A Look at the Lego Company History

In 1932 carpenter Ole Kirk Christiansen founded his company in Billund, Denmark with the goal of promoting inventive games and creativity in children. He began by manufacturing stepladders. However the Great Depression forced him into a flexible business model. He changed his focus on the manufacturing of toys, and created one of the most adored brands.

Christiansen was a forward-thinker and quick to adopt new materials and technologies. In 1947, he became the first company to purchase a plastics injection molding machine in the world. This greatly increased the range of capabilities and options for Lego products. The machine let him experiment and to create the Lego brick. The bricks featured pegs on top and hollow bottoms that were interlocked with each others, allowing children build complex structures that went beyond the capabilities of the wooden blocks of previous generations.

The 1950s were a time of growth for the company. Godtfred Kirk Christiansen’s daughter Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen was a member of the management staff and began to modernize the manufacturing processes of the company. This expansion saw the introduction of a dollhouse line and furnishings for girls, as well as the very first Minifigures, which are individual figurines. In 1979, the company widened its range of products to include sets that included miniature astronauts and rockets. They also introduced spaceships, lunar rovers and spaceships.

In 1990, the company introduced three Model Team Sets that were made for builders who were advanced. These sets introduced small parts such as axles, gears and levers, and offered a degree of realism and accuracy that was unheard of in the Lego series at the time.

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