In 1932, carpenter Ole Kirk Christiansen founded his company in Billund, Denmark with the goal of promoting inventive play and ingenuity among children. He began by manufacturing stepladders. However the Great Depression forced him into a more flexible business model. He switched his focus to the manufacturing of toys and created one of the most loved brands.
Christiansen was a man of the future who was quick to embrace new materials and techniques. In 1947, he was the first company to purchase an injection molding machine made of plastic in the world. This greatly enhanced the capabilities and range of Lego products. The machine let him experiment and to create the Lego brick. The bricks were hollow at the bottom and had pegs on the top. They were interlocked to let children create intricate structures that were more intricate than those made using wooden blocks from earlier generations.
The 1950s saw a period of growth for the company. Kjeld Kirk Christiansen, Godtfred Kirk Christian’s daughter was a member of the management team and began modernizing the manufacturing techniques why not try here of the company. The expansion included the launch dollhouses, furniture and individual figures called Minifigures. In 1979, the company widened its product line to include sets of astronaut minifigures as well as rockets. They also introduced spaceships, lunar rovers and spaceships.
In 1990, the company released three Model Team sets that were intended for advanced builders. The sets comprised small components such as levers, axles, gears, and other parts. They were the first Lego sets to offer the same level of realistic accuracy.