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-2235 (1966)

H-2314 (1967)

Oxydol 005 Pamphlet (1967)

Advertised Part Count(s): 25 pieces

The Messenger, November 9th, 1967

First Year Confirmed Available: Late 1966 & Late 1967

I’ve written an extensive article that covers the Oxydol promotion's timeline in particular. In short, there were two distinct waves starting late in the year and ending shortly into the next.

USA Only.

Most Likely Retirement Date: 1968

The promotion probably did not continue into the new year. Most ads in the paper are only in late November, and the single appearance in January is an anomaly.

Last Year Seen Available: 1967

The Messenger, November 9th, 1967

Aliases: Free LEGO Toy, Sampler Set

Retail Price(s): 69c - 79c (USA)

Note: the prices above are not for the actual set, but instead the box of Oxydol they were within. The set was included as a freebie with a box of Oxydol purchased in late 1966 or late 1967, and I thought it'd be more informative to know the price of the entire box of Oxydol than just omitting it entirely.

Rarity Score (Index): 6/7

Known Box/Packing Variants

While the promotion ran for two waves (one in late 1966 and one in late 1967) and the included parts didn't change, there exists three different versions of the Oxydol sampler. They are easily identified by their pack-in pamphlets:

The 1966 version uses H-2235. It is the most common variant:

Then there are two versions of the 1967 version exclusive to certain ares:

A 1967 version repurposed the 005 Discovery Set's trial offer pamphlet and includes a mail offer for the 005. It is rarer than the 1966 promotion:

And finally, a 1967 version only available to Kentucky, Indiana, Tennessee, and Alabama uses H-2314 and references a mail offer for a 319 Truck With Trailer. I had no idea this variant existed(and it doesn't appear anywhere online) until I found one recently, it shipped from Kentucky. It is by far the rarest variant:

Box/Overview

The set did not come in a box but instead a plastic bag.

The outer Oxydol box(at least in 1967) looked like this:

box top image

I'm not aware of any surviving images of the Oxydol box, but examples of the 1966 sampler set are out there and is the more common set.

Contents

Both versions contained 25 pieces, an assortment to build the example models featured below.

One thing I'd like to mention, as I have no other place to really put this, is that in the above 1966 promotion, there is a mail order for a free idea book. While originally I assumed it was just a standard LEGO pack-in idea book, I'm almost certain it was the Imaginations Inc order catalog from 1966:

As it wouldn't make sense for there to be a free sampler set, a free idea book, but no way to order more sets. Most other Samsonite mail order sets included some way to order more (i.e. Kraft, LIFE, etc.).

So the way I see it, there are now two channels for this booklet to have been distributed: from the "discovery certificate" included with the 005's brochure and the 1966 Oxydol Sampler Set. And both of which perfectly match the 1966 date we already determined in Dating Various Mail-Offer Pamphlets, which is nice to see when things line up.

Historical Examples

The only note I'd make are the regional oddities with the Oxydol promotion, as the 1967 319 Truck With Trailer version of the promotion advertised a mail-in offer for "74 piece LEGO toy". As a reminder:

Only 1967 newspapers from Kentucky, Indiana, Tennessee, and Alabama republish this same offer. Which makes sense, as that is where the 319 mail offer was active.

However, one might ask where the second 1967 version of the pamphlet comes into play.

Curiously, only in Ohio newspapers the same ad is published except "74 piece LEGO toy" has been replaced with "complete LEGO toy":

In my mind, as Ohio was not listed as one of the participating states on 1967's H-2314 for the 74 piece set, but they still have the Oxydol offer, it's likely the second 1967 pamphlet we've found was used in place of the original.

There's an exception where a singular newspaper ad(out of 40+ ads that are readily available) in Kentucky appears advertising a "complete LEGO toy" instead of a 74 piece set. That ad, however, appears much earlier than the 74 piece offer. I'm not exactly sure of why that is, but given that the ad appears in very early October instead of the 74 piece set's late October to November appearances, its possible there was some crossover in terms of distribution with the Imaginations Inc pamphlet. Either that, or the Imaginations Inc pamphlet predates the 74 piece offer during an earlier run.

There really isn't enough evidence to know one way or another conclusively.