Billund Denmark LEGO Employee Store?

Istokg

I never saw a topic relating to a TLG store for LEGO employees.  But on a recent discussion on Facebook, this came up as a reason why some old sets are suddenly found in large quantities by Danish Bricklink sellers.

For example... the 2000-2002 Studios theme of LEGO sets includes some that were Nestles promotional sets.  Among these sets are the #4051 (Quicky the Bunny), #4052 (Director) and #4053 (Cameraman) polybag minifigure sets.






These sets were sold in Germany in a box of Nesquik in 2001.  It was a random distribution of which of the 3 minifigs you got in the Nesquick box.




From the Brickset database information, these were also found in the UK with a comic book purchase.  Not sure which comic book though.

Also, some Aussies claim that these were also found there as a send away promo (rather than inside the Nesquik box as in Germany).

But anyway... if you look at the 3 sets available in Bricklink stores... you will notice that there are a LOT of these sets available from Denmark... a country which supposedly never had this promo....

https://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem.page?S=4051-1#T=S&O={%22iconly%22:0}

https://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem.page?S=4052-1#T=S&O={%22iconly%22:0}

https://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem.page?S=4053-1#T=S&O={%22iconly%22:0}

And also sold as a 3 pack (although there's no way to differentiate these from the 3 individual polybags)...
https://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem.page?S=nqstudios-1#T=S&O={%22iconly%22:0}

In my discussion with other AFOLs, I found that these Danish sets were likely leftover stock (19 years later??) that was put into the LEGO employee store stock to sell at a discount... and (based on the high value of the Quicky Bunny minifigure) sold quickly.

So these 3 sets were released in Germany, the UK, and possibly Australia in 2001... and again released in Denmark in circa 2019-2020??

Does anyone have any info on sets like these being released to LEGO employees many years later?  Or even have any info on the LEGO employee store itself?

Inquiring minds want to know!  ;-)

Istokg

Almost forgot... France and Australia also sold this #4049 3 pack of the 3 minifigs... maybe the Aussies got theirs from the 3 pack set instead of individually??

Here's the French Nesquik version with #4049...

SumoLego

There is a LEGO Company Store at the North American Headquarters in Enfield, Connecticut.  Obviously, it's only open to employees or guests of employees.

I am aware of similar stories where very old sets, polybags or odd-items appear at this store.  As the N.A. HQ was once a production and distribution hub, occasionally a pallet of a long-forgotten set would appear.  In particular, I am reminded of when the Darth Revan polybag, which appeared, disappeared and then re-appeared 10 months later.

It does not surprise me that a promotional item appears years later in a 'liquidator' context. If a forklift operator finds a random box case of Nesquick Bunnies from 2001 - it can happen.  

I also recall 15+ years ago that there was a true LEGO outlet store in Colorado.  Pallets of busted or 'nonsalable' product at a deep discount.  

The_Rancor

I can attempt to add a little clarity on the Nesquik Quicky availability in the UK as I have one which I’ve kept since the early noughties. There was never a 3 pack here. I think it came with a Beano or Dandy comic because I also read both at the time and they sometimes came with free gifts. Both those comics are stalwarts of the British kids comic scene and have been around for decades - though Dennis the Menace has over time had to be called ‘Dennis & Gnasher’ collectively so it doesn’t glorify being a menace I guess... (sigh). I still have 2 cookie tins which contained Town/City sets from the early noughties too which I use to store other rare Lego, but that’s unrelated.

Your enigma regarding releasing old sets could be as simple as Sumo is suggesting - just discovering long lost stock in warehouses or in tidy ups. However I know employees often get festooned with tonnes of rare moulds or polybags for free, but because they can’t sell them they have to pass them on as gifts or keep them. It seems plausible that employees might ‘give back’ lots of older freebies back to the employee shop, more to tidy up if they’ve run out of room than anything as they can’t make money from it. It’s also plausible they pass on large amounts of older items as gifts to a smaller group of people or a single person, who then choose to sell them - it just so happens that these people are local to the area or country.

When I went to the employee store in Billund (without giving too much away) there was nothing significantly old for sale, maybe just going back 2-3 years which is a normal life cycle for popular products anyway. I feel employees passing on gifts (particularly older ones) is probably the most likely way that large quantities of these sets find their way out into the open though.

Istokg

Thanks for the perspective @SumoLego and for the info on UK Nestles polybags @The_Rancor.

As we all know TLG never throws anything away... so having the old sets given away or sold at a steep discount makes sense.  The Nesquik Bunny is a highly prized minifigure... some selling for over $100.  One Danish Bricklink seller had 42 of them, which is what got me to question the processes involved.  I'm sure that there are some LEGO employees that keep track of what is available from the company store or as giveaways, and also checking their value on Bricklink, they might be hoarding a few for some extra Kroner.

