for these days? :) Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
LEGO Historian Posted February 25, 2014 (edited) Any idea what that poster goes for these days? :) Unfortunately that's very difficult to say. I supplied the entry for the Bricklink database and images (I got the images from a British Columbia collector)... and I don't recall ever seeing one available for sale. Being a Canada only item, there would likely not have been altogether that many produced. Edited February 25, 2014 by LEGO Historian Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Jared Posted February 25, 2014 Huh, very interesting. Thanks for sharing! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
LEGO Historian Posted February 26, 2014 Here's what I call... "Poetry in LEGO".... This is the cover picture to my LEGO Collectors Guide chapter on 1965-90 Spare Parts Packs. A series of 5 spare parts boxes in a sort of 'Russian Nesting Dolls' type arrangement. Left to right the boxes originate from... 1) Britain, 2) Continental Europe, 3) USA/Canada, 4) USA/Canada, 5) Canada..... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Blondie-Wan Posted February 26, 2014 (edited) Thanks so much for sharing that poster image, Historian. I'd dearly love to have that, myself (I've actually wanted more than once for TLG to produce posters of some of the box art for some of its classic sets, particularly those old Space ones, and I'd even considered submitting one as a CUUSOO project before the recent submission guidelines were amended, eliminating non-set projects like that). Do you know how much it originally cost? What odd packaging for a poster, though - a flat box? I'd have thought it'd be in some sort of large envelope if it had to be folded like that, though of course it'd be better if the poster were rolled in a tube, rather than being folded at all. Edited February 26, 2014 by Blondie-Wan Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
danth Posted April 14, 2017 Anyone know if this is legit? It's supposedly Samsonite Canada. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Fugazi Posted April 14, 2017 The packaging looks authentic but it seems that it has been opened... so there's no telling if the content is correct. It's quite a strange mix of parts to be honest. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
LEGO Historian Posted April 16, 2017 I agree with Fugazi.... Samsonite of Canada sets often come in blister packs, while they come in boxes elsewhere. The closest I could find for a match is set 6822 Space Digger.... it has just a red space minifig, the black walkie-talkie, and those gray jets. But the white minifig doesn't appear to belong, and there's a lot of other parts missing if it is a 6822 blister pack.... https://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem.page?S=6822-1#T=S&O={} That box artwork does appear to be from the early 1980s, when the 6822 was released. Here's a 1981 Canada LEGO catalog.... and it shows all the LEGO sets from that year (including the 6822)... that seems to be the best fit for this small packaging.... http://www.youblisher.com/p/1028879-1981-Canada-LEGO-Catalog/ Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
jfbat Posted April 17, 2017 Does that red space minifig have black old style minifig (i.e. rigid) feet? Weird... and if so, I don't think the contents are not quite what came in the pack originally... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
danth Posted May 7, 2017 One of these just sold for quite a bit on eBay. http://www.ebay.com/itm/142360889009 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
