Loc Blocs was a plastic block construction toy set. [1] They were marketed in the 1970s and 1980s by Entex Industries and manufactured in Japan as Dia Block by Kawada Co. which still produces sets to this day. They were also sold by Sears under their house brand Brix Blox.
Today, similar blocks are still manufactured in Japan as Diabloks and sold in the US under the name Disney Build-It. [2]
The blocks were of a very similar grid pattern to the LEGO system, but due to existing LEGO patents, were slightly different. Rather than using a stud and tube system, Loc Blocs used a tall stud and short channels on the bottom of bricks. The tall studs were just tall enough to engage the channels. The knobs were too tall and spaced just a little bit off for fitting between LEGO tubes.
Lego is a line of plastic construction toys manufactured by the Lego Group, a privately held company based in Billund, Denmark. Lego consists of variously coloured interlocking plastic bricks made of acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) that accompany an array of gears, figurines called minifigures, and various other parts. Its pieces can be assembled and connected in many ways to construct objects, including vehicles, buildings, and working robots. Assembled Lego models can be taken apart, and their pieces can be reused to create new constructions.
Lego Technic is a line of Lego interconnecting plastic rods and parts. The purpose of this series is to create advanced models of working vehicles and machines, compared to the simpler brick-building properties of normal Lego.
Bob the Builder is a British animated children's television series created by Keith Chapman for HIT Entertainment, and ran from 12 April 1999 to 31 December 2011 in the United Kingdom through the CBBC strand and later CBeebies. The series centres on the adventures and escapades of a general contractor named Bob who owns a team of anthropomorphised construction vehicles that go about their day helping out the residents of Bobsville; later featuring Sunflower Valley and Fixham Harbour in later seasons. They are also joined by work colleague Wendy, alongside their neighbours and friends.
Zoids, is a Japanese science fiction media franchise created by Tomy that feature giant robots called Zoids, with designs being based on animals; including dinosaurs, mammals, insects, arachnids and mythological creatures.
Bionicle is a line of Lego construction toys marketed primarily towards 8-to-16-year-olds. The line was launched in 2001, originally as a subsidiary of Lego's Technic series. Over the following decade, it became one of the company's biggest-selling properties, turning into a franchise and subsequently becoming one of the factors in saving Lego from its financial crisis of the late 1990s. Despite a planned twenty-year tenure, the theme was discontinued in 2010, citing low sales, but was rebooted in 2015 for a further two years.
Lego Duplo is a core product range of the construction toy Lego by The Lego Group, designed for children from 1+1⁄2 to 5 years old. Duplo bricks are twice the size of traditional Lego bricks in each of their three dimensions, making them easier to handle and less likely to be swallowed and choked on by younger children. Despite their size, they are still compatible with traditional Lego bricks.
Tyco Toys was an American toy manufacturer. It was acquired by Mattel in 1997, becoming one of its brands.
Lego began in 1934 in the carpentry workshop of Ole Kirk Christianen, a Danish furniture maker. During the Great Depression, he began to make miniature versions of his products, which inspired him to produce toys. In 1934 the company was named "LEGO", a contraction from the Danish phrase "leg Godt", meaning "play well".
A construction set is a standardized piece assortment allowing for the construction of various different models. Construction sets are most often marketed as toys. Popular construction toy brands include Lincoln Logs and LEGO.
A Lego minifigure, often simply referred to as a Lego figure or a minifig, is a small plastic articulated figurine made of special Lego bricks produced by Danish building toy manufacturer The Lego Group. They were first produced in 1978 and have been a success, with over 4 billion produced worldwide as of 2020. Minifigures are usually found within Lego sets, although they are also sold separately as collectables in blind bags, or can be custom-built in Lego stores and on lego.com. While some are named as specific characters, either licensed from already existing franchises or of Lego's own creation, many are unnamed and are designed simply to fit within a certain theme. They are highly customizable, and parts from different figures can be mixed and matched, resulting in many combinations.
Lego Trains is a product range and theme of the construction toy Lego, which incorporates buildable train sets. The Lego Trains theme became a sub-theme of Lego City in 2006. Products in the range have included locomotives, tracks, rolling stock, stations, signal boxes, and other track-side buildings and accessories. The theme is popular among adult fans, as well as children, and has spawned international associations and conventions. The train system is sometimes referred to as 'L-gauge' among Lego fans, in reference to traditional model railway scales. Lego trains use a nominal gauge of 37.5 mm, based on 5-stud track centerlines gauge, corresponding with a circa 1:38 scale.
Mega Brands Inc. is a Canadian children's toy company that is currently a wholly owned subsidiary of Mattel. Mega Bloks, a line of construction set toys, is its most popular product. Its other brands include Mega Construx, Mega Puzzles, and Board Dudes. The company distributes a wide range of construction toys, puzzles, and craft-based products.
Boom Blox is a 2008 puzzle video game by Electronic Arts for the Wii and N-Gage. It was developed by EA Los Angeles and directed by filmmaker Steven Spielberg.
Entex Industries, Inc. was an American toy and electronic game manufacturer based in Compton, California. The company was active during the 1970s and 1980s.
Cobi is a Polish toy company with its headquarters in Warsaw, Poland. The company was founded in 1987, producing puzzles and board games. In 1992, it started producing building blocks with an interlocking stud and tube system, compatible with Lego blocks. Due to their popularity, the company switched to mostly producing building block sets.
Ninjago is an animated epic-fantasy superhero television series produced by The Lego Group. It was created to coincide with the Lego Ninjago line of construction toys, which is based on the characters and events of the series. It centers on the fictional world of Ninjago, telling the story of a group of six teenage ninja and their battles against the forces of evil. The series was created by Michael Hegner and Tommy Andreasen, two Danish film producers. The storyline was written by Kevin and Dan Hageman until the ninth season; their successor as the head writer was Bragi Schut. The series features the voices of Jillian Michaels, Sam Vincent, Vincent Tong, Brent Miller, Michael Adamthwaite, Kirby Morrow, Andrew Francis, Paul Dobson, Kelly Metzger, and Mark Oliver. The voice cast was recorded in Canada for its entire run. The music was scored by composers Michael Kramer and Jay Vincent.
A Lego clone is a line or brand of children's construction blocks which is mechanically compatible with Lego brand blocks, but is produced by another manufacturer. The blocks were originally patented by The Lego Group in 1961 as "toy building bricks", and the company has since remained dominant in this market. Some competitors have moved to take advantage of Lego brand recognition by advertising their own products as compatible with Lego, with statements such as "compatible with leading building bricks".
Nanoblock is a line of construction toys manufactured by Kawada, a toy company based in Tokyo, Japan.
Hilary "Harry" Fisher Page was an English toy maker and inventor of Self-Locking Building Bricks, the predecessor of Lego bricks. He founded the Kiddicraft toy company.
Building blocks are modular construction parts, usually made of plastic, which can be assembled in a form-fit manner. The basic components are usually cuboid-shaped, cylindrically studded at the top in a grid pattern, hollow-bodied at the bottom and smooth at the sides. The structured upper surface interacts by friction and positive locking with the correspondingly negative lower surface of other clamping components, so that complex designs can be assembled. The design allows the parts to be connected with compressive force and the blocks to be clamped with plastic pins.