In 1970 LEGO released 4 Minitalia sets. The largest Minitalia set from 1970 was
4-4 Large House Set with a piece count of 233 and a retail price of $3.50. The current estimated value of all these Minitalia sets from this year is about $1,411.20 which represents a 14854.7% growth.
LEGO Minitalia was a theme produced and available only in Italy and was available from 1970 to 1976. Minitalia was a licensee of LEGO similar to how Samsonite was here in the US and was created becuase the Italian Parliment restricted the import of LEGO so LEGO responded with their own Italian manufacturing subsidiary, LEGO Minitalia.. Minitalia consited of 21 sets in all.
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.