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Lego is one of the best known toy brands in the world, known for its fun and complex building process. The small plastic bricks encourage creativity and playability and have become a staple in most households with kids. However, they aren't just freeform toys for children, they also have graduated into high end items for adults. In fact, some of the sets of these simple toys can now cost thousands of dollars. Learn more about Legos and how the company started and grew up on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. This episode is sponsored by Quints. The holiday season is upon us and that means buying gifts for friends and family. So why not get something that's top tier but affordable? That's where Quince comes in. Quince has great items like $50 Mongolian cashmere sweaters that feel like an everyday luxury and wool coats that are equal part stylish and durable. And you'll pay a fraction of what you would from other retailers. And their prices are literally listed on the Quince website. I just got an Australian merino wool sweater that looks great and cost only half of what it would have if I had bought it somewhere else. By partnering directly with ethical factories and top artisans, Quince cuts out the middleman to deliver premium quality at half the cost of similar brand and often even bigger discounts. Give and get timeless quality staples that last this season with quince. Go to quince.com daily for free shipping on your order and 365 day returns. Now available in Canada too. That's Q-U-I-N-C-E.com daily free shipping and 365 day returns. Quince.com daily. This episode is sponsored by Mint Mobile. The reality is that smartphones and their associated mobile plans have become an indispensable part of the modern world. You almost can't get by without one. So if you have to have a monthly plan, why spend any more than you need to? That's why I recommend Mint Mobile. All their plans come with high speed data and unlimited talk and text delivered on the nation's largest 5G network. You can use your current phone, current phone number and keep all of your current contacts. Nothing has to change except the amount you pay. At Mint Mobile, their favorite word is no. No contracts, no monthly bills, no overages, no hidden fees and no bs. Ready to say yes to saying no? Make the switch@mintmobile.comeed that's mintmobile.comeed upfront payment of $45 required, equivalent to $15 a month limited time. New customer offer for first 3 months only. Speeds may slow above 35gb on unlimited plan taxes and fees extra. See Mint Mobile for details. The Lego company was founded on August 10, 1932 in Billund, Denmark. The founder was a carpenter named Ole Kirk Christiansen. The company was founded during the Great Depression. Facing an economic crisis, Christensen was compelled to find new ways to generate income. He opted to create new and easy to sell products and settled on making toys. These toys weren't the colorful interlocking bricks that we associate with LEGO today, but rather wooden toys such as yo yos cars and airplanes. Lego became the official company name in January of 1936. The name allegedly comes from a competition that Christiansen held. If you came up with the business name, then you'd win a bottle of Christensen's homemade wine. The winner of the contest was none other than Ole Kirk Christiansen himself. He named the business Lego after the Danish words leg gott, which translates to play well, to reassure his customers that the kids would be playing with quality toys. Additionally, in 1936, the company created a motto in English. It's only the best is good enough. The motto, similar to the business name, was to promote and ensure the quality of the product. The Lego company continued to create toys throughout World War II, which oddly enough, actually helped the business. As goods like rubber and metal were needed for the war effort, they could not be used for toys. Additionally, imports from other countries were essentially halted, leaving Danish goods as the only available options for purchase. As wooden toys became more popular and foreign toys weren't available, the Lego company benefited. Seeing sales double in the first two years of the war, the company faced a difficult setback. On March 20, 1942, a fire at the Lego factory essentially destroyed Christensen's life's work. Christiansen rebuilt the company in Billund, Denmark, with the help of his former employees, friends and family. When the company rebuilt, it made its first factory entirely dedicated to toys. The rebuilding process took roughly a year, but they were able to resume production. After the end of World War II. Christiansen and Lego found it increasingly difficult to source the wood they used for their toys simultaneously. The post war period witnessed the development of new technologies, including those in the field of plastics. Inspiration struck Christensen in June of 1946. Post World War II, the plastic industry was blossoming with new opportunities. Christiansen had attended a demonstration that showed a plastic injection molding machine. Seeing the potential in plastic toys, Christiansen quickly invested in one for the company. Christiansen's first plastic molding machine arrived in December 1947, but it immediately faced some difficulties. The molding tools and Raw materials required were expensive and difficult to obtain, especially since experimentation was necessary with the new machines, making the collection process slow and uncertain. 