The History of LEGO

by Zachary Balogh

A series of plastic toys has been building fans for generations.  

LEGO is a popular series of interlocking toys that has been around for decades, even generations.  

LEGO was founded in 1932 by a carpenter named Ole Kirk Christiansen and started out as a line of wooden toys. Christiansen would then call his company LEGO this coming from the Danish word Legodt which means “play well”. 

In 1949, LEGO would start producing the first plastic brick which was a precursor to the brick we know today.  

According to Brickset, the very first set to include the minifigure was LEGO set 600, this included a small police car with a police minifigure. The minifigure was in development in the mid-1970s and it wasn’t until 1978 when the first LEGO set LEGO Set 600 would include the minifigure. This was just a small police car with a police officer. Today you can find minifigs of just about anyone such as police, fire, knights and pirates.  

LEGO was at its height in the 1980s and even the 1990s, with sets like pirates, castle and the adventure series. However, in 1992, LEGO saw its profits decline which forced the company to lay off creators of the original sets.  

It wasn’t until the early thousands that LEGO started to recover thanks to the series Bionical which was a line that uses technic building techniques to inner lock it all together. And by 2005 LEGO was well on its way back to popularity and this included sets like Star Wars and the Modular Building series in 2007.  

LEGO has found popularity in the world of entertainment including YouTube where many YouTubers will show off their displays such as castle, Star Wars or even LEGO cities. Some of the most prominent “LEGO YouTubers” include Bricksie, Jangbricks, Alex Nunes and Zachattackproductions.  

LEGO has also made feature films such as The Lego Movie in 2014, The Lego Batman Movie and the Lego Ninjago Movie both in 2017. LEGO has also featured video games such as Lego City Adventures as well as Lego Star Wars.