Happy 89th birthday to the LEGO Group
A very happy birthday to the LEGO Group, which turns a whopping 89 years old today.
It’s been nearly nine decades since Ole Kirk Christiansen first began making toys in his workshop on August 10, 1932. Faltering at first amid the Great Depression, Ole Kirk soon saw success in producing yo-yos – but when that fad passed as quickly as it arose, he ended up repurposing his supply for toy trucks, and for the next 15 years the LEGO Group made a name for itself producing wooden toys.
Fast forward to 1947, and the company acquired its first plastic injection moulding machine. By 1949, it had come up with ‘automatic binding bricks’ – but the LEGO brick we know and love wasn’t developed until 1958. It’s barely changed since then, ensuring bricks purchased today can still connect to those from six decades ago.
If you’d like to learn more about the LEGO Group’s history, the company has compiled its own archive cataloguing the past nearly-nine decades. You can find it by clicking here. For now, it’s all eyes on 2022, which will mark the LEGO Group’s 90th anniversary – and include the launch of a special one-off set honouring a retro theme, as voted for by LEGO fans.
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Author Profile
- I like to think of myself as a journalist first, LEGO fan second, but we all know that’s not really the case. Journalism does run through my veins, though, like some kind of weird literary blood – the sort that will no doubt one day lead to a stress-induced heart malfunction. It’s like smoking, only worse. Thankfully, I get to write about LEGO until then.
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LEGO didn’t “come up” with the brick. They actually copied the patented idea invented by Harry “Hilary” Page. It was after they purchased the injection moulding machine and were given copies of Pages’ bricks and, quite likely, drawings too!