Category:Briklo

1932, September: "Build your railway layout with Briklo" [image info]

1932, October: Games and Toys full-page advert, Eisenmann & Co. Ltd. [image info]

1933, April: Briklo, Bricks that lock (The Model Railway News) [image info]

1933, October: Briklo No.0 and No.1 sets [image info]

Briklo was a construction system that appeared briefly in advertising between 1932 and 1933, but doesn't seem to have left much of a trace afterward.

Briklo's fleeting existence

Not a great deal seems to be known about Briklo or exactly why it disappeared, but we can make some educated guesses as to the product's problems.

• Distribution seems to have been patchy. The larger September 1932 adverts in Meccano magazine tell readers that if they can't find Briklo in shops that this is because it's a new product, and to order direct.
• Eisenmann seem to have been a distributor in late 1932, around the same time that Briklo were inviting trade enquiries, but 1933 advert seem to concentrate on selling direct, In October 1933: "Sent Post Free on receipt of cash", suggesting possible cashflow problems.
• There is no consistent logo (or often even an attempt at anything logo-like) across the adverts, and no images of packaging, suggesting that the investment in marketing production might have been fairly slim – if the boxes looked too cheap, shops might not have been willing to stock them.

Another possible clue lies in the Briklo patent application, which seems to suggest that the "figure-8" joining rods may have been made of wood, and the main blocks made of some sort of composite or resin-bonded powdered stone material. Plimpton Engineering's popular Bayko system used simple metal wire rods and thin moulded Bakelite panels, and was probably easier to manufacture (with sufficientl investment in plant, and easier to manufacture to high tolerances, and also benefited from decent packaging and heavy advertising ... Since Bayko seems to have appeared in 1934, the newer, higher-technology, simpler-to-make Bayko may have made Briklo obsolete.

Advertising Text, 1932

Build your railway layout with Briklo Regd.

Standardised parts, Locking Bricks and Scafffolding, Real Windows, Real Doors, Tiled Roofs–Chimneys.

Real blue-print plans for constructing HOUSES, SHOPS, CHURCHES, RAILWAY STATIONS, FACTORIES, SIGNAL CABINS, ENGINE SHEDS, etc.

• No.1 Set ... 20/-
• No.2 Set ... 12/6

This is an entirely new invention and supplies are not yet in all the shops. If your dealer has not yet stocked BRIKLO send postal order or cheque to The Briklo Company, Hartford Street, Newcastle-on-Tyne 6

Trade enquiries invited

— , The Briklo Company, , Meccano Magazine, , September 1932

External links

• Patent GB384453 (A) ― 1932-12-08 – Improvements relating to model buildings and other structures, Roland Hall (espacenet.com)