Creative toys for every age

By Peter Pernsteiner

It was 75 years ago that the then still small company called LEGO began marketing its first clamping bricks under the name of "Automatic Binding Bricks". They already had studs at the top, but were still hollow underneath, which meant they only had a limited locking ability. What’s more, they weren’t a genuine in-house development but were based on the "Bri-Plax" studded bricks invented ten years earlier by Hilary Page. However, these bricks were only patented in the UK as "Interlocking Building Cubes" and were further improved in the years that followed. Lego’s Automatic Binding Bricks already had almost the same dimensions as today’s studded bricks. Lego then made extensive revisions to them from 1955 onwards and developed an ingenious idea for the base to improve interlocking properties. On 21 January 1959, the company finally received the patent for the Lego automatic binding bricks that have now been tried and tested billions of times.

Lego geometry for infinite combinations

The most famous Lego brick patented at the time has a basic size of just under 16 mm by 32 mm and a height of 9.6 mm. It has eight studs, each with a diameter of just under 5 mm and a height of 1.8 mm, including the Lego lettering. Thanks to three tubular bars on the underside, the bricks can be inserted into each other with good adhesive force, even when offset sideways. But that's not all, because the three tubes of the 2 x 4 brick are designed in such a way that the studs of narrow 1 x 1, 1 x 2 or 1 x 3 bricks can be clamped inside. This means that Lego bricks can even be put together when offset by half a stud. The bricks have been made of ABS plastic since 1963 and the first flat 'third elements' were launched on the market in the same year. They have a height of 3.2 mm without studs. This means that three flat Lego bricks are exactly the same height as one normal brick, which also greatly increased the possible combinations of Lego. Last but not least, there are the flat tile bricks, also 3.2 mm high, which ensure a smooth brick finish at the top.

Many other ideas followed, such as the LEGO railway in 1965, gears in 1970, the first LEGO minifigures in 1978 and the first educational kits for building programmable robots under the name of LEGO MINDSTORMS in 1998. Lego has long since become popular with more than just children. More and more building sets are increasingly being targeted at adults, which is why many colourful box sets are now clearly marked "18+". With the latest set in the LEGO IDEAS range, for example, LEGO fans can build a beautifully designed 22 cm high greenhouse on two 26 cm x 26 cm studded plates. The "Botanical Garden" set consists of no less than 3,792 pieces, which can be used to build three atriums and a garden, which are adorned with 35 different species of plant. The main atrium even has a spiral staircase that leads to a viewing platform! In the two smaller atriums, there is a dry garden with cacti and a café. To round things off, the set contains twelve LEGO minifigures and various animal figures.

Competition boosts business

The patent on the classic Lego brick expired more than four decades ago. So it's no wonder that every year at the Spielwarenmesse, numerous other companies besides Lego present similar sets – compatible with the Lego bricks and also with a grid dimension of 8 mm by 8 mm. Mattel, for example, calls them Mega Bloks, Simba calls them BLOX, the Polish manufacturer Cobi simply names it COBI and the still relatively new company Dark Side Bricks has named its clamping bricks after the former company name Kiddicraft of the inventor of the Bri-Plax bricks. Apart from standard clamping bricks, some manufacturers today also use a wide variety of in-house developed brick moulds to make their products appear more prototypical. Cobi, for example, has designed customised clamping bricks for the rear, front and windows of its almost 100 mm long nostalgia car model of the legendary Trabant 601 small car from East Germany. Contrary to many other sets from numerous manufacturers, this car doesn’t even require stickers, as the corresponding injection-moulded plastic parts are even printed accordingly ex works – even though the set of 71 parts only has a list price of just under €15.

Car models can be made much larger if so desired. The current McLaren P1 from the Lego Technic programme, for example, which consists of 3,893 parts, measures an impressive 59 cm. Alongside cars, the manufacturers also cater for many other themes, such as construction machinery, railways, fire brigades, aeroplanes, lorries, ships and science fiction. The largest Star Trek set currently available from BlueBrixx is a 102 cm wide spaceship painting comprising 3,744 pieces and designed in the style of the artwork in Captain Picard’s ready room. For almost exactly 25 years, Lego has built up a gigantic Star Wars fan base. One of the current highlights is the 83 cm long Millennium Falcon made from 7,541 pieces. As well as technology fans, many manufacturers also cater for fantasy themes such as DC superheroes, dinosaurs, Harry Potter, Marvel and pirates. A large fan base is now looking forward to plants in all variations – from bouquets of flowers to orchids in flower pots via bonsai trees. And it doesn’t always have to be a matter of standard bricks with an 8 mm grid. Under the name 'LOZ mini', for example, there are smaller studded clamping blocks with a grid size of 6 mm by 6 mm. The lilac-coloured Specially Love bouquet gift box requires a shelf space of 15 cm by 10 cm and consists of 1,179 bricks. If you prefer fewer pieces, you can assemble a flowering bonsai from just 426 LOZ mini bricks, for example.

Architectural models in all sizes

Clamping blocks are now available in even smaller sizes. The 'Diamond' bricks have a grid size of just 4 mm x 4 mm and are offered by BlueBrixx, Lezi, LiMei Toys, LOZ or MoYu, for example. However, bricks of this size are a real challenge and test of patience for adults. The Chinese-style Suzhou Garden from the Lezi brand Zhe Gao consists of 3,930 studded bricks. Its base plate, made up of several parts, requires an area mearing 40 cm by 24 cm and the tallest building, including the plate, is 14 cm high. There are now countless architectural sets not only in the Diamond format, but also in Mini format and standard Lego bricks. Impressive, standard-sized examples are the 83 cm long Buckingham Palace from CaDA made from 5,604 bricks, the 61 cm long Hohenzollern Castle from BlueBrixx consisting of 8,933 bricks and the 149 cm high Eiffel Tower from Lego that has 10,001 bricks.

When it comes to building models and any other themed play worlds, people often ask how they can be illuminated at a later stage. For some time now, Open Brick Source has been offering transparent Stax light bricks that can be easily combined with Lego or other compatible clamp-on bricks. Each light brick contains an LED and, as a rule, two electrical contact pins in each stud and two contact surfaces in each stud hole on the underside. A Power Base brick with 4x4 studs and integrated battery or a Power Brick with 2x4 studs and USB socket is used for the power supply. In this concept, both light bricks and flat connectors with contacts underneath are used to ensure flexible power transmission. There are also angled studded bricks, for example, which can be used to create front lighting, as well as studded bricks with connecting cables in a wide variety of lengths. Also of interest for building construction are photo-realistically printed building boards from Open Brick Source. They have 32x32 studs (25.6 cm x 25.6 cm) and, unlike many other building boards, can also be connected from below with studded bricks. One innovation is that there are now also personalised building boards with an individual photo on the top. The boards come in seven different basic colours and are printed in Germany and delivered in just 5 to 7 working days – also in individual production or as a composite larger motif with 1x2, 2x2 or 2x3 building boards.

About the author

Peter Pernsteiner discovered his love of technology journalism while studying electrical engineering and soon after joined the editorial team of a major ITC trade magazine. Since 1994, he has been writing as a freelance journalist, particularly on technology topics – including for model railway magazines. In 2016, he also launched a YouTube channel for tech reports, which has since attracted a global audience.