You know a product or brand has become a big deal when cheap, generic knockoffs start showing up everywhere: Transformers had Go-Bots , Bruce Springsteen had John Mellencamp and Mad magazine had Cra ... um, you get the idea. However, it turns out that many of the "knockoff" brands we've scoffed at in the supermarket were there before the more famous, million-dollar "original" product ... that totally stole their idea. Like ...

5 LEGO Copied Its Big Idea from Kiddicraft Blocks

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LEGO building blocks are one of the best known toy lines in the world, and for good reason. There's something for everyone -- kids who are into building stuff can create their own elaborate play sets, and kids who are into breaking shit down can do so without rendering their toys unusable.

It's such a simple yet genius idea, you can't help but wonder how the guys who started the company came up with it -- or rather, how they came up with it before anyone else.

Hint: They didn't.

But They Copied It From ...

brickfetish.com

Kiddicraft: The original child-choking block.

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Those are not LEGO blocks: Those are Kiddicraft's "self-locking building bricks," created 10 years before LEGO "invented" the same thing. This is what LEGO was doing at the time:

lego.wikia.com

Somehow, we don't see Wooden Duck Batman or Star Wars making a fun video game.

In 1939, child psychologist, author and pioneer toymaker Hilary Fisher Page developed a visionary new toy: hollow, plastic building blocks with four or eight studs that enabled children to build stuff with them, from little toy houses to huge plastic skyscrapers. Page himself built these structures for Kiddicraft's stand at the 1947 Earls Court Toy Fair. You know those impressive LEGO displays of entire cities they have in their parks and stores? Kiddicraft was doing that before LEGO bricks even existed. Here's a picture of some Kiddicraft buildings: