FANTASTIC FACTS & GREATNESS ABOUT LEGO : FUN FACTS ABOUT LEGO

FUN FACTS ABOUT LEGO

LEGO® Fun Facts

Thereareabout62LEGO®bricksforeveryoneoftheworld’s6billioninhabitants.
Childrenaroundtheworldspend5billionhoursayearplayingwithLEGObricks.
LEGObricksareavailablein53differentcolors.
19 billion LEGO elements are produced every year. 2.16 million LEGO elements are molded every hour, or 36,000 per minute.
Morethan400billionLEGObrickshavebeenproducedsince1949.
Two eight-stud LEGO bricks of the same color can be combined in 24 different ways. Three eight-stud bricks can be combined in 1,060 ways. There are more than 915 million combinations possible for six 2 x 4 LEGO bricks of the same color .
7LEGOsetsaresoldbyretailerseverysecondaroundtheworld.
TheLEGObrickssoldinoneyearwouldcircletheworld5times.
40billionLEGObricksstackedontopofoneanotherwouldconnecttheearthwiththemoon.
TheLEGObrickhasinspiredgenerationsofinnovators,includingLarryPageandSergeyBrinofGoogle,renownedcake decorator, Duff Goldman, of Food Network’s “Ace of Cakes”, and Jonathan Gay, inventor of Flash animation.
The LEGO minifigure represents the world’s largest population of people! Over 4 billion minifigures have been produced in the last 30 years. This is almost 12 times the population of the United States!
The body of a minifigure is the same height as 3 LEGO bricks stacked on top of one another and the head is 1 LEGO brick high, making it 1 1⁄2 inches tall.
The average minifigure – with no hair or accessories – weighs 1/10 of an ounce.
Harrison Ford and Alfred Molina are the only two actors who have ever been portrayed as two different minifigures – Harrison Ford as Han Solo and Indiana Jones, Alfred Molina as Spider-Man’s famous rival Doc Ock and Satipo, a guide in the Raiders of the Lost Ark.
It would take 1 billion minifigures, lined up in a single row to wrap around the Earth’s circumference one time. Today there are enough minifigures to wrap around the Earth at least 4 times.
The LEGO Company sells 3.9 minifigures per second – 365 days per year. That’s over 122 million per year!
There are more than 8 quadrillion (8,181,068,395,500,000) possible combinations of minifigures that can be made using

all of the unique minifigure parts over the last 30 years.

LEGO is one of the most popular, and best-selling, toys of all time and is a household name all over the world. It’s fun for children and adults of all ages and has an incredible history dating back over 80 years. See the list below for some incredible, interesting, and fun facts about LEGO or download the entire 32 worksheet pack which can be utilised within the classroom or home environment.

LEGO is one of the most popular and widely used toys in the world and has become an internationally recognised brand. A subculture has developed as well with movies, games, competitions and six themed amusement parks. Below are some fun and interesting facts about LEGO that you might not know.

Fun Lego Facts

The plural of LEGO is LEGO. It doesn’t matter if you have one or one hundred pieces of LEGO, it’s still LEGO – although many people call them LEGOs.
LEGO comes from the Danish word leg godt. Leg godt means “play well” in Danish and LEGO is made from the first two letters of each word.
LEGO is 83 years old. The LEGO Group began in 1932 in Billund, Denmark and was founded by Ole Kirk Christiansen.
The company is 83 years old, but the interlocking LEGO blocks were manufactured from 1949. This makes the LEGO blocks we all know and love 66 years old.
Ole Kirk Christiansen was a carpenter. He lost his business and began to make toys out of his leftover wood. He was inspired to construct a small wooden duck toy for his children and when they loved it he put them into production to sell.
LEGO was originally called “Automatic Binding Bricks”. LEGO were not actually the first company to market the bricks. They modified and improved the original Kiddicraft bricks to create their own.
The LEGO Group eventually purchased the rights to the Kiddicraft block in 1981.
In 1958, the LEGO brick with the familiar tubes inside and studs on was patented. This was done on 28 January, 1958 and all 2 x 4 LEGO bricks since then have been produced to the exact measurements of this patent.
A LEGO brick from 1958 would interlock with a brick from 2015. The patent introduced what is called a “universal system” so that each piece is compatible with all other pieces, regardless of the year or set it belongs to.
LEGO sued a Chinese company who made “Coko bricks” in 2002. These blocks were very similar to LEGO bricks and Coko were forced to cease production and issue a formal apology as well.
LEGO DUPLO bricks are eight times the size of original LEGO bricks. Because of the universal system they will still connect together.
The LEGO minifigure, also known as “minifig” or just “fig” was first introduced in 1978. The early figures before this, in 1975, had no facial features, gender, arms, or moveable legs.
Each LEGO minifigure is exactly four bricks high without a hat.
Since the first minifigure in 1978 more than 4 billion have been made. This makes LEGO them the world’s largest population group (if they were alive)!
As of 2013, over 560 billion LEGO parts have been produced. On average, that is 86 LEGO bricks for every single person on the earth.
LEGO is the world’s largest producer of rubber wheels. They produce more than Bridgestone, Goodyear and all other car tyre manufacturers.
The tallest LEGO tower was 94 feet high and used 465,000 bricks. The tower was a pirate ship mast with a “treasure” made of gold, yellow and clear bricks on top and was built at LEGOLAND in California.
- In 2009, British TV presenter James May built a life size house out of LEGO. It used 3.3 million bricks and it included a working toilet, a shower and a bed – which was very uncomfortable.
- In 2012, 45.7 billion LEGO bricks were produced. This actually works out to be a rate of 5.2 million LEGO bricks per hour.
- 18 out of every million LEGO pieces fail to meet the company standard. This is because the factory process is so streamlined and efficient.
- If you laid all of the LEGO bricks sold in 2012 end-to-end, they would stretch around the world more than 18 times.
- Seven LEGO sets are sold every second. By the time you have read this fact, dozens of LEGO sets have been sold around the world.
- You could reach the moon with a column of around 40 billion LEGO bricks. The column would be over 384,400 km tall.
- There are actually enough LEGO bricks to stack from the Earth to the moon – ten times.
- Six eight-stud LEGO bricks can be combined in over 915 million different ways.Two bricks can be combined 24 different ways, and three bricks 1,060 ways.
- The largest commercial LEGO set is the Taj Mahal set. It has 5,922 individual pieces.
- There are no LEGO sets with a war or military theme. This is because LEGO creator Ole Kirk Christiansen didn’t want to make war seem appealing to children.
- In 2011, astronauts took LEGO to space. It was caused the “LEGO Bricks in Space” program and 13 LEGO sets were taken to the International Space Station to see how they react in microgravity.
- In 2000, LEGO was named “Toy of the Century” by the British Association of Toy Retailers. LEGO beat both the common teddy bear and the Barbie doll.
- There are artists who sculpt their work exclusively using LEGO. A New York based artist called Nathan Sawaya was the first artist to ever take LEGO into the art world. He is shown in museums throughout America and has a touring exhibition called “The Art Of The Brick.”
- In 2014, the LEGO Group became the world’s largest toy company. They are now larger than Mattel.