Hey there, tiktakers, and happy holidays!
Although this year the situation is a bit sad for all of us, we can never lose hope…
and we are still very happy because we are celebrating Christmas!
What presents did you get?
We are thinking of a great gift that almost never disappoints: Legos!
But do you know about their origin?
The Lego Group is a Danish company founded by Ole Kirk Kristiansen.
He set up a carpentry workshop in 1916, but a series of unfortunate events led him to
change the course of his business.
First, two of his sons accidentally set his shop on fire, making him lose everything.
Afterwards his wife passed away.
And later on he was strongly affected by the Great Depression, which led him to fire all
of his employees.
Ole then started making miniature versions of his furniture – that was a way for him
to have sample work without spending a lot of money.
Doing that gave him the idea to start making toys.
His four sons loved them, so he thought he could be successful doing that.
And although his business wasn't booming as he expected, it did start gaining traction.
At first he made ducks and other animals out of wood, and then cars… they all had an
exquisite quality that really made his work stand out.
However, he needed to do marketing as well, and give his business an attractive name.
And from the Danish words Leg Gadt, which means to "play well", came the name "Lego".
Doing this helped increase his sales, and his little wood models started to be sold
more and more.
At that time the world was plunged in the middle of World War II, and Denmark was invaded
by the Nazi army.
Godtfred Kirk Kristiansen, the son of Ole Kirk, instead of studying in Germany became
a manager for Lego.
Meanwhile, the Lego factory kept on growing, reaching 40 employees.
In 1946 the manager discovered a machine for molding plastic at a fair in Copenhagen.
To test it out they used a few small plastic bricks, making him come up with a new idea:
He bought the machine, and at first they just used it to make conventional toys… but that
would change pretty soon.
His son re-designed those pieces, and those bricks (Lego Mürsten) became fundamental.
Thus, the production of plastic products was now sharing space with the production of wooden
products.
In 1956, when Ole Kirk went on a business trip, a commercial about the toy industry
made him realize that the toys at the time were missing something – they needed a system.
He wouldn't stop pondering about it until he thought of a solution, giving place to
the first Lego set.
The set was so popular that it was exported to many other countries, the first one being
Sweden.
In that moment, Godtfred Kirk had a high management position in the company.
However, after the passing of his father in 1958, he had to take the lead and become Lego's
president.
On February 4th 1960, part of the carpentry section of the Lego factory burned down.
This terrible event led Godtfred to make the decision of focusing solely on producing plastic
products.
The Lego bricks were becoming popular in Europe, and so he decided to focus on them.
Moreover, they also thought about a union system using tubes which would make the Lego
sets didactic and pretty fun.
If something was maintained during the next generation was their effort to keep producing
high quality products, as well as sticking to Lego's philosophy.
The company kept growing, and expanding all over the world.
The next one to take over the company was Ole Kirk's grandson Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen,
who directed it until 2004.
During his management, the production lines were diversified.
From then on they not only produce their flagship building toys, but also create a wide variety
of related products: Board games, video games, and theme parks such as Legoland!
In 2004 Kjeld handed over the company's presidency to Jørgen Vig Knudstorp, in order to focus
on his other management roles within the group.
And tiktakers, the most incredible thing is that all the different Lego pieces are built
using an universal system: Despite the design and purpose variations the blocks have had
over the course of the years, all the blocks are still compatible to a very high degree:
The Lego blocks made in 1958 can still fit with the blocks being produced nowadays!
Isn't that fascinating?
Lego knew how to reinvent itself without losing its essence, which has kept their sets of
plastic blocks at the top of the toys of the world.
Now tiktakers, how old were you when you got your first Lego set?
Let us know in the comments!