All children love the colourful Lego set. The plastic elements can be used to build countless variations in their imagination. The company produces kits for children of all ages, and even adults are happy to take part in assembling models. But many people have no idea how much the whole world is fascinated by Lego mania. We have collected the most interesting facts about the Lego constructor, which will surprise us.
1. The LEGO Group was founded in 1932 by Ole Kirk Kristiansen. But so unusual: the company initially produced ironing boards and created wooden toys. The first design patent was not granted until 28 January 1958.
2. The main factory is in Denmark. It uses 60 tonnes of plastic every day to produce parts. The total area of the factories and offices is 210,000 square metres, and more than 8,000 people work in 37 companies. Half of them work in Denmark, the rest in the USA, Switzerland, South Korea and Brazil.
3. The company has produced more than 485,000,000 parts in 50 years of operation.
4. If you make a chain out of all the LEGO building blocks sold in a year, it will go around the Earth about ten times.
5. Even though the history of the Lego constructor began more than 50 years ago, all the elements are easy to connect, regardless of their date of manufacture.
6. A special vault at the factory holds one copy of each set produced.
7. LEGO is the largest manufacturer of toy tyres. It produces more than 300 million miniature wheels every year.
8. Lego parts were used to make Google's first server rack.
9. Each Lego man has a small hole in his head. This is so that the child can breathe if he accidentally swallows the toy and it gets stuck in his throat.
10. The humans released throughout history can fill 170 standard-sized swimming pools.
11. The launch of Lego Friends, depicting scenes from suburban life set in the fictional town of Heartlake City, was one of Lego's biggest successes in 2012, as it doubled sales expectations.
12. Every second, seven Lego sets are sold around the world.
13. In total, more than 4 billion Lego minifigures have been produced around the world. And the first one was created in 1976 — almost 20 years after the first design.
14. Interesting facts about Lego are listed in the Guinness Book of World Records, for example, a 545-metre long railway made from a construction set of 3 locomotives.
15. Children around the world spend around 5 billion hours playing with Lego.
16. "LEGO" comes from the Danish phrase "Leg godt", which means "to play well".
17. There are 8 ways to connect two 8-pin Lego bricks, and there are already 1,060 options for three elements.
18. The Billund factory produces 23 billion Lego pieces each year. That's 24 million elements per hour and 40,000 per minute.
19. There are 3,900 varieties of Lego elements and 58 colours.
20. If you build a pyramid of 40 billion Lego bricks, it will reach the Moon. Interestingly, if identical elements are used, the bottom brick will break under the weight of the others when their number in the pyramid is 375,000.
21. In production, the plastic is heated to 232 degrees, which makes it resemble dough.
22. On the official website, you can download the Lego digital designer app for free and design your unique constructor model.
23. During the Christmas season almost 28 LEGO sets are sold each second.
24. More than 300 million children in 130 countries around the world are happy owners of Lego.
25. On average, every person on Earth owns 86 LEGO bricks.
However, the facts about Lego are not all that interesting for fans of the constructor. There are eight Legoland parks worldwide — large-scale entertainment centres built from Lego bricks. You can learn more about them in our article about Legoland parks worldwide.
