Self-Locking Building Blocks thumbnail 1
Image of Gallery in South Kensington
On display at Young V&A
Play Gallery, Build It, Case 3

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

Self-Locking Building Blocks

Construction Toy
1947 (designed), 1950-1955 (manufactured)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

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
Object type
Parts
This object consists of 90 parts.

  • Building Brick
  • Building Brick
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  • Instruction Book
TitleSelf-Locking Building Blocks (manufacturer's title)
Materials and techniques
Injection-moulded polystyrene, printed paper
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 typeMass 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
Accession number
MISC.784:1 to 90-1992

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Record createdMarch 28, 2008
Record URL
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