The wonderful 1592 Town Square promotional sets... and others...

[LEGO Historian]

Back in 1980 TLG came out with some really nice Town System sets...

First in 1978 they came out with a British Weetabix Cereal promotional 1589 Town Square set that used the new LEGO road plates...

Then in 1980 they came out with a similar set... the British Weetabix Cereal promotional 1592 Town Square set (with a castle sub-theme to it). This set had a UK flag and other stickers that really made a nice city set.

TLG must have produced a lot of these sets... since they were not JUST sold in Britain. This set was also sold starting around 1981 in Germany... by the SPIELZEUGRING German toy retailers association. Here's an advertisement of this same UK version of the 1592 set in Germany....

TLG must really have produced a lot of these sets... since they were also sold in limited quantities in Japan... and also in Canada. It was likely an Eaton's Department Store exclusive in Canada, since it was not found in any Canadian catalog (nor was it found in Japanese catalogs).

By 1983 the number of these British 1592 Town Square Sets must have been depleted... but not quite....

In 1983 a Dutch version of the 1592 set was introduced in the Netherlands. This version was virtually identical to the earlier UK version, except for the box, instructions, and sticker sheet... which had a Dutch flag and Dutch language stickers....

The Dutch language 1592 Town Square Set was a Unilever Corporation promotional set. Unilever was a cleaning product and foodstuff multinational corporation... and it was promoting Dutch UNOX Soup... (via sending in soup labels and money)...

Now one would think that all of the leftover British 1592 sets were sold before TLG produced the Dutch version in 1983... well not really... A Dutch acquaintance was a LEGO fan as a child... along with his 2 brothers... And their parents sent in 3 sets of UNOX Soup labels and money to get 3 of the Dutch 1592 sets. Well guess what arrived?? 2 Dutch and 1 British version of the 1592 sets!!

So TLG still had a few of the (produced in large quantities) UK 1592 sets leftover... and added them to the rarer Dutch versions... which incidentally were never sold elsewhere....

So that is the complex story of the 1592 set....

Besides the 1980-83 1592 sets sold in Britain/Germany/Canada/Japan/Netherlands...

... there's the earlier (and probably rarer) UK only Weetabix 1589 set of 1978...

... and then there was the USA only 6390 Main Street Set... the only one of these nice town sets that actually made it to the inside of a LEGO catalog... although it was only the USA catalog....

The 1592 Town Set variations and 99 other sets are going to get their own "little anecdotes" about their production history, where sold, variations, and other little differences... these 100 sets in all are going to have a special history chapter in my (now up to 80 chapters) LEGO DVD/download... of my Unofficial LEGO Sets/Parts Collectors Guide. So much to say... so little information available from the TLG Archives...

Enjoy,

Gary Istok

[Hey Joe]

1592 is a cool set IMO. It would be nice to see an updated version sometime. I guess Kingdoms Joust next to a modular building would be about the same though.

Thanks, Joe

[JopieK]

"Unilever was a cleaning product" that is incorrect, it is a large manufacturer of almost everything one can find in your average supermarket (worldwide under the Lever name).

Soep is translated from Dutch to: soup! (pronunciation is the same...)

There was a funny error in the Dutch instructions that might have lead you to the incorrect interpretation ;)

Link to quite a large image

Worst en Soep would be translated to Sausage and Soup (under UNOX brand this is a very known product of Unilever, you might know it as Knorr).

[RedBrick1]

Thanks for posting, nice to know a bit of the history behind the set.

[Man with a hat]

A pity we didn't eat a lot of soup at home when I was young. It is a great set.

However we drank a lot of "chocomel" (chocolate milk) so I did get 1620 Factory. Also a promotional set:

So I was still a happy kid. It was one of my favourite sets.

[scottwb2010]

I remember the Weetabix promotion. Jeez is it that long ago? Unfortunatley I didnt eat enough Weetabix to get one of these! But im sure on the inside of the box there was a picture you could colour in. Not the same though. How good would it be for Lego to team up with some company again to release a similar promotion?

[LEGO Historian]

"Unilever was a cleaning product" that is incorrect, it is a large manufacturer of almost everything one can find in your average supermarket (worldwide under the Lever name).

Soep is translated from Dutch to: soup! (pronunciation is the same...)

There was a funny error in the Dutch instructions that might have lead you to the incorrect interpretation ;)

Link to quite a large image

Worst en Soep would be translated to Sausage and Soup (under UNOX brand this is a very known product of Unilever, you might know it as Knorr).

JopieK.... I did mention that it was a "cleaning product AND food stuff" multinational corporation.... so I was technically correct...

Here in the USA (where most Eurobricks posters are from)... Unilever is not as much a household name as in Europe.... the major product that they would be known for in the USA is LEVER2000 handsoap. Others of their products sold in the USA are little known by American to be Unilever products... such as LIPTON Tea (and other Lipton products)... and Ben & Jerry Ice Cream... again not a known Unilever product to Americans. That's why I mentioned their cleaning products here...

But even many of Unilever cleaning products are unknown to Americans... such as PERSIL... of which there are some LEGO promotional sets for... again the Persil/Unilever connection would be generally unknown to American LEGO folks.

Even LEVER HOUSE... the famous and historic New York City "International Style" skyscraper is referred to on the internet as the "American HQ of the Anglo-Dutch soap maker"... so yes in the USA... when people think Unilever... they think soap products!

P.S. The LEVER HOUSE on Park Ave. in NYC is the 2nd oldest "curtain wall" skyscraper in NYC... after.... the (now LEGO model) United Nations Building...

_{JopieK.... when I did my homework for my promotional chapter of my LEGO DVD/download (over 100 promotional sets).... I had done extensive background checks on most of the corporations involved... such as the Philips Corporation of Eindhoven Netherlands... I even know about the famous "Witte Dame" of Eindhoven.... seen here in LEGO (in back) in my Dutch collector friend Jeroen's Town Plan LEGO diorama....}

Edited June 23, 2013 by LEGO Historian

[jfbat]

I have to say that most Dutch people also mostly associate UniLever with cleaning products, I think most people would be surprised to know that most of the (processed) food they buy at their supermarket is also a UniLiver product. When however you do pay attention to the small logos on packaging, the UniLever logo almost seems omnipresent in these here neck of the woods... ;)

Loved reading about these sets. They're from my youth, but somehow my parents apparently found a way to keep these from me, as I don't remember them...

Edited June 21, 2013 by jfbat