1949 marks the beginning of the LEGO product that we know and love today. The first model of bricks was marketed under the name Automatic Binding Bricks and was based on the British Kiddicraft bricks which were made a decade prior. Christiansen had gotten a sample of the Kiddicraft bricks when they received the injection molding machine, which is likely where Christiansen got the idea. Christiansen family felt that the switch to plastic from wooden toys would be ruinous for the company as they perceived plastic as weaker than wood. But Christiansen saw its potential. He told his sons, have you no faith? Can't you see if we get this right, we can sell these bricks all over the world? In just two years, automatic binding bricks became 50% of the Lego company's business. Simultaneously, they decided to rename automatic binding bricks to something a bit more LEGO Mersten or LEGO Bricks. This rebrand was done by Christiansen to help give the brand name of LEGO wider recognition. Here I should note something that many people don't realize. According to the company, Legos are not a thing. They should be referred to as Lego without an S. Americans tend to say Legos and in the UK and Australia Lego is more common. But regardless if you say Lego or Legos, if you use it as a noun, you are both wrong. Because again, according to the company, Lego should be used as an adjective, as in LEGO bricks. However, as they can't control the English language. If you say Legos as a noun, go for it. In the early 1950s, Christensen's son Gottfred began to take more of a leadership role in the company. Gottfred Christensen saw the potential for the brand to go worldwide. Once the Post World War II restrictions ended, Gottfrid began to take steps to take the product outside of Denmark. Grigensen made a licensing agreement with the Norwegian plastic manufacturer. This was the first step to taking the company global. Yet there was still an issue the Lego company faced before it could truly go global. The problem was technical. The interlocking system of the bricks was very limited, reducing the versatility of the toy. This issue was fixed in 1958 with the creation of the modern brick design. The main challenge in the new LEGO design was changing the material the bricks were made out of. The early LEGO brick was made of cellulose acetate and the new material was ABS plastic. The change to ABS plastic was beneficial as the material was more durable, giving it increased resistance to chemicals and heat and stiffer, making it last longer and less prone to warping. The patent for LEGO bricks was granted in 1958 in Denmark and they would further make patents in other countries over the next several years. Over the years, LEGO has developed and expanded from its original pieces. The pieces all use the same original interlocking system. Therefore, all LEGO pieces can interact in some way, shape or form. The six main bricks all have studs that can interconnect and can combine in over 915 million ways. To ensure that the pieces interlock. Each LEGO brick is manufactured with incredible precision that goes down to 10 micrometers. This precision is important because the bricks need to be sturdy when they're interlocked, yet easy to disassemble. As previously mentioned, the LEGO bricks are made of ABS plastic. This formula was introduced in 1963. To make Lego bricks, the plastic needs to be heated to 232 degrees Celsius or 450 degrees Fahrenheit. This temperature will cause the plastic of the LEGO bricks to become a dough like consistency. The dough, like plastic is then injected into a mold. The force with which the plastic is injected can range from 27.5 to 165 tons. After being injected, the plastic takes roughly 15 seconds to cool. Following the injection and cooling process, a human inspector is sent to check the molds to ensure that there's no extreme variation in their thickness or color. Using this process, the Lego company estimates that it produces 1,140 Lego pieces every second, which equates to an estimated 36 billion pieces per year. Over 800 billion Lego bricks have been made since 1949, representing over 110,000 unique pieces. Depending on how you define piece. LEGO began to open new product lines to attract a wider audience. One of the most notable of these was LEGO duplo. Introduced in 1969, Lego duplo featured significantly larger blocks that were double the width, height and depth. This product was marketed to younger children. The 1970s actually marked Lego's transitional period into the toy giant that we know today. This was done through their increased focus on marketing and through the development of new toys. In 1971, Lego began to market to girls. This created toys such as dollhouses and furniture using LEGO bricks. This was done under the LEGO homemaker theme. In 1972, Lego updated its logo to the one that's similar to the one used today. The logo was red with soft, tightly compacted white