LEGO Historian Posted March 26, 2015 Posted March 26, 2015 OK... when I first started my Unofficial LEGO Sets/Parts Collectors Guide back in 2006, I lumped all the "special" LEGO sets under the "Promotional Sets" category, But in the time since then I have found that there are so many different ways that TLG sponsors LEGO sets for other companies and organizations... that it becomes very complex indeed. There are mail in proof of purchase type sets, contest sets, sets you find when going on a cruise, and now of course, sets you get only at a particular Danish Airport, or an Asian Hotel!! Recently my German collector friends Olaf (Germany) and Chris (UK) posted some images that I had not seen before of promotions of a different nature. My friend Olaf posted some images about the Danish "MD" Dairy company that today is part of the Arla Dairy company... Many of you know of those rare 1952 (MD) and 1581 (Arla) milk truck sets. Well sometimes the affiliation with LEGO and other companies is more than just a LEGO set. With the 1989 released 1952 Danish MD Milk Truck sets, there's a little emblem on the upper left part of the box.... And most people would just leave it at that.... But there's a reason that this little traffic emblem and Minifig are there... and that is a little known Contest that MD had back in 1989-90. It involved buying cartons of MD milk and cutting out little cardboard roadway emblems to put into a contest for Danish Children. This contest involved getting a 16 page LEGO booklet (with lots of colorful LEGO scenes) from your grocer or possibly sending away for it in the mail. Here's the front cover.... Apparently this contest involved the children learning about traffic situations, and cutting out the right symbols from the MD milk cartons, and taping them to the right page of the booklet.... This particular page of the booklet is missing image #12. Apparently one helpful purpose of this exercise of cutting and taping these images, was to learn about traffic and safety... And here are the contest rules (in Danish), as well as some of the prizes that could be won...... And here towards the end of the 16 page booklet, it mentions that you can also order the very rare 1952 MD Milk Truck, or fill out the necessary info for the competition (for other regular LEGO sets) and mail it all in. I had never seen this particular contest before... but it looks very involved and requires a lot of milk purchases to get all those coupons!! FYI... in the year 2000 MD Foods of Denmark and Arla of Sweden merged to become Arla Foods, headquartered in the university city of Aarhus Denmark.... not that far away from Billund. And while I'm showing the company products... here's the Arla Milk Truck of Sweden of 1990.... another very highly sought after rarity.... Both of these trucks (1952 MD and 1581 Arla) are very valuable, and in great demand... when found!! More promotional oddities to come... Quote
LEGO Historian Posted March 26, 2015 Author Posted March 26, 2015 Sometimes TLG likes to throw us for a loop... such as the rare 1976 (Germany only) 1601 Schmidt & Co. Factory Set.... (Conveyance Set). Germany only... OK... must be a promotional set for Schmidt & Co? Nope.... a dead end. The only thing I can think of is that this was a promotional set for Germany's two independent toy store associations... SPIELZEUGRING.... and VEDES. But I've not yet found any advertising for either association that includes this rare set. What is interesting is that if this was planned as a Germany only set by TLG.... then why is the age writing in 8 languages on the box top? Maybe an trans-European safety issue?? But this set may yet reveal some secrets!! More to come... Quote
DuckBricks Posted March 27, 2015 Posted March 27, 2015 Very interesting read, Lego Historian! You sure know your stuff! (And have a bunch of rare "leaked" parts I'm so jealous of ) Quote
NBV83 Posted March 28, 2015 Posted March 28, 2015 Seeing those pictures of the "Frisk i trafikken" campaign brings back alot of memories. I actually think I had that MD foods truck back then, but no more. Very nice post Lego Historian. :) Quote
ReplicaOfLife Posted March 28, 2015 Posted March 28, 2015 (edited) Great trip into Lego's past, thanks for posting :) That 1601 looks like an interesting set. Looking back, it's always nice to see how they managed to evoke easily recognizable structures with just the basic parts that were available back then. Edited March 28, 2015 by RogerSmith Quote
