In the Beginning
The Early History of LEGO
by In the Beginning - August 21, 2008 - 12:02 AM

lego-einstein.gifSimple, block-shaped toys have been around for hundreds of years, but it took a 20th-century Danish genius named Ole Kirk Christiansen to invent the interlocking pieces we know today as LEGO bricks. It all started in 1932 in the village of Billund, long before LEGO had achieved world domination as a brand.

A master joiner and carpenter, Christiansen opened a humble woodworking shop with his son Godtfred, just 12 years old at the time. They manufactured stepladders, ironing boards and later expanded to make wooden toys, and in 1934 dubbed their business LEGO, a contraction of the Danish “leg godt” (“play well”).

legos.jpgAnd play well they did. The company expanded from only six employees in 1934 to forty in 1942. LEGO was also fairly progressive, and became an early adopter of new technologies and materials. In fact, the group became the first Danish company to own a plastic injection-molding machine. When the Christiansens came across prototypes of a British toy called “Kiddicraft Self-Locking Building Bricks” in 1947, they adopted the idea and started manufacturing their own version two years later. The bricks had pegs on top and hollow bottoms, allowing children to lock the bricks together and create elaborate structures never possible with the simple wooden blocks of yesteryear.

Dubbing them the (decidedly un-catchy) “Automatic Binding Bricks,” they were the forerunner to today’s LEGO brick. But they hadn’t quite got the formula right yet. The bricks lacked the tubes found inside modern LEGOs which greatly improve stability. Further, it seemed the world wasn’t ready for plastic toys just yet; sales of plastic LEGO toys in the early 50s were mediocre at best.

In 1958, the LEGO brick finally came into its own. And while founder Ole Kirk Christiansen never lived to see his company’s heyday, his son Godtfred Christiansen pioneered and patented the now-standard LEGO stud-and-tube configuration, and introduced roof bricks to the “LEGO System of Play,” which was comprised of 28 sets and 8 vehicles.

After a devastating warehouse fire in 1960, the company decided to ditch production of wooden toys altogether and focus instead on plastics.

LEGO hasn’t changed the design of their brick since then, which means today’s sets are compatible with sets from 1958 onward.

More LEGO fun: In 1961, the LEGO wheel was invented. At first blush that may not sound as momentous as humanity’s initial development of the wheel (approximately 5,000 B.C.E.), but considering that today LEGO turns out more than 300 million tiny wheels per year, it actually makes them the most prolific wheel manufacturer in the world. Along with 3,000 other types of pieces, they’re packaged into 37,000 LEGO sets per hour. And according to LEGO, the process they use to mold their plastic is so accurate that a mere 18 out of every million bricks fails to meet quality standards.

But whatever you do, don’t call them LEGOS. This note used to greet visitors to legos.com:

legos2.jpg

This article was written by Ransom Riggs and excerpted from the mental_floss book In the Beginning: The Origins of Everything. You can pick up a copy in our store.

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Comments (45)

  1. LEGO bricks or toys are awesome, but I hate the new sets where every piece is a weird shape made specifically to build a robot or whatever. Why bother with LEGO (bricks or toys) when you could just buy an identical, premade robot? I’ll stick to standard square/rectangle incarnations, thank you.

    posted by adrienne on 8-21-2008 at 12:03 am

  2. I’m with adrienne on this one. It’s so much more fun when you see what you can create with only the basic blocks.

    posted by nutmeag on 8-21-2008 at 7:18 am

  3. LEGOS! LEGOS! LEGOS!
    Try and stop me!

    posted by Ryan on 8-21-2008 at 9:49 am

  4. I can understand your points, adrienne and nutmeag, but my 6-year-old mix and matches those “weird” pieces to make his own robots, spaceships, etc., so it’s still the same fun for him as it was for you with the basic blocks — it’s all about the creation, even more than the final product.

    posted by IAinND on 8-21-2008 at 9:51 am

  5. Legos are great, but where do K’Nex fall in with this category of toys? I’d love to see a piece about them.

    posted by bas on 8-21-2008 at 12:10 pm

  6. While in the military, I visited “Legoland” in Bullund, Denmark. They had amusement rides in the shape of GIANT Legos. Also, Mt. Rushmore, The Eiffel Tower and other world landmarks made entirely of legos. Have not seen that many pieces of legos since. So when I see these pics of these lego sculptures, those are nothing compared to the legos I’ve seen.

    posted by Jay on 8-21-2008 at 12:14 pm

  7. Great article ~ although I’d have to lean toward agreeing with adrienne and nutmeag on the new generation and all of the weird blocks. On the other hand, IAinND, my wife and I are having our first baby in about a month, so I’ll start buying up LEGO sets for her and see how she does! (Then, once we’ve established that she can be trusted to not break things, she can add Daddy’s old pieces to her collection!)

