Self-Locking Building Blocks

Self-Locking Building Blocks thumbnail 1

On display

Young V&A
Play Gallery, Build It, Case 3

This object consists of 90 parts, some of which may be located elsewhere.

Artist/Maker	Kiddicraft Ltd. (manufacturers) Hilary Page (designer)
Place of origin	Kenley (manufactured)

Kiddicraft Self-Locking Building Bricks, moulded plastic, and instruction booklet. The booklet is for sets two to six from the range, and is printed with dark blue ink on white showing illustrations of shapes and figures that can be made, together with the quantity of bricks needed for each.

The bricks are of moulded plastic, in blue, red, yellow, green and white and sized as half-bricks and whole-bricks. They are moulded with four or eight small knobs on the top surface, a slit down two opposing sides (to hold door and window frames), and each brick has a different moulded number inside. Many have damaged edges.

Object details

Categories	Dolls & Toys Children & Childhood Construction Toys Plastic Play
Object type	Construction toy
Parts	This object consists of 90 parts. Building Brick Building Brick Building Brick Building Brick Building Brick Building Brick Building Brick Building Brick Building Brick Building Brick Building Brick Building Brick Building Brick Building Brick Building Brick Building Brick Building Brick Building Brick Building Brick Building Brick Building Brick Building Brick Building Brick Building Brick Building Brick Building Brick Building Brick Building Brick Building Brick Building Brick Building Brick Building Brick Building Brick Building Brick Building Brick Building Brick Building Brick Building Brick Building Brick Building Brick Building Brick Building Brick Building Brick Building Brick Building Brick Building Brick Building Brick Building Brick Building Brick Building Brick Building Brick Building Brick Building Brick Building Brick Building Brick Building Brick Building Brick Building Brick Building Brick Building Brick Building Brick Building Brick Building Brick Building Brick Building Brick Building Brick Building Brick Building Brick Building Brick Building Brick Building Brick Building Brick Building Brick Building Brick Building Brick Building Brick Building Brick Building Brick Building Brick Building Brick Building Brick Building Brick Building Brick Building Brick Building Brick Building Brick Building Brick Building Brick Building Brick Instruction Book
Title	Self-Locking Building Blocks (manufacturer's title)
Materials and techniques	Injection-moulded polystyrene, printed paper Polystyrene Paper Printing Injection Moulding
Brief description	Building bricks, Kiddicraft, England, 1950-1955
Physical description	Kiddicraft Self-Locking Building Bricks, moulded plastic, and instruction booklet. The booklet is for sets two to six from the range, and is printed with dark blue ink on white showing illustrations of shapes and figures that can be made, together with the quantity of bricks needed for each. The bricks are of moulded plastic, in blue, red, yellow, green and white and sized as half-bricks and whole-bricks. They are moulded with four or eight small knobs on the top surface, a slit down two opposing sides (to hold door and window frames), and each brick has a different moulded number inside. Many have damaged edges.
Dimensions	Half brick length: 32mm Whole brick length: 64mm Brick width: 32mm Brick depth: 22mm Doors height: 76mm Doors width: 35mm Windows height: 38mm (minimum) Windows width: 35mm (minimum) Windows height: 64mm (maximum) Windows width: 38mm (maximum) taken from register
Production type	Mass produced
Marks and inscriptions	'SELF LOCKING BUILDING BRICKS / A KIDDICRAFT 'SENSIBLE' TOY / DESIGNED BY / HILARY PAGE / MADE IN ENGLAND' (Inside the whole bricks) 'Kiddicraft / SELF-LOCKING BUILDING BRICKS / INSTRUCTION BOOK FOR Nos. 2-6 SETS / Hilary Page's finest toy' (Printed on booklet cover)
Gallery label	28. BUILDING BRICKS: SELF-LOCKING BRICKS Made by Kiddicraft Ltd., Great Britain, about 1947 Plastic Given by Professor and Mrs. R Naylor Misc.784:2 to 75-1992 In the 1930s Hilary Page of Kiddicraft introduced the Interlocking Building Cube as part of a range of 'sensible' toys made from plastic. At the outset a special company was formed to produce it, as experimentation with plastic toys was considered by his co-directors to be too much of a business risk. Lego, which came later (1950s), worked on a similar principle but contained smaller tubes which increased the stability of the structure.
Credit line	Given by Professor and Mrs P. Naylor
Production	The slits on the sides of these bricks demonstrate that they were produced after 1949 when that feature was patented.
Collection	Young V&A Collection
Accession number	MISC.784:1 to 90-1992

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Record created	March 28, 2008
Record URL	https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O148455/self-locking-building-blocks-construction-toy-hilary-page/

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