LEGO Historian Posted March 29, 2015 Author Posted March 29, 2015 Very interesting read, Lego Historian! You sure know your stuff! (And have a bunch of rare "leaked" parts I'm so jealous of ) Don't I wish.... I only have an image archive with over 16,000 images.... thanks to many dozens of AFOL friends from around the world. Unfortunately... I have not a single leaked part!! Quote
LEGO Historian Posted March 29, 2015 Author Posted March 29, 2015 British LEGO Ltd., which had its' LEGO factory in Wrexham Wales (1960-92), had a few contests/promotions with British Kellogg's Cereal..... which has their largest UK factory.... in Wrexham Wales as well. One of these competitions was in 1967, where you could win an 810 Town Plan Set, and a LEGO motor set.... The competition involved finding mistakes in this Town Plan image.... looks like this youngster got either frustrated or bored and never sent it in..... A few of these 810 Town Plan sets have survived, and are differentiated from the regular Town Plan sets, by the fact that they contain Shell Service Station parts, instead of Esso Service Station parts. The irony is that the promotional flier shows Shell, and the cereal box backside shows Esso. Esso was the LEGO Service Station since 1955 (the actual set (310) came out in 1956, but the accessories came out a year earlier in a parts pack and 1:87 Bedford Esso trucks. In 1966 Shell replaced Esso as the Service Station of choice with the 325 Shell Station. What appears likely is that British LEGO Ltd. had a lot of leftover 810 Town Plan Set boxes and Town Plan boards.... but ran out of (Denmark supplied) Esso accessories. So they created a sort of mixed set... and gave them away as promotional items in 1967. Here's an 810 Town Plan layout... but using a continental European right driving board, instead of a left driving UK board.... Quote
LEGO Historian Posted March 30, 2015 Author Posted March 30, 2015 In 1970 British LEGO Ltd. came out with the first Weetabix set, the Weetabix Castle... but there's another thread on Weetabix sets... But also in 1970 Kelloggs came out with another Town set, this one called the LEGO VIllage.... another competition.... This set I have the rare good fortune (from my UK friend Chris).... to find completely intact.... from the shipping box..... .... to all the separate set boxes that made up the town in the contest..... or the separate buildings and vehicles that make up the town..... This is a nice collection of sets and parts from the largest LEGO promotion that British LEGO Ltd. had ever put out during their 1960-92 years of producing LEGO in the UK. Just some more items for my collectors guide..... Quote
Hive Posted March 30, 2015 Posted March 30, 2015 LEGO Historian, do you know anything about the sets LEGO did with Deutsche Telekom, for their pro cycling team in the late 90's? I coincidentally stumbled across pictures of 2 sets a few days ago, and wondered what the background for producing them was. Quote
LEGO Historian Posted March 31, 2015 Author Posted March 31, 2015 LEGO Historian, do you know anything about the sets LEGO did with Deutsche Telekom, for their pro cycling team in the late 90's? I coincidentally stumbled across pictures of 2 sets a few days ago, and wondered what the background for producing them was. In 2000 LEGO came out with a series of sets for German telecommunications giant Deutsche Telekom, which has been a continuous sponsor for the Tour de France bicycle races. Interestingly enough their German team came in second place behind later (2012) disqualified Lance Armstrong. The sets were .... 1196 - Biker with Bicycle Set 1197 - Race Cyclist with Television Motorbike 1198 Service Team - 2 Cyclists with Servie Tools Set. 1999- Winning Team Set .... which is sort of a misnomer, since they only came in 2nd place..... All 4 of these sets could also have been purchased as an unnumbered combo pack. Although Deutsche Telekom were race sponsors for many years, these year 2000 sets were the only promotional sets that they obtained from LEGO. Quote
Hive Posted March 31, 2015 Posted March 31, 2015 Interesting, I only saw the two biggest sets before. Thanks for the history lesson! Quote
ilikeboomerang1 Posted July 16, 2015 Posted July 16, 2015 Could you tell us more about the late-90's Shell promos and the McDonald's Restaurant too? Quote
bonox Posted July 17, 2015 Posted July 17, 2015 it's surprising that for the Kelloggs one, not only is the packing and sets intact, but also a copy of the literature and cereal box as well! Quote
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