    posted by Roger on 8-21-2008 at 12:44 pm

  8. I was fascinated by Duplos as a kid. I’m going to look up info on them right now.

    posted by Shasta on 8-21-2008 at 2:00 pm

  9. I believe they also hold the record for “Most Painful Toy to Step On Barefoot at Night”

    posted by PartiallyDeflected on 8-21-2008 at 10:38 pm

  10. I completely agree, PartiallyDeflected.

    Also, I’ve always called them LEGOS. I use it in a loving manner that reflects the hours and hours I spent playing with them as a child. Hmmm. Interesting move, LEGO group.

    posted by Kieran on 8-22-2008 at 12:34 am

  11. Lego bricks, Legos, schmegos! We all love our plastic building blocks, whatever we call ‘em. My favorite Lego artist is Nathan Sawaya…check him out via my name/link. His little anecdotes that go with his sculptures are witty and fun, as well. I wish I lived in NYC – I might well stalk him. LoL.

    posted by Nori on 8-23-2008 at 3:47 pm

  12. It’s funny because as a girl I was always the one that loved boy toys more than girl toys-true…hang with the boys-true be a “boy”-false me and my boyfriend enjoy playing boy games and he doesn’t look at me differently and we love LEGOS! yes they are painful to step on but hey at least we all had good times with them!

    posted by Brianna on 12-10-2008 at 4:23 pm

  13. ….What makes Legos a boy toy?

    posted by Angel on 12-10-2008 at 10:10 pm

  14. I thought the new “sets” were weird, too, until my son started getting them. While he also loves his large box of random regular Legos, he is crazy about the sets. I like that he follows the building plan step by step and concentrates so much. He is 6 and builds sets like the 700 some piece Star Wars ships, etc. The satisfaction he gets when completing a project is immense, and he never gets tired of them. BTW, I will never call them “Lego building bricks”…. they are LEGOS, period.

    posted by Shannon on 3-25-2009 at 10:46 pm

  15. @Angel – This was news to me too, but apparently LEGOS are thought of as boy toys by lots of people. My friends’ daughters have about a million baby dolls and Disney princess figurines, but no LEGOS. I think they’re missing out; LEGOS were my favorite toy growing up! I had a giant tackle box with all my LEGO pieces organized in the compartments by size and color. I guess it’s no surprise I ended up an engineer…

    posted by erininhouston on 5-12-2009 at 11:57 am

  16. I grew up with Lego building blocks back in 1964 here in the states. In 1985-86 lived in Jelling Denmark about 10 miles from Bilund. It is an amazing place to visit. If you pronouce Lego it like we do in the US (Leg-goes) to a Dane they will look at you like you grew a new head. It is pronounced more like Lee’goh (very short go with the slightest hint of a t or h at the end).

    posted by David G, Columbus OH on 5-28-2009 at 12:55 pm

  17. I’m 31 and I still have legos that I play with. I think they are an integral part of spacial and mechanical development for children. I had many sets that I enjoyed but it was making spring loaded guns and catapults that really took up my time. And even for a while using the robotic sets that I think will help interest children in building and designing the machines of the future.

    posted by lsmith on 7-14-2009 at 4:56 am

  18. I just sent my old Legos (sorry LEGO) to my nephew in VA. He got some Legos thru school (I hope they were donated, I’d hate to think our schools spend $$ on Legos), and he was fascinated.

    I got a call the night my Mom had arrived w/ the Legos and they were already building things. My sets had a 2 large flat pieces for putting a bldg on, so they built a cabin, instead of the usual spaceships.

    posted by Jonny on 7-19-2009 at 3:47 pm

  19. Mental Floss has probably already done a story about “The Man Who Saved Christmas” starring Jason Alexander. the story of the inventor of the Erector Set construction toy,great product, spent many ours as a child creating structures with those toys, good for developing manual dexterity i’m sure as all the bolts,nuts washers, hand tool needed were very small

    posted by murphy on 8-7-2009 at 9:31 pm

  20. I think all building toys are great. Whenever you hear the history of an inovative person, they will always mention a building toy that fueled thier imagination.
    Note to all parents buy these toys for your kids now, we need all the crative people we can get.

    posted by SkyGirl on 8-9-2009 at 5:31 pm

  21. i LOVE legos! they are awsome. i like the littel people. but i wish that they would make more girl loego people tho. o well…..

    posted by kandice on 8-10-2009 at 12:34 am

  22. I hate it that Lego parts are now made in China. It is a matter of time before some parts get recalled. It will be a major headache to locate all the pieces that get recalled since we have so many sets and they are scattered all over!

