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.

Instructions: Unknown Form Number

Note: The 080 reused the international version of the instructions verbatim and made no noticeable changes.

Advertised Part Count(s): 562 pieces

Set Box

Note: Catalogs and newspapers will report numbers up to 671 pieces, but these are likely errors or misattributed.

First Year Confirmed Available: 1969(USA)

1969 Jordan Marsh Newspaper Supplement

USA Only.

Most Likely Retirement Date: 1971(USA)

Makes its final appearance in catalogs in 1971, and it would not have been produced beyond the cancellation of the LEGO license in the USA.

Last Year Seen Available: 1972

The Los Angeles Times, November 26th, 1972

Aliases: Ambassador Set, Town Set

Retail Price(s): $25.00(USA)

Discounted Example(s): $16.99(1970), $11.99(1972)

Rarity Score(Index): 6/7

Known Box/Packing Variants

The set has no currently known variants. As it was produced into 1971, for the 1971 season it may have been updated to have "Some parts...manufactured in Denmark" printed directly on the box instead of using the sticker with the same phrase.

Box/Overview

The 080 is another set that was rereleased from a preexisting international version by Samsonite for USA department stores. The set had the usual Samsonite substitutions and (aside from the instructions)formatting changes, take for example the box:

box top image

The main way to tell the two apart is via the "Ambassador Set" name (exclusive to Samsonite) and the Building Toy designation (the regular 080 will just have System instead).

The back is also fairly similar, which should be no surprise as Samsonite just reused everything from the previous version. The main difference is the text(which is from Samsonite) and the set name(though notice how Samsonite couldn't fit the set number in the chimney in the upper left corner and opted to make it two lines instead of the typical one):

And the sides are similar too:

Interestingly, the name "Ambassador" may have come from Samsonite's luggage style names, from "Envoy" first used in 1965. That may seem like a stretch until you see that Signat (as well as Samsonite's other attache cases) also carried names like "Diplomat" (used in 1970 for the 630 Diplomat Set), "Suburban" (used for the 326 Suburban Set), or and "Statesman" (used for the 066 Governor Set). Absolutely fascinating.

Contents

The set provided enough pieces in order to complete the models shown on the box, though with some subsitutions.

For one, Samsonite never imported the specialty baseplates the international 080 used. Instead, they used entirely studded ones without any white indicators for where to build. They also used unpainted trees/bushes and may have sometimes substituted white windows for red as seen below: