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.
1962 LEGO Sets
In 1962 LEGO furthered its international expansion and began to sell products in Singapore, Hong Kong, Japan, Morocco and Australia. In addition, the original Danish patent that was filed in 1958 was finally granted. New parts and colors were introduced in 1962 such as black bricks and LEGO plates. Also, the LEGO wheel was no fully developed and LEGO introduced the wheels in the 400 and 401 supplementary sets in 1962. The wheel was part of the new Futura groups products and perhaps Futura’s first important contribution to the LEGO System. The wheels were round 2 × 2 or 4 × 4 bricks with a groove to accept a rubber tire and had friction based axles for rotation.