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About American Plastic Bricks
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American Plastic Bricks were a toy creation from the 1960's consisting
of interlocking uniformly-sized red and white plastic brick pieces. Each piece
had sockets inside and studs on top that allowed it to be assembled with other
pieces. Accessories included operating white plastic windows and doors and
green cardboard roof panels. Sets of various sizes were sold, many in colorful
cardboard cylinders with metal lids. The toy was first manufactured by Elgo
Plastics Company and later by Halsam Products, both of Chicago. A green Army
Bricks variant was subsequently introduced by Halsam. Ultimately, the company
and its American Plastic Bricks product line was purchased by Playskool, which
re-released the product with more colors. These toys were later eclipsed by
more modern plastic creations such as Lego. The original American Plastic Bricks
have not been manufactured since the 1960's.
Following are links to some pages from the Elgo and Halsam instruction booklets
that came with the plastic brick sets:
The American Plastic Brick gallery includes construction
diagrams of individual designs from both Elgo and Halsam instruction booklets.
Some duplications exist between the old and new instruction booklets, so images
from both booklets are included where applicable. The designs from the
instruction booklets gradually increase in complexity and number of parts used.
The gallery begins with a few original designs.
Copyright © 2003 Balmoral Software. All rights reserved. Republication or
redistribution is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of
Balmoral Software.
