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LEGO history is almost as fascinating as the toys themselves - but the globally renowned, multi-billion-dollar company went through decades of setbacks in an attempt to preserve itself. Created by Ole Kirk Christiansen in Denmark in the 1930s, the toy company's evolution has been shaped by tragedy in many ways. Though LEGO sets are now beloved and ubiquitous toys - and sometimes incredible rare collectibles - they began humbly, as the product of one Danish carpenter who originally crafted items like ironing boards and ladders for a living.
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Despite its comfortingly wholesome image
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the story of LEGO is rife with chaos, uncertainty, and legal disputes
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The globally renowned, multi-billion dollar company went through decades of setbacks in an attempt to stay afloat, making its history
0:15
almost as fascinating as the toys themselves. So today, we're going to take a look at the history of LEGO
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OK, time to toy around with some weird history. In 1916, Ole Kirk Christensen purchased the workshop in Boulogne, Denmark, that would
0:35
ultimately become the birthplace of Lego. At the time, Christensen was a carpenter who primarily built furniture and home goods
0:42
like ironing boards and ladders, for a living. Anyone who has ever tried to start a small business knows that it can be incredibly difficult
0:49
and for Christensen, it turned out to be especially hard. During just the first few years of his business, he faced a number of setbacks and tragedies
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His workshop burned down in 1924 after his sons accidentally set fire to it
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The Great Depression hit in 1929, and his wife unexpectedly passed away in 1932
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So not exactly what you'd call a lucky streak. To stay afloat, Christensen began crafting cheap wooden trinkets
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eventually landing on a wheeled duck that became the company's first popular toy
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Who knew the birds with wheels demographic was so lucrative? By 1934, Christensen's work attracted enough attention to warrant giving it a name
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Lego, derived from the Danish phrase, or play well. Incidentally, Lego also resembles a Latin phrase meaning
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I put together. And to Christensen, it felt like the perfect fit for his venture
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The Great Depression of the 1930s affected the global economy and forced Christensen to lay off most of his employees
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To stay afloat, he ramped up his wooden toy production alongside his home goods
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Christensen managed to leverage the yo-yo fad of the mid-1930s to his advantage
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But it was still hard to create a market for toys in the devastated economy. It's hard to sell a toy to a person who can barely afford food
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unless we're talking toy hamburgers or edible yo-yos. As he inched closer and closer to bankruptcy during the Depression
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Christensen did what so many do in that situation. He turned to his family for financial help
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His siblings agreed to bail him out. on the condition that he stop making toys and turn his skills to a more practical profession
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That might sound like a familiar conversation, but Christensen refused, continuing to create innovative toys with unique moving parts
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That'll teach him to bail them out, I guess. He began attracting a larger audience, particularly with copies of an original toy prototype he'd created for his sons
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a wooden duck with a movable beak. Germany invaded Denmark in 1940 just a few years after Christiansen company officially became known as Lego The German occupation of Denmark was more lenient than that of other countries But when it comes to occupation by Nazi Germany leniency is a fairly relative concept
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There was still economic and social consequences for the country's people. And like others in his homeland, Kirstjensen struggled under the new regime
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On top of that, his workshop burned to the ground for a second time in 1942
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Never before had the cosmos aligned so powerfully against a humble Danish toymaker
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Luckily, the Allies liberated the country three years later. But by then, resources were scarce and in high demand
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After Denmark reversed a wartime ban on the commercial use of molded plastic
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LEGO shifted its material emphasis from wood to plastics. Though plastic had become much more accessible
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by the end of the war, the tight post-war economy caused most governments to ban the use of plastic
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from manufacturing anything inessential, such as toys, until the late 1940s. Additionally
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the machines used to create plastic were extremely expensive, but Christensen attacked the problem
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with the tenacity of a kid with a new Lego set. Undeterred, Christensen rebuilt his burned-out
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factory and proceeded to purchase a plastic injection machine and begin producing prototypes
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These early toys included the Ferguson Tractor, a plastic vehicle available either as a finished
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model or a buildable set that could be taken apart and put back together
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Huh, he could be onto something there. The company sold an estimated 100,000 units of the tractor
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between 1951 and 1954, marking the first time in the company's history its plastic products
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outsold wooden toys. The very first items Christensen produced with his plastic injector were small cubic bricks
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which fit together in a locking grip. It wasn't a completely original idea
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The businessman had been inspired by similar bricks he encountered at plastic molding showcases
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in the late 1940s. Originally patented in Britain in 1939, the bricks were created by
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Hilary Fisher Page and produced by his company, Kittycraft. Page's bricks featured four studs on
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top, which could be locked into other similar pieces. The Christiansons experimented with the
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design and ultimately came up with automated binding bricks, a predecessor to the modern
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Lego brick. Whether Lego had permission to borrow Page's design or simply rip them off is a matter
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of debate. According to the Lego Group, KittyCraft permitted the use of the original design
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According to people familiar with Page, he was never made aware of the Lego brick before his
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death in 1957. Whatever the case, in 1981, the Lego company formally bought the rights to
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KittyCraft bricks from Page's descendants for £45,000, the 2022 equivalent of roughly £160,000
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or just over $200,000 American dollars. That's only slightly more than the price of a vintage LEGO pirate
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ship on eBay. That is a bargain by any reckoning. Christiansen appointed his son Gottfried as junior manager in the early 1950s The two had been working together since the mid when Gottfried first came to work at the shop
