Brickset Database has some secrets to divulge!!

Istokg

I was not even in Brickset when I came across this... I was doing a general Google search... and came across this very interesting discovery.....  :)

In the Brickset database is this very much unknown set....




The 271 number had been used twice by TLG... once in 1961-65 by a Policemen Accessories set only sold in Denmark, Norway and Netherlands, and later in the 1970s by a Homemaker 271 Baby Cot & Cabinet Set.

But this one... I had never seen these 271 instructions before!!   However, I recognized the model... it was one of 2 USA Samsonite LEGO set models that used the very rare and valuable 078 Samsonite 50x50 Roadplate, the first known LEGO road plate of 1970-71.

These instructions were to a #4 Kraft Velveeta Cheese promotional set, as seen in this brochure....


Well that would mean that the Set No. 5 (Mini-Airport Set).... is the same as this one....  (I knew it was the same set, I just wasn't 100% sure it would have had the same identical instructions... which apparently it does.



So the 367 Mini-Airport set was sold either standalone (shown in 1970 Samsonite catalog), or as a Velveeta exclusive with a #5 in the Velveeta catalog.  But the 271 House/Car set... was the #4 Velveeta set... only ever sold as an exclusive.

As an FYI... because the 50x50 baseplates are so large... these items were shipped separately (bricks in one box, baseplate in another box... and both boxes were plain brown boxes (the baseplate box would have been more like a brown envelop).

As for the regular 367 Samsonite LEGO set sold by retailers... no colorful box of this set has ever been found.  So I do think that Samsonite only ever sold this set in a brown box... even at LEGO retailers.... very unusual.

Oh... and that big 50x50 baseplate being packaged separately?   It would have found one of these within the outer cardboard sleeve....



I love playing LEGO Sherlock Holmes...  :smiley:   

Another LEGO mystery solved!!!

andhe

Taking off/landing on that runway could be interesting. "Ladies and gentlemen you may feel a slight wiggle as we swerve immediately after coming in to land."

Istokg

In retrospect... it may have been that the 271 Mini-House with Vehicles Set was at some point intended for general release as a regular set (as was the 367 Mini Airport Set)... but actually never was.   So it may have been assigned the 271 number in anticipation of a general release that never happened.  This may partly be due to the fact that USA Samsonite was soon stripped (1972) of its' LEGO license for "underperforming sales".

Huw

I'm glad to see you are finding some interesting material in the database, Gary.

#271-3 was only added in February and there's no reference to it in the Collector book, as you've probably seen.

Istokg

Thanks Huw.... when it comes to the USA Samsonite LEGO that was used by Mail-Order Catalogs and also by promotional mail-in sets, it gets very problematic.  From 1961-65 Mail-Order catalogs of department stores mainly had Samsonite LEGO sets that any toy store could buy.  But from 1965-72 things got really crazy.... some sets were unique sets in colorful boxes with the set numbers on them (such as the FAO Schwarz sets)... but others were only identified easily with the instructions.... and much more difficulty with the brown box they were shipped in.

For example....  the Sears only 1971 era 842 Town Plan set came with this easy to identify instructions....


But if those instructions were lost... then the set would be found in this box, which was next to impossible to identify (if you didn't know what you were looking for in the box top codes).....





Ditto for this late 1960s Sears Motorized Truck Set.... the instructions are easy to identify it....




But if you just had the box.... it becomes not so easy.....




So in my Unofficial LEGO Sets/Parts Collectors Guide,  I have come up with a cross reference list of all the sets from 1965-72 that have this problem... now with the 271 Mini-House set, it becomes more complete! :)