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-2418

Advertised Part Count(s): 325 pieces

1968 Sears Christmas Wishbook (Second Page)

First Year Confirmed Available: 1968(USA)

1968 Sears Christmas Wishbook (Second Page)

USA Sears exclusive.

Most Likely Retirement Date: 1970(USA)

Last appearance in 1970 Sears Christmas Wishbook.

Last Year Seen Available: 1970

1970 Sears Christmas Wishbook.

Aliases: Transport Set, 49-44154

Note: Motorized Truck Set is a name that does not appear in any Sears materials but instead the set's instructions.

Retail Price(s): $12.99-$13.99(USA)

Rarity Score(Index): 6/7

Known Box/Packing Variants

There are two variations of the inner trays, though its unclear which belong to when and whether a timeline could be applied consistently.

The first, and seemingly less common, has an empty divider between two trays:

The next seems to have three thinner trays:

Box/Overview

The 371 Motorized Truck Set, while a very unique design seen available no where else, is surprisingly similar to another set that also released in 1968: the 310 Motorized Truck Set . They both have more than one model that can be built but only one can be motorized at a time, they were both "multipack" sort of sets, (the main transport trailer model and the 332 Tow Truck), and both even share the same name. My idea is that the 371 is the Sears exclusive version of the 310, which lines up with my previous speculation as to the origin of the set number.

It sold exclusively through Sears. Like other Sears exclusives, the box was plain with the Sears catalog number on the sides:

box top image

The number for the 371 Motorized Truck Set is incredibly odd. While a logic can be derived from the 310 Motorized Truck Set's number(three-in-one, though I wouldn't say that is definitive), the 371 number currently defies any identification.

It does not appear to follow piece count(which is what most other exclusive sets after 1965 use as their set number aside from the 118 train), price(like 1961-65 sets did), nor any other numbering conventions by Samsonite. I don't believe the set's number was arbitrarily chosen or originated from Sears, as we have no precedence for a retailer deciding a product's internal number. Nor would it make sense that they'd want to.

Instead, my idea is that the 371 was planned to have another set in addition to the tow truck. That'd explain where the number came from, as then 371 would be based on the piece count. How that would have worked, is up for debate. The closest match, considering the 371 was advertised with 325 pieces, 371-325=56, and it would likely be a set also in the 310 multipack, is the 331 Dump Truck.

The issue with the 331 is that it only had 55 pieces, so 325+55=370. We're one piece short, though I don't believe that to be a complete deal breaker. We'd also have to address why it was cut in the first place if our proposal was true, but it may have been something as simple as cost.

Just something to mull over.

Contents

The set contained enough elements to build both the transport model and the tow truck at the same time, though if you wished to motorize the tow truck, obviously you could not have the transport truck assembled because the set only came with one motor: