Model Maker was a theme of sets manufactured by Samsonite starting in 1968 until 1971. There were nineteen sets produced for this theme, many of these sets were duplications of sets released with-in the LEGOLAND theme that were originally produced by LEGO for European markets.
1970 LEGO Sets
By 1970, LEGO grew to over 1,000 employees. The LEGO Group started the process to regain the LEGO license from Samsonite in the United States market after the founder of Samsonite, Jesse Shwayder, died. By 1973 LEGO will take control of all US LEGO sales. As LEGO continues its European growth, in Italy, the Italian Parliament restricts the import of LEGO products and LEGO responds by creating their own Italian manufacturing subsidiary called LEGO Minitalia. In 1970 LEGO produced their first sets on the Minitalia theme which were essentially Basic systems. In total from 1970 until 1975 there were 21 Minitalia sets produced. During the same year, the long-running Town Plan theme was discontinued as this was part of the phasing out of multiple scaled models.