There's no toy in the world that quite cuts across any kind of divide quite like LEGO.
Give people a bucket of bricks and let the human urge to build things take over, that's as simple as LEGO has to be.
Alternatively, you can fork out a fortune for some of the specialised kits so you can build things from your favourite films and TV shows but in LEGO.
If you're reading this now there's a very good chance you have at least once had the urge to buy and build a LEGO Death Star, and somewhere in your mind you've filed it away as a thing you'll do when you win the lottery.
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Anyhow, while LEGO is a name recognised all around the world the origin of the word actually has a meaning of its own which makes it a very fitting title.
LEGO got its beginnings in 1932 when Danish carpenter Ole Kirk Kristiansen started making toy bricks from wood.
Four years later he came up with the name 'LEGO' and an icon was born.
According to LEGO's site, the name came from putting two Danish words together, but Ole didn't realise that his name meant something very fitting in another language.
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"Combining the two Danish words ‘Leg Godt’ meaning ‘Play Well’, Ole Kirk Kristiansen created the Lego name for his company – unaware that this word in Latin means ‘I put together’," the company's history goes.
“He also considered the alternative LEGIO (legions) but in the end, he opted for the name that embodies high-quality play and commitment towards children’s development through play."
In 1946 things changed drastically for LEGO as Ole ordered a plastic injection moulding machine from the UK.
Three years later he was convincing his son Godtfred that plastic, not wood, was the future of LEGO and launches the 'automatic binding bricks'.
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In 1953 the 'automatic binding bricks' were renamed into 'LEGO Mursten', or LEGO Bricks in English, with each one having the name LEGO stamped onto it and making the building block for one of the world's most popular toys.
A fire in 1960 destroyed LEGO's wooden toy warehouse, after which it decided to stick to plastic as the material its bricks were made from and the rest is history.
So there you have it, the name LEGO comes from the combination of the words that mean 'play well' in Danish, but the inventor of LEGO didn't know his name also meant 'I put together' in Latin, which would have been another equally genius meaning.
Topics: Lego
Joe Harker