107 Reversible Power Unit
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: H-2376
Advertised Part Count(s): 16 pieces
First Year Confirmed Available:
1968(USA)
First appears in catalogs in 1968.
1971(Canada)
First(and last) appearance is in a 1971 Eaton's catalog. I suspect the 107 was available in Canada earlier than this, the issue is that it is technically a supplement and those aren't well documented in contemporary sources.
Most Likely Retirement Date: 1971(USA/Canada)
While it appears in the 1972 FAO Schwarz catalog, there is no indication production continued into 1972 after the cancellation of the LEGO license in 1971. A majority of the parts in this set were imported from Denmark.
Until better Canadian sources are available, I'm leaving the Canadian retirement date at 1971.
Last Year Seen Available: 1972
1972 FAO Schwarz Christmas Catalog
Aliases: LEGO Power Motor, Reversible Power Unit, Motor Set
Retail Price(s): $10.95(USA)/$7.95(Canada)
Note: The above prices are skewed. Eaton's tended to lower a set's price over its life while FAO tended to list sets with a 10% markup regardless, hence why the Canadian price is cheaper. They will be replaced once better examples are found.
Rarity Score(Index): 2/7
Known Box/Packing Variants
The set has no currently known box variants, it retained its drawer/sleeve box format beyond 1970. Though it's odd there does not exist a 1971+ variant of the 107 that replaced the "Some parts...manufactured in Denmark" sticker by printing the phrase directly on the box. Versions with the sticker exist, which means the box was ignored in the 1971 update that changed all Samsonite boxes to print the disclaimer.
It's also possible this set was specially exempt from such an update, as it appears consistently in FAO catalogs from 1968-70 and is missing from the 1971 catalog, only to reappear in the 1972 catalog. There are no US 1971 sources for this set, not even newspapers. My theory is that the set was outright discontinued in 1970 only to be brought back in 1972, but something like that is hard to conclusively demonstrate beyond reasonable doubt because it relies on negative evidence.
Again, that could just be because this set is considered a supplement and was not widely advertised, though it's interesting to note the paper trail for the 002 Motor Pak (which has no gaps) versus the 107 Reversible Motor.
There should at least be a Canadian version.
Box/Overview
Releasing in 1968, the 107 Reversible Power Unit served as a direct replacement of the original 002 Motor Pak. Instead of the reuse in the development of the 002, the motor elements in this set were imported directly from Denmark.
It's not as if they were new for 1968(as the US already had the 113 Motorized Train in 1967), instead the 107 was more of a supplemental pack to be used with the massive line of Model Maker vehicles or the also newly released 111 Starter Train Set.
The box is a unique size/design:
The back features artwork from the 107's instructions:
Contents
The set uses the same plastic motor tray as used in other sets(310, 113, etc.). My copy is missing a tire, but otherwise this is what you'd expect to see:
As the set is advertised to have 16 pieces, I think the train rim tires are not being counted, as I don't really know how else they reached that number.