Kingdom of Denmark - ground block maker LEGO creates charge card construction materials that are ubiquitous and ideal for instruct child how to recollect creatively while their barefooted parents ascertain how to swear creatively . While the society suffer a loss of distribution when plaything ' R Us closed their threshold , revenuewas still up 4 percent in 2018 toreach$5.5 billion . Check out these 16 full - connected facts about the dear stigma .
1. LEGO didn’t invent LEGO bricks.
When woodworker Ole Kirk Kristiansen startedselling toysin Billund , Denmark in 1932 — no one during the Great Depression was purchase expensive furniture — he had no idea LEGO ( fromthe Danish wordsLegGodt , or “ playact well ” ) would become synonymous with click - lock mental block . When a salesman called on Kristiansen in 1949 and offered him a shaping mold injection automobile to spare him the labor of handmade toy , Kristiansen and his son , Godtfred , wereintriguedby one of the samples he was carrying : a stud , interlace brick .
Kristiansen began making his own , apparently unaware a humanity make Hilary Fisher Page own the patent . ( In 1958 , LEGO perfected the brick with tubes on the bottom to help tighten the connection . ) Page died before he discovered Kristiansen ’s homage ; LEGO has stated Kristiansen was “ exalt ” by Page . LEGO laterboughthis company , Kiddicraft .
That injection modeling process means …
2. LEGO bricks starts off as dough.
Not , unfortunately , the sort of dough you could eat . for get the vinyl cyanide butadiene - styrene ( Bachelor of Arts ) plasticusedfor the brick pliant enough to adjust to molds , it’sheatedto between 230 and 310 degrees Celsius and allowed to cool off for up to 10 second before being released . The appendage is so flowing that only an estimated 18 bricks out of every million are rejected for being malformed . Not unfit for an token that has an allowance of just .005 millimetre in ordering to maintain a universal fit . But if there is a problem , that ’s all justly because …
3. The numbers inside each LEGO brick tell a story.
YouTube
Peer inside any LEGO brick and you ’ll see a tiny three - digit number stamped on the home wall . The turn correspond towhich cast was usedand where in the line the brick was site . If there ’s any kind of flaw , LEGO can follow the errant bit to its blood and solve the military issue . Then again , you ’re probably not worried about a number when you ’ve just tripped over one : Throbbing agony tends to block out all rational view . It might help a little to know that …
4. There’s a good reason stepping on a LEGO brick hurts.
LEGO brick are perchance the miniature earth ’s most perdurable Toy Hall of Fame entrant . A pair of inquisitive YouTube scientists built a repetitive motion machine and did n’t see any breakage on a typical 2x4 brickuntil37,112 snatch had been complete . But such electrical resistance get at a frightening price . When you go under your bare substructure into one — particularly on a hard surface — you simply do n’t weigh enough to make it budge . A LEGO brickcan take up to950 pounds of military force without blink . It simply refuses to impart any of your apply force , insteadgiving it right backto your touchy nerve endings underfoot .
Since they ’re everywhere , you ’re bound to experience that trauma at least once in your life , and they ’re everywhere because …
5. LEGO gives you extra bricks on purpose.
David Lofink , Flickr//CC BY 2.0
LEGO building Set are sometimes chastised for including ostensibly unnecessary pieces that sit on the table after a pirate ship has been assembled . It turns out some pieces are simplytoo smallto be count during the allocation process : create a surplusage guarantee everyone gets enough to complete their project . And if you do pass off to corrupt a lot of LEGO vehicles , you might have no problem trust that …
6. LEGO makes more tires than Goodyear.
LEGO pumps out so many elvish rack for their sets ( roughly 318 million a year ) that theyfar exceedthe total output of Goodyear , Firestone , or Michelin , whose product tug around , you know , actual human beings . The company notice that almost one-half of their set admit wheels , which you ’ll never witness on a military convoy unit kit because …
7. LEGO wants you to play nice.
Pascal , Flickr//CC0 1.0
The company has vowed never to replicate any kind ofmilitaryscenario for child . They belong so far as to shun lilliputian artillery from their Minifigures until 1999 , when many licensed kit begin feature weapon in fantasy configurations . The peacetime mandate was a big ground why …
8. LEGO turned downStar Wars.
Robert McGoldrick , Flickr//CC BY - ND 2.0
By the late 1990s , LEGO was in a spin , victimizing themselvesby over - producing pieces and failing to control manufacturing expense . To advance their profile , the circuit board float the melodic theme of licensing aStar Warsset from Lucasfilm to coincide with the pursuit surrounding the dismissal of George Lucas ’s prequel trilogy in 1999 . But longtime LEGO honchos protest the idea , feeling thevery nameviolated their antiwar incorporated rule . It took six months of arguing before Kristiansen ’s grandson , Kjeld , made theexecutive decisionto take on the permit , opening the door to a library of sets ( Harry Potter , Disney ) that change by reversal their fortunes after a series of disasters . regrettably …
