Lego: The Facts - Advertising Production

Lego: The Facts


Architects drew their roots from this, while construction workers found a way to build upon their childhood dreams. Both of these careers can be dreamed of by children around the world when they pick up any amount of Lego blocks and let their imagination run wild. Based in Denmark, the Lego brand has found its way into millions of homes throughout the world after being created by a carpenter in the early 1930’s.

Lego's most recent blockbuster hit is "The Lego Batman" movie (2017) following on from their previous hit "The Lego Movie" (2014). Their follow up film "The Lego Ninjago Movie" (2017) wasn't as critically or commercially successful as it's predecessors and flew relatively low under the box office radar.


(Lego's net worth as of $14.6 Billion (Most likely more as of Q1 2018, most reliable sources found are at least 1-2 years old)

I can only imagine this is the face of LEGO execs

Legos are plastic building blocks that come in a variety of shapes, colours and sizes. These blocks all have circular holes that protrude from the surface of the block, allowing aspiring plastic construction men to interlock the pieces to build designs. Since the beginning of the Lego brand, an aspiring inventor can recreate famous architecture and even people. After achieving worldwide fame, such sets as the Star Wars Millennium Falcon, Taj Mahal and whole cities have been built literally brick by brick.


As popularity for these plastic building blocks was gained throughout the world, cheaper knock off brands have also been created. This feat has not stopped the Lego Corporation as they have also expanded their brand into movies, a theme park and board games. They have also become one of the largest toy distribution companies in the entire world. Legos have been used as a hands on way of teaching students throughout drafting and design courses around the nation, proving that they can be used at a variety of ages for fun and learning.


Most childhoods would not be complete without having at building at least one car, house or tower from Lego blocks. Legos are a way for the creative mind to begin from a young age, as students have to develop and build the toy that they want to play with. These bricks although very durable to build elaborate creations, are easily removable making them a prime toy throughout childhood development. Some pieces are very tiny so it is in the best interest of the adult supervisor to ensure that children do not put these small bricks anywhere near their mouth.


If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, then the toy industry has been throwing laurels at Lego’s feet since a crucial patent expired in 1983. Lego has argued in court, usually without success, that the “stud-and-tube” system of bricks constitutes a trademark, not just a patent. It has sued several companies, including the now-defunct toy maker Tyco Industries, Canada-based Mega Brands, and the Chinese company Tianjin Coko over its CoCo line (which Lego won). Such companies have even played off Lego’s popularity in their marketing, with Tyco ending every ad with the line “They work with Lego, too!” and Mega Brands’ Mega Bloks emphasizing that its bricks are “compatible with leading brands including Lego.” But among collectors and children alike, there is consensus: Lego bricks are just better made.

LEGO comes from the Danish word leg godt. Leg godt means “play well” in Danish and LEGO is made from the first two letters of each word.

LEGO is 83 years old. The LEGO Group began in 1932 in Billund, Denmark and was founded by Ole Kirk Christiansen.

The company is 83 years old, but the interlocking LEGO blocks were manufactured from 1949. This makes the LEGO blocks we all know and love 66 years old.

Ole Kirk Christiansen was a carpenter. He lost his business and began to make toys out of his leftover wood. He was inspired to construct a small wooden duck toy for his children and when they loved it he put them into production to sell.

lego.wikia.com

• LEGO was originally called “Automatic Binding Bricks”. LEGO were not actually the first company to market the bricks. They modified and improved the original Kiddicraft bricks to create their own.

• The LEGO Group eventually purchased the rights to the Kiddicraft block in 1981.

• In 1958, the LEGO brick with the familiar tubes inside and studs on was patented. This was done on 28 January, 1958 and all 2 x 4 LEGO bricks  since then have been produced to the exact measurements of this patent.

• A LEGO brick from 1958 would interlock with a brick from 2015. The patent introduced what is called a “universal system” so that each piece is compatible with all other pieces, regardless of the year or set it belongs to.

• LEGO sued a Chinese company who made “Coko bricks” in 2002. These blocks were very similar to LEGO bricks and Coko were forced to cease production and issue a formal apology as well.

• LEGO DUPLO bricks are eight times the size of original LEGO bricks. Because of the universal system they will still connect together.

• The LEGO minifigure, also known as “minifig” or just “fig” was first introduced in 1978. The early figures before this, in 1975, had no facial features, gender, arms, or moveable legs.

• Each LEGO minifigure is exactly four bricks high without a hat.

• Since the first minifigure in 1978 more than 4 billion have been made. This makes LEGO them the world’s largest population group (if they were alive)

• As of 2013, over 560 billion LEGO parts have been produced. On average, that is 86 LEGO bricks for every single person on the earth.

• LEGO is the world’s largest producer of rubber wheels. They produce more than Bridgestone, Goodyear and all other car tyre manufacturers.

• The tallest LEGO tower was 94 feet high and used 465,000 bricks. The tower was a pirate ship mast with a “treasure” made of gold, yellow and clear bricks on top and was built at LEGOLAND in California.

A life size house made from 3.3 million LEGO bricks.

• • In 2009, British TV presenter James May built a life size house out of LEGO. It used 3.3 million bricks and it included a working toilet, a shower and a bed – which was very uncomfortable.
  
  
  
  • In 2012, 45.7 billion LEGO bricks were produced. This actually works out to be a rate of 5.2 million LEGO bricks per hour.
  
  
  
  • 18 out of every million LEGO pieces fail to meet the company standard. This is because the factory process is so streamlined and efficient.
  
  
  
  • If you laid all of the LEGO bricks sold in 2012 end-to-end, they would stretch around the world more than 18 times.
  
  
  
  • Seven LEGO sets are sold every second.  By the time you have read this fact, dozens of LEGO sets have been sold around the world.
  
  
  
  • You could reach the moon with a column of around 40 billion LEGO bricks. The column would be over 384,400 km tall.
  
  
  
  • There are actually enough LEGO bricks to stack from the Earth to the moon – ten times.
  
  
  
  • Six eight-stud LEGO bricks can be combined in over 915 million different ways. Two bricks can be combined 24 different ways, and three bricks 1,060 ways.

The Taj Mahal LEGO Set
LEGO Group

• The largest commercial LEGO set is the Taj Mahal set. It has 5,922 individual pieces.

• There are no LEGO sets with a war or military theme. This is because LEGO creator Ole Kirk Christiansen didn’t want to make war seem appealing to children.

• In 2011, astronauts took LEGO to space. It was caused the “LEGO Bricks in Space” program and 13 LEGO sets were taken to the International Space Station to see how they react in microgravity.

• In 2000, LEGO was named “Toy of the Century” by the British Association of Toy Retailers. LEGO beat both the common teddy bear and the Barbie doll.

• There are artists who sculpt their work exclusively using LEGO. A New York based artist called Nathan Sawaya was the first artist to ever take LEGO into the art world. He is shown in museums throughout America and has a touring exhibition called “The Art Of The Brick.”

• In 2014, the LEGO Group became the world’s largest toy company. They are now larger than Mattel.