    posted by pf on 8-11-2009 at 12:54 am

  23. Lego parts made in China? Wow!

    posted by pf on 8-11-2009 at 1:11 am

  24. OMG! I can’t believe it! I just looked at my son’s birthday present, NXT 2.0. And it did say components made in Denmark, China… Argh! I actually paid over $300 for something made in China. Shame on Lego! I will have to be more careful when I buy Lego next time.

    posted by SoloMom on 8-11-2009 at 9:31 pm

  25. I have been getting Lego sets for my birthdays, special occasions and Christmas. I find that my older sets hold up better when played with. The newer and bigger sets tend to fall apart when moved. And Lego makes a fortune with the Star Wars sets! Because my parents really like SW and now my brother and I do too!

    posted by Michael on 8-12-2009 at 2:17 am

  26. During the World War years toys were made primarily of wood or pasteboard because of the unavailibility of metals due to the ‘war effort’. For Christmas 1942 at the age of seven I was the lucky recipient of a small set of “American Bricks” – the wooden version. Because of my love for this toy, the following Christmas I got a much, much larger set to augment my original small set. These may well have been the forerunner of Legos as they were similar to the size of the Legos.
    There are actually old sets available on eBay – mostly as a later plastic version but still some in the original wood configuration. I’ve been tempted by nostalgia.

    posted by Chuck on 9-16-2009 at 11:16 pm

  27. The admonition against calling the pieces “LEGOS” vs “LEGO bricks or toys” is simply about the LEGO trademark and potential brand name dilution. They are simply trying to keep the name from becoming a generic description of a building block toy.

    posted by The Count on 10-5-2009 at 8:56 am

  28. You want to get lawyers contacting you about brand names in a hurry? Just refer to something as being similar to “a Zamboni” in an article and you’ll quickly be informed that the Zamboni is a brand name for an “ice conditioning machine” and should not be referred to that way.

    posted by PartiallyDeflected on 10-23-2009 at 1:10 pm

  29. #

    LEGO bricks or toys are awesome, but I hate the new sets where every piece is a weird shape made specifically to build a robot or whatever. Why bother with LEGO (bricks or toys) when you could just buy an identical, premade robot? I’ll stick to standard square/rectangle incarnations, thank you.

    posted by adrienne on 8-21-2008 at 12:03 am
    #

    I’m with adrienne on this one. It’s so much more fun when you see what you can create with only the basic blocks.

    posted by nutmeag on 8-21-2008 at 7:18 am

    =

    I AGREE WITH THESE TWO, LEGO RULES

    posted by Mike on 11-14-2009 at 2:45 pm

  30. I went to LegoLand in Carlsbad, CA this summer and I loved it. I may have enjoyed it more than my boys, 11, 7 and 4.

    posted by mari on 11-24-2009 at 4:28 pm

  31. Ordering your paying customers to stop calling your product a certain name is douchey and will not help your brand. If your customers call them Legos, then they’re Legos.

    posted by John D on 11-24-2009 at 5:01 pm

  32. “i LOVE legos! they are awsome. i like the littel people. but i wish that they would make more girl loego people tho. o well…..”

    The little people are called “minifigs” and it is possible to buy many of them separately directly through LEGO. Some are only available in sets (especially the branded ones), but LEGO does sell groups of five minifigs. They’ve also started making novelty items with minifigs, because they’re so popular and people have such a nostalgic fondness for them. Some rare minifigs sell for significant sums on eBay. (Most don’t, though.)

    “LEGO bricks or toys are awesome, but I hate the new sets where every piece is a weird shape made specifically to build a robot or whatever.”

    Apart from the Bionicle sets, I think this sort of thing is fairly rare. It’s still mostly rectangular bricks, and the weird pieces are fully compatible with the bricks. While you may find limited use for the LEGO Tauntaun, apart from as a LEGO Tauntaun, most of the specialty bricks can be used to make really interesting structures. It’s not just about the old 2 stud x 4 stud brick. ;-)

    posted by Calli Arcale on 12-4-2009 at 1:53 pm

  33. I MUST BE A LITTLE OLDER THAN MOST OF U ! 43 WHEN ME AND MY BROTHERS STARTED PLAYING WITH LEGO’S WE DIDN’T HAVE ANY PEOPLE AT ALL! THEN WE GOT BIG PEOPLE, THEN WE GOT THE MINIFIGS.I STILL HAVE MY OLD SETS.I STILL HAVE THE BLACK BATTERY POWERED TRACK MACHINE!AND THE SEMI TRUCK WITH THE STEAM SHOVEL. EMAIL ME

    posted by phil on 12-21-2009 at 9:35 pm

  34. haha my older brother was like a LEGO master. He could build space ships, houses, airplanes etc out of thin air. He wouldnt’ use the instructions or anything. It was so cool and I couldn’t even build things with the instructions. Talk about disppointing :(

    ReCaptcha: our ruffed

    posted by tess on 1-17-2010 at 5:30 pm

  35. “ZACK! ZACK! He’s a Lego maniac!”

