LEGO

LEGO (derived from the Danish words **leg godt,** meaning "play well") needs no introduction as they are one of the most well-renowned faces in the toy industry. Their flagship product consists of variously coloured interlocking plastic bricks accompanying an array of gears, figurines called minifigures, and various other parts. Lego pieces can be assembled and connected in many ways to construct objects, including vehicles, buildings, and working robots. Anything constructed can be taken apart again, and the pieces reused to make new things.

## **Summary:**

The LEGO Group began in the carpentry workshop of Ole Kirk Christiansen in Bilund, Denmark. In 1916, he purchased a woodworking shop which had been in business since 1895, constructing houses and furniture with a small staff of apprentices. After a fire burned it down in 1924, Ole Kirk constructed a larger workshop and worked towards expanding his business' horizons. Upon the Great Depression, Kirk saw fewer customers and had to focus on smaller projects. He began producing miniature versions of his products as design aids. It was these miniature models of stepladders and ironing boards that inspired him to begin producing toys. On August 10th 1932, Ole Kirk's shop started making wooden toys (ie. piggy banks, pull toys, cars and trucks, and houses), though business was unprofitable and local farmers traded food in exchange for his toys. Ole Kirk continued producing practical furniture in addition to stay in business. The yo-yo fad in the mid-1930's gave him a brief period of increased activity until it collapsed (leftover yo-yo parts were used by him as wheels for toy trucks). His son Godtfred began working for him, taking an active role in the company.

Following World War II, plastics became available in Denmark and LEGO purchased a plastic injection machine in 1947. The first modular toy they produced was a truck that could be taken apart and re-assembled. In 1947, Ole Kirk and Godtfred obtained samples of interlocking plastic bricks produced by the company Kiddicraft. Hilary Fisher Page designed these "Kiddicraft Self-Locking Building Bricks." In 1939, Page had applied for a patent on hollow plastic cubes with four studs on top that allowed their positioning atop one another without lateral movement. In 1944, Page applied an "Improvement to Toy Building Blocks" as an addition to the previous patent, in which he describes a building system based on rectangular hollow blocks with 2X4 studs on top enabling the construction of walls with staggered rows and window openings. The addition was granted in 1947 as British Patent Nº 587,206. In 1949, the Lego Group began producing similar bricks, calling them "Automatic Binding Bricks." Lego bricks, then manufactured from cellulose acetate, were developed in the spirit of traditional wooden blocks that could be stacked upon one another but could be "locked" together. They had several round "studs" on top, and a hollow rectangular bottom. They would stick together, but not so tightly that they could not be pulled apart. In 1953, the bricks were given a new name: *Lego Mursten*, or "Lego Bricks." At first, the products were not well received by customers as they preferred wooden or metal toys. Upon becoming the junior managing director of LEGO, Godtfred evaluated the availale products and saw the plastic bricks as the best candidate for such a "system." In 1955, LEGO released the "Town Plan" as such a system, using the building bricks. They were much more moderately received, but had problems such as no versatility and were limited in terms of their "locking" ability. In 1958, the bricks were improved with hollow tubes in the underside of the brick which enabled much beter locking mechanics. The company patented the new design which has stuck to this day (wasn't changed to plastic until 1960, following the warehouse fire that consumed the company's original wooden inventory), as well as several similar designs to avoid competition (brands like MEGA BLOKS exist and an illegal Chinese company named LEPIN sold counterfeit LEGOs until they were dismantled in 2019 ).