That Danish seller that had 42 of the Quiky Bunny had sold 226 of these sets in the last 6 months (his prices are about 1/2 of those of other sellers).  So he must have gotten quite a haul from LEGO employee(s).

It appears that the Nesquik sets were produced in a larger number than were redeemed or found in Nesquik tins in Germany and France back in 2001.  Finding a palette of them in the warehouse is not surprising then.

So leftovers were shipped to the UK for the comic book promotions, totally unrelated to the Nestles company.  These were given away with the sale of comics in December 2001, according to Brickset set notes.

Thanks all!  

Fodder

#4049 was available in Australia as a promotion... Send in 2 labels from specially marked packs and receive the set. That’s how I got mine.

As for the availability in Europe, I got nuthin’

Istokg

Fodder said:

#4049 was available in Australia as a promotion... Send in 2 labels from specially marked packs and receive the set. That’s how I got mine.

As for the availability in Europe, I got nuthin’

Yes!  When I look in Brickset statistics of the 10 leading countries that have owners of this set... France and Australia are the top 2 by quite a margin.  Thanks!!

Istokg

When I determined that the one Danish seller got a hold of (at least) 260 copies of the #3051 Quicky Bunny set, and was selling them at 1/2 the usual Bricklink price (for $36)... he already sold 216 of them in the last 6 months... and received over $7000... with another $1500 worth of inventory still in stock.  Somebody really made a killing on these sets from employees... :-O 

I bet some employees ARE Bricklink sellers, because of the lucrative nature of being on top of what is available for employees, and what can be made in sales...  and the fact that sellers can use alias's to disguise whether they are LEGO employees.  Just conjecture... but sales information about older LEGO sets available to them can be a nice way to make money on the side!

SumoLego

There is (was) a strict policy about re-selling product or using one's employee status to acquire product for the purpose of re-selling.

Istokg

SumoLego said:

There is (was) a strict policy about re-selling product or using one's employee status to acquire product for the purpose of re-selling.

I get the feeling that that strict policy is getting circumvented quite regularly... ;-)

East money is a powerful incentive to do so.

SumoLego

But, it's also short-sighted to risk your salary/hourly employment to make a few bucks up-selling LEGO on eBay or Facebook Marketplace or Bricklink.

CCC

Yeah, LEGO employees ae meant to hoard exclusive stuff and 100s of their business card minifigures until they leave, then sell it all on ebay.

samiam391

SumoLego said:

But, it's also short-sighted to risk your salary/hourly employment to make a few bucks up-selling LEGO on eBay or Facebook Marketplace or Bricklink.

I know a few also just have a friend with an account and they will sell through them to decrease the risk.

Istokg

samiam391 said:

SumoLego said:

But, it's also short-sighted to risk your salary/hourly employment to make a few bucks up-selling LEGO on eBay or Facebook Marketplace or Bricklink.

I know a few also just have a friend with an account and they will sell through them to decrease the risk.

 Bingo... that is the way I see it happening too.  No one wants to risk their job over it.  Also with TLG now owning Bricklink... they can easily cross check the Danish BL store owners real names against their employee names.

Istokg

CCC said:

Yeah, LEGO employees are meant to hoard exclusive stuff and 100s of their business card minifigures until they leave, then sell it all on ebay.

I don't know if your sarcasm flag is up or not... but I know one employee who cornered the market (he still owns it all) on rare Minitalia LEGO parts... waiting for the day....

CCC

Istokg said:

 Bingo... that is the way I see it happening too.  No one wants to risk their job over it.  Also with TLG now owning Bricklink... they can easily cross check the Danish BL store owners real names against their employee names.

LEGO have said that they would not use names and addresses from Bricklink to compare BL sellers and LEGO buyers. Whether or not they would do the same for their employees is another matter. I guess the answer is to use other names for selling.

Istokg said:

CCC said:

Yeah, LEGO employees are meant to hoard exclusive stuff and 100s of their business card minifigures until they leave, then sell it all on ebay.

I don't know if your sarcasm flag is up or not... but I know one employee who cornered the market (he still owns it all) on rare Minitalia LEGO parts... waiting for the day....

When Kevin Hinkle sold off a lot of his unused stock of minifigure business cards, it gave some interesting data on production numbers, and so on, as he said how many had been produced each time he sold off the different variants. The listings are now gone from ebay, but I mentioned it a couple of years ago here:

https://forum.brickset.com/discussion/comment/569858#Comment_569858

Istokg

I bet "completionists" hate the minifig business cards!!  :-D

There are some Bricklink sellers in Europe who do have inside TLG contacts for getting old parts.  About 10 years ago I bought a lot of very rare parts from a German seller who had 14 mint 1x3x2 blue windows (only found in the 7760 Diesel Shunter Locomotive), and bought 100 rare red solid stud minifig heads (no face).  Also bought 100 mint 1x1x1 classic yellow windows (like the 16 in the 398 USS Constellation).  He never would tell me where he got the rare parts, but they were always as cheap as what other sellers were selling used parts for.

