Different name in old 1991 Lego catalog

[paanjang16]

I recently gotten hold of a vintage lot which also came with a few 1991 catalogs. To my great surprise the names of the sets written in the catalogs are different from what is shown on brickset! For example:-

Black Sea Barracuda = Pirate ship Dark Shark

Carribbean Clipper = Governor's Ship Sea Hawk

Harbour Sentry = Governor's Broadside's Boat

Launch and Load Seaport = Europort Container Base

Intercoastal Seaport = Atlantic Terminal (but the ship's name isn't Atlantic)

Dark Shark = Black Thunder

Here are some of the shots of the catalog for all to see.

Pirate Theme

Nautica Theme

Airport Theme

The cover page is the 1 on the top left, showing our pirate running away from the Metroliner. But even the catalog on the right (the one with the big Lego box) also using the same name.

I wonder why all the sets are called differently compared to those days?

Oh as a bonus, below is a typical diorama TLG used to produce. There is a guy trapped under a container in the picture.

[avoidz]

I miss those early 1990s sets...

[BlueBard]

Well, that's not surprising at all, I remember here in Spain the names of the sets didn't match at all with the "original" ones, and still doesn't...

[Destroydacre]

Many sets had different names in varying countries back then. Just like in North America the pirate captain was known as Captain Redbeard and I believe (not 100% sure so someone correct me if I'm wrong) that in Europe he was known as Captain Roger.

[Zorbas]

Where is it...where is it....

Ahhhh, here it is.

When it was first released here in Greece --and in some other european countries-- it was named "Black Shark". I can still remember it from back then because I bought it in 1991-92.

To be honest, I became familiar with the term "Black Seas Barracuda" only after leaving dark ages and re-entering the LEGO world as an AFOL. I never knew that the name "BSB" actually existed.

[Bobskink]

It's normal that European and American names of toys differ. What is not normal is that in this case the American ones are considered as the "real" ones. Since Lego is from Europe.

[ciano]

Why in the world doesn't LEGO do those dioramas any more? Showing kids the potential of set compilation and arrangement is the best form of advertising a toy like this can possibly have. And LEGO started losing money around the time they stopped doing those dioramas. Are you listening, TLG?

[davee123]

What is not normal is that in this case the American ones are considered as the "real" ones. Since Lego is from Europe.

Honestly, my guess is that it's the fault of the early LEGO online community, which was predominantly from the USA. The Pause guide (which turned into the LUGNET guide, which in turn fed the Peeron guide), Fibblesnork Guide, and BrickLink guides were all written by people living in the USA, who probably simply used the US set names because that's how they knew the sets. If Huw's BrickSet had come first, then perhaps we would have seen the British names take precedence.

But for that matter, the "real" set names would be the Danish ones, not the US or British ones.

Why in the world doesn't LEGO do those dioramas any more? Showing kids the potential of set compilation and arrangement is the best form of advertising a toy like this can possibly have. And LEGO started losing money around the time they stopped doing those dioramas. Are you listening, TLG?

Probably cost vs. return. They used to take the time to come up with alternate models for each set, and do photo sessions both with the primary model and the alternate ones, which takes a lot of development and approvals up and down the chain of command. Nowadays, it's easier to throw something together with Photoshop. I remember looking at the Viking "diorama" (which featured a lot of detail), and noticing that they re-used a lot of elements, probably because it was cheaper than actually constructing and photographing such an elaborate setup.

And of course I don't know, but I expect that the current thinking is that kids don't spend as much time fawning over large images as they used to, but are instead spending their time with interactive things (like online Flash games), or things like TV spots. So those probably are deemed a better return on investment than dioramas. But that's just a guess.

DaveE

[Commodore Hornbricker]

Why in the world doesn't LEGO do those dioramas any more? Showing kids the potential of set compilation and arrangement is the best form of advertising a toy like this can possibly have. And LEGO started losing money around the time they stopped doing those dioramas. Are you listening, TLG?

I agree completely. When I was a kid I loved those photos of the large layouts. They made a big impression.

[CP5670]

The US and most countries in Europe had their own names for sets. The names were not just translations of each other either, and often meant something quite different. The UK names were occasionally better and more appropriate/less generic than the US ones, and sometimes it was the other way around.

The catalog you have there looks like a UK/France/Netherlands one. Dark Shark was used as the US name for a smaller ship later on. Another instance of this was the 6986 Mission Commander, which was also called the Galactic Enforcer in the UK, and TLG has now reused that name.