A Look at the Lego Company History

In 1932, carpenter Ole Kirk Christiansen founded his company in Billund, Denmark with the purpose of encouraging imaginative play and ingenuity in children. He started by making stepladders. However, the Great Depression forced him into a flexible business model. He switched his focus on the production of toys and developed one of the most popular brands.

Christiansen was a thinker who was progressive and quick to embrace new technologies and materials. In 1947 he was the first company in the world to acquire an injection molding machine made of plastic which dramatically increased the options and capabilities of Lego products. The machine also let him explore a design that would eventually become an iconic Lego brick. The bricks were equipped with pegs on top and hollow bottoms that interlocked with each other, allowing children to build intricate structures that were far more complex than the ones that could be constructed with wooden blocks of the past.

The 1950s were a decade that saw the business expand. Kjeld Kirk Christiansen, Godtfred Kirk Christiansen’s daughter was a member of the management team and commenced modernizing the manufacturing processes of the company. The expansion included the introduction of dollhouses, furniture and minifigures as individual pieces. In 1979, the company expanded into space, with sets that included astronaut minifigures, rockets lunar rovers and spaceships and into the medieval world https://lego-x.com/2020/01/16/lego-company-history-production-features/ with a castle theme.

In 1990, the company introduced three Model Team Sets that were made for builders who were advanced. The sets introduced small components such as axles, gears and levers. They also offered the kind of realism and precision that was unheard of in the Lego series at the time.