His early products - wooden pull toys, piggy banks, cars and trucks – were reasonably
successful but a key turning point for the business came in the 1940s when they began
making plastic toys including a truck which could be taken apart and re-assembled. In 1949
Lego began producing a set of interlocking bricks (based on an original patent by the UK
Kiddicraft company for which they bought the rights) made from cellulose acetate and using
an early version of a hollow design with holes and studs. The now familiar Lego bricks
appeared on the market in 1953 but were not initially very successful, partly due to poor
perceptions amongst consumers and retailers of plastic toys.