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: 2407-1 (NOT purpose built brochure for the 695)

Discussed in the 695's article linked below, it is a 1965 retailer order form repurposed for the 695 to eliminate remaining stock.

Advertised Part Count(s): ~400

The Sunday Oregonian, April 2nd, 1967

Note: the 695 in particular varied wildly in part count due to its nature as a inventory clearance set.

First Year Confirmed Available: 1966

I’ve written an extensive article about the 695 set in particular. For quick reference, there are several appearances of the 695 in 1966 newspapers:

The Los Angeles Times, May 13th, 1966

USA Only.

Most Likely Retirement Date: 1966

While the set appears in 1967 newspapers, this is possibly overstock. There is not enough reason to assume 1961-1965 supplement surplus could have lasted into 1967 for continued production of the 695.

Last Year Seen Available: 1967

The Sunday Oregonian, April 2nd, 1967

Aliases: LEGO "Extras", Bulk Assortment

Retail Price(s): $3.95(USA)

Note: While this set was touted as a $6.95 value, it doesn't appear to have ever sold at that price. The above example is the best indicator for intended RRP, but the price fluctuates heavily between retailers.

Discounted Example(s): $2.99(1966), $1.99(1967)

Rarity Score(Index): 5/7 (Considering one with an unbroken tray, its brochure, and outer sleeve)

Known Box/Packing Variants

The set has no currently known variants. As it appears in the 1966 Imaginations Inc Discovery Set booklet, and I received a 695 in a lot with my Imaginations Inc 005 and 002 (all ordered from the above booklet), it is possible the 695 had a plain box variant. Either that, or it had a special outer box for mailing and the inner set still used the colorful sleeve.

I've not been able to find any surviving examples of either, and either would be extremely rare.

Box/Overview

From 1961-65, Samsonite offered a 50c supplements line similar to what Europe offered. There were 144 unique supplemental boxes, counting all different pieces and colors one could find.

These packs, however, evidently did not sell well. Or to be more precise, packs with odd pieces or colors did not sell well, and retailers stopped reordering those that they couldn't sell. Often in newspapers you'll find LEGO supplements at 50% their original price, like this one.

Samsonite solved this problem (temporarily) with a completely streamlined and reduced supplemental assortment in 1966. So what did they do with all the surplus stock?

The 695 Bulk Assortment released in 1966 as an answer to the retirement of the 50c supplements and shrinking of the supplement line, to sell off overstock. It was produced as cheaply as possible, reusing images from other sets(i.e. the 375) on the cover:

box top image

This image is seen on both the front and back of the sleeve. This is the side of the sleeve:

As well as the insert seen inside the 695:

The set used an exclusive plastic organizer. It is incredibly fragile and is usually found cracked or broken, as seen below:

But that is not to imply that the tray was produced specifically for this set. It is instead another reuse of another Samsonite product: an earlier Samsonite Streamlite beauty case:

Note that the 695's tray has a ring around the lower side, it is the remnants of the original tray's flanges to hold it in place in the suitcase, as you can see in the image above. It appears to have been removed from the mold.

The blue ink on the set was also a deliberate choice, which I discuss possibilities as to why it was chosen in the 695's investigative article. In short, there is not really a good explanation for why exactly they settled on blue. I offer one, but it was at the very least an attempt to reduce production costs.

Important to note, as gone over in the linked article above, is that this set is commonly misattributed to the 1970s. Early into LEGO Samsonite research, such made sense for the inventory clearance set to be meant to clear out inventory when Samsonite lost the LEGO license. However, this argument was created at a time when sources were extremely limited. One can easily debunk it not only using all the context/sources above, but also looking at the contents of the set:

Contents

All 695s comprise of elements that belong to the 1961-65 50c supplements, some of which were unique to that line and never produced again under Samsonite's umbrella.

No two examples of the 695 contain the exact same elements. Instead, the 695 can be expected to contain any elements offered in 1961-1965 supplement packs. Examples also sometimes contain the 10x10 baseplates from the 605 Wheel Toy and 905 Doll Set.

It isn't exactly clear the rhyme or reason as to how they filled the trays to ensure each example has a relatively fair assortment. One can assume, given the $6.95 value, thirteen to fourteen supplement packs were given to each 695, depending on if the tray was considered in the retail value.

Generally expect larger bricks in the back three compartments, macaroni bricks in the front long one, and windows in the small corner:

It also appears examples with the reused retailer order pamphlet are more consistent with their assortment (see all above), implying as production of the 695 went on certain supplements like windows ran out, which makes sense. So if the set is sealed and doesn't have the retailer pamphlet, it will likely have a more inconsistent/less varied inventory like below:

Examples usually contain a majority cellulose elements, but some may have a mix of cellulose and ABS, as seen in the example above.