    I kept my Legos in my old diaper bag. I guess when I was old enough to play with Legos my mom decided she didn’t need the diaper bag anymore. I can still remember the smell of opening the bag and dumping out the Legos.

    2nd most painful thing to step on in the middle of the night…a Barbie high heel!

    posted by Renee on 3-25-2010 at 1:10 am

  36. I am so excited for the LEGO theme park opening near me(I live in Lakeland, FL and they have purchased land in Winter Haven) in the next couple years!

    posted by Kayla on 4-7-2010 at 4:17 pm

  37. As the very immature father of a 9 yr old boy, my own experience is that the odd bricks DO fit in other than original contexts. For example, our Star Wars Sand Crawler includes a lot well integrated custom features like access doors or details made possible by the odd bricks. Like everything LEGO, you’re only limited by your imagination.

    posted by klondike on 4-21-2010 at 12:45 am

  38. My son who is 11 currently is in his lego crazy stage, he showed us the new set he really wants next. Its a Star Wars Millenium Falcon that is going to be over $500. Thats Nuts the only thing crazier then that is my son if he thinks he stands a chance to get it

    posted by Dean on 4-28-2010 at 6:51 pm

  39. I dont understand this leggos thing, i dont know if it is because i grew up in Australia but I have always used the the term lego regardless of whether i was referring to one or more of the toys. I use it, as has everyone i have grown up with, much as the same way as i would use the word “sheep” or “fish”. Leggos sounds strange, but calling it a lego brick also sounds weird.

    posted by ausear on 9-6-2010 at 10:31 am

  40. Love, love, LOVE having sons… I get to play with Lego brick/toys now – but only when they aren’t looking. I’m sure they never heard it from me, but for some reason my four and seven year old boys think Mamas can’t play with legos!

    posted by Jane on 9-6-2010 at 3:47 pm

  41. ausear – I agree totally, i was reading all this thinking “wow, am I the only person that already pronounces LEGO in the way everyone is staunchly defending?” . I’m also an Australian, so i suppose it stems from the different advertising exposure, but LEGO is noun/plural naturally to me. LEGGOS is a pasta sauce brand in Australia… I remember having an enormous bag full of LEGO, complete with roadways, buildings and all manner of pre-made vehicles from the 80′s and 90′s. I think it would have weighed up near 20kg and probably can be attributed to my mechanical mind

    posted by Aus Az on 1-8-2011 at 5:25 am

  42. Lego bricks are great! In addition to his own monster collection of bricks, etc…, my son was recently given my husband’s massive collection by his grandmother…Lego play is one of the few things my son and husband have in common…and it is what they bond over. FAR BETTER than video games!!!

    posted by brick lover's mom on 6-7-2011 at 11:49 pm

  43. I cannot seem to find any info on LEGO past 1997 that pertains to Mindstorms, and I am trying to find reliable information about LEGO’s technical advancements. As you should know LEGO has developed and released their Mindstorms products, and I can’t seem to locate information about the steps that LEGO has had to take to develop Mindstorms or the dates that LEGO
    released LEGO Mindstorms. It would be much appreciated if I could get that Information.

    posted by Inquiry on 10-20-2011 at 2:19 pm

  44. Inquiry,

    I am not sure if Mindstorms was started about ’97. As you may know, the Mindstorms were an extension of the Technics, but with computer control.
    There was an earlier version of computer controlled Technics that I used in summer school (1990 & 1991). I remember building a washing machine and attempted a ferris wheel. The motors were controlled via a computer (DOS!) with the LOGO programming software. I believe the computer only controlled on how long the motor ran. I don’t remember any pneumatics. The washing machine was part of a tutorial, but the ferris wheel was custom built. It didn’t fare to well since the motor was undersized. And I wasn’t an engineer then. Anyhow, I loved the LEGO kit and begged my mom to buy me one. At $1,000, I never got one.

    Sorry that I can’t come up with the name of the system, but it was definitely Technic Legos with the LOGO program.

    posted by Blake on 12-13-2011 at 12:20 pm

  45. A great article on the history of “LEGO building blocks”. I’ll still call them Lego’s. I hadn’t held a Lego in about fifteen years until earlier this year.
    I found a huge lot of Technix on eBay and bought them. I found out it’s alot easier to buy the exact part you need and in quanities. I grew up using the mail-order catalog and you couldn’t buy x part without buying the y assortment. But, nowadays there’s “stores” out there that sell used/ sorted Technics parts. It’s an inventors dream for cheap mock-ups/ prototpyes.

    posted by Blake on 12-13-2011 at 12:25 pm

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