Loc Blocs was a plastic block construction toy set. Never reaching the popularity of

Lego Lego ( , ; stylized as LEGO) is a line of plastic construction toys that are manufactured by The Lego Group, a privately held company based in Billund, Denmark. The company's flagship product, Lego, consists of variously colored interlocking ...

bricks, they were marketed in the 1970s and 1980s by

Entex Industries Entex Industries, Inc. was an American toy and electronic game manufacturer based in Compton, California. The company was active during the 1970s and 1980s. Background The company was formed in 1970 by ''G.A. (Tony) Clowes'', ''Nicholas Carlozzi' ...

and manufactured in Japan as Dia Block by Kawada Co. which still produces sets to this day. They were also sold by

Sears Sears, Roebuck and Co. ( ), commonly known as Sears, is an American chain of department stores founded in 1892 by Richard Warren Sears and Alvah Curtis Roebuck and reincorporated in 1906 by Richard Sears and Julius Rosenwald, with what began a ...

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.

Compatibility

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.

References

Construction toys 1970s toys {{toy-stub