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Monday, February 9, 2015

Rare LEGO Classic Space set #1968 from 1985 -- Unnamed!


Some unverified references call this the "Space Express," but they also say it was a McDonald's fast food chain promotional item, which is ludicrous.  Brickset reports this having been available at two toy store chains in Germany.  How and where ever the thing was sold in 1985, here it is 30 years later in full HD quality.

7 comments:

  1. It was advertised in some Canadian catalogues as I recall. Most likely Consumers Distributing. Not too surprising though - Canada often shared the same distribution as Europe for Lego.

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  2. Posted on your YouTube page.. but thought I'd cut and paste it here too:

    I can confirm that this set was definitely also available in Canada. I have two sets (one is missing a few pieces though) from my childhood.

    I did ask my parents about this, because dad was stationed in Germany around that time (via the Canadian Military) and I thought he might have brought them back with him. But that wasn't possible, since he returned to Canada well before '85.

    They obviously can't remember where they bought something 30 years ago.. but they said it may be a good possibility that they bought them at a CANEX store.
    CANEX is a chain of convenience/mini-department stores found on Canadian Armed Forces Bases, and it is possible that they may have had them imported from germany.

    I've also read online before (and sorry, I don't recall where that was now) that they may have been sold in Canada in the old Zeller's department store chain.

    Hope that helps.. or was at least interesting lol.

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  3. Hi Jangbricks, this Lego Set was called Space Express, and official Name in Germany was "Heavy Duty spacecraft with Heat deflector shield (the huge black Parts) and robot piloted Exobil". The idea was to Land the spacecraft and put the robot onto the vehicle to explore the planet while yourself flying to other planets. I got this set as a child.

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  4. This set was sold by VEDES and SPIELZEUG-RING... the 2 independent toy store associations in Germany. Also, it was sold in Canada as a McDonalds exclusive. The 2 versions are easy enough to tell apart... the Canadian version is bilingual.

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  5. It was definitely sold in Canada, My brother and I got a set each for Xmas back in the 80s. Set have it too :)

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  6. Yeah I'm Canadian as well and can confirm, my Mom bought me this set a week or two before Christmas 1987, I was so happy when I got it.

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  7. This was my first real Lego set. It was indeed available at McDonald's in Canada. I distinctly remember getting this and my dad helping me put it together. We actually had two of them. One was mine, the other belonged to my younger brother.

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