These are the basic brick sets sold in North America by Samsonite, the luggage maker, which held the LEGO licence there from 1961. Samsonite made the ordinary bricks itself, first at its factory in Stratford, Ontario, while the special parts came over from Billund, and in 1965 it opened a plant in Loveland, Colorado, used only for LEGO.
1968 LEGO Sets
1968 was a landmark year with the opening of the first LEGOLAND park in Billund, Denmark, attracting hundreds of thousands of visitors. LEGO also introduced the first 12V train motor, spoked wheels, and magnetic couplers, greatly improving the realism of its Train line. The company refined packaging with photo-based idea layouts and transitioned away from the small-scale Town Plan system. This year also marked the arrival of Jens Nygaard Knudsen, who would go on to design the LEGO minifigure and shape future core themes.