What Was Discovery Playthings?

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Through the compilation of the sources and articles on this site, I've found the frontier of LEGO Samsonite to be quickly shrinking. Surprises are relatively hard to come by nowadays, though that doesn't mean something won't come by that we haven't accounted for.

Like today. Gary, the author of The Unofficial Sets/Parts Collector's Guide shared an image that I don't remember ever seeing before, though I'm relatively new in the space compared to some veterans.

It's yet another Jumbo Bricks set, though with completely different branding:

Ever feel like you have déjà vu? I'm feeling it here, didn't we already do this with Three Worlds? Is this set the same situation?

Kind of, but don't think there aren't surprises to be had.

What was Discovery Playthings?

Fortunately for us, in this case there's a bit more available online about Discovery Playthings. It's a more searchable name, thankfully.

A 1968 New York Times article directly compares Three Worlds Inc. to Discovery Playthings, even identifying the company that owns the venture: "Halle's has had a Three Worlds Shop in its toy department for the last three years as a pilot project and as training ground for personnel. Allied Stores has a similar division called Discovery Playthings Inc., at a slightly lower price level."

Discovery Playthings filed for trademark in 1969, but they existed for several years before that. This newspaper identifies the program as starting in 1965 with representatives of Jordan Marsh working with the Child Study Association to choose toys for sale. By the end of the pilot program, there were around 150 items available in 1967 and the plan was to expand to over 300 items by 1968.

It's another umbrella brand in which toys were chosen as "educational" by academic credentials. The appeal is for parents to be able to select toys appropriate for or even to enhance their child's development. Though while Three Worlds developed some of their own items, Discovery Playthings only had preexisting items.

As the initial launch was in 1967, it opened in several Allied Stores across the US. Below is Dey Brothers:

It seems to have been common practice for department stores in the late 1960s to make these sorts of brands; so much so they were compared to each other on more than one occasion:

Though unique to Discovery Playthings, there does not appear to be an announcement of disbandment. A ton of discounts suddenly appear in 1970 with scattered mentions of the brand into 1971. It's possible the brand ended outright in 1970 or was scaled back to being only at Jordan Marsh as at least one 1971 source(Toys that Don't Care) mentions the brand without mention of any closures. It's also possible that whatever avenue they used to announce such wasn't archived or where I was looking.

That's essentially it in terms of the history. Now we need to move on to...

Dating the Discovery Playthings Set

Similar to our Three Worlds article, I was able to source a catalog, which was the only one on the internet. I plan to archive the full magazine eventually, I'll link to it when I get the chance.

For now, I'm just worried about the date of release. I've dated the magazine to be from 1968 pretty conclusively. This is the front cover:

The next page is the main source. It gives its spiel to parents, which I find to be an interesting read and a pretty good summary of the brand:

Not only does it have a copyright for 1968, the Discovery Playthings logo still shows 'TM', which means it hasn't been filed for trademark yet. Also, I found a newspaper clipping from 1969 that identifies the executive director in the catalog as the former executive director in September of 1969. The best thing is we now have our listing for the DP60 Jumbo Brick set:

One thing I'd note is that while the colors listed here are red, white, and blue(just like the Three Worlds version of this same set), surviving examples will have yellow bricks instead of white(I've seen at least three, all have yellow bricks):

Why? I'm not exactly sure.

If I had to guess, it was something to do with exclusivity. As Three Worlds got an exclusive turquoise attaché case, it'd be reasonable to think that Discovery Playthings had a similar deal. Though why they chose yellow, I'm not sure. The only colors I can find associated with Discovery Playthings is the magenta color in the catalog and the greenish-blue on the DP60's box itself. Regardless, small issue comparatively.

Great, we've learned a bit about the company and where it came from. As a bonus, we've also dated the Discovery Playthings Jumbo Bricks set. 1968 is the earliest we can find it, and given the end of the company around 1970, the latest date for its retirement would be ~1970. Oh, if only things were that simple.

704 Master Discovery Set

While the Three Worlds catalog found a previously unidentified set, this catalog found a previously misidentified set. Check it out:

Common online you'll find that the 704 Master Discovery Set released in 1966 and was an FAO Schwarz exclusive. We have a large collection of FAO scans onsite however, and this 704 set appears in none of them. Here's 1966, wherein it shows a 004 Master Builder Set:

Through 1968, the set offered at FAO is always the 004 Master Builder Set, never the 704 Master Discovery Set. After that, the 004 set no longer appears. So if it wasn't a FAO Schwarz exclusive, was it for Discovery Playthings then?

Well, that's where we get into the weeds. Absolutely fascinating that the unknown jumbo bricks set was so simple yet the relatively known Master Discovery set is the troublesome child. I've created a dedicated article for the 704 set which is the next in the sequence.