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Kiddicraft and Lego
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Wed, 25 Jul 2007 00:29:27 GMT
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Hilary Fisher Page and Kiddicraft
Anyone who has followed Lego history, or who perhaps has studied British
educational toys, by now surely knows the connection between Hilary Fisher
Page’s Self-Locking Building Brick and Lego’s Automatic Binding Brick, but aside
from this fact there is remarkably little information about Page or Kiddicraft,
his pioneering toy company.
So here we go. Not exactly Harry Potter 7, but nearly as long ;) Let me know
what you think.
Hilary Fisher Page (also known as Harry) was born on 20 Aug 1904 in Sanderstead,
Surrey. He was the first child of Samuel Fisher and Lillian Maude Page. His
sister, Vivienne, was born several years later.
As a child he showed an interest in making toys and inventing his own games. His
father, who worked in the lumber trade, once bought him two tons of scrap wood
from a local sawmill. This wood pile apparently kept him busy for several years
and further sparked his interest in building toys. When asked years later how he
became a professional toymaker he answered that “...he had an intelligent father
who in his childhood gave him the opportunity to develop his own ideas for
making toys.”
Page received his secondary education at the Shrewsbury Public School, in
‘School House’ under headmaster Canon Sawyer. Shrewsbury, one of England’s
oldest boys’ boarding schools, counts Charles Darwin and Michael Palin of Monty
Python among its notable alumni. He was admitted in 1918 and graduated after the
summer term in 1923. Records show that while there he was an excellent rower. It
was also here that he began to show his entrepreneurial side. He was very
interested in photography and soon set up a business developing photos for the
other students.
After his education was finished he, like his father, worked in the timber trade
for several years and in 1929 he married Norah Harris, a long-time neighbor of
the family. They had one child, Jill, on 8 May 1932.
Kiddicraft
In 1932 Page, along with several partners, including Warwick Allpass, a friend
from Shrewsbury, decided to go into the toy business. Using Page’s savings of
100 UKP, they opened a small toy shop called “Kiddicraft” at 6 Godstone Road,
Purley, Surrey. At first he imported wood toys from Russia, such as stacking
rings and matryoshka nesting dolls and later began to introduce his own designs.
The business was a struggle and he ended up in bankruptcy court. A period he
described as “most difficult.” The bankruptcy was finally discharged in 1937.
Nevertheless he continued to work on new toy designs and, perhaps most
importantly, began to seriously study early childhood play. Or more specifically
“…he used to spend the whole of every Wednesday in a different nursery school,
sitting on the floor and playing with the children, to find out exactly what
type of toys would be of the greatest interest to them.”(1) The application of
child psychology to toy design, while now commonplace, was revolutionary at the
time. The result was a range of toys designed around specific stages of
childhood development, a philosophy he described in his first book - Playtime in
the First Five Years (Watson & Crossland Limited, 1938).
Bri-Plax
Page had become increasingly unhappy with the use of wood as a material for
children’s toys:
“...For generations we have tried to find some type of paint or enamel which
cannot be sucked or gnawed off, in view of the fact that practically every toy
or plaything given to a baby or a young child goes straight to his mouth.” (2)
And he felt that plastics would offer a safe and hygienic alternative:
“Mothers are becoming much more hygienically minded and they realize that every
baby’s toy should be thoroughly washed in hot soapy water once a day. This can
be done with toys molded from urea. Dust and germs cannot cling to the bright
shiny surface, and the range of bright colors is most attractive and interesting
to the child.” (2)
Throughout the early and mid-1930s he experimented with molding plastic toys,
mostly using the thermoplastic urea-formaldehyde. His partners, however, felt
that plastics were simply too risky for the company. Especially a company
already in a difficult financial position:
“When I decided to start using plastics for Kiddicraft ‘Sensible’ toys in 1936,
my co-directors were certain that I should ruin the business with this
new-fangled material, and that persuaded me to form a new company, British
Plastic Toys Ltd.” (3)
In 1937 he introduced a line of plastic “Sensible Toys’ under the name Bri-Plax.
Many of these new designs, such as the Building Beakers, Pyramid Rings, or
Billie and his Seven Barrels, were based on the Russian toys he had previously
imported. But there were also new designs, such as the Interlocking Building
Cube, which would be awarded a British patent in 1940. (4)
These new “Sensible Toys” became popular with British mothers for exactly the
reasons Page had envisioned and the company expanded with a new warehouse in
Kenley, Surrey. But whatever success he was beginning to enjoy with the business
it was at the expense of his personal life. The stress of the last decade had
deteriorated his marriage and he and Norah were separated shortly before the
war.
World War II
All of Kiddicraft’s production ceased with the beginning of the war. As part of
the British war effort Page toured the US from 1940-42 lecturing and
broadcasting on ‘Children in Wartime’ and promoting trade relations between the
US and UK. While in Chicago he met Oreline, a US citizen, and they were married
in Baltimore on 23 July 1941, shortly after finalizing his divorce from Norah.
