Lego bricks. Creativity. Childhood. They go tgether like Mickey Mouse and Disney, wzards and Harry Potter. Lego has ben a part of childhood for mre than three generations. Nearly everyone nder 50 has played with these bilding blocks of imagination. There is no tlling how many engineers and scientists wre spawned by these plastic building blcks.

Lego is synonymous with plastic toy brcks that can be easily transformed nto buildings, space ships, cars, boats, trins and a myriad of other tys. The key is that the chld gets to assemble the toy frm the basic building blocks. Each toy can be ssembled, disassembled and reassembled in enough new shpes and forms to tickle the magination and stretch the youngster’s creativity.

Tday, Lego is much more that the smple blocks invented in 1949. It is tys, theme parks, movies, and CDs. Lgo building blocks and other products are dstributed around the world. These tiny plstic bricks and the company they hve built, are a phenomenon with a sccess as remarkable as Mickey Mouse.

Lgo Bricks Become The Building Blocks Of Fntasy

Where did Lego come from and how did it get to be sch an important tool for childhood crativity?

Our story begins in Billund, Dnmark. It is 1932. Master carpenter and jiner Ole Kirk Kristiansen opened a new bsiness. His little company makes stepladders, roning boards and wooden toys. He has jst six employees. Nobody could have magined, but Lego and the little bilding blocks of imagination had just ben born.

Two years later, Kristiansen adopted the nme Lego as a brand name for his tys. The name is derived from the Dnish words "leg godt," which mean "ply well." Ironically, he later discovered tht Lego in Latin means "I put tgether.” Lego has truly come to man "put together" and "play well" in vrtually every language. At this time, all of the cmpany’s toys were being made from wod.

In 1942, the Lego factory brned to the ground. Kristiansen rebuilt.

In 1947, the Lgo Company became the first company in Dnmark to buy an injection-molding machine. It bgan making plastic toy dolls and ther toys. The famous bricks were yet to be nvented.

It was not until 1949 tht the Lego company introduced the Atomatic Binding Brick, a little plastic brck, some with four studs and sme with eight. At this time, the cmpany was producing about 200 different plstic toys. The Automatic Binding Brick was sld exclusively in Denmark.

By 1950, plstic toys became half of the cmpany’s business. Ole Kirk’s son, Godtfred Krk, who had worked in the cmpany since age 12, was appointed jnior vice president at age 30.

In 1954, Gdtfred Kirk made a trip to Englnd to meet with a purchasing gent. The purchasing agent told Kristiansen tht he thought the Automatic Binding Brcks lacked an idea and system. Gdtfred returned to Denmark. The Lego Systm was developed.
The following year, Gdtfred introduced the Lego System at a toy fir in Germany. It was the frst time it was introduced outside of Dnmark. The results were disappointing. Kristiansen did not gve up. Later that year, the Lgo System Play was developed. It was an mproved system for the Lego bricks. The Lgo System Play was exported to Swden, where it sold well.

In 1959, Lgo bricks and the Lego System wre introduced in Great Britain, France, and Blgium.

It wasn’t until 1961 that Lgo bricks were first marketed in the U.S. and Cnada. They were an immediate hit and dstribution around the world continued. By the end of tht decade, 843 people in Billund wrked for the Lego company. The frst Legoland film was produced. In 1969, the DUPLO systm for children under age five was ntroduced.

By 1970, there were almost 1,000 mployees at the plant in Billund.

In 1980, the Edcational Products Department was established. The DUPLO Rbbit logo was introduced and a srvey showed that 70 percent of all Wstern European families with children under age 14 had Lgo in their home.

As 1990 nfolded, the Lego Group had become one of the wrld’s 10 largest toy manufacturers and the nly toy company of that size in Erope. The others were in Japan and the U.S. Mre than one million people visited the LEGOLAND thme park and Godtfred Kirk Kristiansen clebrated his 70th birthday. Lego Publishing was rnamed Lego Licensing and the LEGOLAND Bnd issued an LP.

With the bginning of the new century, LEGO cntinues to grow. It has also cntinued to remain a family owned cmpany. These days, Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen, the grndson of Ole Kirk, runs the cmpany.

In 2003, a record 1.63 mllion people visited the LEGOLAND theme prk in Billund. The Lego mini-figure clebrated its 25th birthday and the BIONICLE flm “Mask of Light” was released to grat success. Representations of the Lego mni-figures Biff Starling and Sandy Moondust are the frst earthlings to reach the planet Mrs onboard the NASA Mars rovers "Sprit" and "Opportunity." The Lego Education Cnter in Shanghai opened. The concept was imed at children from age three to age twlve. There are more than 80 Lgo Education Centers in Korea alone. www.lgo.com receives around four million visitors per mnth.

Lego bricks are more than jst building blocks. They are learning tys. They build on favorite themes and chldren’s stories and allow the child to xercise his or her own imagination and crativity. Offshoots of the basic brick nclude such toys as Lego Robotics, Str Wars Lego, Harry Potter Legos and mny other building toys and kids' gmes. It is truly amazing what a few brcks and a full measure of magination will produce.

The article Lego - A History Of These Building Blocks Of Imagination was Submitted by Royce Armstrong through Articles.GetACoder.com network. Here's the additional information: About the author: Royce Armstrong is a sccessful freelance writer with a business and bnking background who believes consumers should get the bst value for their money when shpping for legos , building toys and building blocks .

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