Brickspo returns this weekend to the Western Development Museum. This popular annual event showcases all things Lego, in partnership with the Saskatchewan Lego Users Group (SLUG). To celebrate, this week we are focusing on five facts about one of the most popular brands on earth.
From Humble Beginnings to Worldwide Phenomenon
Lego’s name is a portmanteau of two Danish words — “leg,” meaning play and “godt,” meaning good. The plural of Lego is Lego.
Lego was created by Ole Kirk Christiansen back in 1932. A carpenter by trade, he began making wooden toys in 1932. He patented his bricks in 1949. These “Automatic Binding Bricks,” as they became known, were similar to a design by Kiddicraft. Lego bricks as we know them today were first manufactured in 1958. The design remains the same, so bricks from back then will still work today.
Lego was named “Toy of the Century” in 2000 by Fortune magazine and the British Association of Toy Retailers, beating out Barbie, the teddy bear, and countless others.
Although Lego was in financial trouble in 2003 — the company was approximately $800 million in debt — it is now a highly successful brand. In fact, in 2015 it surpassed Ferarri to be named the world’s most powerful brand, thanks to sales over $1 billion. Some have called it “the greatest turnaround in corporate history.”
As of 2019, Lego is the top-ranked toy brand in the world, with a value of approximately $6.7 billion U.S.
Lego by the Numbers
Seven Lego sets are sold every second. During the Christmas season, approximately 28 sets are sold every second.
There are over 400 billion Lego bricks in existence. That is enough to reach the moon 10 times over when stacked together. There are 86 Lego bricks for every person on earth.
Over four billion minifigures have been made since 1978. The first minifigure was of a police officer. There are over eight quadrillion minifigure creation possibilities, thanks to the various individual pieces that have been made over the years. You might just find your doppelganger!
In 2011, Lego produced 318 million tires, making the company the world’s largest tire manufacturer.
Simplistic but Masterful Design
Lego’s design is nearly perfect. In fact, Lego molds are accurate to within 0.004 mm. Moreover, just 18 out of every one million pieces produced fails to meet company standards.
There are over 915 million different ways that six standard Lego bricks can be combined. The possibilities become truly endless when you consider that Lego has over 60 different colours of bricks.
A Wide Variety of Sets
In 1999, Star Wars and Winnie the Pooh became the first licensed Lego products. Reportedly, Lego initially resisted partnering with groups like Lucasfilm because Lego did not want to promote war or include weapons of any kind. The company still refuses to make realistic military-themed toys.
Lego has since released countless sets celebrating properties like Harry Potter, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Indiana Jones, Ghostbusters, The Simpsons, Marvel Comics, Scooby Doo, and so on.
The largest sets include the Taj Mahal (5,923 pieces), Hogwarts Castle (6,020 pieces), and the Ultimate Millennium Falcon (7,541 pieces), the latter of which costs approximately $900.
Got an idea for a set that doesn’t exist yet? Lego offers an online resource for users to pitch ideas that are then voted on. Currently, one proposal that has garnered a lot of support is a set that celebrates the 30th anniversary of Seinfeld. These ideas can indeed become reality, as was the case for sets of The Big Bang Theory, the DeLorean from Back to the Future, and the Curiosity Rover.
A Painful Experience
Everyone knows that stepping on a Lego block hurts. The reason is in the toy’s design; bricks can withstand up to 4,240 newtons of force, an equivalent mass of 950 pounds. To put it simply, there is no give in a Lego brick — and those pointy edges don’t help. As a result, our highly sensitive feet feel all that pressure.
Yet, despite this painful experience, people are organizing Lego walks all over the globe. Akin to fire or glass walking, participants are asked to brave walking barefoot over a collection of Lego pieces. In 2018, a Lego fan named BrainyBricks set a Guinness World Record by walking barefoot over 834.41 metres (2,737 feet) of Lego bricks.
Hopefully, you won’t step on any Lego pieces this weekend. Be sure to visit Brickspo to see some amazing Lego creations!