Page and his new wife returned to England in 1942 on the first convoy to cross
the Atlantic. Back home he toured England lecturing to the troops on behalf of
the Ministry of Defence. During this time he also published his second book,
Toys in Wartime (US Dept. of Labor Children’s Bureau, 1942), which showed
mothers how to create their own playthings given the extreme shortage of good
educational toys.
In 1945, as raw materials became available, Page again began marketing his toys.
By this time his partners clearly saw the potential of plastics and the toys
were marketed under the name Kiddicraft “Sensible Toys.” Advertisements in the
trade magazine, Games and Toys, announced that their “Plastic Educational Toys,
in pre-war form, are now available again in limited quantities.”
Post War Kiddicraft
In 1946 Oreline and Hilary adopted twin baby girls, Geraldine and Vivienne, who
were born in late 1945.
After the war the use of plastics exploded. Soon consumer goods, including toys,
made of thermoplastics became commonplace. But by this time Page had a 10 year
lead in the field and his post war “Sensible Toys” became very popular in
England. He completely rebuilt the company and introduced not only all of the
pre-war designs but many new toys as well. Sales steadily grew over the next
several years and the Kenley warehouse was converted into a small factory.
The Self-Locking Building Brick
Among the many post-war Kiddicraft designs was a new building block. The
Self-Locking Building Bricks were essentially smaller, refined versions of the
Interlocking Building Cube. Bricks could be stacked on each other and were held
in place by studs on the top. The bricks also featured slits on their side that
allowed panel-like doors, windows or cards to be inserted. He patented the basic
design, a 2 X 4 studded brick, in 1947. This was later followed by patents for
the side slits (1949) and the baseplate (1952).
The Kiddicraft Self-Locking Building Brick sets were first marketed in 1947. As
a promotion Page and his family built large display models for the 1947 Earl’s
Court Toy Fair. Jill remembers “building ‘Sky Scrapers’ that were ‘as tall as I
was – 5’ 6” “. The first two sets were soon followed by several more full and
supplementary sets.
The Self-Locking Building Bricks were aimed at the older children, and
considering the UK market for construction toys at the time, dominated by
Meccano, it doesn’t appear that they were a major part of the Kiddicraft
catalog.
The Automatic Binding Brick
Like everyone else Ole Kirk Christiansen had been following the rising
popularity of plastics and he decided that Lego should manufacture plastic toys.
Ole and his son Godtfred found a London based company that was interested in
expanding their equipment sales and bought the first injection moulding machine
in Denmark. Along with the equipment the company sent several example items to
show the full capabilities of the machine. Among these were samples, and
possibly drawings, of Page’s Self-Locking Building Brick.(4)
Ole modified the Kiddicraft brick and marketed his own version, The Automatic
Binding Brick, in 1949.
“With the cooperation of a tooling works in Copenhagen, we modified the design
of the brick, and moulds were made. The modifications in relation to the
Kiddicraft bricks included straightening round corners and converting inches to
cm and mm, which altered the size of the brick by approx. 0.1 mm in relation to
the Kiddicraft brick. The studs on the bricks were also flattened on top.” (5)
Lego also copied and modified the larger Interlocking Building Cube and sold it
under the name Lego Plastic Byggeklodser in the early 1950s.
It appears that Page even visited Ole and Godtfred in June 1949, although he was
unaware of Lego’s version of his brick.
The 1950s
Although the market was now flooded with inexpensive plastic toys, Kiddicraft
continued to enjoy success, particularly in the pre-school market. His cot and
pram designs even won the British Toy of the Year in 1951.
Kiddicraft was successful enough that Page began to seek foreign partners and
found Philippe Mayer. Mayer started Kiddicraft France in 1950. In 1954 Mayer,
along Kurt Molineus and Wilhelm Seeling, started Kiddicraft Germany, and with
Alberto Barcessat, Kiddicraft Spain. Kiddicraft products were also distributed
in Australia, South Africa, and the US.
Page continued to write about early childhood play and published a second
edition of Playtime in the First Five Years (Allen & Unwin, 1953). The second
edition was translated into several languages, including French, Spanish, and
even US English.
At the time the Kiddicraft office was in Hilary Page’s flat in Barkston Gardens,
Earls Court. He had his desk in the living room, his secretaries worked in the
spare room and his designer Michael Duck worked in the attic. His children
fondly remember the year he set up the Kiddicraft stand in his flat rather than
at Toy Fair around the corner and moved the family into to a cold hotel. Later
the office moved to 2 Ellis Street, Sloane Street, London S.W.1.
