- LEGO was originally called “Automatic Binding Bricks”. ...
- The LEGO Group eventually purchased the rights to the Kiddicraft block in 1981.
- In 1958, the LEGO brick with the familiar tubes inside and studs on was patented. ...
- A LEGO brick from 1958 would interlock with a brick from 2015. ...
- LEGO sued a Chinese company who made “Coko bricks” in 2002. ...
What was the first Lego set ever made?
Nov 15, 2021 · What were Legos originally called? Christiansen was considering two names himself, ” Legio ” (with the implication of a “Legion of toys”) and “Lego,” a self-made contraction from the Danish phrase leg godt, meaning “play well.” Later the Lego Group discovered that “Lego” could be loosely interpreted as “I put together” or “I assemble” in Latin.
What was the first set produced by the Lego Group?
The Lego Group began in the workshop of Ole Kirk Christiansen (1891–1958), a carpenter from Billund, Denmark, who began making wooden toys in 1932. In 1934, his company came to be called 'Lego', derived from the Danish phrase leg godt [lai?ˀ ˈk?t], which means 'play well'.
When did Lego start?
How was Lego started?
What were Legos originally called?
In 1949 Lego began producing, among other new products, an early version of the now familiar interlocking bricks, calling them "Automatic Binding Bricks". These bricks were based on the Kiddicraft Self-Locking Bricks, which had been patented in the United Kingdom in 1939 and released in 1947.
What was the original LEGO logo?
Starting in 1936 an ink stamp “LEGO Fabriken Billund” was used on the wooden toys. This logo was first introduced in 1939 or 1940. It was used extensively on wooden toys, typically in the form of an applied decal, for the next 10 years. This logo was introduced with the first plastic toys.
Who invented LEGO?
Ole Kirk KristiansenThe LEGO Group was founded in 1932 by Ole Kirk Kristiansen. The company has passed from father to son and is now owned by Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen, a grandchild of the founder.
How did LEGO evolve?
In 1953, the automatic binding bricks were renamed Lego bricks. In 1957, the interlocking principle of Lego bricks was born, and in 1958, the stud-and-coupling system was patented, which added significant stability to built pieces. And this transformed them into the Lego bricks children use today.Jan 17, 2021
What is Lego's meaning?
Christiansen was considering two names himself, "Legio" (with the implication of a "Legion of toys") and "Lego," a self-made contraction from the Danish phrase leg godt, meaning "play well.". Later the Lego Group discovered that "Lego" could be loosely interpreted as "I put together" or "I assemble" in Latin.
Where did Lego start?
The Lego Group began in the carpentry workshop of Ole Kirk Christiansen in Billund, Denmark. In 1916, Kristiansen purchased a woodworking shop in Billund, which had been in business since 1895. The shop mostly helped construct houses and furniture and had a small staff of apprentices.
What is Legoland made of?
A model of St Paul's Cathedral in London can be seen in Legoland Windsor. It is made of thousands of Lego bricks. The rotating model of the London Eye in the background is also made of Lego bricks. In the late 1990s, the Lego Group brought out a series of new and specialized ranges aimed at particular demographics.
How big is a Duplo brick?
The name Duplo comes from the Latin word duplus, which translates literally as double, meaning that a Duplo brick is exactly twice the dimension of a Lego building brick (2× height by 2× width by 2× depth = 8× the volume of a brick).
What happened to Lego in 1960?
Another warehouse fire struck the Lego Group in 1960, consuming most of the company's inventory of wooden toys. Godtfred decided that the plastic line was strong enough to abandon the production of wooden toys. As a result, Godtfred's brothers Gerhardt (then head of wooden toys) and Karl Georg left the Lego company and began a separate company, " Bilofix ." By the end of the year, the Lego Group was employing more than 450 people.
How many people were employed by Lego in 1961?
By the end of the year, the Lego Group was employing more than 450 people. In 1961, Lego wished to expand sales to North America but did not have the logistical capabilities to do so. Lego made an arrangement allowing Samsonite to begin producing and selling Lego products in the United States and Canada.
When was the first Lego train made?
One of the Lego Group's most successful series, the Lego train system, was released in 1966. The original train sets included a 4.5- volt (which was changed to a 12-volt version two years later) motor, battery box, and rails. On 7 June 1968, the first Legoland Park was opened in Billund.
When was Lego invented?
A patent application for the modern Lego brick design was filed in Denmark on 28 January 1958, and in various other countries in the subsequent few years.
What is the Lego motto?
The Lego Group's motto, "only the best is good enough" ( Danish: det bedste er ikke for godt, literally "the best isn't excessively good") was created in 1936. This motto, which is still used today, was created by Christiansen to encourage his employees never to skimp on quality, a value he believed in strongly.
