Hilary Page, Kiddicraft, Self Locking Building Bricks

Hilary Page's toy company Kiddicraft first patented the self-locking building brick in 1940. WW2 put the toy company on hold but immediately after the war in 1945, Hilary Page improved upon his original design by adding slots to his bricks for doors & windows. These bricks were made of Cellulose Acetate and were available in Red, White, Green, Yellow and Medium Blue. Kiddicraft 2x2 bricks said KIDDICRAFT on the underside of the bricks, however, the 2x4 Bricks had a few different marks on the bottom of their bricks including: 

SELF LOCKING BUILDING BRICKS

INJECTION MOULDERS LTD, LONDON

A HILARY PAGE DESIGN

A HILARY PAG DESIGN (missing the E on PAGE)

BRITISH & FOREIGN PATENTS

MADE IN ENGLAND

LEGO designed their Automatic Binding Bricks and their packaging based on the Hilary Page Kiddicraft Self-Locking Building Bricks.

Hilary Page was passionate about child development and wrote many books on the subject, such as Playtime in the First Five Years in 1938. This is what motivated him to make toys out of plastic rather than wood because they were much safer and cleaner for children to play with.  Page spent his time during World War II in service to the British government by touring the United States and lecturing on children in wartime to help convince them to join the war effort. Upon returning from his trip, he wrote this book, Toys in Wartime and published it during the war in 1942. It was printed in Great Britain by The Woodbridge Press LTD and is a War Economy Standard version. At this point, Hilary Page had already invented his building brick but had not taken it into production because of the war.

Financial difficulties with his company led him to commit suicide on June 24, 1957.

LEGO purchased the residual rights to the Kiddicraft designs from Hilary Page's descendants in 1981.