Legos: A Toy Reimagined
by Earl
Legos. Played with, built with, and passed down for generations. Legos have been a toy well loved by children and adults alike for over 50 years.
Lego started in 1916, when a man named Ole Kirk Kristiansen started a joinery factory in the rural community of Billund, Denmark. The company did fairly well, but then,wood scraps in Ole’s home workshop caught fire, burning down the workshop and the family home. Luckily, no one was hurt, and the home and workshop were rebuilt.
Then, a global economic crisis threatened Ole’s rebuilt business. With no other carpentry work available, he began to make wooden toys.
Ole then held a competition among the 10 employees working in his company at the time, to see who could come up with the best name for his expanding company. He won it himself, with the name lego. Lego means “leg godt” or “play well” in Danish.
In 1942, a fire destroyed the lego factory. Though his life’s work was lost, Ole set about building a new factory. This was the birthplace of the modern lego brick.
In 1971, nearly 30 years later, the first modern lego set was manufactured. It was an open top police car, with a police officer, also credited for being the first modern lego minifigure. It is now a collectors item valued at thousands of dollars. From then on, lego was one of the world’s most famous toy brands. It is now sold in 130+ countries worldwide.
As you can see here, lego is a very well-loved toy and will be for generations to come.