What is Lego Serious Play?
Since around 2000, the Lego Group has been promoting "Lego Serious Play", a form of business consultancy fostering creative thinking, in which team members build metaphors of their organizational identities and experiences using Lego bricks.
What is the theme of the Lego set Gold Getaway?
A Lego set released in 2013, "Gold Getaway", based on the Lego Castle theme. Lego sets of the Lego City theme. Since the 1950s, the Lego Group has released thousands of sets with a variety of themes, including space, robots, pirates, trains, Vikings, castle, dinosaurs, undersea exploration, and wild west.
How many Legoland parks are there in the world?
Merlin Entertainments operates eight Legoland amusement parks, the original in Billund, Denmark, the second in Windsor, England, the third in Günzburg, Germany, the fourth in Carlsbad, California, the fifth in Winter Haven, Florida, the sixth in Iskandar Puteri, Malaysia, the seventh in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and the eighth in Nagoya, Japan. A ninth is planned to open in 2020 in Goshen, New York, United States, and a tenth in 2022 in Shanghai, China. On 13 July 2005, the control of 70% of the Legoland parks was sold for $460 million to the Blackstone Group of New York while the remaining 30% is still held by Lego Group. There are also eight Legoland Discovery Centres, two in Germany, four in the United States, one in Japan and one in the United Kingdom. Two Legoland Discovery Centres opened in 2013: one at the Westchester Ridge Hill shopping complex in Yonkers, New York, and one at the Vaughan Mills in Vaughan, Ontario, Canada. Another opened at the Meadowlands complex in East Rutherford, New Jersey, in 2014.
What is the shape of Lego?
The definitive shape of the Lego bricks, with the inner tubes, was patented by the Lego Group in 1958. Several competitors have attempted to take advantage of Lego's popularity by producing blocks of similar dimensions, and advertising them as being compatible with Lego bricks. In 2002, Lego sued the CoCo Toy Company in Beijing for copyright infringement over its "Coko bricks" product. CoCo was ordered to cease manufacture of the products, publish a formal apology and pay damages. Lego sued the English company Best-Lock Construction Toys in German courts in 2004 and 2009; the Federal Patent Court of Germany denied Lego trademark protection for the shape of its bricks for the latter case. In 2005, the Lego Company sued Canadian company Mega Bloks for trademark violation, but the Supreme Court of Canada upheld Mega Bloks' rights to sell their product. In 2010, the European Court of Justice ruled that the eight-peg design of the original Lego brick "merely performs a technical function [and] cannot be registered as a trademark."
When did Lego cease and desist?
In 2020 and 2021 Lego sent cease and desist letters to small toy retailers and popular youtubers in Germany. In 2021 the situation escalated when Lego let a container delivered by clone producer Qman block in the harbor of Bremen for trademark infringement, and to test for contamination with dangerous materials.
Where did Lego come from?
It made wooden toys, stepladders, and ironing boards. It wasn't until two years later that the business took the name of Lego, which came from the Danish words "LEg GOdt," meaning "play well."
When were Lego bricks invented?
Birth of the Lego Brick. In 1953, the automatic binding bricks were renamed Lego bricks. In 1957, the interlocking principle of Lego bricks was born, and in 1958, the stud-and-coupling system was patented, which added significant stability to built pieces. And this transformed them into the Lego bricks children use today.
What toys did Lego make in 1949?
By 1949, Lego was using this machine to produce about 200 different kinds of toys, which included automatic binding bricks, a plastic fish and a plastic sailor. The automatic binding bricks were the predecessors of the Lego toys of today.
How many employees did Lego have in 1948?
From just a handful of employees in the early years, Lego had grown to 50 employees by 1948. The product line had grown as well, with the addition of a Lego duck, clothes hangers, a Numskull Jack on the goat, a plastic ball for babies, and some wooden blocks.
Who invented the Lego toy?
The toy was inspired by a set of self-locking bricks invented by a British company, Kiddicraft. (LEGO says Kiddicraft told the company it was fine to use the design, but in 1981 they formally bought the rights to Kiddicraft bricks from their inventor’s descendants.) pinterest-pin-it.
What is the foundation of LEGO?
Designed on the principle that all blocks should interlock and be interrelated—and increase both the imaginative potential of kids and sales— the system became the foundation of modern-day LEGO. That means that any LEGO block produced since 1955 can interlock with any other.
What happened to Lego in 1924?
But in 1924, just as he was looking to expand his successful business, his sons accidentally set a pile of wood chips in the shop on fire. The flames it produced destroyed the entire building—and the family’s home. Inside the original Lego workshop when it was producing wooden toys.