In 1961, LEGO wished to expand sales to North America but did not have the logistical capabilities to do so. LEGO made an arrangement allowing Samsonite to begin producing and selling LEGO products in the United States and Canada. The same year saw the introduction of the first LEGO wheels that expanded the potential for building cars and other vehicles from plastic bricks. During this time, the LEGO Group introduced toys targeted explicitly towards the pre-school market that would culminate into Duplo; first launched in 1969 with much larger bricks than the normal sets. One of their most successful series, the LEGO train system, was launched in 1966 and was eventually absorbed into the LEGO City theme. In 1968, the first LEGOLAND Park was opened in Billund; approximately three miles away from the original LEGO factory and has since expanded to other theme parks across the world. By the 1970's, LEGO had expanded into new areas of toy making and marketing with boat and ship sets, and furniture pieces & dollhouses targeted to girls which ultimately led to the Friends theme that's been running since 2012 (many researchers and activists have criticized these themes as "sexist" and several efforts have been made by LEGO to ensure gender equality including a 2014 IDEAS set with four female scientists). In 1972, Godtfred's son, Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen, joined the managerial staff and founded manufacturing facilities for the company; along with a research and development department. Human figures with posable arms made an appearance in 1974 in "Lego family" sets, which went on to become the biggest sellers at the time; the next year, an early version of the "minifigure" miniature Lego person was introduced, but it was not posable and had no face printed on its head. The company opened its first North American Lego production facility in Enfield, Connecticut, in the United States that same year. Since the 1960s, educators had seen Lego bricks' productive potential as being an invaluable asset in helping children to develop creativity and problem-solving abilities. Teachers had been using Lego bricks in the classroom for a variety of reasons. In 1980, the LEGO Group established the Educational Products Department (eventually renamed LEGO Dacta, in 1989), to expand the educational possibilities of their toys. Between the 1960's and 1990's, LEGO worked with Royal Dutch Shell in allowing Shell branding on certain items, though ultimately ended their partnership in 2014 after being grilled by a Greenpeace video showing LEGO minifigures drowning in oil; symbolizing the negative effects on Antarctica that oil drilling can cause  (Interestingly though, a set of LEGO Shell sponsored products were released for a limited time in Malaysia the following year after ). In August 1988, 38 children from 17 different countries took part in the first LEGO World Cup building contest, held in Billund. That same year, LEGO Canada was established. The Lego line grew again in 1989 with the release of the LEGO Pirates theme, which featured a variety of pirate ships, deserted islands, and treasure. The Lego Group's Educational Products Department was renamed LEGO Dakta in this year; the name comes from the Greek word "didactic," which roughly means "the study of the learning process." MIT's Dr. Seymour Papert, from the Laboratory of Computer Learning, was named "LEGO Professor of Learning Research," after his ongoing work in linking the Logo programming language with LEGO products.

While well-renowned in the toy industry, LEGO's profits have been declining since 1992 as around 1995-96, according to designer Mark Stafford; the LEGO Group retired many of their veteran set designers in favour of 30 "innovators" who recently graduated from European design colleges and new very little about "toy design and LEGO building." By 1997, there was a resultant change in the design direction of products, as set details were sacrificed for decreased building times (with fewer pieces) and increased playability features; drawing mixed reception from hardcore LEGO fans used to the meticulous construction required of "classic era" sets of the 1980s to mid-1990s. LEGO Pirates, which had a strong run since its launch in 1989, was promptly killed off, with 1997 being its last year of production. This change in design teams only served to accelerate the company's decline. In 1998, LEGO posted its first-ever loss, at £23 million. In the same year, the company laid off 1,000 employees. In 1999, the first LEGO products featuring licensed intellectual property were *Star Wars* and *Winnie the Pooh* Duplo, followed in 2000 by *Harry Potter* and figures from Steven Spielberg movies. For a while, minifigures based off live-action franchises and real people were coloured yellow like all traditional figures. But after the inclusion of Lando Calrissian in 10123 Cloud City and sets based off NBA players, it was decided that minifigs based on the aforementioned categories would have natural-skin tones. LEGO suffered a loss of £174 million in 2004 due to low birth rates and changes in play trends among children. Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen resigned as CEO and appointed Jorgen Vig Knudstorp, its first non-family CEO. The company sold their four LEGOLAND theme parks to theme-park operators Merlin Entertainments, and manufacturing switch from its 80% outsources to LEGO's full control.

