When was lego bricks invented

But they hadn't quite got the formula right yet. The bricks lacked the tubes found inside modern LEGOs which greatly improve stability. Further, it seemed the world wasn't ready for plastic toys just yet; sales of plastic LEGO toys in the early 50s were mediocre at best. In , the LEGO brick finally came into its own. After a devastating warehouse fire in , the company decided to ditch production of wooden toys altogether and focus instead on plastics.

LEGO hasn't changed the design of their brick since then, which means today's sets are compatible with sets from onward. At first blush that may not sound as momentous as humanity's initial development of the wheel approximately 5, BCE , but considering that today LEGO turns out more than million tiny wheels per year, it actually makes them the most prolific wheel manufacturer in the world.

Along with other types of pieces, they're packaged into 37, LEGO sets per hour. And according to LEGO, the process they use to mold their plastic is so accurate that a mere 18 out of every million bricks fails to meet quality standards. Christiansen may have been a good ironing-board builder, but it turned out he was a brilliant toymaker. He refused to cut corners for the toys his company produced. Soon, his prototypes for ingenious models of cars and animals and his adorable pull toys gained a national fanbase.

His bestseller, a wooden duck whose beak opens and closes when pulled, is now a coveted collectible. But by then, he was established enough to not only bounce back, but to be forward looking. As a result, many manufacturers looked to advances in plastics to create cheap alternatives.

Among them: plastic-injection molding, in which melted plastic is forced into the cavity of a precise mold. However, due to materials shortages the Danish government forbade its commercial use until In , he was finally allowed to use it for goods he could sell—and by , the company was creating a plastic product called the Automatic Binding Brick. The toy was inspired by a set of self-locking bricks invented by a British company, Kiddicraft. Godtfred Kirk Christiansen, President of the Lego company in Denmark, explains the Lego building toys to children, Christensen and his son, Godtfred, made improvements on the British design and began selling plastic bricks in That means that any LEGO block produced since can interlock with any other.

Today, that decision means big business. Watch a preview now. But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us!