Samsonite was an American manufacturer of LEGO sets which introduced the very first USA LEGO catalog for Christmas of 1961. LEGO and Samsonite created a partnership to produce and sell LEGO in the US. The result was a 9-year license for exclusive North American distribution rights. Samsonite began marketing sets under the name LEGO by Samsonite in the US in 1961 and Canada in 1962.
1964 LEGO Sets
1964 brought major innovations in both product and presentation. LEGO introduced full-color instruction manuals with isometric diagrams, replacing box-top model photos and ushering in the modern instruction format. The first new Basic sets, 040 and 050, replaced the long-running 700/x series, expanding scale and part variety. LEGO also opened a manufacturing facility in Hohenwestedt, Germany, strengthening European production. That same year, LEGO appeared at the New York World’s Fair within Denmark’s national pavilion, featuring exclusive promotional sets.