Few toys have been able to last for decades with the success that the lego building blocks. The iconic brick turns no less than 60 years since the Danish Ole Kirk Kristiansen patented it on January 28, 1958.
We have played, as do our children today with the same interest. Lego bricks revolutionized the way you play and, despite the rise of electronic games, it is a toy that does not lose its validity and survives new technologies. Something that parents appreciate since construction games are most beneficial for children: promote creativity, promote concentration and help them develop spatial reasoning and problem solving capabilities. For all that, We wish Lego turns many years old and that tomorrow our grandchildren continue playing with them.
They not only serve to build
As we mentioned, it is one of the most interesting games for children, which allows them to make everything they imagine come true: houses, buildings, bridges, towers, cars, rockets ... But they also have other useful uses that their founder would probably not have imagined , such as being used to explain mathematical concepts to children or to create an arm prosthesis and be able to pick up objects.
Plastic bricks not only serves to "play to build", but are also used to decorate and create everyday objects such as walls, tables, shelves, etc. Even the most colorful kitchen beds or islands have been created based on the stacking of millions of pieces.
AdvertisingBrief history of Lego
In 1932, Ole Kirk Christiansen started the business with his son Godfrey in a small carpentry shop in the city of Billund, Denmark, where they made wooden toys.
After the death of his wife, with whom he had four children, and overcoming a bankruptcy and a fire, they acquired a plastic molding machine and manufactured for a time several toys in both materials.
In 1949 they began manufacturing some small plastic blocks of four and eight bolts with which multiple designs could be built. These first blocks were released to the market under the name of “Automatic link bricks”.
The first bricks were manufactured in five colors (white, red, yellow, blue and green), but they did not have an adequate level of grip and were not very versatile. So they perfected them to improve their ability to bond with each other and that was when in January 1958 the design we know today was born (whose design you can see below in the patent drawing). It was a brick with three pipes inside that had a perfect union of three points.
The characteristic red-white logo with black and yellow details was not always as we know it. Its evolution over the years is fascinating and tells us a lot about its history. In 1946 the word "Klodser" was added, which means blocks in Danish, and in 1953, the name changed to Lego Mursten, a Danish word that means brick. Then it was renamed Lego System and later was left alone in the current Lego.
Why are they called Lego?
They are known worldwide as the bricks, the bricks or the Lego blocks, and it is even one of those objects that already have their own entity calling them "Lego", to dry.
But where does his name come from? Their meaning makes us love them even more, because it is formed by the first two letters of the Danish words "Leg Godt" meaning "play well". In addition, in Latin Lego means "unite" or "put together", something that Christiansen did not know at the time, but that certainly fits perfectly with the idea of the toy.
A brand that has made history
Lego has adapted to the times and interests of children, conquering several generations Over the years.
From the youngest, who can start building their first designs from 18 months to the oldest, children are trapped by the Lego universe. Even many adults and collectors, although they stopped being children a few years ago, are still fascinated with the blocks. Maybe that is the secret of his success: that since what do you start leave you hooked.
