Lego toys are amongst the world's most popular construction toys. Their heritage stretches back to almost a century of innovation, starting out in Billund, Denmark in 1932. A carpenter called Ole Christiansen originally designed Lego pieces out of wooden building blocks, but expanded in 1940 to the now standard plastic mould. Lego is a combination of the Dutch phrase, leg godt, which means to ?Play Well?- a motto which fits the Lego ethos perfectly. Ole believed in this motto sternly and always encouraged his employees to learn and create new Lego toy designs. Sadly, most of the distributors of the time employed little faith in a plastic toy, with the result being a insufficient record of sales and many un-opened and returned Lego Toy packs. It would only be in 1954 when business would pick eventually pick up again.



When 1954 rolled around, Christiansen's son had become the junior managing director of the Lego Toys group. Due to his familiarity with the overseas market, he formulated a plan to sell the toys as a system for true creative play, as he saw the immense potential in Lego. The modern day Lego brick with the interlocking stud mechanism was perfected in 1958, and these bricks believe it or not are still compatible with current modern Lego pieces.

Lego toy pieces are designed to be part of a common system of parts where variation, freedom of expression and creative thought can all join to produce amazing contraptions. Toys such as these were a vast improvement over the current toys being produced, which stifled individual thought with set designs and movements. With Lego toys, you could and still can make whatever you desire. Lego has evolved from admirably simple blocks to Cogs, Axles, joints and electronic components which assist in radio controlled movement. And the Lego brand is widespread, crossing over into every accepted genre, both film and TV. Harry Potter, SpongeBob Squarepants, Indiana Jones and Star Wars are all part of popular Lego Toy sets which Lego focus groups decide to target. This process takes upwards of six months to complete. The cycle is as follows: Identify the market trend, design and development, then the prototype Lego toy for testing purposes. Today, all Lego sets are created on computer with CAD, making it an easy task for designers to share their creative input.

Lego is the modern encapsulation of forward thinking design. An offshoot of Lego, called the Mindstorms range includes a Bluetooth Lego piece, which allows you to control your creation remotely by using your mobile phone. Robotic companies worldwide host yearly Lego robotic tournaments, with the winning design joining the ranks of a robotic soccer team! Lego has also effectively branched out into the world of videogames. The popular Lego playsets which were inspired by film or TV such as Batman, Star Wars and Bionicles [which in itself is a Lego playset] are now available as full-on digital adventures, perfectly suitable for any and every age group.

This is then the allure of Lego. Boundless possibilities and a level of fun which every age group can appreciate, even adults who practice Lego brainstorming sessions called ?Lego Serious Play?. The list of Lego related fun goes on and on. With Lego Amusement parks around the world, TV Shows and even songs available the fun and innovation never seems to end ensuring that Lego toys are here to stay.