Truemors
I remember when every birthday, holiday and vacation was greeted by boxes of these shiny, deceptively simple-looking plastic bricks.
I only had a few of the pirates, they weren't really my preference. Instead I had a huge amount of the space and underwater sets, building ships and robots for exploration and adventure (admittedly, there may have been a few pirates and knights vs. spacemen battles. Hey, I was 10!).
This summer in Toronto, they actually built the world's biggest Lego tower.
What did you enjoy building most with this wonderful toy?
On January 28, 1958, Godtfred Kirk Christiansen submitted a patent for the interlocking and studded plastic brick that can now be found in almost every child's toy box.
The simple building block has become one of the most well-known and popular toys in the world.
The key to its success?
"The Lego brick doesn't age with time and continues to fascinate
because it allows children, and others, to develop their creativity,
imagination and curiosity and let it wander free," said Charlotte
Simonsen, a spokeswoman at Lego's headquarters in the western Danish
town of Billund.
The family company Lego, whose name comes from the first two letters
of the Danish words "Leg godt" or "play well" in English, was founded
before the invention of the famous block, by Ole Kristiansen in 1932.
Over the years, I've covered two national master Lego model builder competitions, visited Microsoft headquarters for a demonstration of Lego robots, written about the communities behind Lego robotics, and much more. Oh, and played with the bricks a lot myself, though certainly not nearly as much as some of the people I've met while writing about this wonderful toy.
I even have a friend whose car is covered in the colored bricks.
So when I found out last week that Monday is the 50th anniversary of the Lego brick--defined by the date, 50 years ago, when the patent for the brick was filed--I have to admit I was excited.
The 50th birthday of the LEGO brick is in January 2008 and there is plenty to celebrate. Children all over the world have played with LEGO bricks for the past 50 years, and LEGO is still right at the top of many wish lists – just as it always has been. Industry and trade associations also recognize the LEGO success. Just before the turn of the millennium the LEGO brick was voted “Toy of the Century”, one of the highest awards in the toy industry, by both Fortune Magazine in the US and the British Association of Toy Retailers.
Growing up with Legos, it's really hard to imagine that it has been 50 years since this product was first created. I remember the first time I really started playing with Lego's when I was in kindergarten. During that time they did not have all of the various Lego sets that they have now, but they still had some really cool ones. I even remember being able to build your own Lego city which was another set that you could purchase. Then there was the Duplo Brick sets which were a lot of fun to play with as well. Another one of my favorites is the Lego train sets. I remember my sister having it when it first came out, and now they have definitely upgraded them a lot.
Today, January 28, Lego is celebrating its 50th anniversary and on this occasion Google has redesigned its logo and has posted a Lego version of the Google logo on Google.com. Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Google founders, have meant to express their respect for Lego, by posting a special logo on its 50th anniversary. "Larry and Sergey, Google's co-founders, used Lego bricks as low-cost hard disk drive enclosures in the early days so it's something that's close to our heart as a company," said the company’s spokesman.
Last year, Google was offered the Outreach award by Lego, as recognition for Google’s contribution to the promotion of science, education and technology among children.
According to Search Engine Land, “Google’s culture has always had a special place for Lego. Google’s first servers were ‘modded’ up with legos.”
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