Istokg

There is another gray area that is little known about TLG and some smaller Danish toy stores.  TLG has over the years been loyal to some long time smaller toy stores in Denmark.  Not sure if this is still the case today, but back in the 1980's TLG would sell these select toy stores products that were either not slated for production (but still produced for it), or other "surplus" items... at a very cheap price for resale to the public.

Anecdotally I only know of 1 toy store that had this relationship, but I assume there were more.

The example I know of is a store called RONBERG... and they had 2 stores (now no longer in business), one in Copenhagen and one in a nearby suburb called Hellerup.  Here is an image of the Hellerup RONBERG store back in the day...




The connection between this store and TLG is cemented by this image of 8 Fabuland LEGO sets that were produced in some limited quantities, but for whatever reason, they were not put into worldwide production.  (You won't find these in Bricklink or Brickset)...



For whatever reason these 8 sets, and 2 others only found their way to a few Danish toy stores, where the retailers got them at a very cheap price.  The bottom right set has a RONBERG price tag... so they were sold by a select few Danish retailers.

I found this information from an old time Danish collector (named Soren Amdal), who had these 8 (plus 2 other) sets, and knew of the history of how these virtually unknown sets were sold in extremely limited supplies to a few Danish retailers.

Since I am showing these unknown 8 Danish sets... here is the back of each of them (they were a related group)...




FYI... that Fabuland paint brush is in yellow in the 3872 set... a color not found in Bricklink... ;-)
https://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem.page?P=fabek4#T=C

For my Unofficial LEGO Sets/Parts Collectors Guide (going from 2800 pages to 4000+ pages, and eventually coming out as a series of 9 books), I am adding a chapter on LEGO historic anecdotes, and this is story about Danish retailers who were "graced" by TLG to get very cheap product for sale in their toystores, is one of them.  Other historic anecdotes are the Maersk Company history with TLG and Maersk LEGO sets, another anecdote on unknown LEGO Kindergarten/Institutional LEGO sets not found in LEGO catalogs, (these were often also sold to Beauty Parlors and Barber Shops... to keep the kids busy with LEGO while the parents are getting a hair makeover).  Another anecdote is the introduction of LEGO wheels, etc...  

Also, as an FYI, anyone who already has my LEGO computer desktop (or DVD version) of my collectors guide will get free upgrades when the new desktop version is completed, hopefully by the end of 2020.  And as a shameless plug... in the past month I have sold 10 Italians and 2 Frenchman copies of my current computer desktop guide... all of them so bored with the pandemic quarantine... that they are getting my downloadable online guide to learn more about LEGO sets and parts from a historical perspective.  At 2800 pages, that should keep them busy for weeks on end... :-D

One last teaser image... a 1950 LEGO Automatic Binding Bricks Kindergarten set (one of 3)... this nearly perfect museum quality set was unknown until relatively recently...  I could see this set fetching north of 5000 Euros at auction.

pxchris

Thanks for all the work you've put into the Guide @Istokg! I've been an owner of it for a couple years now and have found it to be absolutely fantastic! Very much looking forward to the update. 

Istokg

Thanks so much @pxchris!!  Not only will the updated guide (free to current owners) have all the new "LEGO System" sets up to 2020, but I have overhauled all the old chapters, and all my big time collector friends around the world who supplied me with images... they all have mastered LEGO photography!!  :-D  So I am getting some really stunning images to replace over 500 old ones.  Here's an example... 1955-67 1:87 cars and trucks....







And a personal favorite... very rare and very valuable... metallic (bronze, gold, light gold, silver, blue and green) #260 LEGO VW Beetles...



:-D

madforLEGO

Resisting urge to buy old LEGO cars and trucks

Istokg

madforLEGO said:

Resisting urge to buy old LEGO cars and trucks

I hear ya... 90% of these were only sold in Europe... and Europeans find these at flea markets, boot sales, etc... they are just rare in the USA... so we don't get the opportunity that Europeans do to buy these.

Even little Croatia (part of communist Yugoslavia in the 1960s) had these... and had the very rare all white #258 VW Vans (only otherwise produced in 1 extremely rare Danish promotional van).  So how much is a Croatian all white van worth?   Depending on condition... probably $500+.

SumoLego

^ More expensive than a new Yugo in 1988.

(No, not really, but not that far off.)

Istokg

@SumoLego.... oy!  The mere mention of a Yugo brings back memories of a waitress I once knew at a suburban Detroit restaurant where I used to go with work comrades to lunch... and the spine chilling adventure she went thru with her Yugo crossing the longest bridge in middle America... the mighty (5 1/2 mile long) Mackinac Bridge... (really off-topic)...

https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1989-10-03-8901190020-story.html

ReesesPieces

This could have been an article on the brickset main page!!!