Lego – the Worlds Favorite Toy for 70 Years

I don’t know about you buy I had Lego when I was a kid. And everyone else I know seems to have owned a set as well. And what’s more my kids have it. Yes, for over 70 years now, Lego has been one of the biggest selling toys in the world. I don’t know whether it’s the vibrant colors, or just the sheer versatility of the stuff, after all there’s not many toys that can be made into hundreds of other toys and never goes out of fashion. It’s fun, its educational and its even relatively cheap – you can buy a small set for only a few dollars – although the sky is the limit for some sets.
Lego was first produced in 1934 in Billund, Denmark by a former carpenter called Ole Kirk Kristiansen. He created his first prototypes and named them “leg godt” – which is Danish for “Play good”, or as we would say “play well”. This soon became Lego – and a legend was created. It was just after the Second World War in 1949 that the familiar plastic brick with four or eight studs, which allowed them to be joined together, first appeared. Initially, it was only made for sale in Denmark, but Kristiansen had bigger plans for his creation. Lego soon spread throughout the world and nowadays, its hard to find a country where you can’t buy it.
Lego has always reflected contemporary events with special editions frequently being released. The technology has also moved on considerably and the Techniks range is more like an engineering project than a simple plastic block. You can construct anything from cars to planes to Ferris wheels, al with lights and moving parts run by electric motors. A far cry from the simple building blocks indeed.
Of course, where Lego has recently exploded in popularity is via a series of very clever big-budget movie tie ins. You can now buy Indiana Jones Lego sets, Star Wars Lego and even Batman has made an appearance. Expect to see many more of these licensing deals in the future.
Finally, of course, Lego has been brought right up to date with the recent addition of video games for a wide range of consoles. You can get them for PC’s, Xbox, Playstations, PSP and Nintendo machines. These new additions ensure that Lego will be one of the best known toy brands for generations to come.