Lego building blocks loved by both adults and children.
The Danish company Lego in 2014, ahead of Mattel, becoming the largest company on manufacture of toys in the world.
Their plastic bricks can be found anywhere in the world, and they are perfect for teaching kids creative thinking and opening up new horizons.
Here are 20 facts about Lego that may surprise you:
1. Lego did not invent the LEGO bricks.
During the great depression, no one wanted to buy expensive hardwood furniture, so in 1932 the carpenter OLE kirk Christiansen (Ole Kirk Kristiansen decided to create wooden toys, and in 1934 created the Lego company.
OLE Kirk Christiansen
He began to sell his toys in Billund, Denmark, not knowing that his wooden designers in the future will lead to the world famous Lego brand.
OLE kirk Christiansen at work
In 1949, one seller offered the Christiansen’s machine for moulding plastic into the mold under pressure injection, to deliver him from the long manual work.
Godtfred Christiansen
Master together with his son Godtfred (Godtfred) was interested in one of the samples, which were from the seller, namely bricks, which were joined together. Later he decided to create such blocks.
2. The numbers within each brick has its own history.
Inside the LEGO parts you will notice a small numeral, which indicate the form in which it was created, and what was his position in the series at the time of manufacture. Thus, in case of defect, the item can be created again.
3. LEGO bricks are incredibly durable.
Scientists decided to publish a video on YouTube where they built a machine capable many times to repeat the same movement, namely for connecting and disconnecting LEGO bricks.
Only after 37 112 connections and disconnections they noticed a crack on one of the bricks. Single LEGO brick can withstand a weight of 430 kg.
LEGO wheels
4. Lego creates more tires than Goodyear.
The Lego company produces many small of tires for his car toy that she was far ahead of Goodyear, Firestone or Michelin that produce tires for these cars.
In the year Lego produces about 320 million tyres. According to the company, almost half of all the sets created by the company that contain wheels.
LEGO guns
5. Lego for peace.
The company vowed never to let any military toy sets for kids. Until 1999, the company did not make even a small toy gun. Later they started to produce kits with weapons, but magic, where good fights against evil.
LEGO men
6. Mini figures LEGO yellow not just.
For the first time mini figures LEGO appeared in 1975. They were a faceless Korobkovsky men, so that children could come up with any of the characters. Later figures found the person and gender, but they always remained yellow. According to Lego it is the most neutral from the point of view of race, color.
Today you can still see a little LEGO people in a different shade (set of NBA, for example). The company changes the color of a man only if he belongs to any particular individual.
7. The heads of LEGO people contain hole not just.
If man to remove all the excess and to pay attention to his head, we can see a few holes. They are made to if the child decides to swallow detail, the holes allowed air to enter the lungs, significantly reducing the risk of suffocation and allowing the baby to breathe.
LEGO minifigures
8. LEGO figures are getting angrier.
Scientists from new Zealand’s University of Canterbury has investigated more than 3,000 LEGO figurines created between 1975 and 2010. They came to the conclusion that facial expressions on the figures gradually evolved from a more sweet and more pleasant surly, and even angry.
In recent years, more and more characters with a gloomy face appeared in the collections of Lego in this regard, the head of research Christopher Bartneck (Christoph Bartneck) expressed concern that this shift in mood can affect children.
LEGO for adults
9. Adult fans of LEGO are the most loyal customers of the company.
That is, adult fans of Lego sets buy the most expensive kits and individual parts. But in the beginning, and for several years the company thought of adults playing with LEGO, strange and even “a little abnormal”.
However, after representatives of retail networks, criticized the company for what she tries so hard to please everyone who is interested in its products, Lego has changed his mind, and now adult buyers are regular customers of the Lego sets, also referred to as short AFOL (Adults Fans of LEGO, i.e. “adult fans of LEGO”).
LEGO ideas
10. Offer their own versions of LEGO sets and the company can hear you.
Social media links the Lego enables community members to offer a variety of Lego ideas new sets. If you think that the world needs your idea of a set of LEGO – boldly offer it. Using existing items, applicants can visually demonstrate their ideas.
If the idea gets 10 000 votes, it will be in the development Department of the company where someone will start to explore all possibilities (including financial) to implement it in life.
Short facts about LEGO toys
1. Why are there sometimes might be more detail than you need?
The answer to this question is quite simple – some items are too light to be weighed during the distribution of the parts of the plant.
2. Bricks Lego Duplo 8 times more than ordinary bricks, but both types of blocks you can attach to each other.
3. On average, each person in the world owns 86 LEGO parts.
4. In 2012, was created to 45.7 billion items (5.2 million per hour).
If you add up all these items together, you get a snake that you can wrap the Earth 18 times.
Factory LEGO (video)
5. The company name Lego came from two Danish words “Leg Godt” meaning “play well”.
6. The first mini figure LEGO was created in 1978 and since then has created more than 4 billion figures.
7. The first version of LEGO MINDSTORMS was launched in 1998 and was created in partnership with the Massachusetts Institute of technology (MIT).
8. If you take 8 2×4 bricks, some of them you can create 915,103,765 different combinations.
Lego used the computers to calculate and get the data.
If you use 2 figures (2×4), the number combination is equal to 24, and with three similar items the maximum number of combinations is 1 060.
