The Tyco Super Block Telephone was an actual working telephone handset that was designed to appear as if made of toy building bricks, and so often called a Lego Phone despite not being officially licenced with that company. It was released in 1988 in the US, UK, and other markets worldwide as part of Tyco's Personality Phones product line.
Concept and Features
In the mid 1980s, Tyco Toys would embark on a controversial campaign to create their own variants of some of the most popular toys in the business - Lego and Play Dough, covered in my History of Tyco articles.
With Lego's patent expiring for many of their original simple block designs, Tyco was able to manufacture and launch their "Super Blocks" range which provided simple blocks at a cheaper price than the original Lego designs.
Along with the blocks, they'd release this Super Blocks Telephone as part of their Personality Phone product line, which included the famous Garfield Phone.
Looking like an official Lego Phone, it was anything but, and resulted in a lawsuit between Tyco Toys and the Lego company.
The product line also included an NFL Football telephone, a Knight Rider telephone, a Mickey Mouse telephone, and possibly others.
The device features are as follows:
- Folly working landline analogue telephone
- Slide out drawer on the bottom for storage
- Includes 18 Super Blocks bricks for customization of the phone.
- High / Low / Off ringer setting
- Mute and Redial buttons
- Pulse/Tone switchable
- FCC Approved
Video Review
There's a great reeview of this telephone on YouTube here from BrickTsar.
Availability and Collectability
There is a huge market for the vintage Tyco Super Blocks Telephone, thanks to the boom in popularity for Lego in recent years, plus the increased interest in 80s / 90s culture and collecting in the 2020s. Dozens are sold every few months in various conditions, and I do wonder if people are restoring them for use in the digital age, or simply as keepsakes and collectables.
Thankfully this means there is plenty of availability, and prices are reasonable, though certainly a boxed item, or unopened item is always going to be quite expensive, though a loose phone in reasonable condition is only around $50-75 USD at the time of writing.