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__Let There Be LEGO__ The LEGO Company is perhaps one of the most well known toy manufacturers in the world. Its simple plastic brick toy has been used by many a child to build colorful and interesting creations from cars to robots to castles. But LEGO wasn't always a large company. It had its start as a simple toy shop owned by a Danish carpenter, whose love of children would take his company where no companies have gone before.

In 1916, Ole Kirk Kristiansen set up his carpentry shop in Billund, Denmark, building houses and furniture. His motto, "Only the best is good enough", was so inspiring that his son, Godtfred Kirk Christiansen, immortalized it on a sign on his father's wall. Then in 1932, the Great Depression nearly forced Ole Kirk to close the shop when his pieces were no longer needed. In response, he put his skills to carving and painting wooden children’s toys, like blocks, cars, and pull-alongs. Ole Kirk then also started making plastic toys in 1947 when he purchased a plastic injection-molding machine from Britain. It was one of the first in Denmark at the time. These became so popular that by 1951, half of the company’s products were plastic. The company still needed a name, though. So in 1934, Ole Kirk held a contest among his employees for the name. The winner would receive a bottle of wine. Ironically, he won his own contest with the name LEGO, a combination of the Danish phrase “leg godt”, which means “play well”. The familiar LEGO brick design, however, wouldn’t arrive until 1949. Called “Automatic Binding Bricks”, the pieces became part of what Ole Kirk called the LEGO System of Play, a group of products that could combine to form anything the builder wanted. In 1957, the brick design was updated to the interlocking stud-and-tube design we have today. The next year, Ole Kirk passed away, leaving Godtfred Kirk in charge of the company. Then in 1960, a fire destroyed the wooden toy workshop and supply. Because of this, Godtfred Kirk decided to cut production of wooden toys and focus entirely on the LEGO System. LEGO factories were established in countries around the world, including the USA in 1961. Over the next two decades, minifigure, boat, and gear elements were created as well as the DUPLO and Technic themes. In 1978, Godtfred Kirk then appointed his son Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen as head of the company to this day.

Today, the LEGO Company has thirty-five individual product themes, though throughout its fifty-three history has had more than 152 themes. They range from pirate themes to spaces themes to city themes. Each one contains its own unique minifigures, small action figure usually composed of a hat or hair piece, a head, a torso, and legs. There are also some pieces unique to each theme, like cockpit windows for spaceships and drill bits for mining machines. These pieces, just like all the other ones, are produced in factories around the world. They are created by melting down tiny granules of acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS), a form of plastic, and injecting it into molds. The plastic is then applied 28 to 165 tons of pressure, depending on the piece being created. This process can mold each brick to an accuracy of 0.0002 inches. This is important because the pieces must fit together with every other piece. After about 15 seconds of cooling, the pieces are ejected from the mold, bagged, and packaged in sets according to the theme. Some pieces, like minifigure parts, also get a small paint job to add details like faces and outfits. Sets are then shipped to retail stores and to LEGO stores.

Some sets are also sent to LEGOLAND theme parks. Godtfred Kirk created the first LEGOLAND in 1968 at the company headquarters in Billund, Denmark, when more than 20,000 people came to see the LEGO sculptures in the factory each year. Today there are LEGOLAND parks in Billund, Denmark; Carlsbad, California; Winter Haven, Florida; London, England; and Gunzenburg, Germany. Each one has magnificent towering sculptures and small displays all made from LEGO pieces, and has fun and educational rides for the whole family. This opened up the LEGO Company for so many people, but Kjeld Kirk thought that he could do more. So in 1996, LEGO.com was established to give customers a faster way to look for and buy LEGO products and to explore what the LEGO Company does. But what do you do with all of those pieces you buy? Some people create Brickfilms, stop-motion animations using LEGO pieces, especially minifigures. LEGO artists also use the pieces to create sculptures for companies or small scenes to put on the Internet. They truly stretch the limits of what can be done with LEGOs.

But LEGO doesn’t just stop at brick toys. The LEGO Company also produces children’s clothing, shoes, and accessories all with LEGO themes. People can also buy minifigure head shaped salt and pepper shakers, minifigure lanterns, brick MP3 players, and official LEGO coffee mugs. Going along with Ole Kirk’s idea of child education, LEGO also makes a series of educational kits. These kits include programmable robotic elements to teach children about robotics. The //First LEGO League// was also created. It is an organization sponsoring LEGO robotics competitions which pit two teams against each other, each with their own programmed LEGO robot, to maneuver through obstacles, lift objects, and perform operations.

The LEGO Company has had a profound influence on the world. It created a toy that could do almost anything, build one-of-a-kind theme parks with unique activities, and educated thousands of children about science. It allowed people to express themselves through fantastic sculptures and scenes. This family business will continue to do great things in the future and inspire the creativity of generations.