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Recent Stories:Water Play - Diving - Part I (Extreme Sports) Water Play - Boats (Uncategorized) Our Most Valuable Kingdom Part II (Uncategorized) Mrs. Santa Claus (Holiday) Our Most Valuable Kingdom Part I (Uncategorized) Multi-Tasking Supreme - Juggling for Fun and Glory (The Arts) Unicorn: One Who Walks Alone (Legends and Myths) The World's Tallest Toys (The Arts) The Christmas Reindeer (Holiday) 75144 - UCS: Snowspeeder , September 24, 2015 Page 1 of 13Many Lego-related blogs are written about modern sets. This especially applies to investment-related blogs. In a series of articles I try to generate enthusiasm for some of the more interesting vintage Lego sets. We enjoyed building them as kids, whereas probably more often we jealously admired them in our best friend's collection or in the Lego catalogue we devotedly picked up in the toy store. This is primarily a blog of nostalgia. However, investing in vintage Lego can be an interesting and fun pastime.
The quest to find rarer sets, to restore incomplete sets and to assess your recently purchased lot of bricks can be exciting, relaxing and rewarding. In this series of blogs I will describe sets, show pictures, provide general and set-specific information for collectors and investors, and finalize each blog with some fun stuff. After reading a couple of these blogs you'll hopefully get a certain confidence in this matter. Let's start with set 1592, the Town Square. Those who are not interested in this set's history and contents are invited to fast forward to the "tips for collectors and investors" below. There's a festival in town! It's the end of summer and everyone is out on the streets to celebrate the last days of sunshine. Behind the medieval castle walls there is a party. Here on the town square a procession comes by... a classic car, a flower float, minifigures in historical costumes... come and join the fun! Of course, this set being a promotional item, there's a commercial detail.
In this case, the minifigures are invited to have a soup with some smoked sausage. This set was first issued in 1980 in the United Kingdom as a promotion for the British cereal producer Weetabix. Although the link between this set and cereals escapes me (the sign crowning the snack bar says "fish & chips" rather than "breakfast cereals") that doesn't make the set any less desirable. The UK set, produced between 1980 and 1982, features stickers "books", "ice cream", "Legoland carnival" and the UK flag. After its initial sale in the UK, from 1981 the set was sold in Australia, Canada, Sweden, Germany1 as well as Japan2. Clicking this link will show you a German advert from around 1981. The advertiser, Fachgeschäft Spielzeugring (German toy retailer group), tells us this is a 'large city centre-themed gift set with a lot of content and endless playability'. Then in 1983 a new set 1592 was issued, being a promotional item for the Dutch company Unilever. Already then one of the largest Netherlands-based companies, Unilever has produced a wide array of foods, cleaning articles and personal care products.
One of the many brands held by Unilever is Unox, best known for its soup and its (delicious) typically Dutch smoked sausages. To this day movable carts just like the one seen in set 1592 are used to sell these sausages and sometimes soup. In winter soup with smoked sausage is just as commonly seen here as fish and chips are (or should I say, were) in the UK. So The Lego Group and Unilever both did the math, resulting into the advertisement seen here3 (scroll down a bit). "Send me Lego box no. 1592 "Village with procession" for the special Unox-price4 of €18,13 inclusive of shipment. I enclose payment plus 3 promo wrappers. N.b. of course you can order more than one Procession set. For every specimen, use a new order form plus 3 extra promo wrappers (maximum: 3 per family). U can also get the box without promo wrappers, in which case we will need to charge €2,97 shipment- and administrative costs. This promotion runs until December 1983." "Unique Lego box costing you only €18,13 plus 3 Unox promo wrappers (shop advice price €31,54). "
Village with procession" true measurements 39x29cm. Enjoy that tasteful Unox soup while saving for that unique Lego procession box" We are fortunate to know that the shop advice price was €31,54 even though this set was never available in any shop. The Dutch version of the 1592 set was only produced for the year 1983 and it was only sold in the Netherlands. Even in 1983, some UK set production leftovers were delivered in the Netherlands. This is what Gary Istok says5: "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!!" All of this makes Dutch 1592 the rarer of the two variants and also the most sought-after. SET SPECIFICS AND CONTENTS The set comprises of 471 or 4916 parts, 10 minifigures 1 statue and 1 steroids-fed horse. Let's first look at the minifigures, horse and vehicles.
Back row, left to right: a statue, costumed man (with cup for soup!), book seller, convertible car driver, 4 knights, soup and sausage seller (previous job: fish & chips seller), flower float driver, flower queen. Front row: convertible classic car, horse, flower float. There are stickers for the knight shields, knight torsos and horse eyes. I'm not sure the eyes are all that realistic and if aligned carefully they will make your horse resemble cookie monster quite realistically. One year later, in 1984, The Lego Group would issue a horse part (Bricklink: #4493c01pb02) with slightly less disturbing eyes. The convertible car is a very neat little build, cleverly using a pile of 2x2 wheel plate + 2x8 plate + wheel fender + 2x3 plate + 2x2 plate to make a black grille. On with the castle walls. Even the first time I built this set, probably as a six-year-old, I thought this was supposed to depict a relic rather than an 'abstract' full castle. This was one of the reasons I liked the set so much: it stimulated the fantasy (history of the castle, what's behind those walls now?)
A child could choose to pose the knights on and around the castle, or to let them walk in the parade. Probably, behind the castle walls other festival activities were going on. According to the poster, the festival took place from the 28th of August until the 4th of September. The Dutch flag consists of a white part + two stickers. The flag in the UK set had UK stickers, as mentioned. The second building is the book shop. The UK set has a sticker "books" for the kiosk one. The building is just lovely! The half-timbered structure is represented convincingly and the use of then-new windows and -door are very charming. The roof structure is rather complex and is fun to build. The building's only flaw is the use of the striped stickers on the canopy. I'll come back to that later. On the above picture you can also see the cypress tree which is considered a rather rare piece. Not as rare as finding one actual cypress tree within the boundaries of a Dutch city though. As can be seen in the above picture, the book shop even has a modest interior.
The rest of the set consists of two lampposts, a statue of a guy, a STOP traffic sign, a blue bench, fruit tree, an avalanche of flowers (some in pots) and of course the soup with smoked sausage stand. The sticker sheet contains alternate stickers "vers schepijs" ('fresh ice cream'). A main picture of the box can be seen in the beginning of this blog. Here are pictures of the sides of the box (third image is shown on both shorter outsides of the inner box): The bottom side of the box: Lastly, the inner box, sticker sheet and instructions. Note that there are spares for most stickers: 5 knight torsos, 3 knight shields, 3 kiosks, 2 statue stickers, 3 snack bar stickers, 3 pairs of terrified horse eyes and 1 festival poster. Most unfortunately, the two weakest and rarest stickers (shop canopy) are not offered as spares. On the picture you can also see the great build of the car. Check out the way the designer designed that grille! TIPS FOR COLLECTORS AND INVESTORS