letters surrounded by a yellow and black border. This new logo was effective as it was playful and Recognizable. Another notable development was the introduction of LEGO Minifigures which debuted in 1978. Once introduced, minifigures became a main staple in most LEGO sets. From this point, LEGO began to put out new series of LEGO sets on a regular basis. These series were marketed towards different age groups, had different themes and featured new technical parts. LEGO actually faced a decline in sales from 1992 to 2004. It's believed this was due to many of the early LEGO designers retiring and being replaced by young recent graduates with little experience in toy design or LEGO building. With this change, many aspects that LEGO buyers love, such as the complex designs and details, were sacrificed in favor of fewer pieces and faster build times. This caused them to lose some of the hardcore LEGO fan base. And this led to the company failing to turn a profit for the first time ever in 1998. Simultaneously, Lego decided to collaborate with other brands. The first Collaboration occurred in 1999 with Winnie the Pooh in the LEGO Duplo line and later Star Wars. The collaborative projects helped lego's profitability in the short term. But when the excitement for the property died down, the company's sales declined. In 2004, the Lego Company was on the verge of bankruptcy and and something needed to change. The company refocused, selling some of its theme parks and returning LEGO manufacturing into its own hands. With these changes, LEGO bounced back. In 2015, the company was named the world's most powerful brand by a consulting company known as Brand Finance, placing it above other such brands like Ferrari and Apple. The construction of LEGO sets takes more effort than you might imagine. There are approximately 120 designers employed at the Billund LEGO headquarters alone, with additional designers in various regions offices to ensure that products are developed for their specific markets. The first step to making a LEGO set is to simply think of a new theme or an idea for a new series within an existing theme. With these ideas, the design team will then create sets of different sizes. From there, the team will work on creating sets with previously existing pieces. If they don't have the correct type of piece, the team can design new ones to make the perfect shape. This part of the process also includes testing. This helps ensure that the legos are both buildable and fun to play with. Finally, the LEGO team works on instructions so that the public can build and play with the set. After creating the instructions, the team will focus on marketing, which includes determining the box size and packaging. Many of these LEGO sets are targeted towards adults and can cost thousands of dollars. The Ultimate Collector's Millennium Falcon LEGO set can go for prices up to $5,000. Since becoming a toy giant, LEGO has expanded into other industries including media and theme parks. The first official LEGO film was released in 2003. The film Mask of Light was the first to be released and did reasonably well, prompting LEGO to produce more films. The most notable of these are the LEGO movie, the Lego Movie 2, Lego Batman Movie and LEGO Ninjago. LEGO also moved into the TV world, making animated shows like LEGO Ninjago, Masters of Spinjitzu. Additionally, the LEGO Company has been in the video game market since the late 1990s, initially creating its own properties before partnering with licensed properties from media like DC Comics, Marvel and Star Wars. The Lego company has created 10 different theme parks known as Legoland. The Legoland amusement parks are located worldwide with three in the United States and and one each in Denmark, Germany, the UK, Malaysia, the UAE, Japan and China. LEGO has become one of the most recognizable brands in the world, having expanded from a traditional wooden toy shop to a plastic toy empire. It's through their adaptivity, marketing and product design that Lego has cemented itself into popular culture. That and people stepping on them with their bare feet. The Executive producer of Everything Everywhere Daily is Charles Daniel. The associate producers are Austin Otkin and Cameron Kiefer. Research and writing for this episode was provided by the Olivia Ashe I have a small correction. In the previous episode on Dubai, I misspoke and said that the Emir of Dubai was the President and Prime Minister of the United Arab Emirates. What I should have said was that the Emir of the larger Emirate of Abu Dhabi was the President of the UAE and the Emir of Dubai was the Prime Minister. It is correct in the script, but somehow I just read it incorrectly. Today's review comes from listener Zinlo44 on Apple Podcasts in Canada. They write amazing. Hi Gary, I finally unlocked the Completionist Club in New Brunswick, Canada. I hope there are lobster and Acadian poutines to eat. I love the show. Well, thanks Zinlo. All of the Provincial and Territorial Completionist Club chapters in Canada are fully stocked with the finest Canadian products, all of which are clearly labeled in both English and French. Remember, if you leave a review or send me a boostogram, you too can have it read on the show.