LEGO Promotional, Contest, Sweepstakes, Magazine and Souvenir Sets...

Istokg

OK... my head is spinning....   there are so many different ways that TLG sponsors LEGO sets for other companies and organizations... that it becomes very complex indeed...

My German collector 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 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...    :)

Istokg

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 2 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!!   :o

More to come... 

CCC

I'm glad the chrome red minifig keychain is too modern for Gary to care about it. :smiley:

Istokg

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.....

Istokg

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..... 

catwrangler

That's delightful! Who'd have thought there'd still be a complete set of them knocking around? :)

Istokg

Thanks catwrangler.....  Whenever I mention that "old LEGO" is very very complex.... I'll show you what I mean...

The above Kellogg's Village Set has 5 buildings and 12 vehicles.

Then that same year (1970)... in Denmark they made a promotional set for "Anders And" (Donald Duck) Corn Flakes....  I guess this was the first "Disney LEGO set", although the license was thru the cereal, and not the LEGO set.  This set was not a contest, but one of those send in a few proofs of purchase, and the money.  This was limited to 10,000 sets....



This Danish promotional version of the LEGO Village Set had 3 buildings and 7 vehicles.


And then there is the 380 Village Set... a regular LEGO set (not a promotion), that was only sold in Britain, Ireland and Australia.... also of 1970...



This set also had 3 buildings but only 5 vehicles.  Ironically all 3 of these Village sets had the Fire Station, and the 2 smaller sets each had 2 different of the 4 houses found in the larger Kellogg's promotional set.

Here is an image of the inside of the 380 set.  Missing are the outer sleeves to the individual boxed 344, 346 and 347 sets.  Shown is the entire 603 Antique Car.  Also included are two granular trees.

Istokg

Inside of 380 Village Set from previous post....  sets within sets....

CCC

The "Leg of Lamb", interesting name for a hotel. A pub maybe, but for a classy hotel? I don't think she would have won.

SuperTramp

Were 15 year olds classed has adults back in the 60s?

It also made me smile that it says 'get your mom' to purchase competition packets of Kellogg's.

SuperTramp

^^I thought it said Leg O Lamb. I cant see a 'f'

CCC

SuperTramp said:

^^I thought it said Leg O Lamb. I cant see a 'f'

You're right. I was outwitted by a kid's pun.

andhe

SuperTramp said:

Were 15 year olds classed has adults back in the 60s?

It also made me smile that it says 'get your mom' to purchase competition packets of Kellogg's.

Isn't 14 still the max age on current lego 'kids' sets? Don't know if technic existed back then, but that was always seen as the 'teenage lego' when I was growing up.

And judging by the mess on that entry form, I think maybe she used a second form instead (the competition details above say you need to proofs of purchase).

CCC

The PAR CARK looks like the sort of mistake that lego would make today, along with their Artic Batman and chess sets.

bobabricks

I have a pile of old 80's/90's comics with coupons or competition things on the back. I have always wanted to send one in just to see if I would get some sort of response. ;)

Istokg

bobabricks said:

I have a pile of old 80's/90's comics with coupons or competition things on the back. I have always wanted to send one in just to see if I would get some sort of response. ;)

Good luck with that!!   :)   Samsonite of Canada ended LEGO production there in 1988, and it was moved to Enfield Connecticut... only to later be moved to Mexico.

Any of your items with a Stratford Ontario addressed items would be "returned to sender"... although items addressed to Markham Ontario would get a response (the location of their Canadian offices since 1990).  Not sure what the response would be though! 

Here's a 2013 dated Canadian article that talks about what happened 25 years earlier (in 1988) in Canada....

bobabricks

@istokg I wasn't saying that I had Lego ads, just normal ads. ;)

CCC

bobabricks said:

I have a pile of old 80's/90's comics with coupons or competition things on the back. I have always wanted to send one in just to see if I would get some sort of response. ;)

It worked in The Simpsons with the animal crackers promotion. Sort of.

Istokg

Here was a contest that took place in Iceland




This contest for a visit to LEGOLAND in Denmark dates to about 1970.