General Information

The following information has been collected from original newspapers, catalogs, and magazines, some of which are freely available for reference below. The rest can be found in the site’s gallery. No aggregate catalogs (BrickLink, Brickset, etc.) were used.

Advertised Part Count(s): 125 pieces

Set Box

First Year Confirmed Available: 1967

1967 Eaton's Christmas Catalog

Most Likely Retirement Date: 1972

This date may be subject to change if we obtain scans from a 1972/1973 Eaton's catalog. As 1972 appearances in newspapers are all discounted, I'm not comfortable proclaiming a 1973 retirement.

Last Year Seen Available: 1973

Saint John Times Globe, November 7th, 1973

Aliases: Beginner's Set, Lego 125 Set, 125-pce Starter Set, Basic Set

Retail Price(s): $3.95(Canada)

Discounted Example(s): $2.33(1969), $2.77(1970), $2.96(1973)

Rarity Score(Index): 6/7

Known Box/Packing Variants

As with the other Canadian sets such as the 205 Basic Set, the 125 has two boxes. Fortunately, newspapers are a great source for tracking these as they were almost all consistent, with just a few appearances of tall boxes into 1971.

From 1967-70, the 125 set was produced in a tall box:

Then from 1971-72, the 125 used a flat box(drawer/sleeve style):

There may exist a third variant of the flat box with tabbed sides.

Box/Overview

The Canadian 125 set is a bit of an oddity, as in it is one of the few Samsonite sets that were only produced in Canada. Technically it is a USA 120 Basic Set with a slightly different piece count, but to mix the two into one entity would be confusing for casual researchers. Just note that both the 120 Basic Set and the 125 Beginner's Set inherited their slots from the 1961-66 703 Basic Set, just two different branching paths separated by distribution regions.

Instead, it seems Samsonite of Canada was keen on having the set's piece count end in a '5', similar to the 205, 285, and 375 sets also available at the same time. Though they also didn't, as seen with sets like the 99-piece Basic Set.

Also similar to the Canadian 205, the 125 was first produced in a tall box akin to the earlier sets:

And the top flap is the same on the bottom as well(the bottom is just in French):

Contents

The set contained a basic assortment of parts similar to other basic sets of the era: