Found box for Kraft-Velveeta set No. 9

Comments

• SumoLego Member Posts: 15,241

  September 2019

  Interesting find!  @Istokg
  

  

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• Istokg Member Posts: 2,366

  September 2019

  Thanks for the heads up @SumoLego....
  
  @LusiferSam... the real head scratcher in this mystery was the Dec. 1974 date, well beyond the 1972 end of USA Samsonite date.  So I was wondering how a promotional mail-order item that has all the hallmarks of a Samsonite product could still be delivered as late as 1974?
  
  The only answer I could figure out was that 1) there is no "end date" on the promo order form or the brochure accompanying the ordered items.  2) perhaps these (1971-72?) items were delivered from Samsonite to the Kraft or Life mail order locations, and there were leftover promo sets still in inventory long after the 1972 Samsonite end date (especially with Samsonite wanting all their LEGO inventory gone from the company before TLG took the license back).
  
  Kraft Velveeta box order form shows no expiration date....
  
  
  
  
  
  
  I have seen 2 locations where these promo items were delivered from.  Either a 80216 or 80217 (Kraft or Life) zip code in Denver Colorado, or a 60677 (Kraft) zip code in Chicago Illinois.
  
  The Kraft Velveeta Set #9 was found in the 1971-72 Kraft brochure, and it does have 550 pieces, so your box numbering scheme is likely correct. 
  
  So some of these leftover mail-order sets may have been at a Kraft or Life (Quaker Oats Corp.) distribution location long after 1972... until their remaining remote location inventory ran out.
  
  Samsonite's LEGO plant and warehouse was in Loveland Colorado, about 45 miles north of Denver.  But these promo sets were likely shipped out well before the 1972 end of production of Samsonite LEGO in the USA.
  
  At least that's the best theory that makes any sense for a 1974 delivery date.
  
  

  

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• LusiferSam Member Posts: 574

  September 2019

  Guess I'm glad I can be adding to the Lego Mayhem.  Clear up one area and you've muddy another.  I had fairly similar thoughts to yours on these on the post mark.  Kraft, Life, Del Monte, Oxydel, and anybody else we don't currently know about who ran Lego promotions in the early 70s, must had these already had these warehoused and continued to run their promos until they were out of stock.  If Samsonite had already sold these to a "retailer" there likely wasn't anything Lego could to withdraw them.
  

  
  

  This box definitely continues my belief that the 8 suffix means that it was a promotional set.   We've seen this a couple of times now and they're not all Kraft promo sets.  There is Del Monte promo.  And a couple of Kraft ones, 125 and 159.  And now this one.  I'd like to find a few more set to continue testing this theory.  It only holds for late Samsonite sets and all not. 
  

  
  

  The Del Monte 125 and Kraft 125 are clearly the same set.  I have a massive thread that I'm now preparing on the 72 Samsonite sets.  It will cover these 125 sets.  I'm hoping to have it ready by this weekend.
  

  

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• Istokg Member Posts: 2,366

  September 2019 edited September 2019

  I'm still trying to figure out what this is all about.  A 6 pack of 1:87 autos in their plastic garages.  Mailed from the Samsonite plant in Loveland Colorado, but with a Newark New Jersey return address.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Of course these cars originally had a banderole around each car when they were first sold, and this box of 6 was likely put together back in the 6 pack box after purchase...
  
  
  
  
  But I've seen a few of these, and wondered what they were for?  Sears sold these as individual mail-order cars in garages at 72 cents, but I've seen 3 of these 6 packs already.  Sears mail-order ads don't mention anything about them in a 6 pack.
  

  

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