■ LEGO HISTORY / Birth of the LEGO & LEGO DNA

Hello I am Mr. KimEGGGG : )

I told you in my frist posting that Lego was its 60th anniversary! Today, to foster the 100,000 Steemian Lego fan, I will talk to you about the birth of Lego and its DNA! Please listen to the story with a light heart :D

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[source : TheBrickfan]

The 60th Anniversary of Lego Brand? or The 60th Anniversary of the Establishment of Lego Company?
Actually, it's exactly the 60th anniversary of the birth of that red brick.

The grandfather in the picture below was a young man who owned a carpenter's shop in Bilund, Denmark. But when business went into recession in 1932 and closed down and, to make matters worse, his wife died, leaving him to look after his four little boys. In despair, the man who made toys for the children out of the materials remained in the carpenter's shop was Ole Kirk, the founder of Lego.

[source : brickfetish.com]

Seeing his sons like wooden toys, Ole Kirk decided to start a toy business. Although quality of toys was as high as that of a skilled carpenter, he failed to lead to business growth. Even his first son Godtfred helped his father, but it was a slow for two years. One day, looking at the words "LEG GODT" on paper Ole Kirk re-named the company with the first letters and tried to change!

The first logo of the new name LEGO was so responsive that the business grew little by little. Actually, the word "Lego" means "I assemble" in Latin. I wonder if Lego Company, which was a complete product maker at the time, knew that it would be reborn as a company that makes assembly blocks.

And then it began improving profits, growing up as investing in equipment in the late 1930s.

However, in 1942, something terrible happened. The carpenter shop is in flames. The fire engine arrived shortly after, but all of the designs and models were already burned down. But even in despair, Ole Kirk tried to get up again thinking of his children and employees.

[source : youtube lego]

After the factory was rebuilt everything went smoothly again, and it marked another turning point in 1946. Ole Kirk, touring imported equipment in Copenhagen, is fascinated with plastic injection equipment that was used to print assembly bricks!! Although it was twice his annual profit, he started making plastic toys with tiny teddy bear using that equipment. But since the brick from the demo equipment attracted him, he could not but making a brick toy. The following year, he begins producing assembly bricks by modifying the design like following picture.

[source : Hobby holic / pockgoon.egloos.com]

It wasn't an easy challenge. People around him said, "Plastic toys won't replace strong wooden toys." Above all, the initial models were often returned with poor coupling. However Kirk and Godtfred are not the kind of person who would give up!! After nearly a decade of attempts and experiments, they solved the coupling problem by building pipes in the blocks you can see in recent Lego shapes. And also he patents the 'pipe idea'.

[sourse : www.pinsdaddy.com ]

In 1957, the first of its kind, the nowaday Lego Brick, was finally born! ^^
And then it became so successful that in less than 10 years it was shipped to 47 countries. Meanwhile It has not all been sweetness and light. In 1958, Lego Founder Ole kirk passed away. And in 1960, another fire caused a complete burn in the wooden toy department. Godtfred didn't give up like his father, considering as opportunity killed off the wooden toy department to be committed to the development of plastic products.

[source : http://www.erawakacji.pl/portfolio-item/legoland-billund/]

Afterwards, Godtfred worked his way up as a businessman. He invested in local airports to facilitate the promotion and Lego exports of Bilund's factory and it is now Bilund International Airport! Because of this, number of visitors had increased greatly. To solve this problem, Godtfred hit on a brilliant idea. He made first "LEGO LAND" to move customers around which made a huge profit. The above picture shows a Lego model of Bilund International Airport, invested by Lego Corporation in Vilund.

I think Ole Kirk family history is quite remarkable and imitable. Didn't their history of overcoming countless catastrophic crises with will and change makes today's Lego?

Thanks for reading my posting : )

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