9. LEGO dolls were a bust.
No toy manufacturer has gotten more off - sword than LEGO did with Scala , aBarbie - esquedomestic assortment that barely interacted with their decades - erstwhile existing line of toys . Instead of use stock bricks , Scala used piece that would form a flower upon completion . In both size , appearance , and social function , Scala could never hold a standard candle to the definitive LEGO Minifigures . For one thing , the dolls were n’t yellow , and …
10. LEGO minifigures are yellow for a reason.
Chris Isherwood , Flickr//CC BY - SA 2.0
When LEGO introduced the Minifigure in 1975 , it was a box-shaped , facelessentity have in mind to accept whatever role - gambling fantasy a builder might want to jut out . While the digit later garner face and grammatical gender roles , they have almost always stay yellow . Accordingto LEGO , that ’s because the fellowship felt it was the most racially - neutral color potential . After LEGO branched out into licensing , it start to see its firstdiverse entrieswith NBA players . presently , LEGO assigns skin tone only if a set is based on an existing property or soul . Otherwise , they ’re always yellow . And there ’s another constant …
11. Those tiny LEGO heads are empty on purpose.
Pop the head off a Minifig and separate it from its hair and you ’ll notice the miniscule noggin has holes on either side . That ’s in case a fry happens to swallow it . By render airflow through the plastic , they’reless likelyto choke . But for the figure , the lack of brains might be one reason why …
12. The LEGO minifigures are getting angrier.
Chris Jackson , Flickr//CC BY 2.0
Astudyconducted at the University of Canterbury in New Zealand analyse over 3000 LEGO figures made between 1975 and 2010 . The conclusion ? Their facial expressions were morphing from pleasant to scowling . initiate enter the change was a final result of more licensed lineament being introduce into the line . Christoph Bartneck , who lead the field , expressed vexation that the modification in mood might adversely affect tike . For a longsighted meter , however , LEGO reject the very estimate of any grownup inspect their products , because …
13. LEGO used to think adult fans were “weird.”
Adult LEGO builder are among the company ’s most loyal customers , authorize out expensive edifice sets and buying brick in bulk for elaborate custom jobs . Known as AFOLs ( grownup Fans of LEGO ) , the demographic was n’t always comprehend by management . After retailers criticise LEGO for not paying attention to their market , the companyrespondedby call grownup who played with their ware “ weird”and“a bit bizarre , ” throw out the kookie mind of heed to their needs . Since then , corporate has modify its tune ; LEGO and its grownup fandom wage each other regularly now . They ’ve even gone so far as to allow you to …
14. Pitch your own LEGO set. Go on. They’ll listen.
LEGO ’s social media front allow for members of the LEGO community to come up withideasfor assemblies . You think people need aGolden Girlsset ? Throw it on up there . Using existing brick , suppliant can exemplify their plans . If it gets 10,000 votes , it ’ll go to LEGO right , where someone will sit down , work out out the price of license Estelle Getty ’s semblance , and decide whether to grant you a royalty or have you committed . Either style , you probably have n’t come up with anything as idiotic as …
15. This house made almost entirely of LEGO bricks.
Using more than three million bricks , and many hours of military volunteer labor movement , Top Gearhost James May and the BBC built a mostly - functional ( if architecturally walker ) rest home for May ’s television receiver series , Toy Stories , in 2009 . It even featured a flushable toilet , the comfort of which we ’ll will to your resource . regrettably , the Surrey , England site it was built on was a vineyard , and the property owner had n’t enumerate on the LEGO protection stay up . When May did n’t come up with the $ 81,000 in price to have the home strike and re - built on LEGOLAND stem park prop , it was smash to LEGO rubblejust daysafter windup . The pieces were donated to child ’s charity . While the house did n’t come up with building educational activity , all of the veritable LEGO sets do . And we mean all , because …
16. LEGO recently introduced instructions in Braille.
LEGO sports fan Matthew Shifrin reached out to LEGO two years ago to see if the caller would ever considerprovidinginstructions for the visually - impaired . Shafrin , who is blind , grew up make out LEGO sets and wanted to make them more approachable . After research , the ship’s company put up on-line instructions for four sets – LEGO Classic , LEGO City , LEGO Friends , and LEGO Movie 2 - -that can be converted to Braille with the use of a Braille reader . Collectors can also hear audio instructions . The company will take fourth dimension to judge how well the system is exploit and correct any issues before rolling out Braille - well-disposed instructions for all of their curing .