The System of Play
Page was unable to successfully commercialize the Self-Locking Building Bricks,
but to be fair; Lego wasn’t much more successful with their Automatic Binding
Bricks. Godtfred renamed the bricks Lego Mursten in 1953 and marketed seven
different sets, as well as several supplementary sets, but, at most, they
accounted for 5% of Lego’s sales. What changed Lego’s fortunes was the “System
of Play” introduced at the 1955 Nurnburg Toy Fair. The System of Play integrated
all of the Mursten sets, as well as a number of new elements, into a unified
theme based around a streetscape or town plan. It would turn out to be one of
the most significant ideas in company history.
Page, however, was paying little attention to the Self-Locking Building bricks,
to say nothing about Lego’s System of Play. By this time his focus was on his
most ambitious project yet – the Kiddicraft Miniatures.
The Kiddicraft Miniatures
The Kiddicraft Miniatures were small reproductions of actual food and household
items, such as detergent boxes, soup cans, tea and sugar boxes, ice cream
cartons, beer and wine bottles, even cigarette packs. He promised “over 300”
different products and set out on what was, perhaps, the largest licensing
arrangement in the toy industry. Kiddicraft eventually produced over 200 of
these miniatures but the company simply could not deliver on all of Pages’
promises, and could not honour their agreements with their licensors.
Page became deeply troubled with these pressures on the business and feared a
total collapse of the company. Tragically, he committed suicide on 24 June 1957.
After Page’s death David Day became Managing Director, and along with Henry
Darrell, Company Secretary, and Warwick Allpass, Page’s longtime fried and major
shareholder, the company continued. Oreline remained an active director until
the company was sold in 1977.
Lego in Britain
By the late 1950s Lego was expanding into Western Europe. British Lego Ltd. was
set up in late 1959 and the first sets were sold the following year. Page was
never aware of the Lego brick. When asked later, Page’s daughter would only
state that she “was relieved that my father never knew about Lego before he
died.”
Page and Kiddicraft had always been aggressive about protecting their designs.
Between 1939 and his death in 1957 he was awarded more than 30 different
patents, including three patents for the Self-Locking Building Brick. He even
defended the design against infringement in 1950. However Lego’s design, which
by now included the tube-and-stud coupling, was also patented in the UK. (6) It
does not appear that Kiddicraft ever pursued any action against Lego.
In 1981, as Lego was beginning their litigation with Tyco, they purchased all
remaining rights to the Kiddicraft design from Hestair-Kiddicraft for 45,000
UKP. (7)
Hestair
In 1977 Oreline sold the company to the Hestair conglomerate. The new,
completely restructured company, Hestair-Kiddicraft, continued to produce toys.
They marketed many of the older ‘Sensible Toys’ as well as a number of new toys,
mostly designed by David Day. The company even moved to larger headquarters in
Bristol in 1984.
Hestair sold the company to Fisher-Price in 1989. Fisher-Price used the
Kiddicraft brand name, but none of the classic Page and Day designs. In the mid
1990s Fisher-Price finally dropped the Kiddicraft brand. It was the apparent end
of the Kiddicraft brand and their toys.
(1) Page, Hilary Fisher. Playtime in the First Five Years. Second edition.
London: Allen & Unwin, 1953.
(2) Page, Hilary Fisher. “Plastics as a Medium for Toys.” Daily Graphic
Plastics Exhibition catalog 1946. pp 112-114. If you have a copy of this count
yourself lucky - today the catalog is worth about 500 UKP.
(3) Page, Hilary. “Improvements in Toy Building Blocks” UK patent 529,580. 17
Apr 1940.
(4) Interlego A.G. v. Tyco Industries 1989 1 A.C. 217. The assertion that Lego
had copied the Kiddicraft brick came during Godtfred’s cross examination.
(5) The Lego Group. Developing a Product Leaflet. Billund: The Lego Group, 1997.
pp 2-3. A rare mention of Kiddicraft from an official Lego source.
(6) Christiansen, Godtfred. “Improvements Relating to Toy Building Sets” UK
patent GB 866557. 26 Apr 1961
(7) Lithgow, Adrian. “The Ghost that is Haunting Lego Land.” The Mail on Sunday.
26 July 1987.
--Jim Hughes (Cincinnati), Chas Saunter (Hong Kong)
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Message has 5 Replies:
 | | Re: Kiddicraft and Lego
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| (...) Jim, Excellent information. I think you should publish the link to your site here, so readers can enjoy the pictures you have online too!. Eric (17 years ago, 30-Jul-07, to lugnet.general, FTX)
| | | Re: Kiddicraft and Lego
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| (...) Excellent article! Thanks! I was wondering whether it would be possible to add the quote here from that 1997 LEGO publication. I would be interested to know how they phrased the Page question. Thanks in advance! Maaike (17 years ago, 18-Sep-07, to lugnet.general, FTX)
| | | Re: Kiddicraft and Lego
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| Amazing story and details! I knew little about this. Know I understand why was never able to get proper answers from LEGO, about origin of the brick dimensions and where there were mathematical studies in the origin of the 5:5:6 brick proportions, (...) (14 years ago, 11-Dec-10, to lugnet.general, FTX)
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