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The "Arth" Show presents (again): Who made this old knock-off brick?


Arthuriel
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Note: Here is the link to the first episode of the "Arthuriel reviews something, what he found at home" Show:


It's about 5.5 years since the last episode of the "Arthuriel reviews something, what he found at home" Show, which can mean only ONE thing (besides making sure, that Bob from the first episode doesn't contribute to plastic pollution by breaking apart):
Finding something else in a panic and making another Episode out of it!
Originally it started at the beginning of this year by asking in the RRU Discord chat, but I couldn't get an answer and so I put operation "Where is this brick from and who made it?" (Short: WITBFAWMI, which also sounds like a file, that's either a virus or something, that you shouldn't delete) on ice until I thought, that I should revive it again, because I needed an answer.

"But where would you ask?" you might reply?
The sensible option might be something like eurobricks, but guess what: I have rarely used my account and somehow I don't feel like using it at the moment (flimsy excuses 101!).
Which brings me to another option: Twitter.
Answer: I guess, that this will be a hopeless endeavour and me just getting one or two likes, a retweet and no replies.
And this leads me to the ultimate solution* (and an excuse to write this Arth-Show Episode!):
Rock Raiders United

Now that I got the boring part out of the way, I can introduce you to the really exciting part. The background story even includes a DEATH! No, not the one of a person (or a pet)! That would be horrific and the plot basis for a bad horror movie ("The Brick that builds WITH YOU(R LIFE)!" or "Bricked: What started as a toy ended as a murderer"):
THE ANCIENT MYSTERY BRICK
large.ancient_mystery_brick.jpg.2271eb53363fc59bcc91f53de5c2bb74.jpg

Can you feel the budget the "Arth" Show is stretched to? I can, because it revolves around a single brick. Next time I should write a review about a broken off propeller blade from the first episode or air and how you can inhale it ("Arth's Inhale it or Not!").
Here is the description from the gallery, when I uploaded the picture (or rather a collage):
"I also got really old bricks in my brick collection. This one is part of a subset of bricks, that are from the 60s to 70s. It's also the only one of its type, that I have (the last of its species XD). I assume, that it is a knock-off and probably bought in central europe (or a gift or traded in for a real brick, I don't know)."


Additional Information:
-it's made out of a softer plastic, red and has the same size as a regular 2x4 brick
-the brighter stuff on the brick is worn out-plastic from the brick, that is still attached (it's softer plastic)
-actually I posted about this twice in the RRU Discord chat (the first one was without pictures and the guess was, that it could be a Minitalia brick. A picture search revealed, that it didn't match and that it was another brick. The second time (a day later) was the one, where I posted pictures and didn't really get an answer (that was the one I was writing about in the beginning))
-at this point I have run out of bullet points, the non-existing budget for the "Arth" Show and... ...wait a minute, I mentioned a death in the text above! Actually the brick pictures are the last pictures, that I have taken with an old (~15) digital camera, because the on/off switch gave up after that (you turned the camera on by sliding open the cover in front of the lense) and that's it

Question: Can you solve the mystery of the ancient mystery brick? Who made it (I wonder, if I should include some sort of price XD)?

Next Episode (Warning: contents, time, format and basically everything may vary!): An interview with the Brickster and how he started his career as a petty criminal by not rewinding/winding VHS tapes. Also: How the Infomaniac was accused of a scam one time, because he proclaimed, that you change flowers .

*not really. Maybe I am going to use other platforms, too, if I don't find an answer.

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I know nothing about that piece, however I distinctly remember having it and several others of the same design when I was a kid. I got it in a collection of handy-down LEGO and it was awful to use with real LEGO as it would never sit right due to the soft plastic.

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Wow, I wasn't the only victim of *insert dramatic music* "The Brick".
Joking aside: I tested, how well this brick fits together with actual LEGO bricks and the result is actually pretty good. The dimensions of the main body of the brick are very close to a real one.
When it comes to the studs or the diagonal underside the results are different though: the studs are ~50% higher than those of an actual LEGO brick, which makes putting bricks on top of it harder.
The bottom side is the opposite though: It's easier to insert bricks (or rather brick studs) there, because there isn't really a snappy feel to it due to the softer plastic.
Overall I would say, that if you only use those bricks, the results are probably okay, because the higher studs are counterbalanced by the weaker diagonal stripes on the bottom side.

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