What was Three Worlds Inc.?
___
Despite all that I've compiled about LEGO Samsonite so far, there's always something new to explore and uncover. A simple question will quickly split into many, each requiring hours upon hours of further research.
So today, I'll pose a simple question: What was Three Worlds?
Unique to the T-014 Three Worlds Jumbo Bricks Set is its Three Worlds branding, unseen on any other LEGO set. Here is the front of mine:
It says: "THREE WORLDS* THE WORLDS OF PLAY, LEARNING, AND GROWTH"
After purchasing mine years ago, I'd done a number of casual searches for any information regarding this company or why they might've sold this set—all turned up empty. What's especially weird is the complete lack of Samsonite branding, which is completely unheard of for North American LEGO sets during the Samsonite era.
Nothing is readily available about Three Worlds or this set, no catalog site I've seen even has a guess for the date of release. This hobbyist site shares a similar interest but could never find anything.
BrickLink and other sites do, however, guess our T-014 to be an institution/education set, which is completely fair given the nature of the branding. Regardless, I have gone great lengths to determine what this set was (a normal retail set) and when it released (sometime in 1968).
But before we get to all that, we need a little context.
Three Worlds Formation
My idea is to pinpoint exactly when Three Worlds Inc. existed. Then find out its founders, what it owned, what it did. You know, everything. Again, none of this has ever been compiled or explored, so the following is my best approximation from contemporary documents I was able to dig up:
Three Worlds Inc. formed in 1967 by three separate companies: Halle Bros. Co. (department store chain), Playskool Mfg. Co. (subsidiary of Milton Bradley), and Field Enterprises Educational Corp. (just know they were known for the World Book Encyclopedia). The formation was announced at Merchandise Mart, Chicago in 1967.
At its announcement, it was declared that Three Worlds "...will design, manufacture, and distribute a line of educational play materials to be sold at department stores throughout the country on an exclusive-in-city basis."
The name "Three Worlds" was first used on October 5th, 1967. Serial number 285,097, trademark number 848,974. Originally filed on November 17th, 1967, it was officially registered on May 14th, 1968. These were only discovered thanks to Google Books, as no trademark search engine turned up relevant results using any variation of "Three Worlds".
Also note that according to a 1968 newspaper, "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." So Three Worlds might've existed as early as 1965, though that would've been in an incredibly limited capacity and wouldn't be the source of the T-014.
Building a Product Line
In late 1968, it was announced that 292 "pre-selected" toys were to be sold under the Three Worlds name after screening. The purpose the pre-selection was to guarantee safe, educational toys that had approval by real academic credentials. This clipping, from September 12th, 1968, sells the new brand as best it can:
According to Oneonta Star, October 16th, 1968, the pre-selection for the Three Worlds line did not include many original products or inventions (many of the surviving items you'll find are from Playskool). The linked clipping relays that at least twenty-four department stores planned to carry Three Worlds products. As a bonus, it's interesting that Three Worlds was claimed to be endorsed by editors from The World Book Encyclopedia, an affiliated company, and Childcraft, from whom I've found several ringing endorsements about LEGO Samsonite.
Most of the participating department stores are as yet unidentified. The one's I've confirmed from surviving/documented catalogs online are Halle Co, FAO Schwarz, Holmes, Frederick & Nelson, and Stix, Baer, & Fuller.
In the 1969 edition of The World Book Encyclopedia, you'll find the only known surviving image of a Three Worlds shop at retail. This image is from 1968 (using The Book of Knowledge as a frame of reference, the year on the spine means the contents regard the previous year. I know, confusing.), which confirms that Three Worlds products were available in department stores in 1968:
Their logo was first used on July 23rd, 1968. It was filed under serial number 316,758 on January 16th, 1969 and officially registered on January 6th, 1970, trademark number 883,723:
Dating the T-014 Set
As 1968 was the first use of the logo, and we now know it was officially registered in early 1970, that means our T-014 either came out in 1968 or 1969, as that was when the trademark was still pending (as our box demonstrates).
Thanks to this Cleveland Press article from April 30th, 1970, we know that the company dissolved in 1970:
However, between January of 1970 and the above article from late April, it appears that Three Worlds was still producing items, as I found a rare example of a box that had been given the "registered trademark" symbol instead of common "trademark application pending":
There may be more examples of other products with the symbol, but it is often hard to tell if the symbol is present at all due to poor printing quality.
So is that the best we've got? The T-014 released some time between 1968-69?
Surprisingly, no!
By a stroke of luck, I was able to source my own Three Worlds catalog!
My Catalog
The unfortunate news, however, is that the catalog doesn't exactly say what year it was printed.
As there is no postage sticker on the back,(as I've seen with another example), I assume this to have originally been an in-store pamphlet. I've uploaded the highlights to the site and plan to archive the full catalog in the future.
This is the title page, interestingly without any mention of "Trademark application pending" and seemingly very rough in design. The image on the front showcases actual products from the Three Worlds line, most of which are wood. Each department store had their own name printed where HOLMES is on mine:
The company statement features prominently on the first page. It serves as a good indication for what they were trying to do with the company, but it doesn't provide a date or any information I can use to date the catalog:
Here is our T-014 set in all its glory. I learned the "T" means toddler:
The Time Teacher (the one I showed that had the registered trademark symbol on the logo) is not present. So the catalog is more likely 1968 rather than 1969, but I only counted 287 products (if you count the wood block supplements separate like they do) and the newspaper above reported 292 products for the original line. So no help there.
There's one more page to look at:
Two things stand out on this page. One, the largest indication so far: "For 126 years, home-owned Holmes now has six complete department stores...". Two, the Westmoreland location of D. H. Holmes opened in 1968, but they'd call it new in 1969 as well.
You might think we have our date—Holmes opened their first store in 1842, so add 126 to that and get 1968. Yes, but I'm looking for confirmation this magazine couldn't have been printed in 1969. The 126 years could have been an oversight or an error.
At first, I tried checking the phone numbers; they were all in consistent use through 1968-70. Then I tried to see when Holmes might've had the P.O. box, couldn't find any hits.
However, I found the exact list of states ("...Mississippi, Alabama, Arkansas, Oklahoma, central or east Texas...") along with very close wording on other Holmes ads in newspapers ONLY during 1968:
That, coupled with the "126 years", along with the slapdash nature of the design of the front, make me very confident in dating this magazine to 1968. Further, the numbers for toddler's toys go up to T-050, so the fact that T-014 is a lower number is a strong indication that it was part of the original line.
And since writing this article, I've sourced the 1969 Three Worlds Catalog. It also shows the T-014, showing it was available for both 1968-69, which makes sense:
And so, we've finally answered our original question. Given all evidence I could gather, the T-014 came out in 1968 and was produced until at least 1969.
Actually, I have one more question. What is THIS?
A previously unknown Samsonite set? Is it a rerelease of an existing one, like the T-014 is? Did it come with any exclusive Three Worlds packaging/paperwork?
Sigh.
We'll have to get to it in its own article. We've answered enough questions for today.