LEGO: Facts and History

Which object made the company famous?

Why are some sets of LEGO twice as big?

Where does the name LEGO come from?

Why is LEGO considered to be an educational toy?

Who are the owners of LEGO?

Why do adults enjoy LEGO toys?

What can make some LEGO-toy customers unhappy?

The company that makes the famous little plastic bricks known as LEGO started as a small shop in the town of Billund in Denmark. At first the shop sold wooden toys and other things. Soon the business became known as LEGO. It came from the Danish words ‘LEg GOdt’, meaning ‘play well’. Later, it was realized that the original meaning in Latin was ‘I put together’.

The LEGO Group was founded in 1932 by Ole Kirk Cristiansen. The company has come a long way from a small carpenter’s workshop to a modern, global corporation, the world’s third-largest producer of toys. Lego has passed from father to son and is now owned by a grandchild of the founder. As a child, he often came up with the ideas for new models and Lego sets.

The brick, the main component of all Lego sets, appeared in its present form in 1958 and since then has remained compatible with previous editions. This little piece of plastic offers unlimited building possibilities. It lets children experiment and tries out their creative ideas. The LEGO company owes its success to the traditional Lego brick. The company has been awarded ‘Toy of the Century’ twice.

In 2014 Charlotte Benjamin, a seven-year-old girl from the UK, wrote a letter to the Lego Company in which she complained that, during a visit to the toy store, she noticed that ‘there are lots of Lego boy people and barely any Lego girls.’ She felt sad that, in Lego, girl figures mostly sat at home, went shopping and had no job. At the same time boy figures went on adventures, worked, saved people and ‘even swam with sharks’.

The LEGO Group produces thousands of sets with a variety of themes. In 1969 the company introduced Lego Duplo, designed for children who are 1 to 5 years old. Duplo bricks are twice the length, height and width of traditional Lego bricks. It makes them easier to handle and less likely to be swallowed by younger children. Duplo sets now include farm, zoo, town, castle and pirate sets.

Lego Games are a great way of having fun together with family and friends. These sets excite imagination and improve creativity because the child needs to put a game together before he or she can play it. They also develop hand and eye coordination, teach children to follow directions with logic and find scientific and technological solutions. In a fun way, these games promote basic ideas of Maths, Geometry and Engineering.