Hobbies And Interests
Started With a Danish Carpenter
Ole Kirk Christiansen owned a woodworking shop in Billund, Denmark, and he constructed houses and furniture for regional farmers. When the Great Depression greatly affected his business, he started to create miniature figures of his products as design aids to help cut down on his costs. These miniature design aids ultimately inspired him to start making toys.
The Origins of "Lego"
In 1934, Christiansen had his toy-making staff submit ideas for his new company name. The winner was the word "lego," which is a combination of two Danish words, "leg" and "godt," which mean "play well." The company later discovered that the word "lego" can be loosely translated from Latin to mean "I put together" or "I assemble."
Plastic Interlocking Bricks
Kiddicraft was already producing interlocking plastic bricks, but Christiansen wanted to expand on the idea. In 1949, the Lego Group created what it called, "Automatic Binding Bricks," which could be stacked on top of one another but could also be easily pulled apart. These blocks were renamed to Lego Mursten, or Lego Blocks, in 1953.
Lego Improvements
In the 1960s, the toy blocks were being sold by the millions, and they went through additional developmental changes. The cellulose acetate was replaced with acrylonitrile butadein stryrene, which made the bricks stronger and the colors brighter. Lego wheels, vehicles and trains were also introduced to the market during this period.
DUPLO
The Lego Group in 1967 created DUPLO, a larger version of the Lego Blocks. Now, small children could play with Lego Blocks safely and without the fear that they would swallow the small toys.
Legos are Limitless
Legos are used for so much more today than as simple bricks for building houses and cars. There are Lego kits available for a multitude of themes, including castles, "Star Wars," Winnie the Pooh, pirate ships and "Harry Potter."