Since 2004, manufacturing had been moved to Mexico and distribution relocated from Billund to the Czech Republic. By 2007 a global workforce of 9,100 in 1998 was reduced to 4,200 due to outsourcing. the US alone, Lego sales increased 32 percent because of Star Wars and Indiana Jones-themed games, while globally 2008 sales increased 18.7 percent. LEGO North American vice executive, Mrs. Lauren, reported that licenses played a prominent role in the American market compared to overseas. However, IP themes had a tendency of alienating long-time LEGO fans who were more interested in the original themes LEGO offered before the likes of *Star Wars* and saw them as a sign of declining quality. Despite the Great Recession, profits for 2009 were £99.5 million, with Mads Nipper, Lego executive vice-president of marketing, stating to be "delivering twice the return on sales of any competitor." In 2011, Lego launched a new theme called Lego Ninjago, which became a popular theme worldwide and in 2012, Danish studio Lani Pixels made an animated short film for the 80th anniversary of LEGO titled *The Lego Story*; depicting the struggles of Ole Kirk and Godtfred. In 2014, Warner Bros and The Lego Group released *The LEGO Movie*, a computer-animated adventure comedy film telling the story of an ordinary LEGO Minifigure construction worker named Emmet Brickowski prophesied to save the world. While many were at first skeptical of a movie marketed solely around toys, it became a surprise hit with unanimous positive reviews and one of the highest recorded openings for a non-Disney animated movie. Two spin-offs known as *The LEGO Batman Movie* and *The LEGO Ninjago Movie* were released in 2017 along with a direct sequel in 2019 titled *The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part*. Many of the voice actors from the first film reprised their characters for the sequel, but it underperformed in ticket sales compared to its predecessors. In April 2020, Warner Bros. decided to part ways with *The LEGO Movie* franchise as they sold it off to Universal Studios.  The LEGO firm sparked controversy in 2015 as they refused a bulk order to Chinese artist Ai Weiwei, who is openly critical of the Chinese Communist government and had previously used their bricks to build portraits of world political activists. The CCP praised LEGO for its "good business sense" through their *Global Times* mouthpiece, though fans resisted by offering Weiwei their LEGO bricks. In the first half of 2017, Lego saw its first revenue decline in 13 years, announcing plans in September 2017 to cut 1,400 jobs. In July 2018, LEGO released their first set of plants made from sugarcane instead of oil-based plastics; part of an agenda set to be met by 2030.  On November 25th 2019, The LEGO Group announced the acquisition of Bricklink, the world's largest LEGO fan community that provides pieces for fans to buy online for their custom MOCs. In November 2020, LEGO announced their largest to date: a replica of the Roman Colosseum with 9,036 pieces, dethroning the previous record held by the Millennium Falcon from *Star Wars*.  In 2021, Lego released a set entitled "Everyone is Awesome" to celebrate and recognize the LGBTQ+ community. The set includes over 300 pieces and has 11 monochrome minifigures in the colours of the rainbow.  Currently, The LEGO Group is owned by Blackstone which also owns the LEGOLAND Parks and other Merlin Entertainment assets like Madame Tussauds.

## **Cancelled Toys:**

LEGO products are sold in more than a million toy stores around the world, including those that are independent, big-box companies, and LEGO's very own outlet locations. Several brick building competitions are held in local communities and towns where participants get to show the world their own custom creations. With over 100 different themes in their belt, LEGO is sure to please everyone with their offerings. Though with how long they've been making bank in the toy industry, it should be no surprise that some of their plans get shot down before they make it off the concept table. These are their stories down below:

* Castle
* Space
* Town/City
* Cybots
* Aquazone
* Western
* Dino Racers and Hero Knights
* Unreleased *Star Wars* Sets
* LEGO Games
* *LEGO Universe*
* Collectible Minifigures
* Marvel and DC

## **References:**

1. ↑ https://www.globaltimes.cn/content/1199653.shtml
2. ↑ https://www.greenpeace.org/international/story/6999/how-lego-got-awesome-to-savethearctic/
3. ↑ https://jaysbrickblog.com/news/second-wave-of-limited-edition-shell-lego-sets-make-their-worldwide-debut-in-singapore/
4. ↑ https://www.thevulcanreporter.com/editorials/new-future-lego-at-universal
5. ↑ https://www.newelementary.com/2018/07/sustainable-lego-plants-made-from-sugarcane.html
6. ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History\_of\_Lego
7. ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The\_Lego\_Group
8. ↑ https://www.cnbc.com/2019/06/28/lego-familys-kirkbi-and-blackstone-to-buy-madame-tussauds-owner-merlin.html