The history of Kiddicraft, the first LEGO

The Kiddicraft Self-Locking Building Bricks and LEGO Automatic Binding Bricks have a long and interesting history. Harry Fisher Page, the owner of the English toy manufacturer Kiddicraft, was a visionary who understood the value of plastic as a material for toys. In the late 1930s, he began using plastic in his designs and in 1939, he patented the design for hollow plastic cubes with four studs on top, allowing for easy positioning without lateral movement. He called these Interlocking Building Cubes and they represented a new way of combining several established concepts in the world of construction toys.

In 1944, Page added to his original patent and applied for an improvement to his Toy Building Blocks, describing a system that used rectangular hollow blocks with 2X4 studs for building walls with window openings. He was granted this patent in 1947 as British Patent No. 587,206. In 1945, he applied for yet another patent, this time for a construction system using slotted 2X4 and 2X2 bricks that could receive doors and windows. This patent was granted in 1949 as No. 633,055.

In 1949, Page applied for a patent for a thin studded baseplate that could be used to mount the wall-forming bricks from his previous patent, making the finished structure transportable. This patent was granted in 1952 as No. 673,857. After this, Page began manufacturing his Self-Locking Building Bricks in sets that included 2X2 and 2X4 bricks, windows and doors, and even pictures that could be framed with the bricks. Some sets later included a large baseplate as well.

Ole Kirk Christiansen, the owner of LEGO, became aware of the Kiddicraft bricks and was impressed by their value. According to a lawsuit trial statement given by Godtfred Kirk Christiansen in 1986, the source of this transfer of technology was the salesman who sold LEGO its first plastics injection machinery, which was probably acquired in 1947. Page and Christiansen likely met in Copenhagen in June 1949, during a trip that Page and his wife took to Sweden and Switzerland. After this meeting, LEGO introduced their own version of the Interlocking Building Cubes and the Self-Locking Bricks, which they named Automatic Binding Bricks. These were launched on the Scandinavian market in 1949 and were very similar to the Kiddicraft bricks.

In 1950 or early 1951, LEGO introduced their own 10X20 baseplate, which was suspiciously similar to Page's 1949 patent. This suggests that LEGO obtained information about Page's designs directly from Kiddicraft or from the company that produced the bricks, Injection Moulders, Ltd. of London.

After 1952, LEGO continued to evolve and innovate, becoming the toy of the century. This is largely due to the innovations introduced by Godtfred Kirk Christiansen in 1954 and 1955. The history of these two building brick toys is a testament to the ingenuity and creativity of their creators, who helped to bring the world of construction and imagination to children everywhere.