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Can anyone identify these bricks, which I suspect are LEGO clones. They may be more than 30 years old.

I bought them on ebay as Betta Bilda from LEGO/Duplo dealer. Some BB was included, but these are unknown to me, with an extensive BB collection.

Mystery bricks 1 Mystery bricks 4

The underside of the bricks is hollow and with apparently random numbers - they aren't part numbers because they are different for the same part and sometimes the same for different parts. Window frames have no top studs.

Mystery bricks 7 Mystery bricks 8 Mystery bricks 13

I took a good look through many posts with similar questions, but found nothing that matched. Many Google reverse images searches kept pointing at real LEGO/Duplo, before I noticed this place.

Usually I can identify unknowns like this, but these are a real challenge.

Edit (Nov 29, 2019)

Some comments have asked for clarity on size of these bricks. The majority are close to if not identical to 8 stud LEGO, although there are also 2 and 4 stud bricks too. They clip to Betta Bilda pieces, in a similar way to authentic LEGO. The window frames appear to be confirmed by two comments as 1950-60 LEGO, but additional insight would still be appreciated.

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    Don't know what brand they are, but I'm pretty sure they were around in the 1980s, since I have some from when I was little. Might help with dating them a bit...
    – Matthew
    Dec 5, 2017 at 6:36
  • Matthew - thanks for that, any help is appreciated. They are hard to date by condition, but could be slightly newer than the 60s Betta Bilda they came with. Since my original post I found some similar looking parts under the question "Lego variant, or is it?" with answers suggesting 60s or 70s. There was also one suggestion that they might actually be non-ABS Lego from the 60s.
    – Paul F
    Dec 7, 2017 at 19:01
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    Those window parts are remarkably similar to some I had back in the 70s. No studs on top, and the hinge points look identical. They were authentic Lego.
    – Rory Alsop
    Dec 20, 2017 at 8:47
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    the red windows looks like the old ones I have, and its lego from 1950-60.
    – Lisa Astrup
    Nov 20, 2019 at 23:09
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    I advise that you contact Lego support and ask Them since we could guess pretty much all day and yet even if we Do find the correct answer, we wouldn't even know and we'd keep guessing. That's your best bet.
    – mindstormsboi
    Apr 6, 2020 at 20:08

4 Answers 4

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As suggested by @mindstormsboi I contacted LEGO customer services and sent them a link to this question as well as many additional photos. The information was passed to their expert team and the answer that came back was "they believe that these are not LEGO® parts". They were not able to identify them as a known clone type. I feel obliged to accept that as a definite answer, although it leaves unknown who actually manufactured the bricks I have. I will continue research into that question, but elsewhere.

The customer service team member also gave me two interesting links to a fan created website with some of the history of LEGO parts, as well as section covering many of the clones and similar brick building sets. I include the two links below, as they may be of interest to some who find this question and answer.

https://www.inverso.pt/legos/

https://www.inverso.pt/legos/clones/texts/mobitec.htm

Thank you to all who contributed their knowledge, experience or point of view.

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  • I just spent waaay too long looking through the sources you linked, and then the sources they linked, and so forth. Rasti appear to be the only lego clone with holes through every stud. Even then, the bricks in the first image you posted probably are not Rasti, as the stud holes are too small. It's a mystery!
    – tel
    Oct 2, 2021 at 5:35
  • The only blocks you show that seem like they might be genuine lego are the windows. According to inverso, the very earliest lego windows lacked what became the signature studs on top
    – tel
    Oct 2, 2021 at 5:36
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From the LEGO Wikipedia Page "1961 and 1962 saw the introduction of the first Lego wheels, an addition that expanded the potential for building cars, trucks, buses and other vehicles from Lego bricks. Also during this time, the Lego Group introduced toys specifically targeted towards the pre-school market." here is a picture of these first-ever Duplo bricks from the 60'senter image description here look similar?

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  • Also, the Wiki page says in 1958 they added the famous circles in the bottom of the brick to help them connect.
    – thecreative2007
    May 27, 2018 at 17:39
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    Thanks for your contribution which has kick started my research of this mystery afresh. The wiki Lego history mentions that Duplo did not go on sale until 1969, so the lack of circular tubes on the underside of Lego bricks would have been 11 years earlier. However, adding 1969 to my Google image search for Duplo blocks did turn up one photo of bricks almost identical to mine on the Eurobricks forum, which showed a set of Duplo as issued in 1969. Mine could still be clones though, because I cannot find photos of the underside with the strange numbers that are on mine.
    – Paul F
    May 28, 2018 at 19:25
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    My understanding it that Lego use to put the mold numbers in the underside of the bricks. There is a great video on Netflix, the show is called The Toys that Made us, the Lego story is under Season 2 episodes which kind of shows the molds with the numbers that look just like that.
    – bricknerdz
    Jan 24, 2019 at 20:21
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I don’t exactly know if it is LEGO, But it may be an old version of LEGO. The numbers also could be the date the were made or a factory code.

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  • Thanks for your thoughts. I suspect the numbers might relate to moulds or machines, so they could monitor how many pieces were produced from them or which one had problem if defective pieces were observed in quality control. The feedback from other contributors has been mixed, but most seem to think they could be LEGO or DUPLO from the 1960s. My question is over a year old now, but I remain hopeful that one day someone who has some solid evidence can confirm what they are.
    – Paul F
    Apr 1, 2019 at 1:45
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I don't think they are LEGO due to the holes in the middle of the studs. LEGO pieces also say "LEGO" somewhere on them, so I bet that they are a 3rd party brand.

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    Hi User 119! Your points are correct regarding the LEGO elements of today. But as the OP mentioned, these bricks may be more than 30 years old. Are you sure your observations are correct for that time period too?
    – zovits
    Mar 5, 2020 at 9:40

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