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Common in sets in the USA from 1965 into the early 1970s, these molded plastic trays came in two sizes: half and full. They were most often a milky plastic, similar to the tow plate which was previously introduced to North America in 1963:

They governed the size of most LEGO Samsonite boxes during this era, as all basic sets, supplements, and even some Model Makers included at least one to organize the pieces:

As far as I know, these trays were unique to North America, most other countries used paper, cardboard, or thin single-piece plastic inserts for their LEGO sets.

Important to note is that Samsonite did occasionally use paper trays, though they are far less common. They don't belong to any particular era or season, it appears they were used throughout 1965-71 for whatever circumstances.

I don't have a paper variant of the smaller tray, but they do exist. They are far less common.

And one more note. Recently I stumbled upon a 166 Extras Parts Kits and inside was the full tray, as usual, but molded in black:

I'm not sure why this exists, and very seldom are they found. It's the same flexible feel as the normal version, so I don't believe it to be a simple substitution using ABS pellets during 1972. There very likely are more out there, and I'm curious if other colors exist. These are seldom found and are considered extremely rare:

I suppose it could've been a material from another Samsonite toy, or there's something I don't know about the plastic used here and how this could be explained (which is entirely possible).

Regardless, these trays were largely phased out when the single-piece tray reached North America. Which is a shame, as I own several dozen of them loose and they are fantastic trays despite their age. My BrickLink store used them nearly every day, each having sorted literally thousands of pieces across their career.

Single-Piece Gray Tray

I wish there was a bit more elegant name for these.

Anyways, these trays were first introduced to the US in 1969 with sets like the 066 Governor Set. They're incredibly thin and are very commonly found creased, crumpled, or brittle:

It served as essentially the replacement for the prior individual trays, though did not replace it entirely. Instead, for most basic sets, the single-piece trays were used and then the individual trays were used to fill in gaps where needed:

But for some sets from 1969-1971, for whatever reason, the individual trays were still used even though the single-piece would obviously be cheaper/more practical from a production standpoint. Both my 1970 (not shown) and 1971 copies of the 835 Advanced Builders Set share this oddity even though the single-piece tray existed in this size and was in production at this time:

The single-piece tray was retired in 1971 during the redesign of Samsonite's entire toy line before the 1972 season. At that point, pieces were sealed in assorted bags with similar parts and no longer organized in a tray.