Lego Celebrates 50 Years of Blocking

by The Editors on February 1, 2008

Lego 0128Our Carlsbadistan Legoland park may not be owned by the company that founded it, but that doesn’t stop us from celebrating a little knowing that our favorite locking block company has turned the ripe old age of 50. Lego blocks have become metaphor for so much more than kids toys. They have changed the way software is developed, the way pre-fab housing is manufactured, and much, much, more. They’ve even changed our afternoon traffic patterns thanks to the daily Cannon Road cluster.

The basic eight-stud red Lego brick was first sold in Denmark in 1949. But it took a further nine years for Ole Kirk’s son, Godtfred Kirk, to file the patent for the versatile “Automatic Binding Brick” with its interlocking 2×4 studs. The plastic bricks are part of a unique system: tiny tubes inside give the knobs on top of other blocks more places to grip. They hold together well but can be taken apart easily by a child. And consistency has been key: the bricks produced today have the same bumps and holes, and can still interlock with those produced back in 1958. Fifty years on and the Lego Group is the world’s fifth largest toymaker in terms of sales, after Mattel, Hasbro, Bandai and MGA Entertainment.

Click the link below for Time Magazine’s coverage of this big birthday.

[Link: Time]

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