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-2367

This link is currently dead.

Advertised Part Count(s): 45 pieces

Set Box

First Year Confirmed Available: 1968(USA)

All 1967+ Model Makers are incredibly hard to track as they were not typically advertised like the larger assortments/models. Fortunately, a 1968 dealer catalog has been found with the 331 as well as several 1968 catalogs.

Speaking of difficult to track, I have nothing for the Canadian version, assuming one even existed.

Most Likely Retirement Date: 1971(USA)

Unless other evidence arises, the set might've continued production until 1971 as it appears in 1970-1971's idea book.

Last Year Seen Available: 1970

Spokane Chronicle, October 113th, 1970

Aliases: Dump Truck

Retail Price(s): $1.75-$1.88(USA)

Note: Samsonite discontinued listing RRP's for sets in 1967. As a result, prices for Model Maker sets can vary. I've theorized this to be a reason 1968+ Model Makers include a secondary number, you can read about it here.

Rarity Score(Index): 3/7

Known Box/Packing Variants

1970 examples will have a "Some parts...produced in Denmark" sticker somewhere on the box.

Box/Overview

Different from the 1967 Model Maker line, the 1968 line required the import of many unique pieces from Denmark to create the new vehicles. None of the sets or parts are of Samsonite's own design—they'd already been available in other countries.

As usual, the 331 inherits its images from Europe. Starting in 1969, sets were given a sticker to indicate imported parts were in the set. Sets without the sticker were from 1968:

box top image

My sticker is on the side, I just didn't get a picture of it:

Contents

While the set shows a 1x2 with a black outlined LEGO logo, in practice Samsonite never produced such pieces. It's possible they were imported, but examples I'm aware of are always found with the plain printed 1x2.