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.

Advertised Part Count(s): 451 pieces

1967 Marshall Fields Christmas Catalog

First Year Confirmed Available: 1967(USA)

The 502 appears in multiple catalogs and newspapers starting in 1967.

USA Only.

Most Likely Retirement Date: 1969(USA)

It makes its final appearance in catalogs in 1969, but appears at multiple retailers such as Polsky's and Pomeroy's in 1970 newspapers. It's a difficult judgement, but all 1970 appearances are deeply discounted, so production likely stopped in 1969.

Last Year Seen Available: 1970

Auburn Journal, December 21st, 1970

Aliases: LEGO Deluxe Set, Deluxe Gift Set In Carrying Case, Deluxe Lego Carrying Case, Special Deluxe Set

Retail Price(s): $14.99(USA)

Discounted Example(s): $7.40(1969), $11.95(1970)

Rarity Score(Index): 5/7 (Taking into account finding one with both the front and inner labels or with its pamphlet, depending on which version you want)

Known Box/Packing Variants

There are two variants of the 502.

As far as I can tell, there is only one version of the front, from 1967-68:

brickfetish has a scan of a folded brochure with the 502's number. Via the form number, it dates to 1968. It is essentially the front and inner images on a folded pamphlet instead of being plastered on the box. It seems Samsonite stopped gluing the labels to the front/inside of the case(as they were fragile and never adhered well) sometime in 1968 and instead turned it into a pack-in pamphlet:

As the 1969 FAO Schwarz Catalog curiously shows a blue case version, it is reasonable to theorize there may have been a blue version of the 502, but it should be warned that no other source corroborates such, nor are any surviving examples known.

Box/Overview

The 502 Deluxe Set With Case is both interesting and not really, as it is essentially a 450 Basic Set with an additional baseplate(hence 451 pieces), just with a different package.

Instead of the contents(though there is an interesting note with the contents to get to), the attaché case used to package the 502 gives a little flourish for me. It seems such an obvious thing to do, what with Samsonite being famous for their cases and they'd been distributing LEGO since 1961. Why didn't they make a case set for normal retail much earlier?

This will be discussed further below. For now, let's take a look at the set. It's the standard format as you'd see with other case sets, except it gets its own paperwork:

box top image

The inner label is essentially the back of the 450(no surprises there):

Here's a comparison with the back of the 450's box:

My case is missing the front cover, though the glue residue remains where it was originally:

Contents

As usual, take this example's inventory as a guide and not law. Ignore the attached string to the key, it's not original:

The key is a common Samsonite key(the latches on this set are not exclusive) and is easy to replace:

The set also makes a very deliberate choice using blue baseplates instead of the normal grey one that the 450 used. While seemingly an innocuous choice, it lines up with a connection I've made with supplemental packs going into 1968 as well as other 1967 sets including the 110 Chevron Station. I will address it further in a future article.

Historical Examples

Beyond the strange appearance of the blue case version, the 502 set was supposedly test marketed in Albuquerque before its appearance in 1967 catalogs and newspapers:

As this clipping is from November 11th, 1967, how long before the Christmas season the set was test marketed is up in the air—if it was actually test marketed at all. Hard to say as this is the first mention of the set in New Mexico, so there are no local ads to confirm exactly when or if this took place.

However, if it did happen, it would be an important clue as to why Samsonite didn't produce a case set in 1961-66.

Technically they did with the 750 and 7100 Educational sets, but from what we've been able to salvage, those sets did not do too well(discussed more here). They also weren't available at mass retail, priced well outside a reasonable range for families, which is why I don't consider them as the actual first.

So why test market the set?

It seems they were more careful with the 502, possibly because of the history with the 750/7100 sets or other non traditional LEGO sets without a proven track record for sales. Just a thought.