History of Lego Bricks 
Table of contents
Chapter 1. What is a Lego Brick
Page 3
Chapter 2. Beginnings ( 1895-1959)
Page 4-5
Chapter 3. Change to Plastic Bricks (1960-1969)
Page 7-8
Chapter 4 Expansion (1970-1991)
Page 9-11
Chapter 5 Decline (1992-2004)
Page 12-13
Chapter 6 Recovery (2005 )
Page 14
Chapter 1
What is a Lego?
A lego is made of a plastic material called cellulose acetate. It comes in many colors like blue, red, orange,and yellow. Lego bricks also come in many sizes like
long bricks, short bricks, or even big circles.
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| Colorful Lego bricks side by side. |
If you look closely at a lego it has a certain number of cylinders on top for connecting to the bottom of other bricks. Also on the bottom in the middle there is blocks so those can connect to top of other bricks. This doing that can help you build the bricks easier.The universe of Lego bricks is endless.
Chapter 2
Beginnings
1895-1959
The history of Lego starts in a danish carpentry shop in 1895 when it was running.
The owner of the shop was Ole Kirk Christiansen. He bought his shop in Billund, Denmark. One of the main ways the shop made its money was constructing furniture of people. In 1924, the shop burned down because the fire light some wood shavings, and burned all the shops inventory. After the fire Ole Kirk Christiansen decided to build a bigger workshop.
The Great Depression started and Ole Kirk was losing customers because they didn’t have enough income.
Then he started making small wooden toys for design aids.
Then, in 1932, the Great Depression made Ole Kirk's business non-profitable, but sometimes a farmer would trade food for a toy.
In the mid 1930’s, the Yo-Yo gave Ole Kirk a brief moment of activity until it collapsed. Then Ole Kirk used the leftover yoyos to make truck wheels. Then Ole Kirk's son Godtfred started to work for the company.
In 1934, Ole Kirk held a contest with the staff to think of a name for the toy company. The staff had many great ideas, but Ole Kirk liked his, which was, “Legio” or “Lego”. I self made contraction from a Danish words leg godt.
Then the group discovered that “Lego” was interpreted as “ I put together” or “ Assemble “ in Latin . Soon Ole Kirk put “Lego” on all of his products.
After World War II, plastic became available in Denmark. One of the first things to be produced was a truck that could be disassembled and put back together. Ole Kirk and Godfred had models of the bricks that locked and unlocked made by Kidkraft. These locking bricks were made by Hilary Page. In 1949, the Lego group came out with a similar kind of locking bricks. The bricks were made of manufactured cellulose acetate which is a kind of plastic. They were called “Automatic Binding Bricks”. The bricks were tight enough to pull apart. But there was still one problem the Lego shipments were being returned because the bricks weren’t locking tight enough.
In 1954, Godfred became junior managing director of the Lego group. Godfred then had a conversation with a buyer from overseas with a “Toy system” with a line of related toy products. He thought plastic bricks as the best candidate for the “ system”. So the man thought plastic bricks would be better than their wooden bricks.
In 1955, Lego introduced the “Town plane” which was a system that used the plastic bricks. The building bricks were getting received but there were still problems. First the locking ability wasn’t long lasting and short. In 1958 the Lego group improved the Lego brick with a hollow tube, which helped by supporting the base and make the brick lock better. Sadly, Ole Kirk Christiansen died that year. Making Godfred take leadership of the company.
Chapter 3
Change to Plastic Brick
1960-1969
1960, started with the Lego group's warehouse burning in a fire. The fire took a lot of the company's inventory and wooden toys. After the fire Godfred decided to abandon the wooden toys and just work with the plastic bricks because the plastic bricks alone made enough money.
In 1962, the introduction to the first lego wheels came out. That meant people could build trucks or cars that actually move.
On June 7 ,1968, Legoland park opened in Bullend. The park attracted 625,000 in the first year alone. During the next twenty years the park grew eight times bigger and had about a million customers average each year. In that time more than eight million Lego sets were sold.
Then in 1969, the Lego Duplo sets came out. The bricks were bigger so little kids would choke on them.
Chapter 4
Expansion
1970-1991
During the last three decades of the 20th century Lego expanded areas of toy making. In 1971, Lego started targeting girls by making Lego furniture and dollhouse. In 1974, the “Family set” came out and was a very popular product. Along with the Lego minifigure. Then in 1975, the “Expert series” it was for more experienced builders. In 1977, the “ ‘’ Expert series” technical set had gears,levers,
Yellow Lego Figure
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axles, and universal joints. In 1978, the minifigure was added the figure had arms a head and a body that could be taken apart. The minifigure was in a lot of set and gave lego town life with little citizens.
In 1979, expanded into space with Lego space sets. It included Lego astronauts rockets, lunar rovers , and rocketships. The Scala series was jewelry for young girls. Kjeld Kirk Christiansen became president of Lego that year.
Since the 1960’s ,educators saw Lego brick’s constructive potential asset to help children to get imaginative and problems facing abilities . Teachers used Lego bricks was because it taught the kids how to really face problems and solve them. In 1980, the Lego group started an Educational Product Department to grow educational possibilities for the toys. In Switzerland a packing factory then one in Denmark that made Lego tires.
The Expert Builder built in 1982, becoming the Technic series. August 13 of that year marked the 50th anniversary. The next year the Duplo system made sets for even younger audience like infants. The year after the minifigures started to become knights and horses.
In August 1988, children from 17 countries took place at the first Lego World Cup building contest held in Billund.
The Lego line grew more in 1989, when they released the Lego Pirate series. Which had pirates ships islands and treasure. This particular series was the first to have a smiley face on the minifigure.
In 1990, a set for expert builders came out it was a three team set, you could build a race car and a off road vehicle. Lego became one of the top ten companies that year. And Legoland had one million visitors for the first time ever.
Chapter 5
Decline
1992- 2004
Lego’s profits had declined since 1992,It first ever loss at 23 million. In 1992, two Guinness records were with Lego bricks. One a 400,000 brick castle and a 545 meter long railroad. In 1999 the first Lego products had licensed characters like Lego Star Wars and Winnie the Pooh Duplo. In 2000, Lego Harry Potter characters came out.
In 2004, Lego had a loss of 174 million. Lego was almost bankrupt.
Kjeld Kirk Christiansen resigned as CEO and went to be CEO of Jorgen Vig Knudstorp. Then the Four LegoLand parks were sold to theme park operators.
Lego had a big problem they were going bankrupt and there product was getting old.
Chapter 6
Recovery
2005
The Lego Group focused on the core products and reintroduced Lego Duplo. Since 2004, the company was moved to Mexico and passed out from Billund to Europe. By the time it was 2007, The US sales alone went up 32% percent. In 2012, an animated film called the Lego Movie came out. It was about a lego guy who was so unpopular but was special and helped fight the world of evil.
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