How many LEGO bricks were sold in 2016?
In 2016 alone, over 75 billion of the colorful plastic bricks were sold, and the 85-year-old company behind them reigns as one of the world’s most iconic toy manufacturers. But if it weren’t for a series of fires—and an ingenious woodworker—LEGOS may never have been built. The LEGO story started in a Danish woodworking shop in ...
How old is Lego?
Leg godt means “play well” in Danish and LEGO is made from the first two letters of each word. LEGO is 83 years old. The LEGO Group began in 1932 in Billund, Denmark and was founded by Ole Kirk Christiansen. The company is 83 years old, but the interlocking LEGO blocks were manufactured from 1949.
When was the first Lego minifigure made?
The LEGO minifigure, also known as “minifig” or just “fig” was first introduced in 1978 . The early figures before this, in 1975, had no facial features, gender, arms, or moveable legs. Each LEGO minifigure is exactly four bricks high without a hat. Since the first minifigure in 1978 more than 4 billion have been made.
What year did LEGO bricks interlock?
A LEGO brick from 1958 would interlock with a brick from 2015. The patent introduced what is called a “universal system” so that each piece is compatible with all other pieces, regardless of the year or set it belongs to. LEGO sued a Chinese company who made “Coko bricks” in 2002.
How many LEGO bricks can you stack to the moon?
You could reach the moon with a column of around 40 billion LEGO bricks. The column would be over 384,400 km tall. There are actually enough LEGO bricks to stack from the Earth to the moon – ten times. Six eight-stud LEGO bricks can be combined in over 915 million different ways.
How many LEGO bricks are there in the world?
On average, that is 86 LEGO bricks for every single person on the earth. LEGO is the world’s largest producer of rubber wheels. They produce more than Bridgestone, Goodyear and all other car tyre manufacturers. The tallest LEGO tower was 94 feet high and used 465,000 bricks.
How many LEGO pieces fail to meet the company standard?
18 out of every million LEGO pieces fail to meet the company standard. This is because the factory process is so streamlined and efficient. If you laid all of the LEGO bricks sold in 2012 end-to-end, they would stretch around the world more than 18 times. Seven LEGO sets are sold every second.
How tall is the Lego Tower?
The tallest LEGO tower was 94 feet high and used 465,000 bricks. The tower was a pirate ship mast with a “treasure” made of gold, yellow and clear bricks on top and was built at LEGOLAND in California. In 2009, British TV presenter James May built a life size house out of LEGO.
Where did the word "lego" come from?
The word “LEGO” is from the first two letters of the Danish words “Leg” and “Godt,” which means “play well.”. [7] Ole Kirk Christiansen (1891-1958) created the LEGO Group in 1932 as a way to use old wood from his failed carpentry business. He patented the now famous interlocking LEGO blocks in 1949.
What are Lego bricks called?
LEGO bricks were originally called “Automatic Binding Bricks. ”. [7] The Internet dating site “Plenty of Fish ” devotes a section of their site to “Users Interested in LEGOs” to make it easier for Lego lovers to find each other.
How many Lego minifigures are male?
Approximately 86% LEGO minifigures are male. [8] The first LEGO figures in 1978 had yellow skin, two black dots for eyes, and a wide smile to represent people from anywhere in the world. In 2003, the LEGO group gave minifigures realistic skin tones, facial expressions, and modeled hair.
How many Lego bricks are there in the world?
[6] There are over 4 hundred billion Lego bricks in the world.
What is the most expensive LEGO minifigure?
[6] The most expensive LEGO minifigure is the 14k gold Star Wars 30th Anniversary C-3PO, which is said to be worth at least $200. LEGO made only two of these special characters.
How much force can a Lego brick bear?
One LEGO can bear up to 4,240 Newtons of force, or over 953 pounds. [2] A single LEGO brick can support 375,000 other LEGO bricks before buckling. This means that a person could build a LEGO tower 2.17 miles high before the bottom LEGO brick would begin to break.
How accurate is Lego molding?
The LEGO molding process is so accurate that just 18 elements in every million do not pass the company’s high quality standard. [7] In September 2014, Lego passed Hasbro to become the world’s second biggest toy maker, behind Mattel (who creates Barbie, Fisher-Price, and Hot Wheels).