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Seeing the potential of the bricks, Gottfried conceived of a system of toys
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which could interlock and work together to make bigger, more exciting, and complicated projects for children
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In his own words, the Lego system meant that all elements fit together
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can be used in multiple ways, and can be built together. Gottfried Christensen had a vision in which Lego bricks bought years ago will fit perfectly
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with bricks bought in the future, so that a Lego element not only has instant value
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but would keep its value always. To that end, he swore that the company will always make sure that all bricks, from yesterday
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today, and tomorrow, fit together. Essentially, Gottfried's idea was to make the Marvel Cinematic Universe of building toys
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In 1955, Lego released its first set, known as The Lego System of Play
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After his father's death in 1958, Gottfried became the head of the company, and his plan
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for systemized toys became Lego's new business model. That same year, the brick took a quantum leap forward thanks to the newly patented stud and
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tube design, resulting in a more stable construction and ushering in the age of the Lego brick
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as today's fans know it. Though interlocking plastic bricks comprised much of the company's production by the end
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of the 1950s, they were also still producing wooden toys. After all, wooden toys got the Christiansen's feet in the door
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you got to dance with the person who brought you. By 1958, wooden products were marketed and sold
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with the brand name Pilofix, a division of LEGO specializing in sets combining both wood and plastic
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However, the wooden toy production facility was hit by another fire in 1960
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Seriously? People running insurance scams don't even see their businesses burned down that often
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This final blaze was started by a bolt of lightning. It truly seemed as though the universe
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did not want the Christiansons to continue making wooden toys. The company obliged and quickly switched entirely to plastics
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This prompted two of Gottfried's brothers, Karl Georg and Gerhardt, who had previously
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led the wooden toys division, to leave the company, with BiloFix splintering off into
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its own independent operation. Lego dominated the interlocking plastic brick market for several decades, but the last of
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its unique design patents expired in 1978, and competitors like Tyco Industries and Megablocks
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didn't waste any time producing their own plastic building bricks. Tyco Industries
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later part of Mattel, legally challenged Lego in the early 80s over their bricklock designs
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offering an alternative to the United States. Tyco was successful in court
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but its construction blocks never managed to connect in the commercial market. Get it? Connect
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Because, you know, the blocks? Many patent disputes have played out in international courts
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including several cases involving megablocks throughout Europe in the 90s. In 2004 and 2005 England best luck went up against Lego ultimately leading to a German Supreme Court ruling that other companies can create pieces that fit with Lego bricks Everyone wanted a piece of Lego
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which makes sense, because pieces are easy to lose. After decades of runaway success
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Lego reported its first significant loss in 1998, prompting layoffs for roughly 1,000 of its 10,000
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employees. Lawsuits over trademarks and patents contributed to the drain on the bottom line
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along with increased competition from similar toys, the dominance of video games, and the
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brands' overextension into global theme parks, niche markets, niche markets, and original
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entertainment. In 1999, the company began licensing popular properties for the first time
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beginning with Star Wars theme sets and Winnie the Pooh Duplos, Duplos being larger Lego bricks
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suitable for young children. Though the company continued to suffer profit losses in the years
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following, these licensing deals, along with successful LEGO-themed video games, eventually helped pull the company back into sustainability for over a decade
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Yet this move was not without controversy among longtime fans of LEGO's uniquely creative
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approach to playtime. Tech correspondent Molly Wood spoke for a vocal contingent of parents in
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a 2013 opinion piece that argued, the licensed LEGO sets are basically the antithesis of the LEGO
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model. Wood pointed out that LEGO blocks she had in her youth encouraged children to learn how to
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build things, whereas the newer sets simply require children to follow somewhere between 100
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and 300 steps to build a very specific one-time-use vehicle or environment. After that
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they're done and could move on to the next shiny branded toy. Technically, that's the problem
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shared by most toys. Once you buy them, they pretty much stay the same. He-Man is only ever
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going to be He-Man, unless you get the battle-damaged version or the one that glows in the dark
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Despite help from licensed products, LEGO continued to experience significant losses into the mid-2000s. A rapidly changing toy market, a series of misfired attempts at innovation
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and design inefficiencies within the Danish company all contributed substantially to a
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reported loss of roughly $340 million in 2004. The Executive Vice President of Marketing cited
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overzealous investing, changing interests among children, and rigidity in their business models
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for a near bankruptcy. The situation was so dire that Gottfried's son, Kjeld Kirk Christiansen
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turned operations to Jorin Vig Nudstorp, the first non-family chief officer in the company's history
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Yeah, I agree. Surprised the factory didn't suffer another mystery fire. This new leadership
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placed greater emphasis on outsourcing production and branching out merchandising opportunities, including producing several movies based on the toys
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such as the 2014 surprise hit The Lego Movie, which grossed nearly a half a billion dollars worldwide
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These new priorities gave the toy company the bottom line boost it needed
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Now, fans are keeping their fingers crossed that Lego can build on that success
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one brick at a time