___

Some of the following information comes from another article on Dating Various Mail-Offer Pamphlets if you're curious.

Imaginations Inc. was the distribution network for the one of the earliest promotions for Samsonite LEGO, managing mail offers from late 1965 to late 1967. It was evidently not its own company, as it has no trademarks, business records, or even mentions anywhere outside of LEGO ephemera. Instead, it appears to simply be a name used in marketing, though it may have been managed by a separate company for a period of time. It is also likely it was managed by one of Samsonite's many divisions during this time.

The promotion had at least four distinct waves, each launching late in the year and ending a few months in the next.

Late 1965


Initially, Imaginations Inc managed the 005 Discovery Set's trial offer starting in 1965. The 005 Discovery Set served as a no obligation trial set, wherein the receiver had ten days to decide to return or keep the set. We assume Samsonite began to offer such a set as a bit of a gateway, to give a family that had never tried LEGO some experience with it. Hence the set's "Discovery" name.

Orders were being filled as late as March 1966, as evidenced by this surviving 005 shipping box:

It should be noted that the 005 always came in a colorful box, even in the mail.

Late 1966


For the late 1966 wave, the 005's trial pamphlet was completely overhauled:

For this wave, the promotion used its own dedicated idea booklet, which will be our source for all the sets offered via Imaginations Inc.

You'd receive this with your 005 Discovery Set, only if it was ordered in the late 1966 wave:

Within it are four sets. We've already covered the Discovery Set:

We'll cover the remaining sets in a second, but we also need to mention there is a fifth set not listed above.

The idea book had a stapled card (along with an envelope, which will come into play in a moment) within the catalog. This'd be how you'd order more sets:

In order to read the contents, the catalog had to be opened:

But the envelope is very well adhered to the order card. As there is no easy way to remove it without serious damage, I opted to mock up what is underneath by shining light through it:

And so now we can cover all the sets offered for this wave. We'll go by the order of the card:

IB 1: MOTOR PAK


This is one that I fortunately own, though there aren't really any surprises. The inner contents/tray is exactly the same as the retail 002, the only thing that's different is the outer box (which isn't unique to Imaginations Inc, it originally sold at Sears in for 1965 only):

IB 2: DISCOVERY


As covered above, the 005 Discovery Set came exactly as it always was. It always came shipped in the full retail box (though obviously it wasn't available at regular retail yet), instead with a plain outer mailer box (the one below is from the late 1965 wave, but it's a good example and they are very rare):

The above example was postmarked in early 1966. As my 002 Motor Pak was postmarked in early 1967, that'd be consistent with the promotion taking place late in the year.

IB 3: CAR AND GARAGE


We fortunately have an example of the outer box for these cars. Six 1:87 cars in garages would come in the below box:

IB 4: LEGO JUMBO BRICK


This one I have trouble with. It's possible the 042 Pull Toy had a mailer box prepared for this promotion, as its retail box is rather oversized. It's also possible that the 042 used an outer box like the 005. However, I emphasize possible as there are already very few (if any) surviving 042 boxes, and there probably would be less so plain cardboard boxes from this very limited 1966 promotion.

Given the 042's retirement by 1967, I'd be surprised if this promotion even sold more than a hundred copies of the 042.

IB 5: LEGO "EXTRAS" KIT


This one I'm not sure of either. I have a 695 Bulk Assortment that was likely ordered from this promotion (as it came in the lot with my Imaginations Inc 002 and 005), but it didn't come with an outer box. Instead, it came like this:

So it's possible the 695 completely omitted the outer sleeve and just mailed the tray in a plain box. Or its also possible that similar to the 005, the 695 also shipped with its outer box and the original owner of mine threw it away (which is very common with the 695).

The catalog likely did not return for 1967.

Late 1967


The next wave utilized one of the 1967 Oxydol Sampler Sets for distribution. because of regional nuances, there's argument as to where exactly it was available and for how long, but we at least reliably know the 005's trial offer was still being offered in late 1967:

Notice the PO box for Imaginations Inc has moved from Newark, New Jersey in 1965 to early 1967 to Denver, Colorado for the late 1967 wave.

It's built on the pamphlet that appeared in 1966, just with the above section added. Here's an example of the covers:

1966 Pamphlet
1967 Oxydol Pamphlet

One More Note for 1967


It is also possible, due to a very convincing late 1967 release date for the 704 Master Discovery Set, that this promotion was also managed by Imaginations Inc. After all the catalogs are very similar and both involve mail order.

However, we currently have no real way of confirming the involvement of Imaginations Inc unless someone has the 704's outer mailing box or the accompanying "Discovery certificate" for the 704.

Late 1968


Via an obscure pamphlet, the Imaginations Inc. name continued into 1968.

It contains the obligatory 005 Discovery Set as well as marks the return of the 002 Motor Pak for Imaginations Inc. Presumably these used the same boxes covered above:

The new addition to the grouping was the 113 Motorized Train Set:

The 113 used a mailer box (probably the same one used for JCPenney's 113). This is an example of a 113 ordered from Imaginations Inc., postmarked in early 1969, meaning it was available for order in late-1968:

The Imaginations Inc. 113 is distinguishable from the JCPenney catalog variant via the inclusion of "Samsonite Corp" as seen above or the Samsonite stamp seen below:

Note that the above catalog may be incomplete.

The catalog came in a mailing envelope, implying the distribution for this season was via some mailing list.

One More Thing


The Bricks and Minifigs store in Loveland features a collection donated by a former Samsonite employee. Within it, is a 205 mailer box with the "Samsonite Corp" stamp but no postmark. My idea is that it is an Imaginations Inc. set we've not accounted for, possibly from the 1968 catalog as the one hosted onsite is incomplete.

Parallels


I do want to take a quick moment to point something out, something really interesting. The spread of sets for Imaginations Inc in 1966 is bizarre. The 005 gets a pass, in that it was already available through Imaginations Inc, so there's no reason to interrogate its presence in the sheet.

But consider the 695 Bulk Assortment, the 002 Motor Pak, the 1:87 vehicles, and the 042 Pull Toy.

The 695 was already shown to be a surplus set trying to eliminate the inventory of the 1961-65 supplements in The Misunderstood 695 Bulk Assortment Set.

The 002 Motor Pak, for this promotion, used the box from the 1965 season, the only year it appeared in the Sears catalog. Examples exist with the Sears stamp. I would bet, given the sister box 001 existed but did not reappear here, is that the offer for the 002 was to dump unsold inventory from Sears, as the 002 did not return in the 1966 Sears Catalog. Perhaps the 001 sold much better than the 002.

That would also match the 1:87 cars, which also appeared in the 1965 Sears catalog. But they were not exclusive to Sears and sold at many retailers from 1964-65, but their appearance here is at the tailend of when they were being sold individually. So, yet another offering at the end of its life.

The 042 has a bit more nuance.

Currently, the best estimation for the 042's retirement is 1967, but it's not an open and shut case. The 042 appears in the 1966 Dealer Catalog (which was verbatim reused for 1967), and the 1967 idea book, only being removed in the 1968 idea book. But there's a lot of assumptions involved in that.

But at least with the general unpopularity of the 042, explored in its dedicated article, as well as knowing the three other sets were at the end of their lives, as well as considering Samsonite had just released the Loveland Block Wagon in 1967, it's reasonable to conclude that these sets were included in the 1966 promotion to clear out retailer overstock, unsold or whatever the circumstances were around it.