Overview
Change to plastic bricks (1960–1969)
Another warehouse fire struck the Lego Group in 1960, consuming most of the company's inventory of wooden toys. Godtfred decided that the plastic line was strong enough to abandon the production of wooden toys. As a result, Godtfred's brothers Gerhardt (then head of wooden toys) and Karl Georg left the Lego company and began a separate company called "Bilofix." By the end of th…
Beginnings (1932–1959)
The Lego Group began in the carpentry workshop of Ole Kirk Christiansen in Billund, Denmark. In 1916, Kristiansen purchased a woodworkingshop in Billund, which had been in business since 1895. The shop mostly helped construct houses and furniture and had a small staff of apprentices. The workshop burned down in 1924 when a fire ignited some wood shavings. Christiansen construct…
Expansion (1970–1991)
During the last three decades of the 20th century, Lego expanded into new areas of toy making and marketing. In 1971, Lego began to target girls by introducing furniture pieces and dollhouses. In 1972, Lego added boat and ship sets, with floating hull pieces and Godtfred Kirk Christiansen's son, Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen, joined the managerial staff, after earning business degrees in Switzerland and …
Decline (1992–2004)
Lego's profits had declined since 1992. Around 1995 or 1996, according to designer Mark Stafford, the Lego Group retired many LEGO Designers who had created the sets from the late 1970s to the mid-1990s, replacing them with 30 'innovators' who graduated from the European design colleges around Europe who knew "little specifically about toy design and less about LEGO building". At the time, sets could take over a year to progress from the design stage to store shel…
Recovery (2005–present)
The company focused on its core products and reintroduced the Duplo label in late 2004. Since 2004, manufacturing had been moved to Mexico and distribution relocated from Billund to the Czech Republic. By 2007 a global workforce of 9,100 in 1998 was reduced to 4,200 due to outsourcing. In the US alone, Lego sales increased 32 percent because of Star Warsand Indiana Jones-themed games, …
External links
• Mortensen, Tine Froberg (9 January 2012). "LEGO History Timeline". Lego.com. The Lego Group. Archived from the original on 8 July 2014. Retrieved 8 July 2014.
• Lego City
Overview
Lego is a line of plastic construction toys that are manufactured by The Lego Group, a privately held company based in Billund, Denmark. As of 2021 , Lego was the largest toy company in the world. The company's flagship product, Lego, consists of variously coloured interlocking plastic bricks accompanying an array of gears, figurines called minifigures, and various other parts. Lego piece…
History
The Lego Group began in the workshop of Ole Kirk Christiansen (1891–1958), a carpenter from Billund, Denmark, who began making wooden toys in 1932. In 1934, his company came to be called "Lego", derived from the Danish phrase leg godt [lɑjˀ ˈkʌt], which means "play well". In 1947, Lego expanded to begin producing plastic toys. In 1949 Lego began producing, among other new prod…
Design
Lego pieces of all varieties constitute a universal system. Despite variation in the design and the purposes of individual pieces over the years, each piece remains compatible in some way with existing pieces. Lego bricks from 1958 still interlock with those made in the current time, and Lego sets for young children are compatible with those made for teenagers. Six bricks of 2 × 4 stud…
Manufacturing
Since 1963, Lego pieces have been manufactured from a strong, resilient plastic known as acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS). As of September 2008 , Lego engineers use the NX CAD/CAM/CAE PLM software suite to model the elements. The software allows the parts to be optimised by way of mould flow and stress analysis. Prototype moulds are sometimes built before the design is committe…
Set themes
Since the 1950s, the Lego Group has released thousands of sets with a variety of themes, including space, robots, pirates, trains, Vikings, castle, dinosaurs, undersea exploration, and wild west. Some of the classic themes that continue to the present day include Lego City (a line of sets depicting city life introduced in 1973) and Lego Technic(a line aimed at emulating complex machinery, introdu…
Clones
The last significant patent for Lego bricks expired in 1978. Since then, competitors have produced blocks of similar dimensions and design that can be connected with Lego bricks. In 2002, Lego sued the CoCo Toy Company in Beijing for copyright infringement over its "Coko bricks" product. CoCo was ordered to cease manufacture of the products, publish a formal apology and pay damages. Lego sued the English company Best-Lock Construction Toysin German courts in 200…
Related services
First launched in 1996, the Lego website has developed over the years, and provides many extra services beyond an online store and a product catalogue. There are also moderated message boards that were founded in 2001. The site also includes instruction booklets for all Lego sets dating back to 2002.
The Lego website features a social media app named Lego Life, which is desig…
Related products
Lego branched out into the video game market in 1997 by founding Lego Media International Limited, and Lego Island was released that year by Mindscape. After this Lego released titles such as Lego Creator and Lego Racers.
After Lego closed down their publishing subsidiary, they moved on to a partnership with Traveller's Tales, and went on to make games like Lego Star Wars, Lego Indiana Jones, Lego Batman, and m…