On 10 August 1932, Ole Kirk Christiansen, a carpenter, opened a toy shop in in Billund, Denmark. It was to become the start of Lego.
The toy shop sold wooden toys but times were tough and often goods were exchanged instead of money. The shop struggled on. Then in 1934 the “Lego” name was selected derived from the Danish phrase leg godt. The phrase ‘only the best is good enough’, became the motto of the company in 1936.
In 1947 the workshop began producing plastic toys, and in 1949, amongst a range of new toys, were the ones we have come to love today, interlocking bricks. These bricks were based on the Kiddicraft Self-Locking Bricks, invented by Hilary Page in 1939 and patented in the United Kingdom in 1940.
Ole Kirk Christiansen died on 11 March 1958, at the age of 66. His third son Godtfred took over the company until his death in 1995.
Today every child and adult knows Lego, and most have built models with it.
There are Lego competitions, displays, Theme Parks, films, and numerous new designs often based around set themes or linked to major franchises.
No matter how complicated the models may get the basic building block has remained the same.
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