Lego Summary 4rc6k

December 5, 2014 By Matthew Dollman

Lego Summary I did my non-fiction topic on Lego. I learned a lot of stuff that I didn’t know. I learned that the company started in Denmark in a carpentry shop in 1932 by Ole Kirk Christiansen and that the bricks were originally made out of wood, not plastic. Lego has come up with so many types of sets, including robotic sets! You can also go to Lego amusement parks and get Lego key chains too.

History Lego started originally in a Danish carpentry shop in 1932 in Billund, Denmark. It was invented by Ole Kirk Christiansen. The bricks were originally made of wood, not plastic. Lego actually came into production in 1949 and in 1949 Lego used to be called automatic binding bricks. In 1954 Ole Kirk Christiansen’s son, Godtfred became junior managing director of the company. Lego’s motto is “det bedste er ikke for godt” or, in English “only the best is the best”. The modern Lego brick was patented on January 28, 1958. Minifigures didn’t come until 1978! The Technic sets didn’t come until 1977 either. This also means that these types have been around for a LONG time too! In 1963, Lego started making their bricks out of plastic. Modern bricks are made of a sturdy material called acrylonitrile butadiene styrene polymer. Lego started producing their DUPLO sets in 1969. Lego has a really long, interesting history that I enjoyed reading about.

Types of Sets

Lego has made SO many types of categories including Wild West, Technic, Duplo, City, Chima, Bionicle, Hero Factory, Space, Vikings, Castle, Trains, Dinosaurs, Undersea Exploration, and Pirates. The largest set ever was the Taj Mahal which had 5,922 pieces! The 2nd biggest set was a minifigure scaled Millenium Falcon which had 5,195 pieces. The largest model EVER was displayed in New York was a 1:1 scale, X-Wing with over 5 million pieces! I think that that is amazing. Some other huge sets were a 112 foot tall tower, and a 4 kilometer long railroad! The Bionicle series was inspired by the toy line’s slizers also known as throwbots. Did you know that 6 2x4 bricks can be combined in 915,103,765 ways!!!!!!!! That is a BIG number!

Offices and Process Lego makes the Pieces by heating up plastic, then putting them in a mold and in about 15 seconds the brick cools down with 25-150 ton pressures. This molding process is done in offices in Billund, Denmark, Nyiregyhaza, Hungary, and Monterrey, Mexico. The decorations of the pieces are done in offices in Denmark, Hungary, Mexico, and Kadno in the Czech Republic. Lego says that in the past 50 years they have produced some 400 billion bricks! That’s a lot! Lego also says that about 18 bricks out of 1 million fail to meet the required standard. Lego also say that they recycle a lot of their plastic waste. Lego also has offices in England, Spain, , and Japan, and each of these offices are tasked with making products specifically for these markets.

Cool Facts 1. Did you know that if the 340 million minifigures were put side by side it would almost stretch from London, England to Beijing, China! That is 7900 km!

2. Bricks made in 1958 will still fit perfectly with the bricks you have now! 3. There re over 4 billion minifigures around the world! 4. During the Christmas season about 28 Lego sets are sold each SECOND! 5. End to end, the amount of Lego bricks sold each year would stretch around the world over 5 times! 6. On average there are about 80 Lego bricks for EACH person on earth!