A Brief History of the Lego Company
Lego is the toy building sets of choice for children, and the young at heart, worldwide. Lego is a company located in Denmark known for its colourful plastic bricks that interlock to build everything from buildings to space ships. To accompany these toy brick sets, accessories are often included, such as mechanical items like gears and wheels, and the always popular mini figures with interchangeable body parts. Anything made using Lego bricks can be taken apart and the bricks can be used over and over. Ever since they first debuted in 1934, the Lego Company has become so massive that it now has several theme parks and video games that bear the Lego name.
With origins so different from those of other toy sets , Legos have always been set apart. The original concept was born by Ole Kirk Christiansen, a Danish carpenter, whose company made stepladders, ironing boards, stools and wooden toys. Godtfred Kirk Christiansen joined the company at the age of 12. As a result of the world wide depression of the late 1920's, Christiansen was forced to build miniature furniture products which he used as design aids. Those were the items that eventually inspired him to go into toy making. Among his first toy making ventures were wooden yoyos and piggy banks.
Eventually, Ole named his company Lego, a combination of the Danish words LEg and GOdt that meant ‘play well’. In 1949 the Lego Company introduced the Lego Binding Bricks that had 4 and 8 studs and was the forerunner of the Lego toy building bricks that we know today. 1951 saw the release of the Lego building base with 10x20 studs. In 1953 the binding bricks became officially known as Lego Bricks
The toy brick sets have become a phenomenon the world over. Today almost everyone, adults included, have played with Legos. Lego building competitions are held yearly. One reason why Lego has so much appeal is that almost anything can be made from them. An example of this would be the Lego versions of well known buildings such as St. Paul's Cathedral and the Chrysler building that are shown in theme parks. The very first big Lego creation was a train station, giving rise to one of the most popular Lego sets ever; Lego train sets. The progress from big to giant could clearly be seen with the introduction of Castle sets and Pirate sets.
Lego, to maximize the profitability of the company, has signed agreements with several popular themed franchises. The first franchise to be picked up was Star Wars. To this day it is Lego’s most well known and most profitable partner. Lego Star Wars sets have huge appeal, because fans love building their own Star Wars space ships and re-enacting scenes using the Star Wars Luke Skywalker character and his arch villain the Star Wars Darth Vader character. Lego Batman sets, Harry Potter sets and Indiana Jones sets are just three more examples of popular franchises becoming Lego themed sets.
The continued popularity of these fun and creative toys hasn’t waned in any way. Fans continue to buy them for their own enjoyment and as delightful and creative gifts for the kids in their life. A child’s eyes do indeed light up when they see their first Lego building set!
